If WordPress’ statistics are right, this is the 500th post here at Inertia Wins. This blog has changed quite a bit since I started it in 2005. Mostly for the better, I hope. Last month’s redesign has gotten a lot of positive feedback, and the traffic has well exceeded my expectations (tell your friends!). The new About and Publications sections are handy additions. More new features are on the way.
I also thought I’d take this opportunity to look back at a few of this blog’s highlights. Hopefully old readers and new will find something to enjoy.
-In one of my first posts, 2005’s “Is This Grounds for Pessimism?“, I recount one of my many learning experiences on Capitol Hill.
-A quick look through the category “The Partisan Mind” should dispel the notion that I am a Democratic or Republican party hack. I’ve been accused of being both over the years.
-For my views on executive power, soured by the experiences of the Bush and Clinton years, see “Why Good Men Don’t Become President Anymore,” written on the day of President Obama’s inauguration.
-Echoes of Mencken in one of my favorite lines I’ve ever written. The post was in response a comparison of the presidency to a monarchy: “Presidents are unremarkable creatures. Borne of much talent for campaigning and little for governing, more love for power than for principle, and the unyielding belief that they know best, presidents have the worst kind of hubris. This is perhaps their only regal trait.” The whole post is here.
-Channeling Charles Darwin, the French Enlightenment, and Austrian-school views on consumer sovereignty, I explain why most news coverage is shallow and overly pessimistic.
-I remain particularly proud of this letter to the editor from 2007, even though it was never published.
-On Earth Day of 2008, I explain what has become known around the office as my certainty principle.
-And finally, my ongoing Regulation of the Day feature. 75 dumb rules and counting.
More to come on all those fronts and more. Much more. Thanks for reading.
Inertia Wins! 