David Boaz

In the new Afghanistan, which seems uncomfortably like the old Afghanistan, the cabinet has revived the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Discouragement of Vice. The government will once again be able to keep an eye out for short beards, chess playing, slipping veils, alcohol, and other vices.

An official tells the Washington Post that he’s “swamped with job applicants” for the department.

Perhaps if they lose in the fall, Sens. Rick Santorum and Joe Lieberman could team up to lobby for such a department in the United States. And future president Hillary Clinton just might endorse the effort.

Cleaning out some old magazines, I came across the September 2004 issue of the Washingtonian, which included a poll of congressional staffers on the “Best & Worst of Congress.” Libertarian Republican Rep. Ron Paul was voted “Worst Follower” in the House. That probably doesn’t bother him. But if it did, his feelings would probably be assuaged by the item just before that one: staffers said that the “Best Leader” in the House was Tom DeLay.

From the Washington Post:
Late last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce began broadcasting television ads that extolled several Republican lawmakers for supporting the new Medicare prescription drug program. The spots were part of the chamber’s $10 million midterm advertising and voter mobilization budget.
Even if the Medicare expansion were popular — …

So I suppose it’s no surprise that as Gore’s movie is getting credulous reviews from coast to coast, a new opera opens in New York that makes Grendel “likable.”

From the Washington Post, July 12:
The Internal Revenue Service headquarters will remain at least partially closed until January while department officials attempt to repair tens of millions of dollars in damage wrought by last month’s storms, the IRS announced yesterday.

Following up on Radley’s mention of Deirdre McCloskey’s article on bourgeois virtues, here’s what I just posted at the Guardian’s “Comment is free” site:
At Cato Policy Report the brilliant economist Deirdre McCloskey of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Erasmus University of Amsterdam (formerly the brilliant economist Donald McCloskey) writes about “bourgeois …

From the July 13 issue of The Hill:
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society will hold a reception next week to honor a select group of lawmakers “for their hard work, service, time and the sacrifices made in upholding the office with which they were entrusted.”

One of the people slated to receive such …

The Washington Post reports that a federal program to help dairy farmers and ranchers hurt by drought has been expanded to benefit farmers untouched by drought conditions:
In all, the Livestock Compensation Program cost taxpayers $1.2 billion during its two years of existence, 2002 and 2003. Of that, $635 million went …

That’s the headline House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi managed to get the Wall Street Journal to run after an exclusive interview. She told the Journal’s reporters that if Democrats take control of the House next year and raise taxes, they would use the money to reduce the federal deficit. And …

The Wall Street Journal reports that “as gas prices again approach $3 a gallon, consumers are buying new vehicles that are faster and heavier than ever,” much to the annoyance of the EPA. Sometimes, no matter how much we hector and even tax and regulate them, the masses just persist …