What are you going to see at the movies this weekend (if you're not being held all weekend by the LAPD for exercising your First Amendment rights): the one with the dude with the giant schlong or the movie about the girl who gets paid to be unconscious while old dudes fondle her? USA! USA! Or have you seen Melancholia yet? Apart from the first five minutes, which are A+, and maybe the next 45, which are sinisterly hilarious, it's pretty much like these nine things, which include but are not limited to "overdosing on cement mix and diet tonic water" and "listening to a radio play that was originally written in Swedish, then translated into German, and finally into English. In the dark. With a stranger who won’t stop weeping and touching your leg. In a room that smells like cigars." Meanwhile, about an hour ago, people emerged from today's critics' screening of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (But With Extra Rape And In English This Time) and you probably didn't. Someday! Like growing up swishy, December gets better as it merrily rows along. Stay strong! Tinker Tailor Soldier See You Next Weekend I Guess!

The Center for Urban Real Estate of the Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation sounds like such a refined academic institution! But apparently it's pretty much the Heritage Foundation of land use. The direct of the "Center" (funded in part by your developing friends at the Durst Organization!) is a former executive vice president at your friendly local developer the Related Companies, where he still consults. (Just to pick one: guess who's responsible for the disgusting Gwathmey building on Astor Place? Yes.) And so this oh-so-objective piece in the Times on the Center and, I paraphrase, "wouldn't it be hilarious if they connected Governors Island to Manhattan with a landfill bridge" and "wouldn't it be neat if they rezoned to basically do away with the guiding principles of air rights in Manhattan," is an exceptional launching pad for the Center's pro-developer "ideas." All this is cast as how it would make the City money. (Landfilling around Governors Island would "generate $16.7 billion in revenue for the city" over 20 to 30 years is their claim.) This would be the next Westway if it wasn't pretty much obviously untenable. Points for dreaming big (business) though!

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What's John McCain's plan for the economy? Why, another "repatriation tax holiday," wherein companies bring money onto virtual "U.S. soil" at a reduced rate. He's going to "unveil" it today. (Bloomberg says: "Independent studies showed that when a tax holiday was last offered, in 2004, the lower tax rate for returning profits spurred little hiring or domestic investment. Most of the money was used to buy back stock.") The McCain reasoning is: "more capital in America = better for economy." Who benefits? "The proposed holiday would reward the companies that have most aggressively parked profits in tax havens such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland," is what a former Treasury Dept. guy told Bloomberg. And here's what Goldman Sachs says, in an analyst report published for its investors last night. READ MORE

The airwaves have been flooded with pundits talking about all the ramifications, fallouts and consequences of a government shutdown. Is Michele Bachmann's posturing mostly in support of her 2012 ambitions? Are the Democrats using the threat of a shutdown as a fund-raising device? Is it true that Congress will hire scabs to keep the seats filled during negotiations? Yes. Yes. Sure! And yes, Christine O'Donnell is available! READ MORE

If you're not following the insider trading debacle of Matthew Kluger and Garrett Bauer, well, wow, it's quite a tale. From inside some of Manhattan's whitest-shoe lawfirms to a security brokerage, the duo allegedly used a middle-man to share information. Once their middle-man turned on them, the transcripts of their recorded conversations make it difficult to believe that they enriched themselves for nearly two decades: when they got panicky, they figured they should put their cash payoffs in the washing machine. Or maybe burn it? And then... Well, this headline is a pretty good summary: Accused Insider Traders Argue Over How Much Effort They’ll Exert To Destroy Evidence Like Two Guys Debating Whether It’s Worth Paying the Extra $5 For Getting The Pizza Delivered Rather Than Picking It Up Down The Block. Heh.

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Ooh, smoke billowing at 14th and I, NW, in D.C.! Maybe it's all the hot air being burned right now on Cabalist in the wake of that story on up-and-coming journalist-and-blogger Beltway Insiders, the one that had an all-male cast. Cabalist, should you not be a manly Beltway Insider yourself, is the email listserv Journolist replacement, where the in-the-know politicos discuss amongst themselves the weighty wonky workings of the world. (I'm jealous! I want in!) Here's a brief note to our wonky Cabalistic boyfriends in D.C.: whenever a reporter calls, you always ask with whom else he is speaking. And who his editor is. And what his brief is. And you make yourself familiar with his work. And then you make suggestions of who else he should talk to! That's called "not getting set up." There's no excuse for a reporter to be surprised by another reporter! And it actually is the subject's responsibility to do that, and the subjects of stories often actually do know in advance what the article is going to say—because they ask questions. And what's more, there's plenty of people who happily say "actually, please do not write about 'how awesome' I am." Because it might not be good for them. READ MORE