At the DC Trawler.

Alex Chilton– precocious frontman for the Box Tops and then leader of the influential power pop band Big Star– has died at age 59.

Here a 16- or 17-year old Chilton performs the Box Tops’ hit “The Letter”:

UPDATE: A tribute (soundtrack: “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements):

The St. Louis Business Journal reports on the Post-Dispatch’s efforts to cut wages 31% despite pushback from the paper’s union, the St. Louis Newspaper Guild:

A standoff has been heating up for months. The paper, which has experienced significant revenue declines in recent years, has been pushing for labor cost reductions while Guild members have fought to maintain or improve their wages and benefits.

In February, the Guild allocated $500,000 for a possible public relations campaign against Lee. The union said it would launch its marketing blitz if the company terminates the workers’ contract and imposes wage and benefit cuts.

Squeezing a dying enterprise for more money to finance negative marketing campaigns against said enterprise. Sounds like a winning plan!

And why do we have to pay for bread at all? We need basic foods to survive, far more urgently than we need health insurance. Maybe it would be better if the government took over the bread industry. Think of all the money wasted on packaging and advertising, which could be saved if the State distributed Obama Bread in plain white wrappers that said RYE or WHEAT in simple block lettering. Our wise politicians could then decide if all those different varieties of bread are truly necessary.

If you have studied the history of socialism and communism around the world, you know what the inevitable results of a nationalized bread industry would be: hungry people staring at dusty shelves containing a few expensive loaves of low-quality bread. Humanity has invented few weapons that kill people more efficiently than collectivist agriculture.

Follow the link. Via Hot Air.

‘Obamacare’ health care reform (see contract rules) to become law before midnight ET 30 Jun 2010

Via Instapundit.

Rep. John Linder (R-GA): “Is it your testimony that $953 billion [in welfare spending next year] is not enough?”

Carmen Nazario (U.S. Dept. Health and Human Services): “Who’s to say what is enough?”

H/T Mitch P.

The shallowness, the lack of seriousness of modern presidential candidates is almost unbelievable. It is also a mystery: How could this be? If today a candidate told me he was not crazy, I will go with it, for it would be news.