"Somerville" - The Pernice Brothers
- I was amused to see this item in the New York Times on Sunday describing the efforts of Somerville, Massachusetts to track the happiness of its residence on the census form. It's not that it's inherently silly -- it's just not the Somerville I grew up knowing -- a tough, slightly sketchy town that would have said "who the fuck's askin?'" if the census had been so impertinent as to inquire regarding its collective state of mind. The description of Somerville as a "suburb" of Boston seems so inadequate -- it's a city of 75,000 people located on four square miles -- from 1930 through the 1950s it had more than 100,000 people and was, I believe, the most densely populated city in America (it now rank is 17th). In addition to hoods and Irish and Italian pols, which it has had in abundance, Somerville can claim to have had both David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen as residents. (The city figures prominently in Franzen's novel "Strong Motion.")
- I am awaiting analysis by Mandos, our resident expert on Canadian politics, to characterize this evening's election results. Unfortunately it appears as though Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have won a majority of seats in the parliament -- approximately 166 seats (with only 40% of the vote) -- and will continue in power. More intriguingly though, the New Democratic Party or NDP, North America's largest social democratic party ran a strong second, garnering 30% of the vote and over 100 seats in the parliament, which I believe is an unprecedented number for what has long been Canada's third party. The Liberal Party, traditionally the ruling party of Canada, suffered a devastating defeat with less than 20% of the vote and a scant 30 or so seats. The Bloc Quebecois almost fell off the map altogether, and may hold only three seats when all is said and done. So it appears that the Canadian electorate moved both right and left simultaneously in this election. Alright -- I'll leave the rest to those who really know what they're talking about.
- And the question is "what are really angry birds, Alex?
- Is this going to be like the Hendrix estate?
- I haven't picked on Yglesias for a while, but this may be the stupidest fucking thing he has ever written, The money quote:
Not only is the blurring of the lines significant, but one important way in which the current moment differs from the Gilded Age of yore is that labor income now constitutes a much more important source of money for the richest people. 100 years ago the prototypical super-rich person was a coupon-clipping rentier living off investment income. Today it’s a hedge fund manager or a Fortune 500 CEO. Someone who is, in some sense, more worker than owner.
No, they aren't. For fuck's sake, most CEOs derive the lion's share of their income from stock options and hedge fund managers take their compensation in the form of carried interest, for which they are taxed at the 15% capital gains rate. Look at the taxes paid by the 400 richest families in America in 2007 (source a bright young guy with a bad memory named Yglesias) and you get a sense of how little W-2 wages matter to these folks.
- And finally, bin Laden may have been killed, but I would argue that Trump had the worst weekend. Jesus, Obama and Seth Myers just destroyed him at the White House correspondence -- two shots to the head would have been more merciful. Ridicule is a powerful weapon and this was nuclear grade stuff. I am pretty certain that the Donald, having had a taste of big league pitching, will return to the tender mercies of reality TV and yes-men and opt not to run for the presidency. Too bad. And thank you Washington Post for your completely inappropriate invitation to this mirthless vulgarian.
What say you?
