Listening to Glenn Beck yesterday. He was saying to his audience, hey listen folks, if we're serious abt drastically dialing back government, we've got to bump up charity a lot: there are real needs out there. Admirable, and certainly not the full-on Ayn Rand line. My concern abt leaving everything to private charity is the likely unevenness--your chances of relief may depend on your living close to, or coming to the attention of, someone who is both sympathetic to your plight and has the means to give you succor. Or then if we go to large institutional charities like the United Way, things begin to look quasi-governmental. And your contributions begin to feel a bit like taxation without representation--I'm sure most of you at one time or another have had your arm twisted by an employer for "100% participation." I'm having trouble purging all vestiges of liberal concern for equality and economic justice from my thinking.