Who’s Afraid of E-Verify?
An excerpt:

Hmmm. Ask yourself: Suppose E-Verify had already been perfected–suppose it were 100% accurate, approving all legal workers but catching all illegal workers.** Would the groups–including Latino and business lobbies–now opposing it support it?

Read it all.

My favorite Cassie Palmer book so far. All the stories are action orieniented, but this one had some really interesting development of Cassie, Pritkin and Micea. I'd say 4.5 / 5.0

Iron Druid Chronicles
,, and

Funny books. Pretty good action, and some interesting stories. Kind of short though. Oberon is a hoot. 4.0 /5.0 for all three.


Kitty goes to Chinatown. Kind of treading water in the Roman Story arc, but the story was enjoyable. 4.0/5.0

Holiday Gift Guide: Books of the Year - Megan McArdle - Culture - The Atlantic

Some interesting books. They all seem interesting to me. I'll have to wait for the library to get them though.

Fiscal Fitness - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

I think the solution is to limit the Federal Buget to ~17% of the GDP, as for over 60 years, the tax receipts have leveled out at that point regardless of the tax structure. It look like 15-19% is pretty much what we, as citizens, have decided we will pay in taxes to the federal government. Accept reality, and conform spending to income. Frankly, we do this ass forward anyway. We pick how much we want to spend, then try to raise the revenue. That won't work, unless you decide to spend less than 15% of GDP.

Easy as Pie - Megan McArdle - Personal - The Atlantic

Megan critiques an Individual serving pie maker, a gadget that seems neat in principle.  I wonder how many times it would ever  be used? I think the Over / Under would be 3.

I read about a kerfuffle regarding Elizabeth Moon about a month ago. I admit to never having read any of her books, and only a passing familiarity with her name. Due to the reaction to her comments, I ordered and read The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel. I really enjoyed the book, and started listening to Vatta's War Series (Audible.com). I am about 75% done with the second book, Marque and Reprisal (Vatta's War), but I really enjoyed the first, and am enjoying the second.
Black Friday Recommendations

Encyclopedia Brown.
Hardy Boys.
Bobsey Twins.
named.

Wow, yesterday (2/17/2010) was a good day for the U.S.A.. Three favorites. Shaun White, Shani Davis,  and Lindsey Vonn met expectations, and even we slipped in a couple of bronze and a silver into the same events.

I really liked that White did better on his victory run than the run that won the Gold. That is so cool that he performed his high risk top of the line stunt even when he didn't have to.