Wednesday evening roundup

Can China move toward a consumer society (not ironically, but notably) through better social safety nets?

Best protest sign ever. They should all end in "I doubt your junk is all that."

Petri and some other columnists on the dancing Palin (and the hunting/fishing ones).

Hertzberg on Beck on Soros.

The tea partiers just keep getting awesomer. The latest: sustainable development is a global conspiracy:

"...tea partiers understand that "there is a global agenda to actually abolish private property and abolish the Constitution for that matter." If sustainable development is fully implemented, she says, "This basically will turn us into a Soviet state."

In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit become compulsory "human habitation zones." They warn of Americans being forcibly moved from their suburban dream homes into urban "hobbit homes" and required to give up their cars and instead—gasp!—take the bus to work. "

Liz Pulliam Weston asks her fellow wealthy-but-not-rolling-in-it earners to get real, i.e. be honest about the taxes they can afford to pay. Incidentally, federal workers, the punching bag of the hour--and most of whom, myself included, do not make six figures--say the same: we'll sacrifice, as everyone has to sacrifice (except, apparently, Wall Street)-- but it's not because we're a bunch of overpaid bums. And I'm well aware, as LPW says, that I'm barely scraping by by virtue of my choices (living in a high-cost area, on a 15-yr mortgage; going on trips; theater; etc.).

Consumer Reports warns you about the possibility of eating yourself to death.
Also, Real Simple has some tips for disarming any difficult people at your Thanksgiving celebration.

Ooh! I found the photo of the Nara Park sign, which we'd feared lost with Jay's old Blackberry (the photo, not the sign). It was the sign that inspired Jay's haiku.