Memorial Day Links

So what did you do with your Memorial Day? I read this stuff.

An unsympathetic review of Myth of the Rational Voter, with some responses at the end. Do you think "The People" are truly wise? A bit long but worth the read.

The New York Times also has an article discussing whether voters make good decisions, and why three-fourths of them supported the invasion of Iraq at the time, but now two thirds oppose it, and why a statesman should listen to such easily swayed people in either case.

Ottawa fails to ban trans fats. And this is news now.

The New York Times devotes an entire article to a regional delicacy of Quebec, poutine, which it describes as "a gloppy, caloric layering of French fries, fresh cheese curds (a byproduct of Cheddar making) and gravy, poutine goes deep into the Quebequois psyche."

Reason has an article on price-gouging laws and whether they would lower gas prices. In case you thought they were a good idea.

An unreconstructed communist tells his audience that the Age of Empires is over, since the American Empire is imploding under the weight of its own ineptitude, and attacks by those infuriating mortar ships. They can wipe out your capital is seconds!!

This looks like a term paper some Catholic student wrote on medieval usury laws. While a little academic for popular consumption, it has some fascinating info on the Catholic moral debate around charging interest on loans and how Aquinas laid the foundation for the modern moral understanding of interest. Honestly, sometimes it seems that the motto of any student of Catholic thought should be Aquinas: You Either Agree With Him, Or Are Wrong.

Finally, Rachel Carson's Grim Legacy looks at, well, just that. I always knew environmentalists killed people, but at least it's only brown people in third world countries, so no one particularly cares.