If Cato Was CATO, What Would it Stand For?

by Will Wilkinson on November 21, 2004

Since I started working at Cato, I’ve become more sensitive to the fact that folks often write it “CATO.” Now, this may be because of the the logo, which is all caps, but lots of organizations have logos in all caps, and people don’t write it that way. So I think folks must think CATO is some kind of acronym, like the CIA or something. This suggests a comments box game! If Cato was really CATO and CATO was an acronym, what would it stand for?

I’ll get you started. Kelly in the Westminster rumpus room suggests “Center for Advanced Tautological Observation.” Now you!

  • Farsam,

    You win.
  • Hey man - Here's a few Will...

    Can Anyone Top Objectivism!?
    the Commandingheights Are Totally Okay!
    Collectivism Ain't That Oldschool (yo)
    Couldn't Anyone TiVo O'Reilly!?
    Creating Another Tax Obstacle
    Career Analysts Toggling Opportunities
    Colloquia Argue Towards Overregulation
    Captivating Audiences, Tompalmer Overbroadband
    Cutting Anyandall Top-down Oversight
    'C' Ayn's Tendentious Objectivism
    Capitalism, Afterall This, Opensource?
    Clinton's America: Taxation, Oralsex
    Collectiing Accretions to the Taxcode Obsessively
    Cuz All the other Thinktanks are just Obsequious/Obsolescent
    Combating Agrarianism Through Overintellectualization
    Canada Ain't That Orange (see 'Spiral Dynamics')
    Cunning Analytical Top-Notch Awesome!
    Can't Anyone Try and Agree?
    CBGB-AQAL-TOC-OEM
    Calculating America's Tonnage/Oppression
    the Conservatives Aren't Thusfar Onto-us
    Corporate America, Tipsjar's Open
    Collective Administration of Torpor Antidotes
    Charting America's Troubling Originality
    Cannabis Ain't-no-thang, Towit: Amsterdam
    Contemporary Alienation, Tomorrow's Opportunity
    Calling All Tyrants, Oppressors
    Clerics Ambassadors Tyrants Oligarchs (hey!)
    Team America, Coitus Onscreen! (oops, that's TACO! Fuck yeah!)

    ....and of course spambot says:

    'cunts analsexamylnitrates tits orgasms'

    *Fly Bottle readers, feel free to anything from the Spare Word Pile (these guys didn't find acronymic partners:(

    tomatillo
    cancun
    allspice
    Torrance, CA
    Ahmanson
    tommorello
    Christianity
    Agape
    Theology
    Occidentalism
    Christina
    Aguilera
    Tony
    Orlando
    can'twealljustgetalong
    cypresshill
    corriander
    constitutionality
    come'on
    orangutan
    the
    objectivist
    center
    ohmygod
    cunnilingus
  • I know that it's not an acronym and I still write it in all caps. Not sure why, maybe the size of the word lends itself to caps.
  • Chuck
    Some confused guy once tried to sell me on the idea that it originally was an acronym and that all this stuff about inspiration from classical orators or early American revolutionaries was a bunch of revisionist hokum.

    The old guy said that CATO was previously based in San Francisco--the heart of American fascism--and the moniker stood for

    California Anti-Tax Organization
  • treefroggy
    If I were a member of the LP, it would be " Crane's Arguments Topped Ours. "
  • Coalition Against Tyranny and Oppression.
  • What if Belle were not pedantic?
  • anonymous coward
    Crane And The Others
  • belle waring
    shouldn't that be if Cato were CATO?
  • Coalition Against Taking Otherpeoplesmoney
  • If the US gets a libertarian President someday, he just might tell the folks at CATO to

    Come And Take Over

    ;-)
  • Tim
    Well, this it Tom Palmer's joke, but "Central Atlantic Treaty Organization."
  • Critical Admonishment of the Taxing Oligarchs
  • Commentators Attacking The Orthodoxy
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