Tim Lynch on “Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism.” An excellent overview of the issues. A companion piece to that is Ted Galen Carpenter’s “Protecting Liberty in a Permanent War.”

Michael Lynch is right on in his “Flying Fat” about Southwest’s policy of charging obese folks (like myself) more for spilling over into the next seat. A common misperception is that you’re only paying to get from point A to point B. But part of the fare is for how much space you take up on the plane. Lynch writes:

Passengers are paying for real estate, a well-defined seat bordered by two armrests that is barely sufficient to provide a tolerably comfortable flight. Overweight people have no right to eat off another person’s plate in a restaurant and they have no general right to occupy part of the seat that another person has purchased on an airplane.

Eventually, as more and more people occupy more territory on planes, we may see larger seats in new plane — or perhaps even a fat section.