Unqualified Offerings

At long last, the Cato Institute has a blog. Radley Balko contributes, as do David Boaz and other Cato luminaries. Speaking of Cato, on the top of my reading list now is Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush, by my friend Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch.
By Washington rules, “my friend” must immediately [...]

Belle Waring has a maid, which I never have and am never likely to have. She also has a very insightful entry today on the ethical and practical nuances of having a maid. See also her responses to Yan in comments.

Google, whose motto is “Don’t be evil,” is whining about Microsoft’s decision to include an easy portal to MSN Search in the beta of IE.

Bolivia “nationalizes” (steals) its oil and gas industry. That’ll work great.

Welcomes Lt Gen Victor Renuart, the director of planning for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who tells the Daily Telegraph regarding Iran:
“And any action by any country will have second-order effects, and that is a strong case to continue the diplomatic process and make it work.”
More Renuart, unrelated to Iran, from the recent antiterrorism conference. [...]

Mere vindictiveness was always an unsatisfying explanation of the White House decision to burn the CIA’s Valerie Plame. And painting a trip to Niger(!) as some kind of nepotistic boondoggle, like it was a lightly scheduled conference in Fiji or something, never made much sense either.
But clearing a couple of pieces from the board who [...]