FRANCIS CIANFROCCA: Whose Money? The New Debate About Freedom.

AL GORE LEAVES THE LIGHTS ON. Maybe he was just celebrating Human Achievement Hour. I know I did.

UPDATE: Much more here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Al Gore Responds to Earth Hour Accusations. But is Al’s house really “powered by geothermal power?”

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Marion Barry Owes $277k in Back Taxes; Government Seeks Revocation of His Probation.

FROM HOPE TO CHANGE: Obama Faces Cold Reception in Europe: Support Has Turned to Opposition Over Stimulus Plan. Hey, wait, I thought everybody around the world was going to love him. . . .

UPDATE: Barack Obama, Global Community Organizer. Hmm. How did his Chicago efforts work out for the communities he organized?

WOW: 25-year-old rows across Atlantic alone.

RAND SIMBERG: More campus disarmament foolishness. It’s about religion. The “candlelight vigils” against violence, noted in the comments, ought to be a tipoff . . . .

FORTUNE: Chris Dodd’s loyalty test. “The senator, who will play a pivotal role in salvaging the financial system, is, for good or ill, a man of contradictions and compromises. He has written consumer-protection legislation but has also helped himself to enormous campaign contributions from his state’s insurance companies and hedge funds. He’s the longest-serving congressman in Connecticut history, scion of a New England political dynasty, but he’s been losing ground lately and may soon face his toughest campaign since he was first elected to Congress in 1974. He’s an idealist – a former Peace Corps volunteer – but he’s been involved in dubious real estate deals with close pal Edward Downe Jr., an admitted felon, and may have received preferential treatment on his mortgage refinancing from Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo. He was a prodigal senator for several months, moving his family to Iowa in a quixotic presidential bid, but now has been entrusted to focus on the details of reinventing the U.S. financial system. He is one of the Senate’s masters of procedure, but, man, he sure blew it with the AIG bonus loophole.”

ROGER KIMBALL: Why I like Angela Merkel (and you should, too).

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND if you were off, you know, having a life:

Tea Party Protests in Buffalo and Stamford, CT. (More here.) Plus huge crowds at the signing for Mark Levin’s new book.

Obama Town Hall Questioners Were Campaign Backers.

More on Chris Dodd: Dodd’s Troubles Open Debate on Congress’ Ties With Special Interests. “Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd has become the poster boy for critics who say the inevitable ties between longtime members of Congress and special interests are undermining efforts to revive the economy.”

The most expensive home in America was built by a TV producer, not a Wall Street financier or industrialist. Is there a double standard on wealth?

The Washington Post’s anti-semitic cartoon.

More on booming ammo sales from ESPN.

A coming nuclear renaissance?

And, Print-on-Demand Going Mainstream?

A CULTURE OF UNDERACHIEVEMENT IN BRITAIN: “The study, published in the Sociological Review, shows how difficult it is for children, particularly boys, to be clever and popular. Boys risk being assaulted in some schools for being high-achievers. To conform and escape alienation, clever boys told researchers they may ‘try to fall behind’ or ‘dumb down’.”

JAMES LILEKS: Maybe I’m old-school, but “President fires CEO” looks as wrong as “Pope fires Missile.”

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus: Wagoner: Obama’s Diem? “After visibly defenestrating GM CEO RIck Wagoner, and moving to replace the board of directors, won’t Obama now ‘own’ the GM problem? If the company shuts down in the near future, costing tens of thousands of blue collar jobs, it will be under executives implicitly or explicitly chosen by Obama. It will be Obama’s failure, not simply GM’s failure, no? A public sector failure, not just a business failure. Doesn’t that make it harder, not easier, for the administration to walk away and force the company into bankruptcy?” Which is too bad, as bankruptcy is probably what ought to happen.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “Will Obama be getting rid of the head of the UAW also?” Gettelfinger should go, but won’t. Responsibility is kinda selective here . . . .

MORE: “I guess it’s our failing auto company now.” Plus a roundup of other reactions.

STILL MORE: World Stocks Tumble Amid Pessimism.

WHEN IS A PLOT “INSIGNIFICANT?” When it was foiled by the Bush Administration, perhaps? Plus, Again, the MSM Beclowns Itself. Floppy shoes all around.

RULES FOR CONSERVATIVE RADICALS.

OUCH: Keith Olbermann blasted Twitter for allowing a phony account in his name to be run by FOX News… except it was actually MSNBC who is running it to help his show.

And now there are some new developments. “Unbelievably, this still gets better! . . . You know, it’s not for nothing that journolist trashed Olbermann, but I’m starting to think he wouldn’t have understood the list in the first place. Any day now we might see Olbermann’s Worst Person be: ‘… the gentleman from Nigeria. You, sir, have failed to return my emails. Indeed, not only have you and the Prime Minister you so recently worked for refused to deposit my 100,000 euros, you have withdrawn a great deal of my own money!’”

ANOTHER “TEA PARTY” PROTEST, IN “DEEP BLUE” NEWBURYPORT:

What would Ronald Reagan do if he were president at this precarious point in our nation’s history, asked local Republican Tea Party organizer Paul Breau as he stood outside City Hall Saturday with 100 fellow conservatives from Newburyport and beyond.

Breau and an upstart group of Republican activists sought to isolate that question and uphold the values of conservatism in a Democratic stronghold by raising handmade signs and taking part in their own local version of a nationally organized Republican event this weekend — their Grand Ole Tea Party.

By organizing across the street from where Congressman John Tierney was holding a public meeting with constituents of his 6th District, the group drew plenty of attention, and that’s just what they wanted.

Read the whole thing. Sounds like a good tactic. In general, though the Tea Party protests are by no means exclusively Republican, though Republican leaders are starting to jump on the bandwagon.

UPDATE: A blog report, with photos.

SMART DIPLOMACY: “I’ll say that I didn’t know this story myself, but I do think that if I was representing our country and visiting any cultural site, I’d have somebody telling me what I needed to know not to look stupid from the perspective of those whose respect I wanted.” But could you trust them?

PSYCHOLOGY AND CRISIS: A warning from Robert Shiller.