F.A. Hayek Photo: Wikimedia

America’s national debt recently crossed the $13 trillion mark, and taxpayers are on the hook for several times that amount as government spending on social programs rises uncontrollably.

Congress would do well to heed F.A. Hayek’s warning in The Constitution of Liberty: “[D]emocracy will have to learn that it must pay for its own follies and that it cannot draw unlimited checks on the future to solve its present problems.”

Edmund Burke Photo: Wikimedia

Jonathan Adler argues that many self-described followers of Edmund Burke are anything but: “The institutions [David] Brooks would defend today bear no resemblance to the organic institutions Burke sought to protect.  Indeed, they have crowded out and, in some cases crushed, the little platoons upon which social order depends.  So the meaningful question for a true Burkean is not whether to oppose a Jacobin revolution, but what to do after such a revolution has already taken place.”

In the latest issue of A List Apart, Ethan Marcotte explains how to use CSS style sheets to create a web site that scales well to varying screen resolutions. For example, he uses CSS media queries to create a single page that renders well on an iPhone, on a standard monitor and on a wide-screen monitor. I’ve implemented some of his techniques on this page to make an iPhone-friendly version.

Europe’s “current welfare state is unaffordable…The crisis has made the day of reckoning closer by several years in virtually all the industrial countries.”

And last but not least, Google has made several excellent fonts available for free use on other sites through a simple CSS call. OFL Sorts Mill Goudy TT is now the default font for this  site.

Would the Dupont Circle CVS perform better with open windows instead of opaque displays? Photo: M.V. Jantzen

Window-shopping isn’t what it used to be, Philip Kennicott explains in the Washington Post. In an effort to maximize shelf space, all too many D.C. retailers like CVS block their windows, which reduces engagement with passers-by. I wonder: have retailers ever tested whether an engaging, inviting storefront might improve sales and offset revenues from lost shelving? (via GGW).

Ross Douthat says Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul is a prime example of why politicians must exercise prudence in addition to principle. Julian Sanchez makes a similar point: “Libertarians need to think harder about how our principles should degrade elegantly, how they can guide us through a fallen world where the live political options seldom afford a full escape from injustice.”

Michael Perkins argues that federal workers shouldn’t get effectively unlimited mass-transit benefits, and suggests instead a benefit that can be spent on any form of transportation. But why stop there? Why not eliminate the benefit altogether and increase salaries accordingly, allowing workers to spend their incomes as they see fit? Not only would this remove the distortions Perkins rightly decries, but it would free workers to choose their own spending priorities.

This Washington Post headline raised hopes, but only briefly, that President Obama had proposed spending cuts: “Democrats cautious on Obama’s spending-cut proposal.” Alas, it refers only to the President’s (important) assertion of budgetary authority—but not to any evidence that he plans any actual reduction in outlays.

And last but not least, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has released a clever ad poking fun at many prominent critics of her state’s immigration law:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6qEQ-KnitQ

Rand Paul. Photo: Gage Skidmore

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), won the Republican primary on Tuesday in part by smoothing over differences with traditional conservatives, as David Weigel explains. Can this new, libertarian-leaning fusionism prevail in November?

Paul seems to have already gotten himself in some trouble for his  remarks about the Civil Rights Act. Mark Tapscott warns that the liberal-leaning media is likely to jump all over such rookie mistakes.

Cautioning that Paul’s particular brand of conservatism may not be viable outside Kentucky, Daniel Larison outlines the younger Paul’s political beliefs:

‘

First of all, Paul is one of a very few Republican candidates in the country who is truly serious in his desire for fiscal responsibility. In his hostility to expansive government and reckless spending, he does not make exceptions for military spending, and he is appropriately skeptical of government power whether it comes in the form of military adventurism and empire-building or sweeping social legislation and bailouts.

Speaking of sweeping legislation, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget offers a budget simulator that challenges you to push the federal debt under 60 percent of GDP by 2018. It’s curious that many (though not all) of its fixes amount to fiddling around the edges, where more substantial reforms, like tax simplification or paring back of whole spending programs, may be more appropriate. Special challenge: win the game without imposing onerous new taxes!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYVR-6AFE1s

Photo: citta-vita

Cities like New York and Washington are undergoing something of a baby boom as families increasingly settle in urban areas instead of the suburbs. This demographic development is causing new sorts of problems—like the relative unfriendliness of some city services to children—and conservatives need to be ready with real policy solutions for these young families.

It turns out Obamacare’s alleged Medicare savings don’t really add up to much. Too bad the AP tells us after the legislation passes.

Mother Jones‘ May issue includes a truly astounding series of articles on population and sustainability that argues, explicitly, that Malthus was right after all. One article, not online, even goes so far as to suggest the government deliberately engineer a zero-GDP-growth economy, a scheme even the author admits suffers from more than a few conceptual and practical flaws.

Heather Mac Donald swats down the New York Times‘s sloppy accusations of NYPD racism: “The actual crime rates reveal that blacks are being significantly understopped, compared with their representation in the city’s criminal population, another reason for omitting them from the paper’s reporting.”

And last but not least, Megan McArdle explores whether obesity is as much of a problem as the worrywarts tell us. The surprising conclusion: not really, and we can’t do much about it anyway.

The Library of Congress’ online catalog includes several great old pictures of Dupont Circle, including this one of the circle before the fountain was installed:

Sean Fieler and Jeffrey bell ask whether we should revisit the gold standard as one way to rein in runaway government.

Last but not least, Reihan Salam explores whether legislation to limit ATM fees will be counterproductive. He cites a fun article on the topic by Thomas Hazlett, who sarcastically asks, “can anyone explain why at a price of $0, quantity supplied is nil?”

The government seems determined to enforce Matthew 26:11. A new poverty metric would count as poor not those living in real destitution but those living in relative destitution.

In the Washington Post, Brian Frosh and Jamie Raskin argue that if progressives want to undo the effects of Citizens United—a bad idea, to be sure—they ought to turn to the states, which retain broad regulatory powers.  (Full disclosure: Brian is a cousin.)

And last but not least, an amusing video of President George W. Bush wiping his hand on his predecessor:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oHOUnQ0gYI

Aside from mere symbolism, however, why should taxpayer money be spent to plan and construct a private office building that fairly clearly nobody wants to build? After all, if there were really demand for a 100-story skyscraper, then private financing would be forthcoming.