of Bush’s $3 trillion budget for FY 2008, but why is the “conservative” Heritage Foundation praising the president for—are you ready—reining in entitlement costs? Concludes Brian Riedl:

Yet another example of how copyrights and IP amount to partial enslavement: ‘Electric Slide’ on slippery DMCA slope:

A fascinating interview with playwright/screenwriter/director David Mamet by Charlie Rose (jump to 29:00) features his comments on economics and Hollywood (jump to 36:00). The interview is about his book Bambi Vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business.

What can I say to persuade you to click on this link and have a look? This has to be the finest book from one of the great American thinkers and writers of the 20th century, a man who has been tragically neglected and forgotten: Frank Chodorov. Every essay in this book, called Out of Step, which is also available in print, is a gem, from its defense of the peddler to his celebration of the American tradition of isolationism.

Wii is wrecking children’s lives! And before that, it was video games, and before that TV, and before that radio, then movies, then cars, and if you go back far enough you can find Victorians railing against the outrage that kids were wasting all their time reading that new innovation, mass-produced novels.

George Will writes a commentary on the prospect of a presidential bid by Ron Paul, and here is a commentary on Will that attacks Will’s insinuation that Paul is a eccentric out of touch with the glorious modern world of the Leviathan state.

Here is an interesting paper by Christopher Coyne and Steve Davies. It counters the argument that empire produces public goods by pointing to the many public bads of empire.

Somehow we were under the impression that money clips were old hat, replaced by wallets and purses. But it turns out that they are highly treasured these days when you don’t always want to dig through a wallet or purse in order to buy an energy drink or show your driver’s license. People in large urban areas carry them exclusively, and kids like them too for keeping smaller bills.