Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

My Despair at Land Use Planning:

This morning I stood on a high mountaintop at sunrise. I watched the cracks in the thick boiling grey layers of cloud turn red and gold and saw the orange ball of the sun blast through. I looked across a fair valley at a towering forest-covered peak. I saw the light from the newly-risen sun sparkle off of the greatest river to flow into the Pacific south of the Columbia and north of the Colorado. And I despaired.