Monday
Laughable Congress
Saturday morning, I read about the heroic efforts to avoid a partial federal government shut-down. The parties had agreed to a $40 billion budget cut. I thought to myself, "That doesn't sound like much," but I didn't have time to look into it. Fortunately, Dan Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek did the number crunching for me and put it into proper perspective: It's a 1% cut. If a family were over-spending at $101,600 annually, this 1% cut would be a spending reduction to $100,584. It's a joke, especially when you remember that the federal government has increased its spending 27% over the past three years. * * * * * * * Late Night. But Kimmel asked the correct question last week: "The shutdown would mean that all non-essential workers would stop coming to work. I'm OK with that. Why do we even have non-essential workers?" * * * * * * * New GKC. I'm intrigued by all new Chesterton books, but especially by this one: The Holiness of G. K. Chesterton
. I'm curious to know what, if anything, the authors say about his ample wine habit and the pursuit of holiness. * * * * * * * Plus One. Speaking of new GKC books, if you like mysteries, check out John Peterson's new book: The Return of Fr. Brown. * * * * * * * Broadway. I saw The Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway last Wednesday. It was a great show, but then again, I'm highly partial to Elvis and Johnny Cash, plus I've long enjoyed Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. If you like stories and music from that young age of rock-n-roll, be sure to check it out. The USA tour starts shortly. * * * * * * * Cheap Broadway. If you go to NYC and want to snag cheap Broadway tickets at one of those ticket booths, get out of Manhattan. I believe there are two such booths in Manhattan and both of them have long lines: minimum one hour, and if the weather's nice, two hours. Instead, take the 4 train to Brooklyn, get off at the first stop, then walk three blocks north. You'll see a ticket booth outside of Lucianos, across from the courthouse. The lines are much shorter. Our wait last Wednesday: 90 seconds. And we snagged second-row seats to MDQ.
