In most reasonably large towns in the United States and Europe, you can find, on some important public square or street, a professional theater.

The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.

In a display of defiance unimaginable just weeks ago, millions of Egyptians marched on Tuesday across the nation against the Mubarak regime. Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Hany Massoud file this video report from Tahrir Square capturing the voices of the uprising. “Finally, I feel this is my country, not the country of the police or the ruling elite,” one protester said. “I’m really proud to be an Egyptian today.”

[An uplifting moment among other reports of violence]

Here is what one does know about Raymond Davis. He is a staff member of the US consulate in Lahore, shot dead two Pakistani men last Thursday in a crowded part of Lahore (Mozang Chowk); according to him in self-defence. A vehicle of the US consulate rushed to Mr Davis’ ‘rescue’ ran over a third person, who also died. A murder case was registered against Raymond Davis, who was handed into police custody. A case has also been registered against the driver of the US consulate vehicle that ran over a third person, but the driver has yet to be apprehended.

Izvestia reports that China has a record number of UFO scientific and community-based organizations. There are many who even attempt to establish some sort of a contact with extraterrestrials. Their actions are protected by the National Society of the Extraterrestrial Studies, which was founded 25 years ago. This National Society is financed by the government.

Sooner or later, the line gets crossed and people can take no more. Nicolae Ceausescu wrote his own death warrant on the day in December 1989 when he decided to summon the people of Bucharest for just one more compulsory rally where they would have to stand, screaming with inner boredom, and clap their hands to order while he spoke for as long as he liked. I remember thinking, of the Egyptian "elections" of last fall, that President Hosni Mubarak would have gotten more respect for simply canceling them than for pretending to hold them in the insulting way he did.

Any number of political and social factors underpins the current unrest in Egypt — and as always, economics figures in. The upheaval has shined a light on two serious problems facing the country: Most jobs pay too little, and most food costs too much. ...

Hordes of citizens stand up to their nation's hated leader. But observers worry that when the revolution finally comes, religious fundamentalists hostile to democracy will seize power.

We're not talking about the Tea Party this time -- we're talking about the ongoing, massive demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Rightbloggers were torn about this one. While many at first enjoyed the people-power street scenes as a celebration of freedom, their enthusiasm waned as they realized that Muslims were involved.

Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, there is a great deal of discussion about whether we might now be edging our way towards fiscal responsibility.

The Arab World's Youth Army
Meet the chronically unemployed twenty-somethings fueling social and political upheaval across the Middle East.

LONDON: British police arrested five young men on Thursday as they and U.S. authorities conducted searches as part of a probe into Internet activists who carried out cyber attacks against groups they viewed as enemies of the WikiLeaks website.

[Besides Tunisia,] Another remote cause [of the protests], however limited and difficult to assess, is the release of WikiLeaks documents. A cache of diplomatic cables relating to the Middle East was published in early December by the independent newspaper al-Akhbar, and the leaks have been intensively discussed by Arab bloggers and political activists. Few subjects anger Egyptians more than their regime’s cooperation with Israel, and several leaked documents suggest just how closely the two countries’ diplomats and security forces work together.

At about the same age, my friend Derek's father, a minister with a mischievous sense of humor who himself liked to observe, and indulge in, various benign snobberies, took me and Derek into a shopping-mall Waldenbooks and bought for me a copy of Paul Fussell's Class, a crueler, funnier, and more intellectually penetrating improvement on The Official Preppy Handbook. Class is different in that Fussell, by training a literary critic, is concerned not just with the upper class but also with the various lower classes ("upper middles," "upper proles," "low proles," and the like).

link to video

It seems like the theme is the the world has not quite enough resources to run society as currently configured, but overcapacity in the ability to turn resources into finished goods (relative to subdued final demand, anyway).  Hence we have inflation in commodities, but deflation in finished goods.

We need a new word to describe this state of affairs.  My proposal is "misflation".