The Limits of Condescension

Matt Yglesias has about a half of a point to make about the latest awful John Tierney column (William Safire, baby, won't you please come home). I have a quarter of a point to make, which is: WTF is with the suggested further reading at the end of the column:

For further reading:

“The People’s Romance: Why People Love Government (As Much As They Do)” by Daniel Klein, Santa Clara University (working paper).

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley (Penguin Books, 295 pp., 1998).

The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

Isn't that sweet of Tierney? Recommending a couple g's of reading (the latest paperback of WoN, e.g., is a cool 1264 pp.), just in order to appreciate fully his asinine quasi-Randian anti-lesson about the virtues of selfishness drawn from the keen political document that is Episode III of Star Wars.

Read Wealth of Nations? For you, big Jawn, anything. I'll get right on it.