Greenspan was a Rand disciple, and his criticism of laissez-faire capitalism had the Objectivists in a tizzy. They were also excited about the increased popularity of Atlas Shrugged, which depicts an economic collapse brought on by socialist regulations. New Yorker writer Lizzie Widdicombe quotes Objectivist Paul Bell, who says:

I learned from Ayn Rand many years ago that contradictions do not exist in reality. Is Alan Greenspan an Objectivist or a statist? Is he controlled by the power in Washington, or did he go there to spread free-market ideals?

We're not sure what these questions have to do with the existence of contradictions, and we're also not sure what the plot of Atlas Shrugged has to do with reality. Asked what Ayn Rand would say about the current financial crisis, fitness consultant Francisco Villalobos said, "I told you so." Which is a little bit like when you tell someone they're going to get hit by a car, and then they get cancer. I told you so!

Another Objectivist's answer to the what-would-Rand-say question is even weirder. "I'm eighty-four and still smoking," this Randian ventriloquized. But Rand was 77 when she died, and would be 104 if she were alive today.

Rand's followers are already planning for their dominion over the streets of post-apocalyptic New York. One suggested that, "when civilization collapses, we'll just have to organize an Objectivist gang." Since Objectivists can't count, though, we're not too worried.

Ayn Crowd [New Yorker]

With the state's unemployment rate topping 10 percent (making it the 3rd highest in the nation) and Providence's unemployment rate at 11.5 percent, club manager Bob Travisono feels like giving back to the community.

"So many people in Rhode Island have been hit hard by the economy that we wanted to do our part," he said, adding that he couldn't think of a better place than the Foxy Lady to find that ideal job.

In fact, he says, they're looking to hire "bartenders, waitresses, masseuses and strippers." (Can some one please tell me what legal services masseuses provide at strip clubs? Is this common?)

With the economy in such dire straits, apparently Providence-area men aren't taking my advice or keeping up with the trend to stay home and fuck themselves, they're heading out to drown their sorrows in bare breasts and watered-down drinks. I guess it's just another way in which the economic crisis is keeping more women employed than men — even in the sex industry. Yay us?

Strip Club Fair Offers Solution To Skimpy Job Market [CNN]

Earlier: During The Recession, Go F*** Yourself
Will The Recession Make Workplace Equity Better For Women?
Kinkonomics: Is Freelance Fetish Work A Good Way To Earn Extra Cash?

We all make choices — and sacrifices — in this economy. But, as Sadie previously wrote, some things are sacrosanct — and things you put into your body tend to be. With the exception of Jess, every one of your editors was refusing to cut back on some luxurious edible, from coffee (Anna) to fancy yogurt (Sadie) to booze (Dodai and I).

The thing about booze is that you really can't go back to those halcyon days when vodka came in plastic jugs and wine from Boone's after you've grown a taste (or a nose) for the good stuff. Scott says:

...nothing is not really an option. And neither, frankly, is a blended jug with a bagpipe player on the cover. I want a single malt with a name I can’t pronounce and a creamy, austere label that tells a complicated story about ancient sherry casks and peat and heather and weird little islands full of taciturn Presbyterians. I want what is perhaps the only luxury product manufactured in a place notorious for thrift.

But, as he notes, it's about the taste and the nuances that are lacking in the cheaper substitutes. What goes for Scotch goes for wine (and even vodka, the plastic-bottle variety of which smells more like rubbing alcohol to me with each passing year). It's not a luxury item if the less expensive variety is so dissimilar from the good stuff.

So, to justify my continued consumption of (relatively) expensive red wine, I'll try to keep up with Scott's lyrical defense of his Scotch habit. Red wine is not meant to taste like grape juice, nor is the alcohol in it intended to overwhelm your palate or nose at the first sip, as a cheap one will. You shouldn't pucker with the sharpness or taste it more on the middle of your tongue than anywhere else. The alcohol should creep up on your palate, not your nose; it should slide smoothly across your tongue and toward the back of your throat leaving little bursts of scent and flavor in its wake that contribute to — not distract from — the whole. The warmth of it should creep up on you like a lover carrying a soft blanket to place around your shoulders on a cold night, rather than burn in your stomach or your throat. Intoxication should creep across your consciousness the way that fog does to the hillsides where good wine is grown — quietly and gently, lulling you into the sense that you can still see clearly.

