I’ll be traveling to Asia this week, after being on vacation last week. The good news is that I should have time to answer the follow-up questions to my post on federal employment and I should get through a couple more books. The bad news is that other posting might be somewhat spotty.
But should the unthinkable happen and Egypt really turn into a fundamentalist Muslim country, I hope our progressives won’t try to sweep their support for the "revolution" (damn it, I can no longer find that one George Will article that started with a depiction of some pothead liberal arts students spontaneously erupting to cheer an old newsreel whose narrator said that "rebels" were taking over the capital city… and these "rebels" were Franco’s fascists) down the memory hole, the same way they did with Robert Mugabe.
Strong new evidence for Mencius Moldbug’s contention that, temporary aberrations apart, the true vanguard of the worldwide leftist revolution is now and always has been…the United States of America
We’re getting some new Walmarts in DC and the reactions are hysterical: “[District of Columbia Ward 4 ANC Commissioner Brenda] Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn’t resist the temptation to steal.”
We are all wards of the state in some way.
Foseti 
Re: “[District of Columbia Ward 4 ANC Commissioner Brenda] Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn’t resist the temptation to steal.”
Idiotic. Here in D.C., it’s all-racial all the time! So now it’s Wal-Mart’s **fault** that black “youths” will shoplift there?!?!?
Strictly speaking, what happens today cannot provide very strong evidence about what always has been/happened.
I know savvy economists are always saying a tax credit is equivalent to a subsidy, but I don’t buy it 100%. Am I a ward of the state because I don’t pay excise taxes on the beverages I buy in a bar? It’s not that I buy liquor and get a kickback on the tax; I just by non-alcoholic beverages and thus incur no liability. Similarly, I pay mortgage on a house and it reduces my tax bill. If I were to ignore the rightoff and pay more than I owe, would that make me more independent of the state?
I don’t see it. You’re either a net contributor or you’re a ward of the state, not both. (You could be neither, e.g. if you live in a cabin and ate small game or something.)
I want a government job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!