What America Really Thinks of Journalists

This little anecdote from Diane Sawyer unintentionally shows what most Americans really think about the "objectivity" of journalists.

You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken
off the jury. And the judge said to me, "Can, you know,
can you tell the truth and be fair?" And I said, "That’s what
journalists do." And everybody in the courtroom laughed.
It was the most hurtful moment I think I’ve ever had.

— Co-host Diane Sawyer joking on ABC’s Good Morning
America July 12, following a report on how some people
try to avoid serving on a jury.

Oy Vey!

You'd think this wouldn't be a problem in New York City. (click the photo for the full story).


Doubtless someone in the store just earned some sensitivity training. . . poor soul.

Article on Intelligence vs. Effort

I found this article form Scientific American very interesting, and it rings true in my experience. Kids need to understand that achievement requires effort, not innate ability. Just because you fail, it doesn't mean you're dumb, or you can't ultimately succeed. The research speaks of 2 mindsets, "helpless" and "mastery-oriented" more important it talks about the two theories of intelligence that underlie these mindsets

The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. . . such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.

The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn.

While people do have differences in ability, effort is more important:

People do differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift. Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and Cézanne were not simply born with talent; they cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort. Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute much more to school achievement than IQ does.

This may seem basic, but the "helpless" mindset is rampant - and it affects much more than school work.

A fixed mind-set can similarly hamper communication and progress in the workplace by leading managers and employees to discourage or ignore constructive criticism and advice. . . Mind-set can affect the quality and longevity of personal relationships as well, through people’s willingness—or unwillingness—to deal with difficulties. Those with a fixed mind-set are less likely than those with a growth mind-set to broach problems in their relationships and to try to solve them . . . After all, if you think that human personality traits are more or less fixed, relationship repair seems largely futile. Individuals who believe people can change and grow, however, are more confident that confronting concerns in their relationships will lead to resolutions. . . Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For instance, many young athletes value talent more than hard work and have consequently become unteachable. Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs without constant praise and encouragement to maintain their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our homes and schools, however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become responsible employees and citizens.

So hang in there Becky! I can change, honest :-)

'Mary' Christmas: Gift Idea

I don't know who the target market for this is, but, without further ado, I give you the Virgin Mary USB Flash Drive.

Watch out for lightening if you give one of these for Christmas.

The Top 1%

We've heard a lot this election cycle about "the top 1%" of income earners. Usually in a context like this:

Mr./Ms. Candidate (D): ". . . and I'll give every American healthcare by making sure the top 1% pay their fair share!"
Audience: (applause)
Newscaster: "A bold new proposal, from a bold new . . . (blah, blah, blah)"

But who are the mysterious "top 1%?" and what is "their fair share" anyway?

One gets the impression that they are watching CNN, poolside at the summer home, champagne in hand, laughing at the audacity of the politicians and vowing: "I will never, NEVER! pay my fair share!"

Or perhaps they are meeting old friends at the upscale "Club Un Percenteaux" in Manhattan (a very exclusive club -- it only admits 1% of those who apply) and plotting to buy off Congress to keep their low tax rates.

Thomas Sowell has a great article on who they are on National Review Online. Turns out the club isn't so exclusive after all:

Who are those top one percent? For those who would like to join them, the question is: How can you do that?

The second question is easy to answer. Virtually anyone who owns a home in San Francisco, no matter how modest that person’s income may be, can join the top one percent instantly just by selling their house.

But that’s only good for one year, you may say. What if they don’t have another house to sell next year?

Well, they won’t be in the top one percent again next year, will they? But that’s not unusual.

Americans in the top one percent, like Americans in most income brackets, are not there permanently, despite being talked about and written about as if they are an enduring “class” — especially by those who have overdosed on the magic formula of “race, class and gender,” which has replaced thought in many intellectual circles.

At the highest income levels, people are especially likely to be transient at that level. Recent data from the Internal Revenue Service show that more than half the people who were in the top one percent in 1996 were no longer there in 2005. . .

These are not permanent classes but mostly people at current income levels reached by spikes in income that don’t last.

More ways to get in the club:

These income spikes can occur for all sorts of reasons. In addition to selling homes in inflated housing markets like San Francisco, people can get sudden increases in income from inheritances, or from a gamble that pays off, whether in the stock market, the real estate market, or Las Vegas. . . corporate CEOs, those who cash in stock options that they have accumulated over the years get a big spike in income the year that they cash them in. . . Some of these incomes are almost as large as those of big-time entertainers — who are never accused of “greed,” by the way.

I might add own a small business to the list. The tax code makes it easy to live very well off your business, and report almost no income (it's been reinvested in the business).

It's not the same people who are rich at any given time. That's the beauty of the American economy. Anyone really can get rich (at least for a while), and no one has to stay poor. The free flow of goods and labor, the flexibility of business to hire (and fire) as necessary, and nearly universal access to education means that:

Most Americans in the top fifth, the bottom fifth, or any of the fifths in between, do not stay there for a whole decade, much less for life. And most certainly do not remain permanently in the top one percent or the top one-hundredth of one percent.

As to what "their fair share" may be, who knows. One might think it would be roughly the same as their percentage of the total income in the country. I do know that (according to the IRS) in 2004 they paid

• 36.89% of all income taxes, and made
  
• 19% of the total income.