Alcoholic grape juice isn't red wine anymore than blended malts can be considered "Scotch," and its effects on the psyche and the body cannot be replicated with a cheap pretender to the name. Boone's might be a cheap alcoholic beverage of a similar alcohol content and color, but it's not a substitute for that which will see me through this economic crisis. Now if only I could convince my parents of that when it comes time for Christmas dinner.

Cutbacks? Yes. Cheap Scotch? No Thanks. [New York Times]

Earlier: What's Your "Necessary Luxury?"
Red Wine Mouth: When Your Lips Get As Ugly As Your Issues With Alcohol

LATOYA: Good Morning, Sunshine!

MEGAN: I watched the sun rise this morning, and not in the hot stayed-out-all-night kind of way, but rather in the "shivering in the cold waiting for a dog to pee" kind of way, and I liked it about as much as it sounds like I did. I get the sense that you are more of a morning person than me.

LATOYA: That I am! I tend to wake up around this time anyway — but, look on the bright side. I start falling asleep during prime club hours, so there's a darkside to morning chipperness.

MEGAN: Even my friend's dog was all like, you really want to walk me this early? Ho-kay, if you insist. And he's already back to sleep.

LATOYA: Hahaha — you can join him soon. Let's start with the pride and joy of my Sunday — Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama. Meet the Press never sounded sweeter to my ears.

MEGAN: Except that even my mom last night — who doesn't watch it — was like, can you believe that Rush Limbaugh says it's just because he's black? It's starting to get a little amusing, she's got this growing mental list of all our relatives and neighbors who listen to Rush Limbaugh because they've started admitting to it, and I can practically hear her crossing names off her Christmas card list. She is so offended that people she knows buy his crap, almost like she didn't really know that actual non-crazy-seeming people listen to him. What I want to know is: does this mean every white person that supports McCain is just doing it because they're both white? Are only Michael Steele, J.C. Watts and every white person that backs Obama racially justified?

LATOYA: It only counts when minorities do it — white people obviously have in-depth reasoning skills, the likes of which we pigmented folks do not have. And seriously? Can we talk about how racist that assumption is? People are going to try and act like it's just Rush Limbaugh talking crazy, but come on now — I know you've been hearing the same thing I'm hearing. I get at least one comment a day (that is insta-deleted) where they want to say something like "blacks are the real racists — 90% of them are voting for Obama!" Yeah, that's right. And 90% of us voted for Clinton. And 88% of us voted for Kerry. Only 10% of Blacks are Republican.

MEGAN: Oh, right, God knows there would be NO FUCKING REASON for African-Americans to ever vote for Obama otherwise, y'all would totes be voting for McCain if the Democrats had a white candidate. Or, you know, not.

LATOYA: For real — I mean, Colin could have broke out a thesis statement on the trends of presidents and vice presidents in this country, and a detailed evaluation of his own voting records, alongside a side-by-side analysis of McCain and Obama's platforms with his comments in red ink - and someone would have still been like "yeah, he just voted for the black guy."

MEGAN: Fuck class warfare, wtf is up with those people thinking there's a race war going on?

LATOYA: They're a little early with calls for a race war. They call us minorities for a reason.

MEGAN: Well, I don't want to be on their side, obviously.

LATOYA: Most of us aren't dumb — like Chris Rock said, there's a LOT of white folks out there. We might be able to reclaim Chocolate City, and a couple towns here and there, but we'd lose the war. Uh -oh, Megan — you can't go switching sides now. You got drafted.

MEGAN: Fuck drafted! I swear, my family has been in this country for long enough, there's no way that there's not some non-white in me somewhere.

LATOYA: You know the Army of Joe Six Pack doesn't cotton with quitters!

MEGAN: Joe Sex-Pack will get drunk on his Genny Creme Ale and I will sneak off. Uh, Freudian slip there.

