HEH: “Give me some chick who likes to have her image captured on an iPad while protesting corporate greed.” Love the shoes.

YOU MUST BE ON CRACK: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has ‘same effect on men as cocaine.’

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “You think the authorities are allowing something, then you get arrested for it. I guess the protestors got the same treatment Wall Street executives do!”

JOHN HINDERAKER: Peppered In NYC. “One can only assume that this kind of police abuse has been going on for a long time, but was not often revealed–at least, not this starkly–before the era of ubiquitous digital photography and video. But the days are gone when a policeman can wantonly assault protesters, no matter how obnoxious they may be–let alone photographers. That’s a good thing.”

GETTING OFF LIGHT: Judge Fines Longshore Union $250,000 After Members Attacked Guards, Damaged Property in Labor Revolt.

SETH GODIN: The Forever Recession? “Why do we believe that jobs where we are paid really good money to do work that can be systemized, written in a manual and/or exported are going to come back ever? The internet has squeezed inefficiencies out of many systems, and the ability to move work around, coordinate activity and digitize data all combine to eliminate a wide swath of the jobs the industrial age created. . . . Factories were at the center of the industrial age. Buildings where workers came together to efficiently craft cars, pottery, insurance policies and organ transplants–these are job-centric activities, places where local inefficiencies are trumped by the gains from mass production and interchangeable parts. If local labor costs the industrialist more, he has to pay it, because what choice does he have? No longer.”

I remember Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, in which we’re told that globalization had smeared things out into a worldwide layer of “what a Pakistani bricklayer would consider prosperity.” But Godin’s not so pessimistic. I think his optimism is justified where the right half of the bell curve is concerned, but . . . .

Some earlier thoughts on this subject are here.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals.

SCOTT JOHNSON ON THE is Chris Christie too fat to be President question: “I think the answer to the question is, obviously, no. Voters are in a mood for the anti-Obama. Christie would provide the perfect contrast, right down to the waistline. Christie’s weight isn’t a glitch; it’s a feature. His weight is an element of his authenticity.”

This goes back to the Insta-Daughter’s theory of presidential opposites, in which each President is chosen to be the opposite of his predecessor. What’s the opposite of a skinny black guy from Hawaii? A fat white guy from New Jersey!

UPDATE: Roger Simon emails: “What’s the opposite of a phony black guy from Hawaii? A real black guy from Georgia.” Good point!

RICK PERRY: What we have is a soft President. Don’t be talking about President Golfpants that way.

LITERARY B-SIDES: Five of the Most Under-Rated Books from Famous Authors.

DAN MITCHELL: Happy Fiscal New Year (with an Unhappy Obama Hangover). “Today, October 1, is the first day of the 2012 fiscal year. And if you’re wondering why America’s economy seems to have a hangover (this cartoon is a perfect illustration), it’s because politicians had a huge party with our money in FY2011.”

UPDATE: A devious and unprincipled suggestion from a reader: “To guarantee that the economy does not pick up, the GOP Congress should pass Obama’s tax hikes, etc.” That would be evil.

FOR PROFESSORS AT COLUMBIA, new disclosure rules.

SAY IT AIN’T SO! Seeking Alpha: The Upcoming Crash Of Apple And Amazon. I don’t think the sales tax “loophole” is that crucial to Amazon, but I could be wrong. In its early days, though, Amazon’s biggest appeal came from the discounts. Now it comes from the service. I think that means that they could raise prices and still do well. Just look at this chart of Kindle book sales vs. physical book sales.

UPDATE: Reader John Miller writes:

Denninger claims Amazon has a 6% sales tax advantage over “everyone else” – which is patently untrue. They have a 6% (plus or minus) sales tax advantage over the local brick-and-mortar store, and over those online vendors who happen to be located in your state.

But would that 6% matter that much?

For me, Amazon’s “competition” is the gas station.