Meanwhile, the bottom 50% paid

• 3.3% of all income taxes, and made
• 13.4% of the total income

There's at least an argument that they pay their share already.

This is just too good . . .

As the video belows reveals, the Democrats apparently can't stand surprises. At their recent debate in Las Vegas it turns out that all of the "undecided voters" were anti-war, labor, race politics or Democrat party activists. If the Republicans had done that, can you imagine what the media reaction would be? CNN is definitely in on it as they preselected the questioners.

The nerve of these people is astonishing. There are just no words . . . so, here's a video instead!

(info and video are from the Hot Air Blog).

Like, no way!

From the really useless research department . . .

Researchers found that men's scores on general knowledge tests drop when they are shown photos of blonde women, the Sunday Times of London reported.

Upon further inspection, it was found that the test subjects were not distracted by the light hair, but driven by social stereotypes to "think blonde."

Lucky for me Becky is a beautiful brunette, otherwise I wouldn't be able to function at all around her!

(Please . . . no jokes about my current level of functionality)

Article about the Church in Africa on MSNBC.com

An interesting article on the church is up on MSNBC.com today. they do a pretty good job being fair and open-minded. There are very nice quotes form Nigerian members of the church too, and glimpse into what the church is like over there. Also a few interesting statistics. (I'm quoting from the article):

• The church has more than 250,000 members in Africa, including almost 80,000 in Nigeria
• More than 8,400 Mormon churches or meetinghouses abroad, with a new one built nearly every day.
• Among the places the church says it is particularly vibrant are Brazil and Mexico which have about 1 million Mormons each, and the Philippines, with nearly 600,000.
• More than 220,000 people a year [are] baptized abroad into the Mormon Church -- four times the 54,000 annual baptisms in the United States.

One of the members had some particularly good things to say:

Joshua Matthews Ebiloma . . . said the Mormons offered him "peace of mind" he had not found anywhere else.

Nigeria is half Muslim and almost half Christian, and proselytizing foreigners, from the United States to Saudi Arabia, are pouring millions of dollars into the African nation of 135 million to expand their faiths.

Ebiloma has sampled a range of them. He was born into a pagan family and still bears the scars of tribal markings carved into his cheeks when he was young. After attending Muslim schools as a child, he tried various Christian churches before finding what he described as "happiness and peace" in Mormonism.

Now, Ebiloma nodded and smiled as fellow Mormons told their stories. [in testimony meeting]

"It is quiet and more organized in here," Ebiloma said later. "In other churches, people are shouting at the top of their lungs, sweating so much they need a hanky. One thing I know for sure: God is not deaf." . . .

Ebiloma said that five years ago, curious about this new church, he jumped off a city bus and walked into the buildings of tile and marble. He immediately liked what he heard inside, especially that no one preached that people of other faiths were going to hell. He had soured on the many Christian pastors he saw growing rich on collection-plate cash and admired the fact that Mormon church leaders are largely unpaid and support themselves with other jobs.

Abstinence from alcohol, another church practice, was a tougher sell. But gradually, with the help of his favorite part of the church -- regular home visits from missionaries and other members -- he abandoned Guinness, his favorite drink and one heavily advertised in Nigeria.

Now, the affable father of two said, he even tries to obey the church's no-caffeine rule. Tugging proudly at his belt, he said he had dropped 50 pounds and now weighs a trim 165. "I am so happy," he said. "I am at peace."

"If you are bereaved or you have a new baby or you don't have money to pay your hospital bills, church members rally around you," he said, smiling. "You tell me: Is this a church I should leave?"

Amen.

The Democrats' View of Taxes

In speaking of a tax cut, Gene Sperling, Hillary Clinton's chief economic advisor, said the following at a recent National Press Club panel discussion:

The question is, should we be giving an extra $120 billion to people in the top 1 percent?

Democrats see tax cuts as the government giving people money. This is insane! Welfare is giving people money, tax cut are no such thing. One gets the impression from the Democrats that wealthy Americans are a natural resource, to be pumped for as much cash as we need. Jonah Goldberg explains very eloquently in National Review:

You can see where Democrats get this idea, after all. The top 1 percent of wage earners already provide nearly 40 percent of federal income tax revenues. The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers contribute only about 3 percent.

This is dangerous to our form of government.

According to Democrats, it's greedy to want to keep your own money, but it's "justice" to demand someone else's.

Taxes are a necessary evil. But their silver lining is that they foster a sense of accountability and reciprocity between the taxpayer and the tax collector. Indeed, democracy is usually born from this relationship. Widening prosperity brings a rising middle class, which in turn demands the rule of law, incorrupt bureaucracies and political representation in exchange for its hard-earned money.

As the tax burden shifts to the rich, and as fewer people overall pay taxes:

the people are less inclined to see government as their expensive servant and more as their goody-dispensing master.

Democrats keep telling the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers that America's problems would be solved if only the rich people would pay "their fair share" of income taxes. Not only is this patently untrue and a siren song toward a welfare state, it amounts to covetousness as fiscal policy.

. . .it's unhealthy for a democracy when the majority of citizens don't see government as a service they're reluctantly paying for but as an extortionist that cuts them in for a share of the loot.

