What is it about our prosperous, free-market democracies — by far the freest and most comfortable in human history — that makes them dissatisfying to so many, primarily on the left but also to some extent on the right, too?

Brian Anderson, the editor of the Manhattan Institute’s flagship magazine, City Journal looks at that question from several different angles in his new book of political theory, Democratic Capitalism and its Discontents, just out from ISI.

He details liberals’ obsession with big government. He contends that programs championed by liberals have resulted in atrophied sense of personal responsibility, increased school dropout rates, rampant illegitimacy and crime.

He joins me tonight on “A Conversation with Andrea and …” on the webstream at Blog Talk Radio at 9 p.m. EST.

Anderson also is the author of Raymond Aron: the Recovery of the Political, the controversial 2005 book South Park Conservatives: the Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias.

The Chat Room will be open for your questions and comments. To listen, click the button.

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We had a posting eruption at our humble establishment a few days ago to offset the dearth of activity from which we suffered throughout most of the week.  T’wasn’t like at Powerline, where Deacon and Rocketman departed to parts unknown for well-earned and long-overdue vacations, leaving Brother Trunk to keep the gerbil wheel spinning.  As often happens to us, both Jenber and I were pre-empted by an overabundance of “real life” intrusions.  And as also happens when that happens, the itch became too overpowering not to rabidly scratch.

So why am I only posting Friday’s recap now?  Well, I, um, went away for the weekend with my family right after Saturday morning’s award-deserving blogcast.  To, you know, get away from it all.

A pity GOP Senator John Warner can’t take a lot more than just a vacation.  Senate Dems could use one fewer RINO poodle.

Rudy Giuliani’s stubborn presence in the GOP presidential top tier continues to baffle me given his support for the Big Black Monolith of judicial imperialism.  Perhaps even more baffling is how his two principle rivals (or one and a half, anyway) can’t get out of their own rhetorical way enough to exploit it.

A friendly note to French President Nicholas Sarkozy: Thanks for your support, but we need the UN back in Iraq like your country needs more snotty Napoleon wannabes.

The Democrats will bow down to golden statues of George Bush before they’ll let two-fifths of California’s fifty-five Electoral College votes slip through their fingers.

Beware issue polls that are long on generics and short on specifics, lest you believe the American people to be more right-of-center than they really are.

The “pork-busting” dynamic grinds cannibalistically on, just as I predicted.

Yet another libospheric tour, this time on the Donks’ congenital incapability of taking national security seriously.  If you’re expecting another explaining how they can be back in power anyway, it’s probably gonna be a long wait.

In today’s Blog Talk Radio podcast, it’s time for Fausta’s Blog Talk Radio monthly roundtable with Dymphna and and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna and Siggy of Sigmund, Carl and Alfred.  Today we’ll be discussing the SIOE’s proposed demonstration on September 11 in Brussels.

Please join us at noon Eastern. The call-in number is (646) 652-2639.