Pun Salad

Theory: some French guy saw Shakespeare in Love, and said "Hey, we can do that too." Or whatever that is in French.

It's the story, told almost entirely in flashback, of young Molière; the struggling actor/playwright is rescued from debtor's prison by a Monsieur Jourdain, a social climber who wants his help in seducing a young witty beauty. Jourdain is rich, but he's also married; this requires Molière to assume a false identity in the household in order to disguise his true mission. But soon enough he's involved with Jourdain's wife… It's all very French, and if it reminds you of some play you dimly remember from a past literature class, that's intentional.

It's quite funny in spots, not above slapstick and sight gags. And there's a neat plot twist, as Monsieur Jourdain transforms himself from a cuckolded buffoon.

… a star woman teaches:

• The above link goes to Snopes, where you will learn: (a) the theme from Star Trek (original series) had lyrics; (b) they were awful; (c) Gene Roddenberry was kind of a slimeball.

• Don Boudreaux has a good response to a recent USA Today editorial entitled "Who's buying this election? Who knows?" USA Today advocates "disclosure" by "special interests" on campaign ads.

  I was happy to see Don make the same point I made previously:

  The headline of your Sept. 28 editorial reads "Who's buying this election? Who knows?"

  I know. Incumbent politicians.

  Not all of them will succeed in their shopping sprees, thankfully. But farm subsidies, tariffs, export assistance, funding for science, funding for the arts, funding for education, bloated military procurements, bailouts of Detroit and Wall Street, and politically directed "stimulus" spending are just some of the expenditures -- all of money taken from both present and future taxpayers -- made by sitting politicians to buy the election. Reducing the amounts that private citizens spend of their own money to influence elections will only worsen the consequences of this detestable reality.

  Don appends a small correction: it's not just incumbents.

• At Cato, Michael F. Cannon asks: what's the matter with the ex-Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius?

  • Her department is forcing millions of Americans to finance speech that they oppose, by using taxpayer dollars to broadcast (misleading) television ads that promote ObamaCare.

  • She is using the powers granted her under ObamaCare to threaten insurers with bankruptcy if they publicly disagree with her about the law's cost.

  • Now, she is decrying the growth of anonymous political speech in congressional campaigns.

  When the boss lacks respect for the First Amendment, it's predictable that his underlings will enthusiastically follow his lead.