A little while ago, I advocated working with the liberatarians -- whom I cannot stand -- on privacy issues. Why? Because libertarians of the more principled sort are good on those issues, and because anyone hoping to participate in a mass movement cannot be too exclusionary.

We also have a movement composed of people who insist that Larry Summers should not be named chairman of the Fed. I like everything about this movement except for the folks behind it: The Markos Moulisas Cheetohead brigade. As did many of you, I fell out with that crowd back in 2008 and stayed out.

Still, these sentiments (mostly) sit well with me...

Dear President Obama:

It is unconscionable that Larry Summers—an architect and cheerleader for the financial deregulation that ruined our economy—would be appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Please do not appoint him, and instead consider this an opportunity to shatter a glass ceiling by appointing a qualified woman to this powerful position.

The estrogen-based part of this statement doesn't mean as much to me as does the idea of keeping Summers well away from this august position. Janet Yellen is obviously the better choice -- and to my mind, her sex should not enter into the equation.