Beware any candidate who equates tax cuts with government spending. They may cut "spending" so much that we may end up with no money at all.

Remembering Our Veterans

(Photograph by Jay Talbott/Scripps Howard News Service)

Thank you to all who have fought for freedom. Please read this memorial to one very average American who gave his life protecting ours.

In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children. . .

Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.

Alma 46:12,20

Most ridiculous British laws:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
   
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down
   
3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
   
4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day
   
5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter
   
6. In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet
   
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen
   
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
   
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour
   
10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow
    

Vouchers and Control

Another set of people who want to make decisions for us are the teachers' unions.

In Utah, more than 40 percent of Hispanics and African-American public students do not graduate with a diploma. This is a travesty. Adding insult to injury, the “minority advocates” in Utah seem to be doing everything in their power to keep minorities from having real educational choice and thereby from reaching their potential.

So here you have the ultimate irony. It is not the NAACP or teachers’ union coming to the rescue of minority families, but conservative Republicans, who have stepped forward with a solution to give a hand up. It is Republicans, not Democrats, who have gone to Milwaukee to study the city’s successful voucher program and see how it could be applied in a state where minorities are struggling in record numbers.

Beware Global Cooling!...er...Warming!...er...Cooling!...er...Warming!

I am good and tired of people predicting the end of humanity from climate change unless we immediately do what we're told. There may be something we are doing to warm the Earth's climate, but the hype in the media should be taken with a grain of salt.

It was five years before the turn of the century and major media were warning of disastrous climate change. Page six of The New York Times was headlined with the serious concerns of “geologists.” Only the president at the time wasn’t Bill Clinton; it was Grover Cleveland. And the Times wasn’t warning about global warming – it was telling readers the looming dangers of a new ice age.

We've seen hysterical climate change stories before, we are seeing them now, and we will probably see them in the future. Just like all aspects of the climate, they seem to go in cycles. (about 25 years in this case - just long enough to train a new generation of journalists? hmmmm).

Speculating is fine. Trying to preserve the environment is fine. Advocating non-pollution is fine. Trying to force fundamental economic and social changes on society based on climate predictions that have changed like clockwork every quarter century is NOT OK. Now Global warming has morphed into "climate change"

Recent global warming reports have continued that trend, morphing into a hybrid of both theories. News media that once touted the threat of “global warming” have moved on to the more flexible term “climate change.” As the Times described it, climate change can mean any major shift, making the earth cooler or warmer.

Advocates of climate change no longer need to worry about specific solutions to specific problems. They don't have to worry if the climate suddenly starts to cool, cooling is climate change too, and man must be responsible. They can work on controlling all economic activity that may impact the environment. This is what they really want -- control over the means of production (ie socialism/communism). They believe that individuals can't make the "correct" use of their own assets, and that government should make the decision for them so that all of us will be saved, and not one soul shall be lost. (Dana Carvey voice) Who does that sound like.... could it be..... I don't know.....maybe SATAN!!

I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
-- Moses 4:1

Guilt by Association

HBO's "Big Love," the Warren Jeffs trial, Mitt Romney's two grandmothers, you can't escape news about polygamy these days.

All the publicity surrounding polygamists these days has repercussions for average Mormons, and for Utahns in general.

In My Estates and Trusts class, we were talking about how the law handles children omitted from a parent's will. One student raised his hands and asked, in all seriousness, "do they have special provisions in Utah because polygamy is allowed?"

*sigh*

I, of course, informed the class that polygamy is not allowed in Utah -- but I really shouldn't have had to do that.

I'm Picking Up Good Vibrations . . .

Sadly, I have experienced this phenomenon. it used to happen a lot when I had my old phone in my pocket. Not so much now that I have a holster.

I Knew It !!!

I always knew the shoe companies' marketing was a crock! ("trainers" is British for tennis shoes)

Long live the 25 dollar Sketchers!

Pro-Life in Hollywood

I've always liked Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) and Patricia Heaton (Ray's wife on Everybody Loves Raymond). They have a new show coming to Fox, and Heaton is active in "Feminists for Life." National Review interviewed her and she had some very sensible things to say.

The feminists of the ‘60s and ‘70s felt that in order to promote the agenda of equality in the workplace, which I believe in, that they had to denigrate this other very important aspect of being a woman, which is being a mother and bearing children. To even have to compare these two things is ridiculous. I think a mistake these feminists made was that you had to be more like a man to compete in the world. What that leads to is woman having abortions in order to compete. And that’s not really having a choice. So, that’s a big mistake, and you have to spend a lot of time undoing that notion.

Women need to protect their right to bear children without harassment from boyfriends, or parents, or employers, or professors, and no one should be able to tell women that they cannot bear their children, or that they should have to sacrifice their child in order to accomplish other things in life.

The Real-Life Impact of Liberals in Power

Very interesting look at employment numbers on a state-by-state basis. This article compares job growth since 2001 with the national average.

Total Blue-state employment growth has been only 3.3 percent during the current expansion, which began in November 2001, compared with the U.S. rate of 5.5 percent. Meanwhile, total Red-state employment growth has been 7.5 percent, more than double that of the Blue states.

