Bollywood budgets cut due to global meltdown make me sad. The worst bit is that this will probably spark a return to formula. Over the last decade or so, there were some interesting film makers experimenting with some interesting themes in Bollywood.

Democracy Now! has an interview with Namoi Klein whereshe lays responsibility for the current crisis at the feet of those who put Milton Friedman's economic theories into practice. I found this especially interesting in an email being bandied about from someone educated at the University of Chicago in economics which made the observation that most of Europe is far less regulated than the US vis a vis the banking industry. Given the EU, I guess this makes sense that banks would be less regulated within member states.

This week, I did a bad job at trying to point out an inconsistency that arises if a Libertarian holds to social contract theory. If my argument fails, I blame the local library consortium which has failed me twice in getting my hands on Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia. The consequence is that I'm kind of shooting in the dark and hoping I'm not taking down a straw man.

So while tooling down the expressway close to the Ohio/West Virginia border, I notice a white SUV slowly pulling ahead of me on the left. As the passenger pulls even with me, he flips me The Bird. I'm wondering what this might be about until I consider that I'm driving my wife's van with a big, fat Obama sticker on the back. This notion is confirmed when the SUV pulls the rest of the way past to reveal a McCain/Palin sticker.

Clearly, if McCain wants to win he needs to reign in his supporters. If they keep going driving around flipping off guys driving their crippled spouses, everyone is going to think that all Republicans are asshats that like being rude to cripples. He really needs to get on this. Right Now!

Some where out there there universe of all Libertarians intersects with the universe of all Christians. I don't think that intersection is particularly large, but those who fall into it, or no know someone who does, may find some randomly moronic blogger's exploration of The Unchristianness of Libertarianism to be interesting. Then again, they may not.

Nothing really to see here. Please move along.

Aparently I missed last week how Obama was awarded his first `pants on fire' award.  He's got some catching up to do to pull even with McCain. (See the full scoresheet: Politifact's Statements we say are Pants on Fire.

`Iraq?'

``No, head lice.''

``Were you in the miltary?''

`No'

``Oh, you've got that look.''

`?'

``Like you just got out of the service.'' 

Inside: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single cup of coffee

Triumphs

• Registered youngest daughter for school
• Got library cards for the whole family
• Got parking pass for the Eurovan for the new apartment's lot
• Went to first day of classes at CUA
• Got metro passes all around, including the extra special cripple card for my wife repleat with secret superpowers

Failures

• Didn't get keys to new apartment
• Didn't have enough coffee
• Failed to purloin all necessary items for young daughter's first day of school tomorrow

Bits and pieces on a Monday morning.