“You don’t know what you got, till it’s gone.”

– – Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi.”

You know, if you miss a news cycle these days, you may as well be sorting through the rubbish heap of ancient times.

I was coming back from a get-together with some former colleagues out in the still-sprouting exurbs of Loudoun County. For me, as a former resident of Fairfax, that is so far out there that you may as well just consider yourself in the Virginia Hunt Country.

Not that it is, now. It is all multi-plex cinemas and cutting edge eateries, all of it new, and all of the same age. There was nothing here before except fields and foxes.

The spending that emanates from the National Capital Region has bumped up the per capita income of every jurisdiction within painful commuting range. I don’t think it has got all the way to Culpeper yet, but it is getting close. In fact, I am probably one of the idiots who participating in the process of transforming the place into another outpost of the terminally hip.

Check the list of the top earning counties in the country. You will see the NCR boasts five of the top six in per capita income, and eleven of the top 25. It is a graphic example that we are enjoying your money a lot here, and we serve as sort of a bundling machine for it to serve back out as largesse to the citizenry.

Don’t bristle- this trend may have accelerated of late, particularly after the housing bubble collapse- but it is certainly a bi-partisan phenomenon that only moves a little faster or a little slower, depending on who is yanking on the levers of power.

It has been good to me, personally, or at least it was, so don’t yell at me for just noticing what is going on.

Here is another thing that grabbed me, but good, on the drive back into the Capital City proper. Not for the usual reasons, of course. “Pajama Boy” has already had more commentary than Phil Robertson, former star of the A&E reality show Duck Dynasty.

I can’t add anything to the two images below, except note that they represent a sort of landmark in our era of profound social change. I have no idea where the Richardson family is going to go, and since I don’t watch the show, but their appeal appears to lie in the idea that these people are weird curios from a lost world.

Mr. Robertson got the boot from his show over some remarks regarding his views of the world. Some of them I found repugnant; I don’t think I need to tell you which ones, not that he doesn’t have the right to say them. No less a Progressive icon than Karl Rove summed it up succinctly: “He has the right to say what he thinks. He does not have a right to a television show to say them on.”

I agree with that. They look sort of like Confederate soldiers still pissed about Appomattox.

Now, from the National Capital Region, here is the new world:

He looks like a nice young man. He is a real person, too. It makes the whole thing really interesting, you know?

It makes me want to step outside and hail a cab- a big Yellow one- and head for the hills. It is not because I miss what has gone- Joni was right about that in the song. But I am pretty sure there were some things that I like a lot better than what is to come.

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303