Attempting to shop locally loses a lot of its luster when you’re spending the entire trip to the store thinking in terms of what percentage of a UPS shipment it’s costing you to get there and back.

Broadly speaking, local shopping is now for immediate needs, things that cannot economically be shipped, and things that require hands-on evaluation before purchase.

Yeah, that’s my take too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Wes Taylor writes: “I live in Washington state, and due to the presence of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, I have had, from the time Amazon went online, to pay the state’s 8+% sales tax on everything I buy from Amazon. I still shop Amazon because they have selection I can’t find locally, and often their price is less than 92% of the local store’s price, so even with sales tax, it’s cheaper. I do have to keep my orders over $25 in order to get free shipping.” Or you could get Amazon Prime.

MORE: Reader David Newton writes: “I would very much agree with your correspondents on the question of whether a sales tax advantage is crucial to Amazon. I live in the UK and it does not matter where a business is physically based, if it has sufficient sales in the UK it has to pay VAT. At the moment VAT here is at 20% for most things with some things that are considered “vital” such as books at 0% and a few other things (which Amazon doesn’t tend to sell) at 5%. Even without a sales tax advantage Amazon still consistently has lower prices than high street stores and also has a better selection. In the UK we even get free shipping on anything dispatched by Amazon, although naturally the free shipping is by a slower service. Regardless of how they started their brand reputation is now based on both good price and good selection, with reliable delivery thrown in as well.” Good point.

ROGER KIMBALL: Worried about what’s happening to medical care? Part one in a series.

AT AMAZON, Markdowns in Patio & Garden.

NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: Occupy Wall Street protest, swelled by Radiohead hoax, marches on NYPD HQ, but gets lost. I would be harsher on these people, but given how thoroughly Obama has been in bed with Wall Street, and vice versa, it’s hard for me to get very excited.

HOW NORTH DAKOTA became Saudi Arabia. Only with women who can drive and everything.

NONE OF THE POLICIES WE’VE SEEN UNDER THIS ADMINISTRATION HAVE BEEN ABOUT EQUALITY: The Fed’s Twist May Increase Inequality. “The past recession has been particularly hard on middle- and lower-income Americans. The millions of people who suffered foreclosure were mostly in these groups. Millions more remain unemployed. So as the Federal Reserve steps back in to provide more action meant to fuel the economy, we should ask whether its policies will really benefit those who need assistance the most. Unfortunately, it will instead benefit the relatively affluent.”

MEXICO CITY CONSIDERS temporary marriages.

THE KINDLE FIRE gets more praise — from an Apple fan. “Amazon built an alternative to the iPad, rather than a direct competitor. It’s a different market segment. As Steve Jobs explained back in 2010 at the introduction of the original iPad, there’s unexplored territory between smartphones and laptops. Apple and Amazon are approaching this tablet territory from opposing sides. . . . The iPad and Kindle Fire are emblematic of their makers. Apple’s primary business is selling devices for a healthy profit, and they back that up with a side business of selling digital content for those devices. Amazon’s primary business is as a retailer, including as a retailer of digital content. They back that up with a side business of low-cost digital devices that are optimized for on-the-fly purchasing of anything and everything Amazon sells. The Kindles are to Amazon what the printed catalog was to Sears a century ago.”

HMM: Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. “A study conducted by Daniel Bartels, Columbia Business School, Marketing, and David Pizarro, Cornell University, Psychology found that people who endorse actions consistent with an ethic of utilitarianism—the view that what is the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the best overall consequences—tend to possess psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits.”

HMM: Sodium Manganese Battery To Cut Grid Storage Costs.

EATING INVASIVE SPECIES: Making Chorizo Sausage With Asian Carp. “For the record, the Asian carp chorizo sausage that Liceaga cooked up this week had no fishy taste or bony texture — at least none that this reporter could detect.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Green Energy Staggers. Actually, it’s the corruption that’s staggering . . . .

IN THE MAIL: From Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, How to Win a Fight: A Guide to Avoiding and Surviving Violence.