Unsurprisingly, Michigan is dead last at -5%. But, more interesting is the fact the "Red" states (those voting for Pres. Bush in both 2000 and 2004) are doing much better than the "Blue" states. the Red states in the West are doing particularly well.

the labor market doesn't care who is in power, but the policies put in place by those who govern can either encourage or discourage employers, and this article makes a good case that liberal policies discourage job growth. (the situation in France and Germany being an extreme example)

Boys Adrift

National Review Online has an interview with a physician who has written an interesting book on some of the problems many boys and young men seem to have doing something constructive with their lives.

(I realize I have very little room to talk here, glass houses being what they are, but . . .)

Girls are achieving more than boys are these days. More girls graduate form high school, and many more graduate from college than do their male classmates.

One factor he blames - video games:

These new video games are so exciting, so realistic, so engaging, that many boys get addicted to them. They play them 10, 15, 20 hours a week. I very often hear of parties where the girls stand around talking with other girls, while the young men are in the next room playing Halo on the 55-inch flat screen or watching their buddies play. We’re seeing more and more young men who would rather play these video games rather than try to meet girls.

Anyway, food for thought certainly, especially for those of us raising boys. The doctor blames five factors for the increasing prevalence of "failure to launch" (quoting from www.boysadrift.com):

Video Games. Studies show that some of the most popular video games are disengaging boys from real-world pursuits.

Teaching Methods. Profound changes in the way children are educated have had the unintended consequence of turning many boys off school.

Prescription Drugs. Overuse of medication for ADHD may be causing irreversible damage to the motivational centers in boys’ brains.

Endocrine Disruptors. Environmental estrogens from plastic bottles and food sources may be lowering boys’ testosterone levels, making their bones more brittle and throwing their endocrine systems out of whack.

Devaluation of Masculinity. Shifts in popular culture have transformed the role models of manhood. Forty years ago we had Father Knows Best; today we have The Simpsons.

There Are Just No Words . . .

I'm reminded of the line from "Crocodile Dundee:"

"someone's put two Dunnies in here!"

Only now a Japanese company combines the two functions in one device, and they want Americans to buy it. Apparently 60% of Japanese homes have one of these. The company really can't understand why more American aren't interested.

I can enlighten them a bit. their device is designed to automatically clean one's backside using a nice warm flow of water. I don't know about everyone else, but when I stumble into the bathroom in the middle of the night and turn on the hot water, IT ISN'T HOT! Who would pay$5000 for a device that will shoot them in the *** with a jet of cold water in the middle of the night? Even if the device has a sensor to run the water till it's warm, who wants to wait 1-2 minutes to wipe and dry?

There are two types of American toilet-goers.

Type A likes to get in, sit down, get it out, get up, and get gone.
Type B likes to linger, maybe read a bit, think over the cares of the day, and so on.

Neither type has a use for this type of toilet. The Type A person has no time to wait for a shower and a blow-dry, and I (the type B) certainly don't want to be halfway through a good article in PC World when my toilet decides I'm done and attacks me from behind.

Our throne is one of the few things in life that is completely under our control, and we like it that way.

Communist Absurdity

The communist Chinese government has decreed that Buddhist monks cannot reincarnate without government permission. They have even set up a procedure monks must follow.

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

This is consistent with the communist view of religion as "the opiate of the masses." Communists really believe that people are dumb enough to follow whatever procedure they concoct to stamp the spiritual out of life. Either that, or the PRC finally concluded "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," gave up trying to secularize Tibet and decided to become experts in reincarnation

This is, of course, all a ploy to weaken the influence of the Dalai Lama who has been an opponent of the Communist takeover of Tibet since the 1950s. Communists consistently underestimate the power of deeply held beliefs. Communism cannot replace religion because it doesn't have the power to truly change a human heart. There never have been any truly converted Communists. (Even Stalin was seen praying in church as the German army closed in on Moscow). Communism is just a vehicle to gain power. Its tenets cannot answer the basic questions of life in any remotely satisfying way -

"Where did I come from?" - Religion answers this "from God," Communism answers "Nowhere, but now you're here, you must serve the state."

"What is the purpose of life?" - Religion answers (LDS) "men are that they might have joy." Communism: "You are here to serve the state."

"What happens when I die?" - Religions have many answers to this (reincarnation, exhaltation, Nirvana) all more appealing than communism's offering "you stop serving the state and cease to exist." (P.S. if you fall out of favor, we'll help you cease to exist sooner, then deny you were ever born.)

And people wonder why I don't like trial law . . .

A man in West Virginia is suing McDonald's for $10 million over a drive-thru order mistake. He's allergic to cheese and mistakenly got a cheeseburger. He didn't bother to check the burger before he bit into it. His mother is also suing for reckless endangerment for having to drive him to the hospital.

A woman in Michigan is suing the makers of Starburst candies because they don't warn consumers about the dangers of the candies being "too chewy." Her lawyer just wants to make sure others avoid this danger.

A New Jersey man is suing Starbucks because his tea was too hot and the Starbucks employee didn't put the lid on right. His wife is also suing for losses due to his injury.

Thou shalt not covet . . .

Even though it's one of the ten commandments, I don't think people really pay attention to why it's so important not to covet. This article from NRO really struck me as deeply insightful. Jealousy and covetousness are certainly going to need to be overcome before we can claim to be "the pure in heart." some quotes:

We almost never discuss envy anymore. “One may admit to pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, and laziness, and one may even boast of them,” Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora wrote 20 years ago in Egalitarian Envy. “There is only one capital sin no one admits to: envy. ... Its symbol ought to be a mask.” This is a shame; the most pathetic of the seven deadly sins is perhaps the most consequential.

