For Philistines like me, the mysteries of Washington can be both perplexing and wondrous.

Twitter's popularity and usefulness are mysteries to me.

We need a smaller, leaner Washington. It won't happen if we raise taxes without any coinciding reform and serious slashing of spending.

I rather like mysteries. But I do dislike muddles.

It's difficult for democracy to function properly under the most favorable circumstances, but it has no chance at all when millions of voters are divorced from objective reality and incapable of understanding what is going on in Washington.

My parents both defected from communist Hungary and were what most people would today call libertarian. I grew up with a general distaste for taxation and any policy that intruded on our lives.