Behold the problem of others: as population increases arithmetically, the ratio of self to others worsens geometrically. The ideal ratio is 1 to 3: one other, plus a second person to help you overrule the first. The problem of others is not that, in the 21st century, the ratio has gotten as bad as 1 to 7 billion. It’s that none of the other seven billion people benefits from it, either, since each perceives the ratio of others to self as 7 billion to one. The problem of others is everywhere. For example, it’s at Disneyland with the measles. Today is Friday, and 350,000 new people will be born by the time you get out of work. Won’t you confront the problem with me?

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The Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Committee has a new plan for addressing the unusually large homeless population in Missoula, and it’s for businesses to voluntarily stop selling cheap liquor downtown. Obviously, they don’t mean Al’s & Vic’s. They mean stores like Worden’s that sell tall boy cans of malt liquor and plastic vodka pints. That’s the kind of drinking you want to discourage, while still preserving a downtown where approximately one third of the successful businesses are bars. Over at the Independent, I worry that the city might inadvertently crack down on the good kind of drinking in its effort to sober up and/or drive away the bums. As usual, I get a little confused about the line between good and bad. Check it out, won’t you? We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.