Who is John O'Galt?

Michael O’Leary, the EU’s equivalent of Southwest Airlines really, really hates the EU — and he’s not afraid to tell the EU precisely where they can stick their regulations and hauteur, J.P. Freire notes at the American Spectator:

Here is a transcript of the first few minutes of O’Leary’s John Galt speech (video below):This is the first time I think that I or RyanAir have ever been invited to a conference by the European Union. Because as most of you know, the European Union spends most of its time suing me, torturing me, criticizing me or condeming me for lowering the cost of air travel all over Europe and making life so really difficult for their favorite airlines, which as we all know like high-fare airlines, like Air France, British Airlines, and Lufthansa who must be protected at all costs because they’re the future of Europe — the future of europe lies in people being forced to pay 800 euros for one-hour flights across the continent; the future of Europe lies in people being forced to pay fuel surcharges for the right to travel on Europe’s best airlines run by the Germans, the French, and the British.

As Freire writes, “For this speech to come from someone in Europe, let alone at a summit at the EU, is a conservative dream.” Watch the whole thing — or at least the first three or four minutes; the equivalent of Rick Santelli’s now legendary tea de coeur in early 2009.