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The Economist web site seems to have eaten another account, and I’ll probably just say “fuck it” for the time being rather than registering a third. Not least since I’ve been making a majority of my “comments” here rather than at their site, anyway, lately.

The Schumpeter columnist has excerpted a P.J. O’Rourke review of the hilariously-timed Atlas Shrugged film. (I mean, now? If I thought Randians had any sense of humor at all I would figure they had to be fucking kidding us.) Anyway, the Reagan-era fossil opined:

Progressive Robin Hoods have turned their attention to robbing ordinary individuals.  It’s the plain folks, not a Taggart/Rearden elite, whose prospects and opportunities are stolen by corrupt school systems, health-care rationing, public employee union extortions, carbon-emissions payola and deficit-debt burden graft.

And I’m just curious: does O’Rourke, himself, even think he knows what he means with half of these terms? Or is he just engaging in a sort of buzzword version of name-dropping in order to sell a few copies of his books to “plain folk” reactionaries (or simply to pad out the word count of his review)?

I particularly love “carbon-emissions payola,” which is not only completely inexplicable but so far as I know a new construction. Impressive! I’m guessing that neither PJ nor anyone else has the slightest fucking idea what it’s supposed to mean (or what the alternative to some form or other of “rationing” health care or any other product, in a world of finite resources, is… or how public employee unions’ negotiating for greater advantage is “extortion” but presumably no other entities’ equivalent behavior is… or how exactly any of this is resulting in the theft of “plain folks’” prospects and opportunities, etc., etc.) but presumably PJ has been watching Fox News and taking notes, and concluded that these are the kind of buzzwords he needs to sprinkle into his writing, nowadays.

Dr. Evil once remarked that “there’s nothing more pathetic than an ageing hipster.” But perhaps he didn’t consider the alternative of an ageing reactionary humorist.

Yes, yes: Super Bowl. I have to go pick up some cheese at some point, to complete my cheeseburger, potato chips and beer heart-attack-courting combo platter, but on the whole, meh. I’m fighting off plague from the office, I fucking hate the Green Bay Packers and while I’ll actually be rooting for the Steelers it’s not something one advertises in this town. So instead I’m going to write a blog post about…

Britain. And finance. And of course politics. Yes!

I love London, or at any rate the idea of it. If I could live anywhere in the world while keeping something larger than a closet for dwelling space, and being able to afford a couple of visits to my family per year (none of which would be realistic in London on my present income), I would at least try living there.

So I read a lot instead. And over the past few days, once again a post which I thought about writing multiple ways, and then basically gave up, has kind of cobbled itself together almost independently of me.

On Thursday, Britain’s The Economist published three interesting items about British attitudes to high finance. This one, trying to argue the existence of a “Londonist” political creed unique to the island’s capital, is kind of revolting; “Londonism” seems to boil down to “we’ve got ours, and it’s great! Screw everyone else. Our very greatness and wealth conveniently demonstrate how much more we deserve them than anyone else.” Which doesn’t actually seem all that new or unique.

Yet that same day, their own British politics blog noted rather a different attitude among Britons outside of City bankers and their political puppets. (more…)

Kids, an important reminder from your friends at the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

No one can predict what the transportation needs and preferences of future Americans will be. Thankfully, it is never too late for the Department of Transportation to finally abandon its long-standing commitment to central planning.

Because the last thing that you want is government departments working to anticipate and plan for the needs of the nation.

This message brought to you by the same people who brought you a creaky, overburdened infrastructure; some of the industrialized world’s slowest broadband internet speeds; and, of course, Mike “Heckuva Job” Brownie and the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina, which demonstrated like nothing else the wisdom of a small government that stays out of the way and lets the free market provide, rather than foolishly trying to plan for a future that no one can predict.