Spent a good chunk of the holiday binge-watching Orange is the New Black. It’s strangely addictive.

Here are some midday news/views treats:

* Just the soothing voice we needed to hear in sage ruminations on the Isla Vista shooting spree: Joe the Plumber.

* Median CEO pay at large public companies now over $10 million.

* Christie draws conservative fire for renominating Democrat as his state’s Chief Justice.

* At TNR Noam Scheiber argues that Rand Paul’s “pragmatism” looking more and more like “cynicism.”

* In 5-4 decision (with the majority opinion written, of course, by Anthony Kennedy), SCOTUS limits state discretion in determining mental capacity for becoming eligible for the death penalty.

And in non-political news:

* Li Na upset in first round of French Open.

On this day in 1963, one of the most influential albums ever was released: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Here’s Dylan performing one of the songs from that album, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” with Eric Clapton.

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.