Real Money

Here's Michael Kinsley on the reconstruction of Iraq: "Eighty billion dollars -- the size of just the first expense report the Bush administration has submitted to Congress -- works out to about $1,000 that needs to be kicked in by each household in the United States. Of course we're putting it all on the credit card, to be paid for in the future, with interest. But it's still real money. If we made a contribution that big to our local public broadcasting outlet, we'd qualify for a CD recording by six, nine, or even 12 tenors. From the Bush administration, we don't even get a tote bag. But at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that we share a $10 trillion economy with some smiling companies that are doing well as a result of the war."

As long as I'm citing people who probably won't, to paraphrase Orwell, have Max Boot sitting on their human faces forever: I finally picked up a copy of the Dixie Chicks' Home this week. It's a fine bluegrass album, several thousand times better than anything Darryl Worley will ever record. Stick a thumb in Clear Channel's eye, and pick up a copy.