New Census Numbers: Poverty, Income, & Health Insurance

Think Progress breaks down the numbers: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which just released new figures this morning, there are approximately 37.3 million people living in poverty in the U.S. (12.5% of population), as well as 45.7 million who are uninsured (15.3% of population). (Via Matthew Yglesias.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer

Control: The Fate of Joy Division

Kevin Martinez of the WSWS has an interesting review of Control, a documentary film directed by Anton Corbijn about the band Joy Division, as well as some other interesting historical and biographical details surrounding Ian Curtis.

—Bryan Klausmeyer

… in prison!

When Obama chaffed McCain for forgetting how many houses he owns, Rogers huffed, “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

Yeah, it’s from a Maureen Dowd column, sorry. I couldn’t resist the pause.

—Mark Elliot Cullen 2 Comments

Commemorating the Haitian Revolution

Interesting write-up on the Haitian Revolution, the construction of “blackness” and Haiti’s first independent ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, over at Lenin’s Tomb.

—Bryan Klausmeyer

The Curious World of the Last Stop

A somewhat surreal article in the Times about the last stops on the NY metro:

At the city’s often-threadbare fringes, there is an inescapable sense of lonesomeness. There might be a Last Stop Deli, a forlorn bar, a maintenance yard populated mostly by rows of empty trains. There is, surprisingly often, a cemetery.

Yet to visit all the system’s extremities is to see that the last stop is not a single, monolithic place. There are subway lines that end, logically, where the city runs out of land; lines that end, anticlimactically, where builders ran out of money; even a few that fetch up in bustling downtowns of one sort or another. From the marshy lowlands of Tottenville to the lush hills of Riverdale to the ceaseless clangor of Flushing, the end of the line manages to take in the entire breadth of the city beyond Midtown Manhattan.

After living in DC for a year, I can confirm the universal sense of urban ennui that awaits commuters at the end of the line. Also, the article reminds me of two songs worth checking out: “End of the Line” by Max Larkin & The Relations (available here, and our interview with Max Larkin here) and “Dirty Blvd.” by Lou Reed.

—Bryan Klausmeyer

Heartbreak Hotel

A very interesting look at the evolution of a song over at Fragments of a Cale Season. This song goes through the wringer.

[S]omewhere between playing mit der Polizei and coming out of his lost years, in the less innocent days of good friends, fast women, lots of drugs, and possibly too many studio recordings… he started playing it on solo piano. And no more was this man kidding around.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

—Mark Elliot Cullen

Rick Perlstein: “A Liberal Shock Doctrine”

Rick Perlstein writing in the American Prospect:

Progressive political change in American history is rarely incremental. With important exceptions, most of the reforms that have advanced our nation’s status as a modern, liberalizing social democracy were pushed through during narrow windows of progressive opportunity — which subsequently slammed shut with the work not yet complete. The post–Civil War reconstruction of the apartheid South, the Progressive Era remaking of the institutions of democratic deliberation, the New Deal, the Great Society: They were all blunt shocks. Then, before reformers knew what had happened, the seemingly sturdy reform mandate faded and Washington returned to its habits of stasis and reaction.

(Via A Tiny Revolution.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer

The Bankruptcy of America, Starring Aquaman

Ken Layne, managing editor of Wonkette, writing for Political Machine:

The United States of America is bankrupt, morally and financially. This country stands for nothing but bad loans, brute force and blind consumption. Everything is literally crumbling, from our roads and bridges to our financial system to our “bring all children down together” public schools. The White House’s response to the Russia/Georgia war gets a smirking “whatever” from Moscow. Who are we to be telling anyone not to invade little countries? We’ve been doing it with great fanfare and steady failure since Vietnam, and we’re bogged down in so many doomed occupations today that Robot Troops are the only hope. Maybe we can buy some from Japan, on credit. Or that famous swimmer Michael Phelps can save the country by, uh, swimming very fast to various problem zones, like Aquaman.

(Via Mike Soron.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer

141 Tiny Terror Combos Stolen

Thieves broke into Orange HQ at Borehamwood on Saturday night (16th August) and stole 141 Tiny Terror combos with a total retail value of £62,000. So far, 121 Tiny Terror combos have been legitimately shipped into the UK and 2 pieces to Hungary, no others have been shipped anywhere in Europe…

I put in a price inquiry on one of these with a great guitar site a few months ago. The original Tiny Terror head has earned some great reviews and from what I’ve heard in youtube videos these combos have a really great sound. I envy the thieves.

—Mark Elliot Cullen