JOEL KOTKIN: Prosperity Index Shows That Democracy Still Works Best.

With the Cold War well behind us, the real choice between systems lies in a growing variation in the form of capitalisms. Choices now range from the Chinese Leninist model – essential centrally planned exploitation of the greed gene – to various kleptocracies, divergent Anglo-American systems and varied forms of European capitalism.

None of these systems are likely to excite the most rabid Hayekian, especially now that the once free market haven Hong Kong is being integrated into the Chinese command and control system. But still, according a new study by my colleagues at the Legatum Institute, when it comes to delivering the best economic environment for people and families various forms of liberal capitalism still perform best.

The Legatum Prosperity Index found that all the more prosperous places – not only by income, but by quality of life, environment, education and health care – almost exclusively are democratic states. “Prosperity,” the report concludes, “is found in entrepreneurial democracies that have strong social fabrics.”

Read the whole thing.

ERIC SCHEIE: NO GLOATING OVER A G.O.P. SWEEP: “A sweep is not a sweep until it has swept.”

Plus this: “I have been too busy campaigning to have buyer’s remorse. Sure, I have my usual complaints about Republicans, and as a libertarian I have my usual complaints about conservatism. But this time around, I feel so strongly about getting the Democrats out that rather than holding my nose and voting per my usual style, I am holding my nose while campaigning!”

MICKEY KAUS: How’s that Obama base-rousing strategy working out?

LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Check out Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg. And hit the tipjar if you’re so inclined.

WHY IS JULIAN ASSANGE STILL ALIVE? “I don’t expect the U.S. government to kill Assange, but I do expect them to try to stop him. As of now, the plan seems to be to do nothing at all.” Because he’s a useful tool.

RADIATION: When A Cancer Therapy Puts Others At Risk. “In 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dropped a requirement that such patients be quarantined in the hospital. Instead, patients can be released right after their treatment, when they are at their most radioactive. And while most people go right home, one patient in New York boarded a bus for Atlantic City, N.J., and set off a radiation alarm in the Lincoln Tunnel.”

SPIRAL GALAXIES stripped bare.

A CORNUCOPIA OF Alaska Senate write-in candidates. Heh.

TRIBE, SOTOMAYOR, and Obama.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on flashlights.

POLITICO: 2012 Senate Looks Worse For Dems Than 2010.

ANSWERING TO OUR robot overlords.

ARE WE HAVING ANOTHER FOOD CRISIS? “The world food price index is at its highest since 2008, when food prices rocketed and millions of people suffered. This year the crisis seems to be happening again. Prices for the staple grains that underpin the world’s food supply soared after forecasts for the US and Chinese maize harvests fell in October, Pakistan lost its wheat to floods, and crop losses to drought and wildfire led Russia to ban grain exports until 2011. Food prices have soared in India, Egypt and elsewhere and are being blamed for riots in Mozambique.”

UPDATE: Reader Matthew Hennessy writes:

Inflation in food prices is explained by deleveraging: stuff you NEED to have that’s paid for in cash goes UP in price (inflation), while stuff you WANT to have that’s paid for with borrowed money goes DOWN in price (deflation).

Before asking about a food crisis, ask this: how much sugar/wheat/corn can you buy with an ounce of gold now vs. an ounce of gold 1, 2, or 5 years ago? If the amount is roughly the same, then you have your answer.

Hmm.

THAT’S MORE THAN MOST OF US CAN DO WHILE AWAKE: Sleeping Rover Finds Evidence of Liquid Water on Mars.

INSTAVISION: I talk with David Horowitz about his Academic Bill of Rights proposal, and his new book, Reforming Our Universities: The Campaign for an Academic Bill of Rights.

RICHARD POLLOCK: My Ordeal with Jon Stewart and His ‘Cone of Silence’ Event. “Interacting with Comedy Central over the upcoming Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity, or the March to Keep Fear Alive, or the This Is Not a Political Rally rally is much like trying to communicate with North Korea’s Kim Jong II.”

VIRGINIA: Red-light camera installed at accident-free location. “Albemarle County, Virginia plans this week to install its first red light camera system, ostensibly to reduce accidents caused by red light running. County documents show that at one of the two intersection approaches selected, there has not been a single accident caused by red light running in the past three years.” It’s all about the benjamins.

PERSONALLY, I LIKE THE THEORY THAT WE’RE LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION: Fermilab is Building a ‘Holometer’ to Determine Once and For All Whether Reality Is Just an Illusion. “The universe-as-hologram theory is predicated on the idea that spacetime is not perfectly smooth, but becomes discrete and pixelated as you zoom in further and further, like a low-res digital image. This idea isn’t novel; recent experiments in black-hole physics have offered evidence that this may be the case, and prominent physicists have proposed similar ideas. Under this theory, the universe actually exists in two dimensions and the third is an illusion produced by the intertwining of time and depth. But the false third dimension can’t be perceived as such, because nothing travels faster than light, so instruments can’t find its limits.”

SPACE HOTEL PROGRESS: Bigelow Aerospace Shows Off Bigger, Badder Space Real Estate.

FLIGHT RECORD SET by laser-powered helicopter.