Why does the rest of America think Washingtonians want to force their most photogenic teens to compete in mortal combat? From yesterday’s Ross Douthat column in the New York Times:

After all, like the ruthless Capital (sic) in ‘The Hunger Games,’ the wealth of Washington is ultimately extracted from taxpayers more than it is earned. And over the last five years especially, D.C.’s gains have coincided with the country’s losses.

This just a month after the Times‘ David Leonhardt said the same:

As most of the country continues to struggle through an agonizingly slow recovery, Washington uncomfortably calls to mind the rapacious Capitol in Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” series.

Could this actually be good news? The Hunger Games trilogy probably doesn’t end well for the Capitol’s hedonistic residents (no spoilers here!), though in the movie, Elizabeth Banks and Drunk Woody Harrelson seemed to be having a good enough time.