David Mamet has written a thought-provoking and widely circulated piece in the Village Voice about “Why I’m no longer a brain-dead liberal”. He’s a really good writer, but the content is pretty mundane, so it’s kind of like a fine restaurant chef fixing leftovers:

What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.

Coming from a man who claims that his alma mater is the Chicago Public Library, the irony is staggering.

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