On Cars

So, Bryan Caplan thinks human happiness peaks when eating at Chili's after buying a tv at Best Buy. (Speaking of chains, WFMI keeps going up despite the boycott. I've been wanting to reduce my Beta as an SPX over 1000 has me very nervous. Time to get short Whole Foods?) Ryan Avent, ever the voice of reason, points out that preferences vary.

The pro-American sprawl crowd seem to have more of an ideological objection to Europe than the "actually, the European lifestyle is somewhat appealing" crowd. That is, they seem to think that touristy Europe is an illusion: most Europeans don't live there you know, (presumably Europeans taking a holiday in America visit Church Falls rather than D.C.) Furthermore, the real Europe is a horrible disutopia caused by an oversized government. I'm not sure if it's because they feel threatened by it, or if they truely love mowing their lawns.

Democratic Stupidity

Remember when the media treated the nuclear option as if it was a perfectly normal thing for the then Republican congress to consider? Remember how democrats agreed they could keep the filibuster option, as long as they only used it when Republican said it was ok? I'm glad they could see so far into the future.

Aren't they glad they preserved that right? Aren't we glad that an extremist, minority party of now-discredited ideology can do so much damange to the stimulus bill?

While I'm at it, I'm glad that the $15,000 credit for home purcahses is dead. Talk about a dead weight loss.