Indeed, just look again on the 20th century. Envy turned Germany cruel. In Russia, the ideology of envy — socialism — likewise ran amok under the label Bolshevism and threatened to overrun the world. The consequences of envy run even deeper. It will never be known how many millennia man endured in misery and darkness under the moldering blanket of envy. Helmut Schoeck writes in his timeless masterpiece, Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior, that whole societies, hobbled by envy, rejected innovation, and prosperity, preferring the arrested development of all to the advancement of the few.

Like the “scientific socialism” that concealed envy behind a slide rule, today’s liberals invoke social science as justification for their covetousness. In one famous study, a majority of people said they would rather make $50,000 if others earned $25,000 than earn $100,000 if others were making $200,000

[T]hese studies turn a vice into a virtue. With the exception of the self-esteem movement, which glorifies pride, it’s difficult to imagine another area where we so shamelessly tout a sin as the basis of public policy. All men lust in their hearts; shall we dole out concubines for those of us who can’t live like Hugh Hefner? Envy has its social utility, of course. Schoeck argues, along with Nietzsche, that envy helped hone our sense of justice. Fine. But America is supposed to be different, in part because unlike, say, Germany or Russia, America had no feudal past and hence lacked the historic breeding swamps of envy. America’s egalitarianism is supposed to be political and nothing more: No man is the involuntary servant of another. Beyond that, he is the captain of his self.

The man who orders a better meal than me has done no harm to me. And it is no man’s (or bureaucrat’s) job but my own to cool the fever of my futterneid.

The whole article is very insightful, I'd encourage you to read the whole thing. and let no one say that personal vice doesn't impact anyone else.

Who Knew Detroit Was This Bad?

Urban Decay.

The National Review Online has and article by a reporter for the Detroit News on the sorry state of the city - "Unions of Urban Decay." I knew Detroit was a mess, but had no idea it was this bad. (and it can't all be blamed on the auto industry). A few sobering statistics from a once-proud city:

• The Detroit Public School system currently graduates 22 percent of its entering freshman.
• African-American males who drop out of high school in Detroit have 73-percent unemployment in their 20s.
• The city has lost half its population since 1950.
• Detroit has a 70-percent child-illegitimacy rate.
• Detroit today sports a 47-percent adult illiteracy rate. (on par with Bangladesh and trailing the Republic of Chad).
• An estimated 30 percent of Detroit’s population is in government employ. (Read: unionized).
  

He blames the city's problems on the unions, especially the teachers' union. It seems like there is a racial component too.

Michigan millionaire and philanthropist Robert Thompson, who in 2003 offered the city $200 million — $200 million! — to build 15 Detroit charter high schools. He was run out of town. Mayor Kwame Kilptrick, who sends his own kids to charter schools, advertised Detroit’s poisonous racial politics when he rapped the white businessman for trying “to ride in on a white horse” and save the city.

Or consider Dave Bing, a prominent black Detroit entrepreneur. The former Detroit Pistons star was heaped with scorn for partnering with Thompson. At a 2005 banquet hosted by the Call ‘Em Out Coalition, Bing was awarded a “Sambo Sell-Out Award” by Councilwoman Sharon McPhail.

Sad, very, very sad.

This can't help but be a huge drain on the state's economy. Detroit proper has almost 1/10 of the state's population, it's problems affect the rest of us heavily. For example, Detroit's unemployment rate is 13.8%, Michigan as a whole is 7.2%. (by my calculations, if Detroit was at 7.2% too, the statewide unemployment rate would only be 6.5%) That difference skews perception of the rest of the state.

Al Gore, Friend of the Animals

Al Gore is out to save the environment again. From Mary Katharine Ham's Townhall.com blog:

After Live Earth produced the carbon emissions of a small country in order to discourage carbon emissions, Gore has moved onto eating endangered species to encourage their preservation, I guess. Don't ask questions. He's a visionary:

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.

The species is currently managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the body which introduced a catch and trade documentation scheme as an attempt to tackle illegal poaching of this species.

The story comes from the Humane Society.

Apparently, endangered fish taste better than abundant ones. I guess that makes sense, if no one liked them, no one would catch them . . . and they wouldn't be endangered, right?

What to Look for When Shopping for a Laptop

Vendor:

• Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Lenovo (IBM), Acer
  

Processor:

• The speed isn't as important now as it used to be. The most capable are:
• Intel Core 2 Duo (the Core Duo is older but still good).
• AMD Turion 64 X2.

RAM: (Memory)

• 1 GB at least (Windows Vista needs this much)
• 2GB is better. Get all the memory you can afford.

Hard Drive:

• 60 - 100 GB will be the best price/size ratio.
• 120 GB if it’s not much more.

Optical/CD/DVD Drive:

• DVD writer - reads and writes both CDs and DVDs (still a bit pricey on laptops). The terminology is confusing here, there are many formats (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW are the basics. There are also dual layer versions of each of these). The ideal drive reads and writes single and dual layer versions of all of the above.
• CD-RW/DVD - reads DVDs and reads/writes CDs (most common drive in budget models).

