California Today, Texas Tomorrow-2

"The demographer who warned a decade ago about Texas' unhappy mix of dismal education achievement and high poverty is more concerned than ever. Actually, he's frightened. ... Some don't see much leadership from politicians or the private sector in attacking the trend line that demographer Steve Murdock says will result in three of every 10 workers not having a high school decuation by 2040. ... The state's public schools have more and more low-income kids and persistently high dropout rates--and unless that changes, the future of Texas will contain more long-term unemployment and poverty--and more folks depending on food stamps, Medicaid and CHIP, Murdock said. ... The trend line also is clear: School districts with large numbers of low-income students have higher dropout rates. Large school districts where low-income students make up at least 80 percent of the enrollment have dropout/attrition rates of 50 percent or more. ... 'Every kid deserves to be educated, and we're going to figure out what it takes and do it,' said Bill hammond, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business. ... If nothing changes, average Texas household incomes will be about $6,500 lower in 30 years than they were in 2000, according to Murdock's projections. That number is not adjusted for inflation, so it would be worse than it appears. ... He sees only two solutions: Texas must do more to prepare preschoolers anbd must boost grants to provide financial help for college. ... The exact extent of the dropout problem is unknown. ... Murdock said it's critical for Texans to understand 'that our future is tied to these kids' future'," Gary Scharrer at the Houston Chronicle, 21 June 2010, link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7063520.html.

Our future looks bleak. Disagreeing with Murdock, there is another solution.

Are CPAs Racist?

"Thomas Jones decided to go into accounting when a CPA spoke about the profession at his high school's career day. ... But Jones' story is uncommon. African-Americans make up only about 1 percent of all certified public accountants, according to a paper published this year by Howard University. ... Frank Ross, director of the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education and one of the founders of the NABA, said lack of awareness about accounting, low success with the Uniform CPA Exam [UCPAE] and difficulty retaining African-Americans all contribute to the small number of African-American accountants. ... Often, young people in minority communities don't have the role models or mentors to teach them what accounting is about, said Gregory Johnson, executive director and chief operating officer of the NABA. ... The CPA Bound program, for example, supports people working to become certified, tracks their progress and recognizes them at NABA conferences after passing the [UCPAE]", my emphasis, Salvador Rodriguez at the Houston Chronicle, 15 June 2010, link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/7053295.html.

What percentage of CPAs does Jones expect to be black? 13%? Estimating you need at least 120 IQ to pass the UCPAE, that's 1.33 STDV above the caucasian mean or thanks to hyperstaz, the .909 level. It's also 2.40 STDV above the black mean, the .992 black level, so why be surprised with the result?

Milton Friedman Was Right (Again)

"Who is poor in America? This is a hard question to answer, and the Obama administration would make it harder. ... Except for recessions, when the poverty rate can rise to 15 percent, it's stayed in a narrow range for decades. ... But the apparent lack of progress is misleading for two reasons. First, it ignores immigration. Many immigrants are poor and low skilled. ... From 1989 to 2007, about three quarters of the increase in the poverty population occurred among Hispanics--mostly immigrants, their children and grandchildren. ... Poverty 'experts' don't dwell on immigration, because it implies that more restrictive policies might reduce US poverty. Second, the poor's material well-being has improved. ... Suppose that all Americans doubled their income tomorrow, and suppose that their spending on food, clothing, housing, and utilities also doubles. That would seem to signify less poverty--but not by the new poverty measure. ... The new indicator is a 'propaganda device' to promote income redistribution by showing that poverty is stubborn or increasing, says the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector. He has a point. ... To paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: the adminstration is defining poverty up. ... Government statistics should strive for political neutrality. This one fails", my emphasis, Robert Samuelson at Newsweek, 7 June 2010, link:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/30/defining-poverty-up.html.

This is old news. Without poor people what would our poverty warriors do? See my 4 June 2010 post:

http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2010/06/california-today-texas-tomorrow.html.

