Pun Salad

The astronomer was concluding his lecture at the synagogue: "And some of my colleagues believe that our own sun will expand and swallow the earth in 7.6 billion years."

"How many years did you say?" asked Mrs. Siegel from the back of the room.

"7.6 billion," replied the scientist.

"Whew!" said Mrs. Siegel. "I thought you said million!"

• In the WSJ today:

  Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.

  A essay from beyond the grave from Friedman or Hayek? No! Click over, and the answer may make your jaw drop.

• That was pointed out by Arnold Kling of EconLog. He also points to this from Jonah Goldberg:

  The fundamental insight of libertarianism is that the government is the government. It cannot be your mommy, your daddy, your big brother, your nanny, your friend, your buddy, your god, your salvation, your church or your conscience. It is the government. A big bureaucracy charged with certain responsibilities, some of which it is qualified to carry out, many of which it is not.

  A good quote for a depressing political season where nearly all candidates seem devoted to the opposite view. Jonah's book sits atop the current NYT bestselling non-fiction list. Good for him.

• I remember—must have been back in 1991 or so—seeing my first picture of Hillary Clinton campaigning in our fair state, and thinking, "that lady is craaaazy." Back last year, Don Danz put together a montage:

  

  I know … totally unfair. But still. This is via a Larry David article at the HuffPo, and he comments (after watching her famous "3am phone call" ad):

  Here's an idea for an Obama ad: a montage of Clinton's Sybillish personalities that have surfaced during the campaign with a solemn voiceover at the end saying, "Does anyone want this nut answering the phone?"

One of the small joys of working at the University is reading the student paper. The most recent issue contains an article about one of my favorite issues, weather-related service curtailments, including an interview with Richard "Dick" Cannon, the decider in this area. I'm not sure whether this bit of genius was accidental or not:

Also, at least in the online version as I type (update: it's been removed), the author says:

I don't know if that made it into the print edition or not.