Even though he’s a nutjob on gay issues, Ben Stein has written a terrific piece on why tax cuts are out of control.

Essentially, he points out the flaws in the tax-cutters’ arguments:

– Tax increases are not “class warfare,” because the rich already pay a smaller percentage of their taxes than other people do.

– Tax cuts do not increase revenue: revenues were higher in the Clinton era.

– History shows that it’s nearly impossible to cut government spending; government spending has risen almost every year since 1940.

– It’s ridiculous to say that deficits don’t matter. “[I]f it doesn’t matter, why bother to even discuss balancing the budget? Why have taxes at all? Why not just print money the way Weimar Germany did? Why not abolish taxes and add trillions to the deficit each year? Why don’t we all just drop acid, turn on, tune in and drop out of responsibility in the fiscal area? If deficits don’t matter, why not spend as much as we want, on anything we want?”

His conclusion:

People ask how I can be a conservative and still want higher taxes. It makes my head spin, and I guess it shows how old I am. But I thought that conservatives were supposed to like balanced budgets. I thought it was the conservative position to not leave heavy indebtedness to our grandchildren. I thought it was the conservative view that there should be some balance between income and outflow. When did this change?

Oh, now, now, now I recall. It changed when we figured that we could cut taxes and generate so much revenue that we would balance the budget. But isn’t that what doctors call magical thinking? Haven’t the facts proved that this theory, though charming and beguiling, was wrong?

I’ve decided I want to start cooking. But I need some advice on a good cookbook.

We rarely cook dinner; we usually order in or do takeout. I’ve decided I want to start saving money, expand our food horizons, and learn some good cooking skills. It seems like it would be fun.

I have some basic skills, because I used to cook for myself: I can sauté chicken and vegetables. I can make rice and pasta. I can cook vegetables by boiling them. I baked cookies once. That’s about it. To be honest, I’m a little intimidated by cooking. Also, I don’t want to go out and spend money on equipment and ingredients that I’ll never use. But I want to learn to become a better cook.

Regarding basic ingredients to keep in your kitchen, I’ve found this, this, this and this.

As for all-purpose cookbooks, I’ve looked at Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything, the Betty Crocker cookbook, the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, and a little bit at The Joy of Cooking – the latter just came out in a new edition, but there are also some earlier editions and people seem to have different opinions of them. I don’t necessarily want a book filled with recipes I’ll never make – I’d rather have a book filled with recipes I will make.

Any ideas for cookbooks?

Oh, Google Earth, how I love thee. Someone has made a 3-D model of the buildings of Monroe Hill, a.k.a. Brown College, at the University of Virginia, where I lived for two years.