He Throws Temper Tantrum

"Just plug the damned hole! That, more or less, is the leadership and direction we are getting from our president as we grapple with the oil spill in the Gulf. What else should we expect from a socilaist theoretician who has never actually accomplished anything in his life? ... This is what happens when an academic finds himself in the position of actually having to get something done. Nothing written on a blackboard or recited from a textbook or lectured from a podium will plug the leak miles deep off Louisiana. Nothing in Barack Obama's background full of lectures and textbooks makes him fit for any job where getting things done is important. ... The professor has not a clue what to do. This stuff is hard. Well doggone! You mean if drilling five miles deep and than another mile below the mud on the bottom of the ocean is hard--then repairing a screw-up in the same location is hard to do, too? ... Now the professor child is upset about a spill in his little utopian sandbox. The child is whining and pointing fingers and demanding that someone fix it. It is eating into his playtime for shooting hoops and playing golf, and it is so much messier than theoretical issues. The problem is that the child has no clue how the sandbox was built or how the pristine sand got there", C. Edmund Wright at American Thinker, 29 May 2010, link:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/when_professor_obama_meets_dir.html.

Take the Bar and Beat Me, my 22 December 2007 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2007/12/us-injustice-system-at-work.html, describes Him.

Magic Words

"The term 'social justice' is now commonly used by leftist activists, clergy, educators, judges, and politicians to describe the goal they seek to achieve with many of their polcies. No precise definition of 'social justice' is ever offered by the left. Instead, the term is always used in a vague way--as if everyone already knows, or should know, what the seemingly well-intentioned phrase 'social justice' means. ... In short, social justice is communism. ... 'Justice,' in the Marxist context, means economic equality. This is Marxist utopian ideal that all members of society should receive the same amount of compensation, regardless or occupation, skill, or work ethic", Jayme Sellards at American Thinker, 16 May 2010, link:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/what_exactly_is_social_justice.html.

"You might think that being a Supreme Court justice would be the top of the line job for someone in the legal profession. But, many Supreme Court decisions suggest that too many justices are not satisfied with their role, and seek more sweeping powers as supreme policy-makers, grand second-guessers or philosopher-kings. ... The role of an appellate court is not to simply second-guess the decision of the trial judge and jury, much less usurp the responsibility of legislatures to make social policy. But the pretense of applying the Constitution gives appellate judges the power to do both. ... If justices can pick and choose which legal principles and practices they will follow, from the many widely varying principles and practices in countries around the world, then they can find a basis for doing just about anything they feel like doing. ... Once appellate judges are free to base their rulings on what people do in India, Egypt or Germany, Americans are no longer a self-governing people", Thomas Sowell at Frontpage Magazine, 24 May 2010, link: http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/24/judicial-power-grabs/

"Ever wonder why most of your credit-card mail comes from South Dakota? The answer is a 1978 Supreme Court decision called Marquette National Bank on Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp. ... The Court ruled that it referred to the location of the bank. ... What happened next was predicatble enough: Citibank offered to move to South Dakota, bringing much-needed jobs and tax revenue, if the state would let it write new credit-card regulation. ... If the Supreme Court had interpreted one word differently, credit-card regulation in this country would be entirely different. ... Bruce Ackerman, a legal scholar at Yale ... [said] 'For sure ... the status of undocumented aliens is going to me mcuh more salient in Americna law. We're going to have 10 [million] or 15 million people or more who'll find themselves in a position increasingly like black people in 1954. That will be a terribly serious issue, and the court will have to decide how to respond.' ... 'What happens when promised benefits are cut back dramatically?' he asked. 'Will the court protect the weak, or not?'," my emphasis, Ezra Klein at Newsweek, 24 May 2010, link: http://www.newsweek.com//id/238075. This reminds me of my meeting Al Sharpton in 1966 or 1967, my 5 March 2009 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/03/eric-holder-deceiver.html.

Many times I've said the Supremes do whatever they want and justifiy it later. I await Justice Ginsburg's using Saudi Arabian law as precedent. Will she say it is neither cruel nor unusual to cut off a thief's hand?

Aren't you impressed by Ackerman's reasoning? Negroes in 1954 were American Citizens. The 14th Amendment was created to ensure they were citizens. How dare you claim the same rights for illegal aliens? See, we are all legal scholars now. Why will the Supremes have to decide anything with respect to illegal aliens? What happens when taxes are increased? Will the court protect the solvent, or not? Aren't you impressed with legal reasoning? Wait, there is an answer! Have the Supremes decide no person need pay anything to support illegal aliens. Based on what? Extending the reach of the Third Amendment. Why should American citizens "quarter" members of the Aztlan Army?

