The new season of MTV’s my Super Sweet 16 proves to be more dramatic, more preposterous, more flamboyant and more exorbitant than the two seasons before it.

Case in point: rich little Marissa gets two cars for her 16th birthday – a convertible for the weekends and an S.U.V. to transport her during the week.

The show chonicles 9 teenagers, one each week, on their quest to make all their friends, and enemies, jealous by having an extravegant, over the top specticale of a birthday party. The average tab for each bash is around $200,000.

But apparently, according to one brat, this kind of wasteful spoiling of children is not only called for, you’d have to be insane not to do it. “Unless they were crazy or hated their child, any parent who was financially able would do it,” says Sophie to the New York Times. Her mom spent $180,000 on her party.

And we wonder why people hate America?

The New York Times article is off the hook. Click here to read it all

Gas prices are still up and Exxon is still making a killing. They just posted record profits this quarter:

Check out the article

-Jean Chen

This is interesting… while thousands of working class Mexicans and their allies are taking to the streets, Indian immigrants who are highly educated have been waging a different kind of war on immigration policies. They’ve been working with lobbyists and getting to folks in Washington.

Check out the article

- Jean Chen

Pink Salmon — For the RecordPriya, How often are you blogging these days?