What would John Galt and Howard Roark say?

MacKenzie Allen, the retired deputy sheriff and a currently a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has the #1 question in YouTube’s “Ask Obama” contest, in which President Obama will answer the top-voted questions in a live interview to be broadcast this afternoon from the White House. Allen’s question got twice as many votes as the next-highest voted question.

As more and more people talk about how inequality threatens our economic system and just in time for Davos, the January 22-28 edition of The Economist had a special report on “The Global Elite.” While the edition has been out there for a while, I was struck by the degree to which it seems to be an attempt to mythify the looting going on so as to claim it serves some kind of useful societal function.

Multiple sources confirm the brutal and tragic beating death of LGBT activist David Kato in Uganda.

Angelides: there’s much anger in this country about what’s transpired. Many looked to this commission for answers. We kept these people in mind as we completed our work. There has been no shortage of debate over the bailout and too big to fail. But our mission was to figure out the origins. How did it come to pass that we were forced to choose between two stark and painful alternatives? Rescue the banks or let them crash? None of what happened was an act of God.

Dr Mohammed ElBaradei addresses the protests in Egypt as he prepares to return there. We can stand with the Egyptian people by calling on the White House to guarantee his – and their – protection.

The White House is generally pretty pleased with what they’ve done, they don’t think they’re likely to get anything additional from Congress – which they’re right about, but that assumes that the executive branch has no authority of its own – and they’re going to just engage in happy, sunny, Reagan-esque optimistic talk and hope the economy comes back on its own. There are some things – like a new budget – that must be done, and there we shall see where talk meets action. But basically, the White House is done, and they’re quite happy with their efforts. If you want to be real charitable, they think it’s the best they can do.

Meanwhile, I still can’t believe CNN covered the Bachmann train wreck.

Americans love the idea of Democracy for other people, as long as it doesn’t involve regimes we’ve underwritten to protect us from our phobias.

Amazingly good fan footage of the enigmatic Radiohead,
Live in Prague, August 23rd, 2009