The New Black?

"'Is white the new black?' ... For after a year of battering as 'un-American,' 'evil-doers' and 'racists, and praise from talk-show hosts and Sarah Palin as 'the real Americans,' Tea-Party America seems to be taking on a new and separate identity. ... Even as [Arthur] Schlesinger was writing his 'Disuniting of America,' Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were disintegrating into 22 new nations, along the lines of ethnicity. In Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Ossetia and Abkhazaia, the process proceeds apace. ... Obama in the campaign of 2008 recognized that 'out there' in Middle America existed another country, far from the one he grew up in, far from the privileged Ivy League community to which he belonged. ... Palin and the tea partiers now repeat Obama's disparaging line about their clinging to Bibles and guns--with defiant pride. ... Now Southerners are proudly commemorating ancestors who fought and fell in the Lost Cause and demanding recognition of Confederate History Month. And state governors are acceding. ... The imputation of racism to tea partiers hads not intimidated or cowed them. ... Why are the tea partiers not intimidated the way Republicans often are? Why is the charge of racism not working", Pat Buchanan at World Net Daily, 19 April 2010, link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=143033.html.

Obama may not realize it yet, but many, perhaps most people in Texas, hold him in contempt. Hillary favored, "The politics of meaning". What did that mean? What policies did she favor? Who knows?

Ode to Obama

"First came a stimulus bill that, while aimed mainly at ending a deep recession, also set out to remake the nation's education system and vastly expanded scientific research. Then President Obama signed a health care bill that was the biggest expansion of the safety net in 40 years. And now Congress is in the final stages of a bill that would tighten Wall Street's rules and probably shrink its profit margins. If there is a theme to all of this, it has been to try to lift economic growth while also reducing income inequality. ... By focusing on long-term problems, Mr. Obama and the Democrats have given less than their full attention to the economy's current weakness and turned off a good number of voters. ... Still, the turnabout since Jan. 20--the first anniversary of Mr. Obama's inauguration and the day after Scott Brown, a Republican, won a Senate seat in liberal Massachusetts--has been remarkable. ... Today, he looks more like a liberal answer to Ronald Reagan. ... Every major piece of the Obama agenda is meant, in part, to push back against inequality. ... The financial regulation bill, meanwhile, would take several steps likely to reduce Wall Street's profits--and Wall Street has created more multimillionaires in recent decades than any other industry. ... Most striking, the administration is trying to improve public education by introducing more market competition. ... These education changes--combined with increased spending on science research--are meant to lift economic growth. ... Economists have long considered education and technology to be main ingredients in growth", my emphasis, David Leonhardt (DL) at the NYT, 22 May 2010, link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/business/economy/22leonhardt.html.

What can I say? Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism wanted this pieced shredded, so here goes. "In the [1930s], [FDR] created the [SEC] and [FDIC]. Now [America] was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the [American continent], and the Spirit of [Obama] was hovering over the waters. And [Obama] said let there be [a stimulus bill], and there was a [stimulus bill]. [Obama] saw the [stimulus bill] was good, and he separated the [United States] from the [recession]. [Obama] called the [stimulus bill] '[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act]' and the darkness he called 'recession'. And there was evening and, and there was morning--the first [few months]. And [Obama] said, 'Let there be [no] expanse between the [ethnic groups educational attainments] to separate [group] from [group]. So [Obama and Duncan] made the expanse [shrink] and [no longer] separated the [group] under the expanse from the [group] above it. And it was so. [Obama] called the [ended] expanse [academic achievement]. And there was evening and morning--the next few months", Genesis, 1:1-10 (NIV) with apologies to the original.

