Charles Murray has a plan, which he is humble enough to call The Plan: scrap welfare and social security and just give everyone ten thousand dollars a year.

The chief defect of the welfare state from this perspective is not that it is ineffectual in making good on its promises (though it is), nor even that it often exacerbates the very problems it is supposed to solve (though it does). The welfare state is pernicious ultimately because it drains too much of the life from life.

The Economist wastes an opportunity to review this idea and instead blathers about public intellectuals in the United States and Europe.

Two items in the "funny world leaders" department. Jacques Chirac walking out of a meeting because someone was talking English; and Muammar Gaddafi saying this:

There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.

Should a father have any choice about whether or not to support an unwanted child? Cathy Young says yes; Jeff Jacoby says no.

Ridiculous patents have a lighter side. And a darker one:

Wright also encounters an abundance of patents geared for the poultry and livestock industries. These patents -- which bear names like "spinal cord removal tool with adjustable blades," and "animal sorting and grading system using MRI to predict maximum value" -- offer a rather striking contrast to the soft and cuddly pet genre.

Getting test subjects for medical trials from India.

Cue the Constant Gardener theme music.

The news from a free and democratic Afghanistan:

"If he doesn't regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him," the judge said. "And the punishment is death."

Since I'm not left-handed, I'll probably get eaten by a crab. At least I've been warned.

Your tax dollars at work:

In 2004, the Air Force Office of Science Research decided to get real-life researchers to develop film scripts.

Running out of options against salmonella:

Maybe we can’t just invent our way out antibiotic-resistance crisis after all.

Michael Crichton thinks you shouldn't be able to patent facts.

Some thoughts about Sharon's wall.

Another step for nanotechnology.

On urban sprawl:

Sprawl is messy, chaotic, and sometimes annoying. In short, it is everything one expects from a free and democratic society. Leave the neat and clean societies for totalitarian regimes.

Gareth Edwards-Jones on food:

My personal advice would be to do what ever best satisfies your conscience, but don't kid yourself that by so doing you are saving the world.

This is good science writing; not breathless, not alarmist, but carefully reasoned and appropriately uncertain.

The promised rant has finally arrived, and since the post that inspired it has fallen off the main page I thought I should link to it.

It's old, but these instructions on how to care for your introvert are brilliant and funny.

The New York Times agrees with me about the immigration bill. That makes me nervous.

A partial victory for Google, and for the rest of us.

Tim Harford writes a long but interesting explanation of why poor countries remain so poor. In a nutshell, it's bad government and corrupt institutions:

It is not news that corruption and perverse incentives matter. But perhaps it is news that the problem of twisted rules and institutions explains not just a little bit of the gap between Cameroon and rich countries but almost all of the gap.

G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes this about the Church's stance on immigration, an issue I have mentioned before:

The Christian right says it has other issues at the moment, such as the battle against same-sex marriage.

Now if this is true it is tragic. But "the Christian right" is not an organization that has a spokesperson, or that issues press releases; who exactly is MacDonald citing here? If it's the American Family Association or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, he should say so. But I think the reporter's just making it up because it goes along with the story he wants to tell.

I doubt the so-called Center for Reason is a completely objective group, but I wouldn't be surprised if their report was true.

Nerve regeneration: today it's hamsters, tomorrow, who knows.

Islamic Calvinism.

Philip Blond and Adrian Pabst argue that relativism is the cause of fundamentalism and that together they give Bush and Blair moral authority, causing the war in Iraq:

Once all things are equally valid, the only way to attain supremacy is through war and power. Thus does liberalism make fundamentalists out of us all.

On the other hand, Robert Jensen offers a sort of confessions of a Christian atheist in which he claims that the more relativism we have in religion, the better

The task of Christians -- and, I would argue, all religions -- is to make themselves more relevant in the short term by being a site of such political and moral engagement, with the goal of ensuring their ultimate irrelevance.

What it's like to stop buying things for a year.

Successful insertion into orbit around Mars.

Education would be better if we could just go back to the days when college admission was based on essay tests in Latin.

Good news about measles.

Forwarded to me as a joke, this article is well worth reading. Allow me to cherry pick two quotes; this one

Mr. Henderson asked Mr. Mehta to score the priest, on a scale of one for boring to 10 for "off the charts." Mr. Mehta gave him a three. "More stories" in the sermon, Mr. Mehta suggested -- and less liturgy.

and this one

Mr. Henderson, who was a member of the Association of Vineyard Churches, a nondenominational ministry, says he preached for 25 years, but says he grew disenchanted because many of his peers were obsessed with gathering more believers and increasing their budgets.

So Henderson dislikes the idea of church marketing, but is using Mehta as a kind of focus group to rate the church experience and describe how it could be improved.

Cubicles, "the Fidel Castro of office furniture." I have one now, and I have to say, it's not as bad as I expected.

If you didn't already think fair-trade shade-grown organic coffee was just a little ridiculous, here's a thirty page article to persuade you. Maybe weddings are a better target if you want to encourage socially responsibile behavior.

The best science books of 2005, nominated for some prestigious prize I've never heard of. I haven't read any of them but they almost all look interesting.

Now we can recycle styrofoam.

The problem with American education:

The reason so many U.S. students are "falling short of their intellectual potential" is not "inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes" and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers — but "their failure to exercise self-discipline."

It's articles like this that make me think it's just not worth it.

Another reason to encrypt your email.

Don't believe movie reviews. Especially if they're written by Earl Dittman.

Keith Devlin takes a shot at saying how we should teach math.

Steven Pinker discusses The Selfish Gene 30 years later.

Very disturbing news from France.

Phyllis Chesler:

I feel called upon to explain how many feminists — who should be the first among freedom- and democracy-loving people — have instead become cowardly herd animals and grim totalitarian thinkers.

It's worth reading.

Subverting tyranny by translating into Arabic.

The "broken windows" theory of law enforcement: maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.

Cardinal Roger Mahony suggests civil disobedience; he says Catholics should ignore a proposed federal law that would make it a crime for churches to offer aid to illegal immigrants. Here in Colorado, Arthur Tafoya agrees.

This is an impressive move. In the tradition of the best civil disobedience, it forces opponents to play the role of the bad guy; it's hard to oppose charity without taking an us-vs-them attitude:

Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Mahony isn't considering the costs of illegal immigration on low-wage American workers, local governments, public schools and the health care system.

Though the LA Times suggests the Catholic Church doesn't have the moral authority to pull this off in the wake of sex abuse scandals, I think this kind of action earns respect. And reminds us that the Church is not a national institution.

China's approaching problem: "Too few wenches."

Building space ships for fun and, more importantly, profit.

I'd like to see these results on the "spirituality" of university faculty compared with the results for the general population.

Don't worry so much about your weight.

Samuel Alito sends a form-letter thank you to James Dobson, and Max Blumenthal and Andrew Sullivan see a pact written in blood, a solemn vow to make the United States into a theocracy.

So James Dobson isn't my favorite person. But read the letter; I've read math papers that have more warmth.

Of course Salman Rushdie supports free speech. This interesting LA Times piece also approaches the issue from a different angle.

Patriarchy is inevitable. Running out of oil isn't.

Today is Ash Wednesday.