June 28, 2001

No, the altered logo at

No, the altered logo at the top is not some bit of wishful thinking. Today, I am off on a trans-Atlantic flight to France.

I have my passport, so they'll let me leave the country, but will they let me return? Will TAM become TAMTF (The American Mind Trapped in France)?

My mother has threatened to make a phone call to the State Department. Secretary Powell, don't listen to her. I'm a nice guy and liked your book. I also promise to vote for your boss again in 2004.

My itinerary includes a few days in Paris, then going south on the TGV to Dax to attend the World Conference of the International Society for Individual Liberty. This year's conference is entitled "2001, Bastiat's Odyssey" in honor of the 200th birthday of the French economist, Frederic Bastiat.

To learn more about Bastiat, Sheldon Richman has an annotated bibliography that also provides a bit of biography. Bastiat is quite an accessible writer. He uses sound logic and many examples to hammer down his point. His best essay is "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen," where he shoots down economic fallacies and sees the importance of unintended consequences when analyzing policies.

My plan with TAM is to keep you updated on my little adventure in the land of fine wine and hairy women, but I'm not certain of easy access to the web. I know of one Internet cafe in Paris, and there should be some terminals at Newark Airport and Charles De Gaulle Airport. As to the extent of Net access in Dax, I'm clueless.

Wish me luck battling evil airline service, jetlag, and American-hating Europeans. One more thing, how do you say "We surrender!" in French?