DL's piece is so bad. It isn't even good pro-Obama propaganda. It's almost a parody. The current "Wall Street reform bill" looks like a show piece to mollify the peasants with pitchforks. Expand scientific research while reducing NASA spending? Sure. What big expansion of the "safety net"? It's a rearrangement: kill old white women and expand medical care for illegal aliens and their children. Focusing on "long-term problems"? The "never let a crisis go to waste crowd"? What about the combined social security and medicare actuarial deficits variously estimated at $60-115 trillion? His education bill is just another teachers' unions payoff. It will not improve education in the US, which is a big waste of money. We need more, not fewer dropouts. Voxeu had an interesting 18 May 2010 piece on education, link: http://voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5058. One author, Robert Barro is a Harvard economics professor. The other, Jong-Wha Lee, got his PhD at Havard. "The estimates for the group of advanced countries, East Asia and the Pacific, and South Asia are the highest at 13.3%. In contrast, the estimated rates of return are only 6.6% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 6.5% in Latin America". Hmm. Hey Barro and Lee, have you read IQ and the Wealth of Nations? I think I can explain what you found! For that matter, have you read Vance Packard's The Status Seekers, 1959, about degrees and "signalling"? The bloom is falling off the educational rose.

Whose History?

"The State Board of Education's proposed revisions for K-12 social studies curricula have come under fire from the radical left. ... Studies have revealed how unbalanced America's humanities departments are. Democrats outnumber Republicans by a large margin. In the history department at the University of Texas at Austin, out of 50 registered voters, only one is a Republican. Moderate and conservative Democrats are also rare. This political slant is reinforced by the economics of scholarship: Academic historians have been trained and have invested their careers in a profession that counts as legitimate only those subfields that support the leftist orthodoxy. Military history, for example, has almost entirely died off; not a single professor of history at UT-Austin lists military history as a primary speciality, while dozens list sexuality, ethnicity and anti-colonialism. ... Thus, robber barrons, the New Deal and the civil rights movement are in, but the contributuions of inventors and entrepreneurism, the decline of the family and the failures of welfare programs and public education are out. The new standards represent real progress. They don't go far enough in challenging orthodoxy, but they are a step in the right direction. ... This artificallly inflated controversy points to a larger issue: The people must not develp the habit of blind deference to so-called academic experts. ... The fundamental question is this: Shall we continue to have a government ruled by the people, or shall we instead, yield to a self-perpetuating caste of quasi-official experts", Robert Koons (RK) at the Houston Chronicle, 14 May 2010, link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7004327.html.

Henry Ford said "History is bunk". Amen. RK is a UT philosphy professor.

California Today, Texas Tomorrow?

"If you want to see how profoundly the state's population is changing, look at the faces of the children in Texas public school classrooms. In all but rural areas, Hispanic enrollment is rapidly surpassing that of whites. Hispanic schoolchildren make up nearly 49 percent of Texas' 4.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students, according to the Texas Education Agency. ... Now, they must confront the realization that the state is not adequately funding education of a growing population that is generally poorer and less proficient in English. ... The shift appears to be driven by birth rates and immigration, not simply 'white flight' to private schools. The gap grows every year and is wider in the early elemanetary school grades, where Hispanic children now make up a majority. ... But the combination of high numbers of limited english-proficient students, even higher numbers of children from low-income families and persistently high dropout rates worry some educators and demogaphers. During the past decade, enrollment from low-income families has grown to 2.8 million, or nearly 59 percent of all students. The number of English-language learners has increased to nearly 816,000. ... Manuel Rodriguez Jr, president of the Texas Mexican American School Board Association and a member of the Houston ISD board [said], 'millions and millions have been spent on dropout prevention measures, and it hasn't changed the numbers.' ... Steve Murdock, now on the faculty of Rice University [said], 'The demographics are very overpowering, and we clearly show signs of falling farther behind. It is, as we have noted, the major challenge to Texas' future'," my emphasis, Gary Scharrer at the Houston Chronicle, 16 May 2010, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7007046.html.

"If the American Dream is upward economic mobility and arrival in the middle class, the grim statistics show only a small percentage of Texas' Hispanics are on the road to success. As the state's Latino population continues to expand over the next two decades, if current treands stay the same, Texas is in danger of developing what one academic describes as a 'permanent underclass.' Widespread poverty could pull down the standard of living for all Texans. ... Hispanic girls accounted to 62 percent of all births to teen mothers in 2006, the most recent year reported by the National Center for Health Statistics. ... St. Mary's University political scientist Henry Flores said ... 'Texas has been the cradle of the Hispanic middle class, what there is of it nationally. ... But if you look at the overall percentages of Hispanics of higher degrees and professional occupations, it's very, very small.' ... 'If things don't change, you're going to see a continuing Hispanic underclass'," RG Ratcliffe at the Houston Chronicle, 17 May 2010: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/7008236.html.

