The Daily Digest

The Washington Monthly spotlights Manny Miranda and his latest venture, Families First on Immigration. In 2005, the New Republic profiled Manny's previous project, the Third Branch Conference.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has long been living off the largess of his multimillionaire dad, whether via a partnership in his real-estate firm or a huge apartment on 5th Avenue. Less quietly, the father has also been bankrolling his son's political career.

The MSM is often accused, rightly, of being insufficiently skeptical in the run-up to the Iraq war. But as Matthew Yglesias points out, the same charge can be leveled at Washington's think tank establishment.

Earlier this year, the Cato Institute inaugurated a department of bioethics studies. The department's director, Sigrid Fry-Revere, explains the connection between liberty and the life sciences: "There is nothing more fundamental to being an individual than maintaining control over decisions related to one's physical and mental well-being. It is our personal vision of who we are, who we could be, and who we want to be that defines us."

How does this translate into practice? One example is a market-based solution to the perennial shortage in human organs. "The only real answer in a country as pluralistic as the United States is to allow individuals to decide for themselves what is and what is not denigrating," says Fry-Reverse. "Ultimately, freedom and self-ownership go hand in hand. If individuals don't own their body parts, who does? Anyone who believes that selling organs is an affront to human dignity doesn't have to do it."