Harvard Square lost its character a long time ago. Barnes and Noble took over operations of the Harvard Coop. Landlords forced out traditional watering holes such as the Bow & Arrow. Newstands Nini's and Out of Town News, mainly because the internet has killed the demand for print pornography, are on their last legs. The Tasty, immortalized for millions in Good Will Hunting and immortalized for one future writer when a group of his late-night friends ran out on the tab without informing him of their scheme, is gone too (maybe my comrades are partly responsible for the loss of this venerable greasy eatery). Hippies are scarce. Scratch a punk rocker and you will find an uberwealthy spoiled brat underneath. Charming shops have given way to vulgar chains. So news of the gentrified Square's war on a homeless used-book peddler comes as no shock. The Boston Globe article tells a tale of expensive licensing fees, bureaucratic red-tape, and forever shifting regulations. With the business of doing business so expensive, it's no wonder that those doing business in the Square are increasingly corporate behemoths. Ken O'Brien, proprietor of the Almost Banned in Harvard Square Bookstore that goes out of business today, notes: "It's the paperwork that killed me." Isn't it always?

Yes, it is. And it's why companies will continue moving to China and India even if their employees agreed to work for nothing.

Wait a minute, are you saying that 'liberals' aren't liberal anymore?

What ever happened to freedom, peace, love and dope?

I thought Horowitz put it best yesterday when he said that Conservatives are the new liberals. True when you think about it as we observe it being the leftists, who have morphed from liberalism, working to take everything away and uber manage other people's lives.

Barney Frank was on Lou Dobbs just now and looked, literally, like a disheveled financially poor college professor. And he got an a$$ kickin' from Dobbs. It was a beautiful thing!

It's embarrassing to think that this clown is a infamous member of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation.

I notice this every time I go near the place (which is painfully frequent). Nothing but trendy kids in black Northface fleeces. Disgusting really.