They don’t think about the girl in China who stitched together their new jeans in a sweatshop. Or the plight of the check-out woman who supports three kids on minimum wage and no benefits. To them, the magic of low prices just happens.

It was not all that long ago that the careful study of the interaction of public policy and politics was a somewhat moribund field in political science. What little work existed was, too often, not terribly useful for those of us—citizens, activists, statesmen—interested in improving the quality of governance.

Ho-hum. Another day, another threat by the White House press corps to stop being so “nice” to Obama. You know, “nice” like pretend he’s a Muslim citizen of Indonesia, or that he pals around with terrorists, or that pretty much any patently ridiculous charge flung at him, especially those flung by Republicans, is a legitimate news story worthy of being regurgitated repeatedly despite definitive debunkings?

Ahem.

Russ Feingold says it

Every day there is a new reminder that the only thing thing that changed on Wall Street as a result of the financial meltdown is that the “too big to fail” entities got bigger through consolidation and they now have all of the taxpayer’s wealth instead of just most of it. Here is today’s installment of hyper-greed.

I’m not a fan of competitive eating contests, but it seems that the FDIC has been taking some lessons from the folks that devour hot dogs in large quantities. Whether you’re dining on hot dogs or distressed financial institutions, surviving the meal takes focus, preparation, and planning.

At least once a week, usually twice, I go visit a guy I’ve known for many years. He’s an older gent, who lived a very active life until he had a stroke some years ago; now he’s in a nursing home. Luckily for him, he’s a veteran, so with his VA assistance and Social Security he’s getting the excellent care that he — and we all — deserve.

Rhining about costs, but not helping to lower them.

Happy birthday, Auntie Jane! Momma says it’s that time again.  And she doesn’t mean markdowns at the Eames store, either.

Who Fingered Rock ‘N’ Roll and Dancehall.