Networking:

• Ethernet (standard on most all laptops) - regular cable network.
• Wireless - look for built-in 802.11b/g (or a/b/g) - again pretty standard. You may see 802.11n on some newer machines - this works too.
• Modem - pretty standard.

Screen:

• 15.4 in. is the most common. Most new notebooks are widescreen.
• 14 - 17 inches are common.

Operating System:

• Most will come with Windows Vista. Avoid Vista Home Basic. Vista Business is very good all around.
• If you want Media Center features (movies, music, etc) get Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate.

Battery:

• This varies a lot. 1 hour is poor, 4 hours is good. 2 - 3 hours is typical.
• Some offer high capacity batteries ~6 hours.
• You can find car/airplane adapters if needed.

Miscellaneous:

• Make sure there is a PC Card slot if you'll need one (for Sprint card, etc.).
• Look for 3 or more USB ports. Some also have Media Card readers (for digital camera cards).
• Tablet PCs are available, the screen folds over the keyboard to be used like a pad of paper.

Good Immigration Argument

Maybe illegal immigration isn't ALL bad. . .

The Real Media Divide

This article puts into words several amorphous thought that have been floating around in my head for a while.

Everyone talks about the huge divide in our society, how everything is polarized, left and right, liberal and conservative, etc. But I think this article makes an excellent point. The left-right divide isn't the real issue, it is simply magnified by the News/Entertainment divide.

Most people are not news junkies. They are smart, and they pay attention to what is important, but they don't follow every nuance of every breaking story 24/7. Others (like me) DO follow everything.

The article points out that the huge increase in information availability in recent years -- with expanded adoption of cable, satellite and the internet has allowed nearly everyone to find sites or stations that they enjoy. Naturally the news junkies gravitate to Fox News and CNN, Rush and NPR, and those who aren't obsessed with news follow their interests elsewhere. The news junkies, being the loudest, magnify any difference to the level of a fundamental disagreement -- when in reality the two sides agree on goals, and just differ on methods. (that's a theme for another post).

In effect this has created a new "specialization" -- you could call them "news junkies." They (I should say we), use their own jargon, and spend a lot of time discussing highly involved issues online, by radio call-in, and in our own specialized journals (National Review, the New Republic, etc). Meanwhile the world outside goes on, and most people just can't spare the time and effort to become experts in our field.

We (news junkies) are a little like physicists -- one may vehemently insist that the "the Large Hadron Collider WILL be able to produce the Higgs boson!", while the other retorts, "it will NOT, dang it! the energies in question just aren't sufficient - IDIOT!" Pretty soon, there's fisticuffs in the lab, and it's all downhill from there.

Meanwhile, normal people watching this are either asleep, or calling for the nice young men in the clean white coats to come and take the physicists away to a happy home with nice soft walls. (yes, Dr. Jones, there'll be Higgs bosons there, nice ones, happy ones! . . . of course you can talk to them. . . Just come on . . . get in the van . . . that's it . . . )

I'm sure there are people dialing right now to get us news junkies some help before it's too late. (as long as the padded room gets National Review, I'm good).

;-)

Healthcare, Michael Moore, and American Exceptionalism

Pretty beefy title, huh?

The National Review has an article on Moore's new movie "Sicko." the article gets at the heart of what really bothers Moore and other liberals about Americans. That we believe in self-reliance and generally "live and let live."

This attitude stems from the nearly universal idea we have that America is different from other countries, that it is special, and better than other countries. This makes us stubbornly resistant to socialist rantings

America has a deep-seated individualistic value system that, coupled with the lack of European-style class conflict, inhibited the rise of social democracy here. As one historian has put it, if you were to set out to design a society hostile to collectivism, “one could not have done much better than to implement the social development that has, mostly unplanned, constituted America.”

This exceptionalism has its downsides — our high rates of violence, for one — but it also has created a extraordinarily dynamic and open society that can adjust to and thrive in the globalized economy in a way that sclerotic social democracies can’t.

So, three cheers for the red, white and blue, and . . .

Feminism losing ground?

The National Organization of Women is probably gathered in an emergency session today to deal with this new survey of mothers.

The Pew Research Center survey, being released today, found that only 21 percent of working mothers with children younger than 18 viewed full-time work as the best arrangement, down from 32 percent in 1997. Sixty percent of the working mothers said a part-time job would be best, up from 48 percent 10 years ago. And 19 percent said not working at all would be ideal — roughly the same as in 1997.

The survey also found a shift in preferences among stay-at-home mothers. Only 16 percent of them said their ideal situation would be to work full time outside the home, down from 24 percent in 1997. Conversely, 48 percent now say that not working at all outside the home is the best arrangement, up from 39 percent who felt that way in 1997. . . Cary Funk, a Pew researcher on the survey, said the trend reflected women's latest thoughts on the ideal arrangement for their children.

Apparently, not all modern women want to be workaholics. Oddly enough, many women believe that it would be better for their children if mom were at home either full or part time. . . huh . . . go figure. The really interesting part is the huge change in responses since 1997. Today, 33% fewer working mothers think full-time work is ideal than thought so 10 years ago. 25% more think part-time work would be best. That's a huge shift in a very short time. These aren't all new women entering the workforce with new ideas either. Many of the same women surveyed now were working in 1997. Many of these mothers are probably working in order to make ends meet rather than because they want to, given the cost of living "the good life" today.

