[snugs]

President Bush, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to genetic researcher Francis S. Collins, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

President George W. Bush (R) before awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to American novelist Harper Lee (L) in the East Room of the White House, November 5, 2007.

President Bush, right, escorts author Harper Lee, center, to the stage where he presented her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007

President Bush, left, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee, center, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

President Bush, right, smiles after presenting author Harper Lee, left, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony for the 2007 Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, in the East Room at the White House in Washington

[MEG33]

Great Dose,snugs! Love your collages!

[radiohead]

Ok, this probably marks me as a major league nerd, but I am totally impressed that Gary Becker received the Medal of Freedom. Becker and his work in Economic Sociology changed my intellectual life and views on economics. He took economics (for me, at least) away from 'economic man' and the mathematics of an impossibly perfect world, back into real life, where people have limited information, prejudices, and assumptions and have to make real, messy, choices. He strongly influenced my doctoral studies and dissertation work. Good on ya, Gary! Whoo Hoo!