The past couple of days I've been in Atlanta, at the 31st-annual Resource Bank meeting, held by the Heritage Foundation. The official description of the event is that it "gathers more than 500 think tank executives, public interest lawyers, policy experts, and elected officials from around the world to discuss issues, strategies, and methods for advancing free market, limited government public policies."

And that it does, and does it well. I think the word is that there are actually 700 people attending, from the 50 states and from 50 countries. I've been coming to these events for a decade, and the crowds seem to be getting bigger each year--a testament to the interest in addressing problems of the day through means other than government regulations and bureaucratic programs.