Mothers who actually raise their children seem to be happier too. Today 33% fewer full-time moms want to be full-time workers outside the home than 10 years ago. Now 20% more full-time moms think they are doing what's best for their children than thought so in 1997. Almost half think that their being at home is best. (makes one wonder why the other half are at home, doesn't it?)

I can only guess at why opinions have changed so much. Maybe it's all the violence in schools, all the stupid internet videos of kids fighting, beating people, taking drugs, etc. maybe 9/11 changed the way we view families. Whatever the cause, opinions are changing. The economy doesn't help mothers realize their desires, however. As the article points out, the mothers' views don't reflect the reality.

According to the latest federal figures, 70.5 percent of American women with children younger than 18 work outside the home — including 60 percent of mothers with children younger than 3. And the newly emerging preference for part-time work doesn't mesh with current reality: Three-quarters of the working mothers have full-time jobs.

But, at least there seems to be a growing sense that children cannot raise themselves, and when others raise your kids, you may not like the way they turn out. And maybe, just maybe, there is a new generation of baby boomers' kids who missed having mom at home growing up, and don't want to cause their own children the same regret. And maybe people are starting to accept that men and women don't have to want the same things to lead worthwhile, productive lives.

Climate Change: Part I

I have a lot of thoughts on climate change. Most of them are politically incorrect. This article neatly summarizes the main reason not to panic because average temperatures are getting a little warmer.

News Flash! - this isn't the first time this has happened. It isn't even the first time in recorded history. People have been dealing with climate change forever. Our generation is not unique or special in that regard. We're just arrogant enough to assume that everything we face is unprecedented and grave. We are also the first generation that can really cause some damage if our attempts to "correct" the climate fail.

Some people are talking about dumping iron in the ocean to fight global warming. That will probably cause more problems than it will solve. Instead of knee-jerk reactions, we should assess the possible impact of the warming, and then simply adapt. If the ancient Greeks could adapt, we should have no problems.

As the article points out, this history doesn't mean we aren't impacting the climate. It doesn't mean we shouldn't find ways to pollute less. But, it does mean that mankind has survived this before and to destroy our economy to try to stop what may be unstoppable is not the rational thing to do.

Not very well-travelled, am I?

Monument to Victims of Communism

"We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to thosewho died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory. The Czech writer Milan Kundera once described the struggle against Communism as "the struggle of memory against forgetting." Communist regimes did more than take their victims' lives; they sought to steal their humanity and erase their memory. With this memorial, we restore their humanity and we reclaim their memory. With this memorial, we say of Communism's innocent and anonymous victims, these men and women lived and they shall not be forgotten." -- George W. Bush, June 12, 2007

Today in Washington, President Bush dedicated a memorial to the victims of communism. Fittingly, today is also the 20th anniversary of one of President Reagan's most famous speeches in which he stood in front of the Berlin Wall and said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

The monument is a statue in the style of the one erected in Tienanmen Square in Beijing in 1989. Communist Chinese military units later destroyed it while driving tanks over the assembled peaceful protesters. Hundreds were killed.

Communism doesn't get the same bad rap that other brutal ideologies do. Maybe it's because we fought no great war to end it as we did against the Nazis. Or maybe it's because we never had to face it in our own country as we did slavery.

Anyone sickened by the atrocities of the holocaust (about 6 million Jews killed) should be simply horrified at the destruction wrought by communism. Communist atrocities weren't aimed at only one group of people. they weren't confined to only one country, and they have been occurring for 90 years now. In China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam these atrocities continue. By a conservative estimate the victims of Communism include:

65 million (and counting) in China; 20 million in the Soviet Union, 2 million (and counting) in North Korea, 2 million in Cambodia, 1.7 million in Africa, 1.5 million in Afghanistan, 1 million in Vietnam, 1 million in communist Eastern Europe and 150,000 in Latin America.

In short, communism, an evil ideology unlike any the world has seen, is responsible for the slaughter of more than 94 million human beings. It tops all plagues, natural disasters, crime, and other political ideologies, probably combined. -- Cal Thomas

Other estimates put the total at closer to 150 million.

May they rest in peace.

A Few Good Articles

I read a lot of political philosophy every day. But, rarely do I find a group of articles like this that all seem to mesh together so well. All three speak of the decline of traditional morality and families, and the consequences of that.

First, why Republican presidential candidates should be talking about families more.

Next, what adolescents and intellectuals have in common.

Last, this article really hits the nail on the head. It talks about why people on the "left" find public anger and profanity acceptable. for example, why are there so many "Buck Fush" bumper stickers?

The answer is that parts of the left have little or no belief in the concept of "decency" as traditionally understood by Western civilization. They tend to dismiss such notions as bourgeois anachronisms; they place great value on individuals expressing themselves; and they view self-censorship as a form of fascism.

This latter reason is important: The '60s redefined narcissism as idealism. The individual's feelings became sacrosanct.

That is why the self-esteem movement -- the idea that how an individual feels about himself is far more important than what he actually accomplishes -- arose from the left.

