The Python documentation says that the __init__ method of each class is responsible for initializing its super class. But for new-style classes, the ultimate base class is object. Doing dir(object) shows that object itself has an __init__ method and could potentially be initialized. Is there any reason to do that?
I'm inclined to do it for consistency and (slightly) easier refactoring of the class heirarchy, but I wonder if it's strictly necessary or is considered best practice.