I’m always happy when he calls—this old Alinksy-ite who likes Ron Paul and bylines in both The Nation and The American Conservative. (We don’t spend much time worrying about labels since we’re scarcely sure how to characterize ourselves anymore. Ideologues annoy, realists appeal. That provides plenty of common ground.)

This morning’s conversation was like countless others: animated and ranging. But it was somber, too, as we sifted together through the rubble of the single largest bankruptcy in American history and tried to discern what a small magazine might say. We chatted through credit default swaps and the role of an unfunded war, whither AIG and the repeal of Glass-Stiegel. Is it 1929 again? (He suspects worse.) Is “too big to fail” the new brass ring? (It looks that way.) Isn’t it curious that the leading advocates of a balanced budget are now House Dems? And oh yeah, aren’t we glad no one got around to privatizing Social Security?

He asked what conservatives were saying, and I detailed the terrain. Bailout is a bad word because government intervention is something liberals like—unless it’s Republican intervention in which case we’re ridding the world of evil or testing kids smarter or ensuring that anyone can buy a house. At the moment, the glorious market is just working out a kink or two. (Never mind the traditionalists and their sentimental attachment to social order and stability. They aren’t real conservatives because they want the terrorists to win.) Truth is, I confessed, many (most) on the Right were in denial—it’s always morning in America; this is but a “mental recession”—until the headlines wouldn’t let them. But there’s a silver lining: now John McCain has something new to reform. Cue applause for his promise to “restore trust in government,” as if devotion to Washington were a conservative value.

After we hung up, I scouted the blogosphere to see who else might be thinking beyond the party line. Since lively economic writing is a rare bird, I ventured off the beaten path. After a few fruitless stops, I tried Culture 11. (We’ve decided that would be a better name for a German nightclub than a vaguely conservative website, but it’s offbeat (unfocused?), not hostile (unexpected!), and as hip as an operation funded by Steve Forbes and founded by Bill Bennett can possibly be.) I found the “commerce” button and clicked, hoping for an unorthodox take on the Nightmare on Wall Street. I was directed to a single lead story … written by TAC associate editor Michael Dougherty … about pricey haircuts for men. These aren’t just any cuts: we’re talking “lessons on how to enjoy being properly pampered, one snip at a time.” Money quote: “Across from me, someone was paying nearly five hundred dollars for a package that included a hot shave, a manicure and pedicure, and a series of languorous face washes that seem to have pleasantly immobilized him.” Of all the crisis commentary I’ve read over the last couple of weeks, this may be the most apropos comment of all.

PS My morning caller, amused by the “community organizer” dust-up, reports that the designation was concocted to make Alinksy’s radicals seem maximally innocuous to the IRS. The old Marxist couldn’t have imagined he was writing punchlines for Sarah Palin.