Speaking of that WIN button, this is what brought it to mind.

Emblems to Stamp Projects Funded by the Stimulus Package [ABC]

You’ll forgive our financial ignorance, but after we blew our inheritance on Tulip Futures, we’ve limited our investing to losing quarters in the couch, knowing they’ll remain safe until we need them.

But with headlines screaming DOW 40,000 7,000, we’re starting to wonder what the fuss is about. Haven’t we been hearing for years about inflated stock (and housing) prices? And if they’re inflated, doesn’t that suggest that someone needs to take some air out of the tires?

Unless, of course, you’ve been leveraging everything on a bet that stocks will be even more inflated. In which case that Red Button is looking more like a whoopie cushion.

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Slow day? Fine. Here’s the Cat Bong story. Near as we can tell, Michael Phelps has nothing to do with it.

Neb. deputies say man stuffed cat inside ‘bong’ [AP]

Steele to Rush: I’m sorry [Politico]

We weren’t aware of Bobby Jindal’s background until his stunning post-non-SOTU debut last week, and it’s a fascinating story, one indeed comparable to Barack Obama’s — except that Republicans aren’t calling Jindal a terrorist.

Jindal was born June 10, 1971, in Baton Rouge. His parents had arrived in the United States from Soviet-supported India six months earlier so his mother could enroll in the graduate program at Louisiana State.

Which should, of course, make his presidential aspirations immediately suspect, if we’re to have any standards in this great nation of ours. If Barry’s Kansas mother isn’t enough to satisfy constitutional qualifications, a couple of Hindus hopping a plane from the Punjab surely wasn’t envisioned by the Founders.

Yes, Hindus. They don’t believe in God, you know. Or they believe in too many gods. Or they don’t care because they’re too busy pestorking their cousins from previous lives. Really, they’re worse than Mormons.

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Well, maybe not, but we check the old joint on occasion to see whether John McLaughlin is still wishing us a happy new year. Only this afternoon — the first of the month — the lights seem to be out. (We can still “ping” the server, which is what makes us wonder whether the end is nigh.)

If this is indeed the closing of a chapter in Our Neverending Legend, we thought we’d take this moment to share a logo we proposed early in CP’s existence. It still captures for us the spirit of the site — and this one.

Update, 9pm: McLaughlin’s back! Happy New Year!

Update, Oct. 21: Now it looks like it’s really gone. Except for the Wayback Machine.

Title: Atlas Shrugged

Author: Ayn Rand

Rank: 46

Blurb: “Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world — and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder — and rebirth — of man’s spirit.”

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