We’ve mentioned in passing that like the generation that grew up in the Depression, being 14 when the 1973 gas crisis hit changes your outlook on life, or at least that part of life dependent on motor vehicles. This is the world moving forward, you think. Best not to get too tied to it.

We also use October 1973 to start the clock, when America was put on notice. And with that clock now approaching thirty-seven years — we should have used a calendar instead — we have no reason to be shocked, Shocked!, to learn that not only do old habits die hard, they don’t die at all:

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Your wingnut talking point du jour, courtesy of The Nation’s Newspaper:

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. “This is really important,” Grimes says.

Don’t make us hunt down the stat for real income since 1980, USA Today. We’re told that’s what real reporters do.

Private pay shrinks to historic lows as gov’t payouts rise [USA Today]

The McCain campaign hits a soft pitch out of the park.

The other nine “Dumbest Members of Congress” on Radar’s 2006 list: Jim Bunning, Patrick Kennedy, Conrad Burns, Cynthia McKinney, Jean Schmidt, Barbara Boxer, James Inhofe, Donald Young, and Kitty Harris.

[via TPM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINOxRxze9k

So we’re watching the 24 finale last night, because even if we did break up with the show last year, we had some good times together in Season 5, when President Allstate was knocked off in the first five minutes, and we figured we owed it a final fling to see it off, and after it was over we visited Dave Barry’s blog for the recap (Dave Barry having named President Allstate for us, even if as a rule we’re not a Dave Barry fan), and aside from the regular “Edgar is still dead” joke (Edgar having bit it in Season 5, so we enjoy the callback), we notice that below the post is a seven-minute tracking shot of Seattle high schoolers dancing to a popular song film taken on Market Street from a San Francisco cable car in 1905 before the earthquake (and before the fire, if you’re one of those assholes who just won’t let it go), and we decide that it’s, well, fucking awesome.

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Will Folks, a blogger you’ve never heard of:

On a very personal level I have become the primary target of a group that will apparently stop at nothing to destroy the one S.C. gubernatorial candidate who, in my opinion, would most consistently advance the ideals I believe in. For those of you unfamiliar with the editorial bent of this website, the candidate I am referring to is S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley…

The truth in this case is what it is. Several years ago, prior to my marriage, I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki.

That’s it.

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Jan Brewer (shown above) asks whether critics of Arizona’s immigration law have even read it.

Yes.

Eric Massa says Dick Cheney tried to recruit David Petraeus to run for President in 2012: “Were he to run and win — and if he were to run, he would win in a landslide — we would be witness to an American coup d’état. It is the functional equivalent of the political overthrow of the commander in chief.” Yeah, it’s slow today. [Esquire, via TPM]