Quoted without comment.

Isn't creating an underclass what our "open borders" advocates want? "Feature, not bug", as Yves Smith says. If we didn't have enough poor people, what would our poverty warriors fight? What's Flores' problem? Absent an underclass, what would he have to study? See my 4 April 2008 post:

http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-mexican-child-left-behind.html. As Texas demographics approach Mexico's, Texans average living standard will approach that of Mexicans. It's that simple.

Oswald Spengler Confronts America

"A couple of months ago, I by accident came across a book called In God's Image: The Natural History of Intelligence and Ethics. One of the blurbs on the back was written by Richard Lynn, so I thought it might be worth a look. ... Why can't we get people to wake up to the demographic crisis America is facing? Mostly because prehistoric man gained little from thinking about the distant future. ... Also, before private property, there wasn't much you could do for those more than one generation removed from you anyway. So evolution selected those who looked after themselves and their own children, and against idealists who dreamed of changing the world. ... Death rather than advancement is the fate of most species. ... The white population of South Africa stayed constant over the twentieth century while the number of blacks doubled every few decades. The whites are now being driven out of the country that they built. ... [Gerhard] Meisenberg believes that he's come up with a theory about the workings of history. Think Oswald Spengler meets biohistory. ... At the most primitive level of development, people have only magical explanations for the workings of the universe. Manliness and patriarchy are in style. Intelligence is selected for, as the very weakest die out. ... Finally decadence sets in. Hedonism, feminsim and materialism are the preferred values. Faith declines, and scientific (or at least scientistic) arguments replace religious and magical ones. The population drops as people smart enough to plan ahead limit their fertiity in order to have more money for self-fulfillment. ... But the stupid and irresponsible continue to breed away, as compassion and medical advancement make sure that almost anyone who is born lives to pass on his genes. Instead of the eugenic Flynn effect, we see dysgenics. Civilization collapses and people go back to their original primitive state. ... So, Like Richard Lynn (and myself), Meisenberg sees the future of the West in the long run as a tug-of-war between technology used for eugenic purposes pulling us one way, and dysgenic differential fertility and immigration pulling another", my emphasis, Richard Hoste at Vdare, 20 February 2010, link:

http://www.vdare.com/hoste/100210_spengler.htm.

As it is written, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for immediate familiy, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever", 1 Timothy 5:8 (NIV). Those who bear children they cannot support would appear to lack biblical sanction. In 1938 Cyril Burt wrote of "differential fertility" and the danger if had for England. We are becoming the dystopia of "Idiocracy".

Mayor Reconquista's Tactical Retreat

"To get from downtown to the residence of the man who, in 2005, became the first Hispanic elected mayor since 1870, you drive through a sliver of Korea. With 125,000 people packed into 2.7 of the city's 469 square miles, Koreatown is typical of this polyglot city where more than 100 languages are spoken and nothing is typical except recentness: 46 percent of the residents are foreign-born. So when His Honor Antonio Villaraigosa [AV] was invited to appear at a recent rally protesting Arizona's law concerning illegal immigrants, he went. But he stipulated: 'I want American flags.' ... They say [AV] should 'face the fact' that 'between now and 2014 the city will likely declare bankruptcy.' [AV] says this will not happen. But look at what has happened. ... So [AV] must like with the arithmetic of interest-group liberalism. The federal government, he says, can run deficits and print money; the state government (supposedly) must balance the budget but can push burdens down onto cities. There, he says, 'you have 10 cookies in the cookie jar and every interest wants all 10.' The nightmare numbers include the state's unemployment rate (12.6 percent)--it is higher than the nation's (9.9)--and the city's rate (13.5), which is higher than the state's. The city's long-term success depends on its schools, in which many of the children come from homes without fathers", George Will at Newsweek, 17 May 2010, link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/237640.

If LA's future depends on 73%-Hispanic LAUSD, it is bleak. Think about this: AV told his handlers which flags not to bring. Would AV want American flags at a similar rally in say 2020? Remember, AV is a former La Raza member. Hahahahaha. Do you still want to own California muni bonds?

Illegals and the Ottomans

"Throughout history, when an occupying power has wanted to destabilize and destroy a nation, it has settled a foreign people in its midst. The seeds of the Balkan conflict were sown when the Turks planted Albanian Muslims in Kosovo to uproot the Christian Serbs who had long defended the borders of medieval Christendom and had more than once turned back the tide of an expanding Ottoman empire. ... Despite this, Americans did not worry about the massive migration of Mexicans and other third-world immigrants for many years due to their belief in equality and the idea of the American melting pot. Unfortunately, both concepts are complete myths, devoid of any support from logic, history or science. ... There is, quite simply, no such thing as human equality in any material sense. ... As for the myth of the American melting pot, it should suffice to point out that the idea was popularized by a Russian Jew who emigrated to England, never lived in the [US] and was a fervent believer in the cause of establishing a Jewish homeland. ... The reality is that from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century, the New England states had almost no immigration for 200 years. And it is important to note that when the Irish did finally come to America, they were fewer, more culturally similar, and they came in a more gradual manner from farther away. ... The reality is that America will proceed on one of two paths. The first is to embrace the conflict. If Americans can find the courage to consciously reject the myth of the melting pot and expel the Mexicans from the American Southwest, the Arabs from Detroit and the Somalis from Minneapolis, they can reclaim their traditional white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. ... White Americans continue to vote with their feet, retreating slowly but continuously before the inexorable wave of migratory expansion. Encouraged by the frailty of American society and the fragility of myth-based American political culture, what are still currently the fringe views of the Aztlan revolutionaries will rapidly become the mainstream opinion of Mexican irredentists in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. ... Only Texas, with its unique and exapnsive view of itself, combined wiht its history of violent conflict with Mexico, is likely to take action over time. ... There is no magic assimilation to replace the ruthless mathematics of demographic transformation. Precisely how the Lincoln-forged Union will fragment cannot be foreseen wth perfect clarity at this point, but as recent events suggest, it should begin in the bellwether states of California and Arizona", Vox Day (VD) at World Net Daily, 10 May 2010, link:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=151689.

"The Ottomans had an interesting method of assuring political stability. The sprawling empire operated on a system in which 'millets', distinct ethnic and religious groups, were allowed to oversee their own internal affairs while giving absolute loyalty to the sultan and his government. Every now and then a millet would be ordered to pack up and head out for a new home, at times at the opposite end of the imperium, amid new neighbors--sometimes the original residents, sometimes other refugees--of alien origins, ethnicity, and religious belief. ... In short order, the various groups would become so enmeshed in harassing and attacking each other that they could spare no time or energy to defying the staus quo. ... The American left has its own millet system, consisting of ethnic (and other) groups defined in large part by their grievances as victims of America. ... The left prefers Balkanization and permament conflict. ... So how to keep the pot boiling? The answer was to find a new millet--or rather to take advantage of the one next door, of the deperate people fleeing a serial kleptocracy, an uneducated, ignorant, and frightened mass open to all forms of manipulation. ... It explains the insistence that any solution to the immigration problem provide for amnesty and citizenship for the millions of illegal already living within our borders. ... Illegals will become a new protected class, with privileges and entitlements denied the rest of the populace (including, ironically, current members of previous such classes). ... A vast bureaucracy will arise to 'assist' the new citizenry, funded with billions. ... There must be no amnesty. Such an action would simply drop a permanent inassimilable presence in the midst of American society", JR Dunn at the American Thinker, 14 May 2010, link:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/the_real_reason_the_left_loves.html.

I agree with Michael Panzer's interesting 22 May 2010 post at When Giants Fall about Turkey, Iran and nuclear weapons, link: http://www.economicroadmap.com/2010/05/not-so-positive.html.

Yes VD. At the very least, California, from San Diego to Santa Barbara, looks like it will revert to Mexico. Pancho Villa won!

China has a policy to move Han Chinese into Sinkiang province, which was primarily Uighur, to ensure Beijing's control. We permit let illegaal aliens stay in the US, which will likely cause the US to dissolve. Look at the contrasting policies.

Absent a new "Operation Wetback", I expect the US to break up no later than 2040, see my 11 January 2009 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/01/usa-rip.html.

