Required reading for our time in the wilderness

Awright, we held our noses and tried to drag McCain over the finish line but our passion to unmask the real Obama far outpaced that of the candidate and his campaign and now we're stuck with being sanctimoniously lectured to by the Oracle of Invesco for four years.

So, now is as good a time as any to get back to first principles.

Refresh your knowledge of Locke, Smith, Montesquieu, et al, but above all, re-read Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, "[A] classic warning against the dangers to freedom inherent in social planning", as our well-worn copy is subtitled.

Just as every true baseball fan should read Ball Four the day pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, so should every good conservative/classical liberal/libertarian, upon the election of a wild-eyed statist, avail himself of the wisdom of Hayek's alarum, written at a time, much like today, when the permanence of "central planning" seemed inevitable

Events proved Hayek's warnings prescient, but here we are again ...

La plus ca change ...