LATOYA: Ha — I noticed. Yeah, I'm sure you can play the one drop rule to your advantage.

MEGAN: Hell, they would. They wouldn't want me, anyway. Rush Limbaugh makes my Tourette's act up. He speaks and I'm all like "Fuckity fuck fuck FUCK!"

LATOYA: But speaking of Joe Sixpack — uh, did we ever find out who this person is? We outed Joe the Plumber. Now I wanna see Joe Six Pack.

MEGAN: Joe Six Pack is they guy with the beer belly, sitting on his porch smoking a Winston and drinking said six pack by himself while listening to Rush Limbaugh and muttering under his breath. No microbrews for him! No elitist bottles! Down with the fancy beer conspiracy! He likes his good old American Molson!

LATOYA: The Kitchen Table blog has some good insight on this. Dr. Yolanda Pierce writes:

"When only Joe Six Pack becomes the target audience for political commercials, tax cuts, legislation, and economic incentives, we ignore the fact that most of this nation does not fit this profile. And finally, we ignore the fact that despite the rhetoric, none of our current political candidates currently fit the Joe Six Pack mode, although some of them have come from humble beginnings. When Sarah Palin indicated that her retirement portfolio lost $20,000 in one week (which means there was much more in there to begin with), she lost her street credentials as a Joe Six Pack wife.

She also mentions she thought "six pack" was slang for abs, but obviously that is out the window in '08.

MEGAN: Yeah, um, Sarah Palin ain't talking about the guy who spends hours at the gym to perfect his abs, though I'd be she would "tolerate" him. She's talking about the guy who drinks 'em. Oh, should we go for verisimilitude? I got my retirement account statement in the mail this weekend. Shall we see in real time how much I lost?

LATOYA: Yes, let's! Help me assuage my guilt over not funding my retirement account yet. (Bad, lazy, self employed consultant!) Then again, maybe just keeping that money liquid was a good idea.

MEGAN: Okay, to put it into context, this is my 401k from two jobs ago, and I only worked there 7 months. I have 80% in stocks, 15% in bonds and 5% in a money market. I lost $326.27. (That's just third quarter, I'm down 20% YTD.)

LATOYA: Ow. Though I would say that if you lost $4. Losing things is not fun, especially when it's money

MEGAN: But that is a Joe Six Pack amount of loss, thank you very much Sarah Palin. It's fake money, I can't even touch it for another 40 years unless Obama wins. Ahem.

LATOYA: Oh boy. Maybe you need a second job. You know, whatever's left at this point. Keep telling yourself that.

MEGAN: That is how I'm not crying. I don't want to know how much my other 401k lost, that's where most of my money is. Also, how happy am I that I was too lazy to take my accountant's advice last fall and start a new 401k? By the way, that means Sarah and Todd had about $150,000+ in their retirement account, assuming equal rates of loss. I'm betting they had more though.

LATOYA: It's ok — you love capitalism. No pain, no gain! If the markets fall, it's all part of the process. You aren't some dirty rotten socialist! Woman up!

MEGAN: I might be a closet Muslim, though! I love, by the way, the way that no one says aloud what this is supposed to indicate:

But some of the other older white diners looked surprised and slightly uncomfortable as Obama stopped at their tables to shake hands. “I’m surprised, but I’m not going to say anything else,” said Pat Smith, who was joined by her husband.

A group of six retired women said they were mostly Democrats — but mostly undecided about how to vote.

“I have to pray about it, think about what’s best for our country,” said Dorothy Buie, one of the women

That's code for "uncomfortable shaking hands with a black man."

LATOYA: Umm-hmm — if you've been paying attention, is clear what's best for our country. Major thinking conservatives are breaking with their own party. All you got left is the people who will drive America into hellfire and hatred headfirst. But no, no - stay afraid of the black man. It's ok — no one needed that commie healthcare scheme anyway.

MEGAN: Who needs health care when you can have tax cuts!

LATOYA: If you can't reach health insurance with your bootstraps, you don't need it!