Do you ever get the feeling that yoga apparel/lifestyle store Lululemon is a little... creepy?

Somewhere between that weird rape-murder in Bethesda, the ponytailed yoga drones bouncing around their stores, and the inherent strangeness of ostentatious zen calm in the name of cutthroat capitalism, I have come to believe there is something sinister about Lululemon. Something lurking just below the surface of their ass-enhancing cotton-spandex blends.

Something like a cult-like obsession with Ayn Rand. Death and Taxes documents Lululemon's newest shopping bag, featuring silhouettes of lady doing yoga poses (solo Karma Sutra?) and the question, "Who is JOHN GALT?"

Lululemon's corporate blog explains:

This question appears many times in Ayn Rand's classic 1957 novel, "Atlas Shrugged," and, curiously, it also appears on the side of our shopping bags currently in our stores.

You might be wondering why a company that makes yoga clothing has chosen a legendary literary character's name to adorn the side of our bags. lululemon's founder, Chip Wilson, first read this book when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book's ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon's company vision).

Oh my god, Lululemon is a vast Randian conspiracy.

Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?

…unless Lululemon is actually castrating libertarianism by reducing it to a series of vapid affirmations? I'm not sure whose conspiracy this is, but I'll probably wear a tin hat next time I go to Lululemon. It's not like I'm going to stop going there; they may be a vast Randian conspiracy, but their leggings are still the best ass-enhancing fitness gear around. [Death & Taxes, Lululemon]