According to a famous saying, usually attributed to Bismarck, you never really want to see how sausage or legislation is made.
This piece, from Time magazine, about federal farm subsidies is brilliant, brutally honest and features Minnesota’s own Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Ag Committee, in a not-so-heroic role (that’s Rep. Peterson at right).
The […]

My friend Pasquino stumbles on things, then muses on them, like:
I am not an evangelical.  What other people believe about an afterlife is their business.  What makes me think I know more than somebody else about heaven and hell or even if there are such places?  Nobody knows.  Be good and decent for the […]

Guest Poster Pasquino reads a story in the Times about a grout-sealant that is supposed to evaporate harmlessly, but sometimes sends people to the hospital instead. He remembers back to stories about Justice Samuel Alito’s belief that consumer safety laws are constitutionally suspect, and others about Bushy hostility to regulation generally, and he’s off to the laissez-faire races:
The […]

Hey guys,
I’m slowing down and starting to drown under the challenge of keeping fresh posts on Black Ink all by myself. One way to improve the situation is to recruit guest pieces. I have an old soccer buddy, who writes under the name of Pasquino. That’s the original Pasquino at right, one of the talking statues of Rome. […]