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The Morning Grumpy – 6/27/12

All the news, views, and filtered excellence fit to consume during your morning grumpy.

Oh hi there, racist McDonalds ad from 1976, how are you? Don’t worry, tippin’ ain’t necessary.

1. The rightward shift of The U.S. Supreme Court.

By several measures, the court headed by Chief Justice John Roberts is the most conservative since the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon named Warren Burger to replace the famously liberal Earl Warren. Not only is its most conservative member (Clarence Thomas) nearly as conservative as the Burger court’s most conservative member (future Chief Justice William Rehnquist), its most liberal member (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) is considerably less liberal than previous justices on the left side of the spectrum.

2. In the latest edition of The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert writes, “with the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France”, American kids might be the most spoiled kids in the history of the world.

It’s not just that they’ve been given unprecedented amounts of stuff—clothes, toys, cameras, skis, computers, televisions, cell phones, PlayStations, iPods. (The market for Burberry Baby and other forms of kiddie “couture” has reportedly been growing by ten per cent a year.) They’ve also been granted unprecedented authority. “Parents want their kids’ approval, a reversal of the past ideal of children striving for their parents’ approval,” Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, both professors of psychology, have written.

As with everything else in American culture, the parenting power balance is disturbingly out of whack.

3. Too big to chug, the obnoxious size of our fountain drinks.

Today I learned that there is a chain of American stores called “Kum and Go”, which now rivals the “Pump and Munch” in Ft. Walton Beach, FL for best double entendre quickie mart brand name, ever. I digress…

2011: KFC introduces a drink so big that it has a bucket handle to carry it. In what can only be a cruel joke on humankind, for every Mega Jug purchased, KFC promises it will donate $1 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

We’ve really passed the point of quenching thirst and moved into a bizarre level of gluttony.

4. Here is a homework assignment to prep you for tomorrow’s grumpy. Later this morning, The Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution will publish their quarterly report on American cities, The MetroMonitor.

The MetroMonitor is a quarterly, interactive barometer of the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies. It examines trends in metropolitan-level employment, output, and housing conditions to look “beneath the hood” of national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country.

Essentially, this report serves as a planning resource and a measurement tool for metropolitan progress. While the Brookings Institution is the home of the dreaded “third way Democrats”, their data collection and research on metropolitan areas is valuable in innumerable ways. Please check it out and give it a read. As I’ve done in the past, I’ll be breaking down what the data tell about Buffalo’s challenges and opportunities in the national and regional economy.

5. Who cares if it doesn’t add up, tell the people what they want to hear. Right, Mitt?

According to experts at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Mitt Romney’s proposed defense budget would boost military spending to $945 billion by 2021 — 53% more than Obama’s defense budget plan for that year — despite polling data showing the U.S. public wants cuts in Pentagon spending. This could amount to $2 trillion in additional military spending within the next decade.

Of course, Mitt Romney has also pledged to cut taxes for the wealthy and also cut the deficit. Now, if you’ve taken some basic elementary level math classes, you might sense a looming problem with the national balance sheet. No matter, because OBAMA IS MUSLIM SOCIALIST WHO APOLOGIZES FOR AMERICA AND HATES ISRAEL AND LOVES THE QUEERS@!$!@$ GOP 2012!

Fact Of The Day: It all makes perfect sense, annoying and inexplicably huge pop hit “Call Me Maybe” was originally released in Canada through 604 Records, the production company started by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.

Quote Of The Day: “A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Video Of The Day: Seven minutes of people being awesome.