Miscellany

1)Why I find the libertarian tribe more tolerable than most of the rest of D.C.: "Lucky for them, libertarians are somewhat less subject to the pernicious effects of Washington, D.C., as evidenced by the greater degree of intellectual honesty and ideological diversity seen at those institutions. It helps when your party is never in power, when your social circles comprise people beyond your relatively small ideology who expect that you'll disagree with them, and when stubborn individualism is a guiding light of your philosophy. It isn't that these institutions are perfect, or untouched by the corruptions of the Beltway, but based on my limited knowledge I am impressed by them and much of the work they do, and I'd say so bluntly if I weren't."

OK, so I sort of agree with Julian Sanchez and Ezra Klein that Friedersdorf overstates the case against D.C. I agree with them both that it's fun and valuable to be able to thrash out ideas with other people interested in the same things. The bit about libertarians just made me smile.

2)I'm sorry, but almost 1 out of 10 young women gets pregnant on her first year onthe Pill? Like... in the sense that if this were true, there would have to have been an epidemic of pregnancy sweeping across the Hanover plain that I somehow failed to notice... really? Could someone with more spare time than I have at the second please dig into this and explain what the deal is?

3)More Kentuckians think Rand Paul is too liberal than think he is too conservative.

4)The Htipiti spread at Zaytinya is seriously amazing, as is the crispy brussel afelia. The little crab cakes are also very, very good. Everything else was good but far less memorable.