And that is why you almost never hear a conservative say "I am offended" when reacting to a liberal speaker or writer, but it is quite commonplace for a liberal to use those words in reacting to someone from the right.

"Make love not war" was another example of placing one's feelings above other values. That is why it is a very good thing for the world that the previous generation, the one that fought Hitler, didn't believe in making love rather than war.

I told you this blog was random!

Michigan = France

I heard something on the radio this morning that reminded me just how backwards the Michigan economy is these days. The radio host was talking to the heads of both major state political parties. He said something like:

"now there's a proposal in front of the state legislature to make it so that the big 3 auto makers don't pay any taxes until they make money again. This will help keep them in Michigan. I'm surprised no one's thought of this before."

What?!?! Everyone's thought of this. Nowhere else in America are you taxed when you have no income. Michigan has had what's called the Single Business Tax for years. This is a tax calculated on gross revenue, not on income. So businesses here pay taxes even if they lose money. It has finally been repealed, but now they are looking at replacing it with a "revenue neutral" business tax (read: high tax rate). This will hardly improve the business environment.

And the politicians wonder why the economies of every other state are growing, and Michigan's is not. They wonder why car companies find it cheaper to build in Ohio or Indiana and then entice skilled workers to move there from Michigan. They wonder why the state has a huge budget deficit and unemployment that is almost twice the national rate, and no population growth (0.3%/year).

Confiscatory taxes do not work. This lesson has largely been learned by conservatives (and even many liberals). Ireland has learned it, South Korea and Taiwan have learned it. Even Communist China has learned it to some degree. Only Western Europe - such as Germany and France, and Michigan seem to be behind the times.

When you combine this with the hold the unions have on the state, and the weird things Michigan spends money on (MI is the only state with a state surgeon general), a pattern starts to emerge

Michigan = France when it comes to economics.

Honey Baked Buffalo?

This is the scariest pig I've ever seen.



How would you like to run into this guy deep in the forest? My favorite quote:

He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50- caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

Eight 50 cal. rounds? And it took 3 hours to catch it! Where the heck do you get a .50 cal. pistol anyway?

I don't think I'd let my 11 year-old hunt anything that size. But I'll take this kid on my team when the shooting starts.

FHE - Family Home Economics

Since Becky and I have made the decision to have her at home with the boys, this article caught my eye. It gives some reasons I never would have thought of to argue that a one-income family is actually better off than a two-income family.

People can argue about this all they want. I think that, individual exceptions aside, it all comes down to following the Prophet and the council contained in the Proclamation on the Family. The benefits and reasons in this article are only temporal manifestations of an underlying divine truth. The underlying truth is that God has made us with a specific optimal familial outcome in mind. Deviating from it through no fault of our own may be inevitable, but so are the consequences. Yes, bad things do happen to good people. But we don't need to invite problems into our family when we have a choice in the matter.

Of course having a one-income family is not all that God suggests we do, far from it! It's only one paragraph in the Proclamation on the Family. It is one paragraph that impacts many others though. It is a key factor in how we organize our time, and in what or who will teach our children. Where do we want them to learn what is right and what is wrong? Where do we want them to learn about what is sacred, and what deserves our respect? Would we rather have Britney Spears, Madonna, Bill Clinton, and the kid down the street teach them about sex, or Mom, Dad, the Ensign and the Holy Ghost?

Tough call, huh?

Thanks, Becky for all you do, and for laboring selflessly for our family by raising our boys.

America is not Rome

There's a great article on National Review's site today. It's nice to read something positive about America hidden among all the negativity. The author's main point is that there have been a series of "crises" over the last century. Over and over, we were supposed to be replaced by a new superpower, or a new economic system. Over and over, all have failed.

Our Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world. Our economy is open, efficient, and above all, flexible. But the best line of the whole article is this one:

"Does merit — or religion, tribe, or class — mostly gauge success or failure in America? What nation is as free, stable, and transparent as the U.S.? Try becoming a fully accepted citizen of China or Japan if you were not born Chinese or Japanese. Try running for national office in India from the lower caste. Try writing a critical op-ed in Russia or hiring a brilliant female to run a mosque, university, or hospital in most of the Middle East."

In America people rise based on merit, not the station or tribe they were born into. Merit is largely the sum total of a lifetime of individual choices; it is moral agency at work. That is the reason for our strength.

you can read the whole article here:

"No Decline Here"

Al Gore's Environment

Look at all the environmental waste in this guy's office. Why he's got 3 entire old-growth trees worth of paper on his desk. While those 3 Apple 30 inch monitors look great, just imagine the fossil fuels being burned to power those suckers. 150 watts each if you're wondering. That comes out to 7.5 sixty-watt incandescent light bulbs. (who knows how many compact fluorescents). He can't even spring for a TV card to use one of the monitors to watch. Instead, he needs a separate flat-panel TV. Also take note of the huge personal laser printer under the desk - more dead trees.

There are so many ways to make this office more environmentally friendly. Why, if Al Gore saw this he'd have . . . ummmm . . . wait a minute, that is Al Gore!

Never mind. It must be OK, Gore knows what he's talking about.

(I for one intend to follow this environmental example just as soon as I can get the money for three nice big monitors).

Gaps

You'll notice a big gap in posts here. I'll just blame that on moving from Utah to Michigan, having a new baby, and going to law school while working the last two years.