"Let's put all this in perspective," writes Adam Serwer. "There have been 110 Justices on the Supreme Court. Of those, two have been women, and two have been black. The other 106 have been white men. That means that around 96% of Supreme Court Justices have been white men." The "this" that Serwer is perspectivizin' is Mark Halperin's unfortunate decision to respond to Souter's retirement by pasting a giant 'WHITE MEN NEED NOT APPLY" headline across his blog. Classy work, Mark.

Some expected, but still dispiriting, news out of the Senate last night, where Dick Durbin's "cramdown" legislation went down to defeat. The policy was simple enough: It would allow bankruptcy judges, at their discretion, to reduce the principal and interest-payments on primary mortgages. That would make it likelier that people could keep their homes. Unsurprisingly, the banking industry wasn't hugely enamored of the bill, and protested that they'd have to raise mortgage prices to deal with the resulting uncertainty in their revenues.

One of the interesting threads in the Chrysler bankruptcy was Obama's evident fury at the hedge funds and investment banks that refused the deals the government offered. The reason for their reluctance was simple enough: Bondholders don't want to lose money. But the strategy behind their intransigence proved poor: They didn't think the government would send Chrysler into bankruptcy. And that gave them leverage. Out-of-court debt restructurings generally require consensus. But they were wrong. Not only did the administration let Chrysler fall to the bankruptcy courts, but Obama called the investors out by name:

You have to pity David Souter. By all accounts, he'd grown to hate his job. The Court was a grind. "An intellectual lobotomy," he called it. He was exhausted by the ideological jockeying. Dispirited by the institution's rightward turn. Shattered by the decision in Bush v. Gore. He loathed DC. "The world's worst city," he said. He thought often of quitting. As soon as each term closed, he'd fly home to New Hampshire and hike.

"Contrary to what many parents tell their children," wrote Robert Frank, "talent and hard work are neither necessary nor sufficient for economic success. It helps to be talented and hard-working, of course, yet some people enjoy spectacular success despite having neither attribute." It's not a particularly bold claim. Nor is Frank's conclusion the sort of thing that ordinarily makes headlines. Saying that "the link between success and luck is stronger than many people think" borders on the trite.

Give it up to Slate: Their parody Facebook feed of Obama's first 100 days is very funny. Meanwhile, in other First 100 Days commentary, Mark Schmitt is skeptical of the whole construct, but I love his conclusion: