Congrats Reykjavík!

I was listening to NPR breifly this morning, I think to a re-broadcast of BBC, and they had the current president of Iceland talking to them about the (suprisingly successful) financial recovery in his country following the collapse of the banks.

Congrats is two-fold:

The Icelanders didn't succumb to international pressure (or international folly) in bailing out the banks with government funds and the "too big to fail" concept. Just because everyone else jumped off a cliff like panicked antelope, they didn't need to.

Icelanders did put their former president on trial for the lead-up to the financial collapse. Or rather are in the process. Whether he is actually even a little at fault or not, I have no idea. But I wish America took that kind of resolve, and also I wish our government knew some accountability rather than all their formal bribes and self-interest-over-short-sightedness nonsense. In my opinion, every congressman involved in the bail outs should be forced to resign.

I read recently that Edgar Allen Poe was decidedly against the idea of democracies. He appears to have favored a constitutional monarchy more than anything. I found that fascinating.