Quotes of the day

The Gans family solved the problem for Child No. 3 by outsourcing potty training to daycare. If only we could do the same for Wall Street ...--Tim Harford

Scooter Libby went to prison for the "outing" of a desk-jockey CIA agent. He forgot conversations. Pelosi forgets briefings. And the outing of our entire intelligence apparatus by Democrats is OK.--IBD Editorial Board

Watching Dick Cheney defend the Bush administration’s interrogation policies, it’s been hard to escape the impression that both the Republican Party and the country would be better off today if Cheney, rather than John McCain, had been a candidate for president in 2008.--Ross Douthat

Mediocre people have an answer for everything and are astonished at nothing-- Eugène Delacroix

The ACLU began describing itself as a 'social justice organization,' and its non-partisan commitment to civil liberty shrank -- especially its commitment to free speech -- while its vision of equality expanded.--Wendy Kaminer

Of course [pianist Krystian] Zimerman, who is certainly old enough to have played the piano while Poland was under the totalitarian control of the USSR apparently never said a word at the time about the country that actually had "hands" on his country and controlled it completely, but instead blithely played on. The primary reason he's free to travel and insult this country is because our military stood in opposition to the USSR along the Iron Curtain for decades and faced down his real oppressor.--Bruce McQuain

You can run a farm or factory in relatively primitive societies. But the protection of intellectual property—of products as flimsy as sung words and crotchets and quavers—requires the most evolved form of capitalist society. The aristorockracy are the last people who want a revolution. Africa should do as Bono does, not as he says.--Mark Steyn

The selling of the green economy involves much economic make-believe. Environmentalists not only maximize the dangers of global warming -- from rising sea levels to advancing tropical diseases -- they also minimize the costs of dealing with it. Actually, no one involved in this debate really knows what the consequences or costs might be. All are inferred from models of uncertain reliability. Great schemes of economic and social engineering are proposed on shaky foundations of knowledge. Candor and common sense are in scarce supply.--Robert Samuelson

But, of course, attributing to Arlen Specter a coherent or consistent “political philosophy” is giving him more credit than he has ever deserved. Specter, who originally switched in from being a lifelong Democrat to a Republican in a 1965 move to be elected Philadelphia’s district attorney, is the quintessential opportunist.--Jonathan Tobin

If we lose my seat they have 60 Democrats, they will pass card check, you will have the Obama tax increases, they will carry out his big spending plans. So the 41st Republican, whose name is Arlen Specter is vital to stopping tax increases, passage of card check, and the Obama big spending plans....Those 41 seats are the only thing standing between a Democratic onslaught of higher taxes, more spending and card check.--Arlen Specter, just a couple of weeks ago

I'd say [Bill Belichick is] like the Hunchback of Notre Dame without the face and the hunchback. Rough exterior, but he has a kind heart and he means well. He just goes about it differently.--Ellis Hobbs