Roads and bridges need to be maintained or they fail. This is an uncontroversial point, and it includes all manner of physical plant necessary to maintain a functioning society. But it is, by definition, limited to our durable physical plant, an investment in the structures, things, that will be there for us in the future. So what’s the big deal about including daycare as part of our infrastructure? Like many progressives, I like the…

Daniel Humm has a three Michelin Star restaurant in Manhattan called Eleven Madison Park. It’s kind of a big deal restaurant, and diners pay dearly for the privilege of eating there. Dinner for two can easily cost $500. More if you get wine. Humm announced that when he reopens, it will be meatless, fishless, animalless food. He will forego the ingredients upon which his fame and fortune were established in favor of veggies, and he…

Ed. Note: Following is a post by the inimitable Skink, who’s sandwiched between 27 trials and a newly appointed kid federal judge who had never been inside a courtroom before.  The Food and Drug Administration, them that brings us vaccines, medicines, medical devices and even says what pet food is okay, found themselves a demon a few days ago, and it sort-of rhymes with “alcohol.” You probably guessed: “Banning menthol—the last allowable flavor*—in cigarettes and…

I’m bad with names. I’m so bad with names that for a year in college, I only dated women named “Sue” so I wouldn’t get in trouble. I can remember faces, people, things we did and things that happened, but I just can’t pull a name out of the mush in my head when I need to. It can be very embarrassing when someone I know comes over and I need to introduce them, but…

It was only a life in being ago that a bachelors degree in liberal arts was the key to the American Dream. It was a rigorous course of study, deeply steeped in classical literature and philosophy, that provided a student with the best thought of the past to be applied to the world they would soon enter. It was about thinking. It was also an opportunity, not an entitlement, and it was commonplace for the…

The Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett, poses a question that probably won’t be popular with many youngish lawyers, not because he doesn’t have a point, but because they’ve never given it much thought and instead cling to the dogma that’s been drilled into their noggins. We have to prove democracy still works. —President Joe Biden, in an Address to a Joint Session of Congress, April 28, 2021. When did democracy ever work? Wait, what?…

Prefatory note: my hacker contact, BlueDragon72, who totally isn’t TechDirt’s Tim Cushing, sent me this today. I think y’all will like this. –CLS May 1, 2021 FROM: Templeton, Roy (sheriff@mlal.state.al) TO: Belichick, Bill (coach@nepatriots.com) SUBJECT: QB Problem Dear Coach Belichick: You don’t know me, but I feel like we’ve got a connection because of your relationship with Coach Saban of our Blessed Alabama Crimson Tide. One of my deputies got your email address during the…