I was going to post about something that came up in conversation with Yglesias earlier today—the way that policy discussion gets skewed because health, which can be scientifically quantified, takes on an aura of being more objectively valuable than other sources of human satisfaction, even though almost all of us think it’s sometimes worth trading off some amount of health for some amount fun. But since Yglesias is a blogging machine, I can just endorse what he says and paste one of my favorite movie rants, delivered by Denis Leary’s character:

I like to think, I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I’m the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, “Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?” I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal?