VIDEO: A “tea party” protest at the Utah state capitol. Plus, reader David Kirkham emails this report:

There were 75-100 people there. Way more than I expected for a Friday when most of us have to work. We secured a place inside the capitol building, right at the bottom of the stairs below the representatives. When the broke for lunch, I started my speech. 4-5 of them even spoke after I gave my little speech. They were quite nice to me and thanked me for organizing the event. Overall, I felt a lot of resentment at the entrenched Washington Republicans. That was good news. Love your blog; keep up the good work! The local talk guys have interviewed me several times now. I think I want to do another one–now that I know what to do.

Repetition is key. And some pictures. Kirkham’s crowd estimate came in smaller than KSL-TV’s, though, which shows he’s new at protest-organizaing. They said it was 100.

UPDATE: Reader Grace Nunez loves the kid in the picture above:

The caption for this picture could be, “You want my generation to pay for WHAT?”

This kid’s facial expression is priceless in capturing a challenging skepticism about what taxpayers are being asked to do, and there’s no doubt I would want him on my side in any battle. I guess in addition to protest babes, it can’t hurt when endearing children become the face of a revolution.

Indeed.

JAMES FALLOWS defends Chas Freeman.

MORE ON THE UNFORTUNATE RELEVANCE OF ATLAS SHRUGGED:

Perhaps predictably, Ayn Rand is making a comeback on the right, with Congressmen handing out her books, and loose talk of rich people “Going Galt”. . . . What’s interesting to me, though, is how many details Rand did get right–like the markets in “unfreezing” Ukrainian bank deposits, so similar to the frozen railroad bonds of Atlas Shrugged. Or the cascading and unanticipated failures, with government officials racing to slap another fix on to fix the last failing solution. . . .

She was able to describe these things so well, of course, because she’d seen what an economy looked like while it was being wrecked. All of Rand’s writing is dominated by the fact that she lived through the birth pangs of Soviet Russia, and saw her family’s business destroyed by Lenin’s ideology, and extraordinarily incompetent economic management.

Well, we’ve got at least one of those going on now.

Plus, a roundup of Rand commentary from the blogosphere. And remember, kids — if going “John Galt” doesn’t appeal, you can always go “Tim Geithner.” That way you get to speak about the importance of compassionate government, without having to foot the bill. Win/win! (Warning — the I.R.S. may treat you less sympathetically than a man nominated to be its boss.)

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Thanks for this…read the comments. Breaks down thus…people who have had jobs and businesses. People who haven’t. By the end of the year the people who haven’t worked a real job (outside of government or academia or the press) or run a business are in for one hell of a surprise.”

MORE: “A time for choosing.”

GOOD FOR HIM: Obama to Lift Ban on Funding for Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

HEH: “The E.U. delegate from Athens must have been particularly impressed by the Secretary of State’s command of history.”

It’s called “smart diplomacy!”

COOKBOOKS: IACP Cookbook Awards: 2009 Finalists Announced.

MISSING BILL CLINTON. Heck, that’s nothing. By the time this is over, people will be missing W.

UPDATE: Hey, they’re already selling the bumper stickers!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Steve Barns writes: “Hell, by the time we’re done we might just miss Carter.” Now there’s a cheerful thought.

WELL, IT WORKED FOR MSNBC UNDER BUSH: Glenn Beck strikes ratings gold by challenging Barack Obama. And it’s working for Rush Limbaugh. The Obama White House’s tendency to lash out at critics by name provides added incentive, of course.

HOW NEWSPAPER STOCKS are doing.

A READER SENDS THIS “Awesome Whiskey Ad.”

“SMART” DIPLOMACY (CONT’D):

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first extended talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration’s vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.

She handed a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift: a red button on a black base with a Russian word peregruzka printed on top.

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.

“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said.

Instead of “reset,” Lavrov said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: Heh: “Even beyond the mistranslation and the annoying cutesiness of the gesture, whose brilliant idea was it to give Russians a button to push? I thought that was what we’ve been working for decades to prevent.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hmm: “My friends and I have been talking about this all day. The only conclusion we could come up with is Hillary was set up by Obama supporters at State. Nothing else makes sense. Huh. Maybe the last guy wasn’t so dumb after all, picking a gal that spoke fluent Russian.”

“THE ONLY PHYSICS I EVER TOOK was Ex-Lax.”

AMAZON IS NOW TAKING Video Game Trade-Ins.

REASON TV: Jeff Flake on how the GOP can get its groove back.

Plus, via Randy Barnett, Make Mine Freedom:

THE GREEN SIDE OF online shopping.

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT OBAMA’S ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP, from Silicon Valley.

MEGAN MCARDLE: SHOULD GEITHNER GO? “So far, Geithner’s performance has been shockingly unimpressive.”

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Is Health Care a “Right”? “Think Progress is blasting Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) for saying that health care is a privilege rather than a right. The privilege/right dichotomy is certainly inept politics, but it’s also inapt legally and constitutionally. The real distinction is between negative and positive rights.”

THE “BLACK BOX” of peer review.

CHAS FREEMAN UPDATE: Dem Congressional Leaders Telling White House They’re Concerned About Freeman.

HEY, THEY SAID “HOMELESS,” not “cellphoneless.”

MORE ON GOING “JOHN GALT.” But you can have your cake and eat it too — giving lip service to “compassionate government” without footing the bill — by going “Tim Geithner” instead!

BUSINESS WEEK: Did Obama Cause The Stock Slide? “BusinessWeek interviewed a wide array of investment professionals, and many said the first six weeks of the Obama Administration have soured their outlook on the stock market.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “From Election Day 2000 to Election Day 2008, the S&P 500 fell 29.8%. From Election Day 2008 til this afternoon, it’s down 33.3%.” Ouch.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More at Betsy’s Page.

MORE: A fascinating political history of the stock market.

STILL MORE: It’s all about “profit and earnings ratios.”

ONLINE SHOPPING REALLY IS good for the environment! “The scientists found that by far the largest environmental cost of traditional shopping is a consumer driving his or her own car to a store. (They assumed that the average person drives about 14 miles round-trip per shopping outing, and buys about three different items on one trip.) Much of the energy expenditure for e-commerce also goes towards last-mile delivery. But a UPS truck delivering dozens of packages along its daily route uses a less energy per package, on average. That’s where e-commerce really shines.” This doesn’t surprise me.

THE TRUE STORIES BEHIND 5 famous WTF? pictures.