Friday, July 20, 2007

They’re So Enlightened

No wonder their civilization is a shining light in the universe!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Top Funky Keyboards

The first one shows up in the new Die Hard movie.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Diversity is Bad

A very interesting article in City Journal talks about how multi-culturalism is hurting the country, not the other way around. People like each other a lot less when faced with strangers. And homogeneous cultures have much more robust sense of community than diverse ones. It’s pretty obvious everywhere you go if you look around.

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer. The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.”

In the 41 sites Putnam studied in the U.S., he found that the more diverse the neighborhood, the less residents trust neighbors. This proved true in communities large and small, from big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Boston to tiny Yakima, Washington, rural South Dakota, and the mountains of West Virginia. In diverse San Francisco and Los Angeles, about 30 percent of people say that they trust neighbors a lot. In ethnically homogeneous communities in the Dakotas, the figure is 70 percent to 80 percent.

Diversity does not produce “bad race relations,” Putnam says. Rather, people in diverse communities tend “to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.” Putnam adds a crushing footnote: his findings “may underestimate the real effect of diversity on social withdrawal.”

None of this surprises me. I’ve been studying cultures for a long time. Places with “diversity” seem to have more crime and more problems. I guess its the bird of a feather principal. People feel more comfortable around “their kind”. We’ve been told time and time again not to be racist or whatever, but human nature is what it is. And as the article explains, racism isn’t the issue. Even people of the same race distrust each other when things get too mixed up.

It’s too late to stop the trends. But the immigration bill needs to die. It’s wrong for so many reasons its not even funny. And this article provides yet another reason to see it fail.

What remains to be seen is which politicians are stupid enough to sell us out. 

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Belarus Money

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Overheard in New York

Some of these are hilarious.

Friday, June 15, 2007

When Food Fascists Win

There goes another childhood pleasure out the door. Due to pressure from the obesity epidemic clowns, sugary cereals are being discontinued at one major company, along with fun marketing characters.

These are bad times to be a kid. Not only are they taking away your cereal, they are taking away junk food at schools and you can’t go anywhere on your own.

I’m glad I wasn’t born 8 years ago.

[ht: John Cassidy]

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Similar GDPs

This map shows what each state’s Gross Domestic Product matches other nations. It’s surprising seeing how poor some states are, if not for teh fact they are part of a rich nation. 

Friday, June 08, 2007

American Tourists are…?

Don’t believe the self-hating anti-American hype you hear from the usual clods.

The best tourists in the world are the Japanese, followed by Americans and the Swiss, a survey based on views from hoteliers across Europe said Wednesday.

Japanese tourists stood out for being polite and tidy, securing 35 percent more votes than the Americans who came second.

Swiss tourists were commended for being quiet and considerate, unlike the Britons who were judged to be the fifth worst tourists because of rude behavior, noise and a miserly attitude to tipping.

But despite their faults, hoteliers do look favorably upon British spending habits voting them the third biggest holiday spenders after Americans and Russians.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Culture Clash

This picture says it all. It’s easy to see which side you’d want to be on. 

Monday, May 28, 2007

Hero of the Day

Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant has spoken out against this summer’s Live Earth concerts.

Tennant has also hit out against Bono for his politically active role.

He said: “The Princess Diana concert is fair enough, but I feel more uneasy about the Al Gore thing.

“I’ve always been against the idea of rock stars lecturing people as if they know something the rest of us don’t - it looks arrogant.

“It’s not as if they have a private source of information. To state the obvious as if you are the only person that knows it is intellectually weak.”

New Music Express