Soundtrack: We're Leveling, Not Lunatics

The recession has been over for a long while, apparently. The recession is over, and it was Paris Hilton’s cocaine all along.

There’s one of those email forwards going around that isn’t racist enough to be appropriately popular. So maybe you haven’t seen it. It’s Hugo Chavez leaning into Vladimir Putin, and he's saying this: “What’s the difference between Americans and yogurt? If you leave yogurt alone for 200 years, it’ll grow a culture.”

And I laugh a little at it, but I’m not sure how true it is anymore. Seems like everything was going fine -- we were the mass-market boundary-pushing, brainstorm capital of the world, but then we ran out of money.

Actually, make that this: We are the mass-market boundary-pushing, brainstorm capital of the world, even still, and we ran out of money.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman who was awarded with two perfectly catchy hit singles by a knowing Hollywood songwriter wore a dress entirely made of raw meat to an awards show.

Instead of going through the prescribed forms of media disgust, almost everyone ignored her.

But some didn’t. Some asked if it was itchy. Some asked, “Can we have some?”

Finally, we are leveling.

We pushed the boundaries in one direction and we ran out of money on the other, but that became too exhausting.

It was Paris Hilton’s cocaine, but we’re through with disgust. She’s a lunatic, lunatic, lunatic, and now we’re wondering, “Hey, is everything all right?”

I’m not an economist, but I can tell you, finally: We are leveling.

Ignore the fringe, of course. Because a few thousand young people are going to D.C. in a couple of weeks, and their primary concern is to pick up the trash behind them.

"What’s the difference between Americans and yogurt? One's tasty fermented milk; the other tends to be pretty polite."

It doesn't push many boundaries and it's not as funny. It's also probably the truth about this coming generation.

There’s a little sample in this song. Maybe it was written by this band. Maybe it’s lodged deep somewhere in the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Maybe it’s by some hippie I’d never get along with. I can’t find its origin, but it sounds authoritative. It should be.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes you feel like you can't succeed, and I’m here to tell you that you're probably right.

But if you stay strong, everything will be all right.

Today's Soundtrack: Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Lunatic, Lunatic, Lunatic