Sisters...Because the Internet Was Invented to Share Cat Photos

Things aren't always so serene.  If I ever have my camera handy at just the right time, I'll make a video of them when they're "fighting." 

A Demographic Nighmare

From a Russ Douthat column:

In Japan, birthrates are now so low and life expectancy so great that the nation will soon have a demographic profile that matches that of the American retirement community of Palm Springs. “Gradually but relentlessly,” the demographer Nick Eberstadt writes in the latest issue of The Wilson Quarterly, “Japan is evolving into a type of society whose contours and workings have only been contemplated in science fiction.”

 Thanks to increasing life expectancy, by 2040 “there could almost be one centenarian on hand to welcome each Japanese newborn.”  Over the same period, the overall Japanese population is likely to decline by 20 percent, with grim consequences for an already-stagnant economy and an already-strained safety net.

The traditional stigma against having children outside of marriage still exists in Japan, and is cited as one of the contributing factors.  Another is the traditional suspicion of immigration. 

So....the next time some culture warrior cites the rise of out-of-wedlock children as an example of America's declining moral core, remind him of Japan and the fact that out-of-wedlock children are better for the country than no children. 

And keep the immigrants coming.

Unexceptionalism: A Primer

A wonderful essay by E. L. Doctorow.

TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following:

Spoiler alert: we've already done everything on the list.

It's Only Going To Get Uglier, I'm Afraid

For anyone inclined to dismiss the NY Times as East Coast, Elite, Liberal....whatever, be advised that the ridiculous cartoon below is copied from the NYT website.  And, no, it is not from a story about the inane way in which the right is portraying Obama; it is from one of their regular contributors, Glenn McCoy, whose similarly-hilarious cartoons are available all the time.  The only thread which connects them all is his over-the-top, seeming almost personal hatred for the first family.

One of the truly amazing things I have noted about the irrational anti-Obama rants is the fact that he is, apparently at the same time, a bumbling fool who is in completely over his head who can do nothing right and a socialist/communist with a master plan to take over or destroy democracy as we know (or imagine) it. He has also been simultaneously, probably even by the same people, compared to Hitler and Stalin. I know that someone (Einstein? Mark Twain?) said that the mark of a genius is the ability to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas in his mind at the same time.  It is also the mark of a lot of slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging idiots (all of whom have a vote, remember.).

Here is a link to an article by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship called, "The Ghost of Joe McCarthy in Today's Republican Party.


Where are the responsible leaders in the Republican party who will challenge this kind of nonsense from Florida Representative Allen West? 

A Republican and Tea Party favorite, he was asked at a local gathering how many of his fellow members of Congress are “card-carrying Marxists or International Socialists.”

He replied, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus."

By now, little of what Allen West says ever surprises. He has called President Obama "a low level Socialist agitator," said anyone with an Obama bumper sticker on their car is "a threat to the gene pool" and told liberals like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to "get the hell out of the United States of America."

The Good ´Ol NRA

From a NY Times article about gun violence.

Chief Flynn recounted pleading with a state senator to include a provision in Wisconsin’s concealed weapons law that would ban habitual criminal offenders from obtaining permits. The senator, he said, told him, “Here’s the phone number of the National Rifle Association lobbyist in Washington, D.C. If it’s O.K. with him, it will be O.K. with us.” The provision was not included, Chief Flynn said.

 It´s ironic how politicians always defer to the generals when it comes to military matters, but the nation´s police chiefs get no such respect and their requests regarding gun control are always ignored.

We Gotta Pay Taxes?

Just a little over a year ago, the mayor of Miami lost a recall election by a tremendous margin.  I think one of the key factors was the public funding of the new Miami (formerly Florida) Marlins baseball stadium, which must have pissed off a lot of people.

An article in today's NY Times about the new stadium, which is a real 21st-Century departure from all of the retro-looking parks that have been built since the opening of Camden Yards in Baltimore, rather off-handedly includes a link to a 2000 publication of the CATO Institute which shows that the supposed economic benefits of publicly-funded sports stadiums are almost always fictitious.

From that publication, I picked this quote:

“We play the Star Spangled Banner before every game
—you want us to pay taxes too?” —Bill Veeck

Good 'Ol Self Reliance

Virginia Foxx, the idiot North Carolina congresswoman who said on Gordon Liddy's radio show a week or so ago that she was tired of hearing college graduates whine about their crushing debts, has a very convenient memory.

According to the Education Sector blog, Foxx paid tuition of $87.50 per semester when she went to the University of North Carolina in 1961.  That equates to an inflation-adjusted $671.30 per semester today.

It was possible to work your way through college in the 1960's; it isn't anymore.

By the way, is there a double standard about the way Republicans glorify their convicted felons? Don't Gordon Liddy and Oliver North both have radio shows where political leaders are wont to show up without a hint of embarrassment?