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Yeah, I don’t have much at present. I’m sure you’re coping.

I didn’t watch the State of the Union address, as per usual (or the rebuttals or, gods help us, the probably a permanent fixture from now on “prebuttals”), and having looked at various summaries and commentaries I struggle to find anything to even fix on.

Which is why I couldn’t resist highlighting this one reaction from The Atlantic Cities:

The Urban Message Missing From the State of the Union
The issues facing the nation’s cities were largely ignored in the president’s speech

I mean, the general impression I get of Obama’s 2012 address was that it was a piled-up heap of just about everything but the kitchen sink. But, y’know, hey. We’ve still got to have at least one (and probably more than one) person coming along the next morning to lament that “well, the president didn’t even mention xyz issue once!” (Though “largely ignored” suggests to me that there wasn’t even a complete absence, here, and this guy’s still complaining.)

Apparently we still expect the president to be not only all things to all people but to be all those things at all times. Right-o, that’s realistic, then. Carry on everyone.

I’ve already posted about one of these, earlier, and neither is really yet at the point of being anything like what you could call a real “mission accomplished,” and etc., etc., so-on so-forth.

But I think the combination of these two positive policy developments, on the same day, is enough to really demand a brief note. Not often do we get even one item of good news like these, however compromised, let alone both:

• Obama Administration Rejects Keystone Pipeline Proposal
• Sopa: US backers end support for anti-piracy bill

That’s not too bad. Both of these proposals epitomize the “migod can we just not do this completely stupid unhelpful horrible abomination” ideas that are all-too common in American politics. Yeah, sure, the list of reasons for restraining the urge to celebrate is long and familiar: Neither measure is really necessarily “dead” yet; industry-backed monstrosities like these are never really truly “dead” anyway. Even if stopped, for now, they’ll sneak back. Neither measure’s defeat really amounts to any kind of actual progress. Nor do these limited little “non-defeats” come close to being “enough” relative to the big-picture of the challenges we’re facing. Nothing ever seems like it is or will be enough.

All true, but, aside from the fact that if this is about as good as we ever actually do we might as well take the opportunity to celebrate when we can because otherwise we’ll eventually just die without ever having let ourselves enjoy the feeling of winning… (more…)

My BFF MS shares a familiar theory, today, over at The Economist:

KEVIN DRUM worries that the high cost of college tuition is driven by the very large value of lifetime earnings gains derived from a college degree. [...] As long as we keep giving people whatever student loans they need to attend college, and absent any regulatory price controls, colleges will hike tuition to the very limit of what it’s worth in higher wages.

Well, that’s a novel and insightful concept, no? I took a shot at the issue of spiraling tuition inflation last September; let’s look back at what I came up with:

Basically, as I see it, colleges are selling would-be graduates their own potential, future enhanced earnings (not to mention prestige, quality of life, etc.) at a discount; of late the amount of the discount seems to keep getting smaller and smaller. Which, realistically, should not come as a surprise, given the nature of humanity and the systems we create, as well as the many “market failures” which probably apply to a college education and minimize the potential for competition to push prices toward the seller’s cost rather than toward the buyer’s ability to pay.

Apologies for self-quoting but, ahem. And being four months ahead of the curve is really a very modest claim on my part; this situation has seemed obvious to me for years. I could probably prove it, too, if I fished around in e-mails or chat transcripts long enough…

…but, obviously, no one would care, for the same reason that Democracy in America is linking to Kevin Drum instead of me. I’m not brave, ambitious and/or well-connected enough (take your pick) to push and shove my way in front of an actual audience. No one reads this stuff.

But, in light of actual evidence in support of what my colossal vanity has believed all along, maybe they should.