Without Borders, Ltd.

Mark T. Mitchell on Bailout Schemes & the Loss of Limits

A question: What do these two books have in common? A Garfield the Cat book and My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands. Or these two: A book on Mother Teresa’s spirituality and Holy S**T: The World’s Weirdest Comics, featuring, on the cover, “Tales from the Leather Nun,” complete with a bare-breasted woman. Answer: these books are paired alongside each other at my local Borders.

Presumably, the Garfield book was intended to attract the kids, whose parents, perhaps, could then browse through the confessions of a randy woman while they waited on their tots. I’m less sure about the intention behind the second pair. Part of me hopes that these incongruities are the work of an employee who is silently, but symbolically, rebelling against perceived social norms. Unfortunately, in all likelihood, no such person is at work, and these juxtapositions are the result of completely random acts of carelessness.

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Mark T. Mitchell teaches political theory at Patrick Henry College in Virginia. He is the co-founder of Front Porch Republic.

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