Christie as FDR

"Once again showing that he means to shake up Trenton, Gov. Christopher J. Christie declined on Monday to reappoint a sitting justice to the New Jersey Supreme Court, instead appointing someone who he said would show the restraint that was missing from the court. ... Justice [John] Wallace's departure also means that for the first time in 16 years, the court will not have a black justice. If confirmed by the State Senate, Mr. Christie's appointment of Anne M. Patterson, a Morris County lawayer, will give the court its first female majority. Speaking to reporters in Trenton, Mr. Christie had only kind words for Justice Wallace, but he described the historically liberal court as 'out of control' over the last three decades, usurping the roles of the governor and the Legislature is setting social and tax policies", Richard Perez-Pena at the NYT, 4 May 2010, link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/nyregion/04christie.html.

Go Christie. If FDR could threaten to "pack" pack the Supreme Court, I see no reason you can't unpack New Jersey's Supreme Coirt.

Cockroaches Eat Israel

"Weaning itself off socialist-influenced policies that once brought 400% inflation and 60% income-tax brackets, Israel's economy is now growing despite the international financial slowdown. ... But one Israeli economist is warning that beneath Israel's back-patting lurks a hidden peril--fueled by demographic trends and political choices--that could eventually mean an end to the country. ... According to [Dan] Ben-David, nearly one in five Israeli men between 35 and 54--a group that he believes has 'no excuse' for not working--are not part of the labor force. That's about 60% higher than the average among nations in the [OECD], an international forum fostering market-based economies that Israel joined Monday. ... Nearly 27% of Arab men and 65% of ultra-Orthodox Jews don't work, government figures show, The non-employment rate for ultra-Orthodox men has tripled since 1970, Ben-David says. ... What worries Ben-David most is that the nonproductive part of Israel's population, which survives largely on welfare, is also growing the fastest. Today Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox together make up less than 30% of the population, but they account for nearly half of school-age children. ... 'Eventually it's going to break the bank,' the economist said. 'We're on trajectories that are not sustainable.' ... A radio talk-show host recently described ultra-Orthodox Jews as 'parasites.' Tel Aviv's mayor said the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community was 'endangering' the economic strength of the 'silent majority'," Edmund Sanders at the Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2010, link: http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/topstories/la-fg-israel-idle-20100511,0,6313284.story.

Did Sanders write this because "LA Times" management would not let him write of Hispanic immigration's economic effects on California? The ultra-orthodox Jews, haredim, are pejoratively called cockroaches in Israel. They do not work and produce families of 6-8 children, supported by the Israeli state. This trend, if unchecked may destroy Israel long before Iran can. It's ironic that Europe imported Moslems to increase its welfare recipients.

America is Lake Wobegon

"Having no substance of its own, the left is inherently parasitic; like a cancer cell or virus, it survives by posing as a healthy member of the same host it then attacks and ultimately destroys. This pattern of 'mimic-attack-conquer' has given us liberty-hating 'liberals,' leftist mainline chruches that publicly embrace what their own teachings explicity prohibit, and educators whose goal is to ensure that all children get left behind. ... Under the direection of leftist educators, the very institutions, charged wth the liberation of young minds from the chains of ignorance and groupthink, have become increasingly effective indoctrination centers and breeding grounds for rigid, unreflective political orthodoxy. ... The seven liberal arts have deep roots in the ancient world, and are divided into two groups. The artes triviales, or Trivium, consist of grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. They correspond roughly to what today are called 'the humanities.' ... Having mastered the elementary lessons of the Trivium, the pupil was prepared for the study of the more advanced Quadrivium, or artes quadrivales, of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. ... These were considered the proper pursuit for free minds pursuing knowledge and wisdom, and were contrasted with the illiberal arts, artes illiberales, which aimed only at mastery of a particular subject or skill set. ... I will never forget the open sneer from a former colleague--an intelligent and multi-talented feminist history professor--that greeted my advocacy of 'free and unfettered discourse.' The very idea struck her as absurd, and she acted as though I was running some kind of intellectual con. She averred that 'free and unfettered discouse' was code for permitting the expression of bigoted, racist, and otherwise 'illegitimate' points of views. For such closed-minded academics, the liberal arts' commitment to free inquiry is itself a serious threat, and is treated accordingly. ... Grammar, even broadly conceived, has yielded to multiculti gibberish in the freshman English classroom. Rhetoric, if taught at all, consists principally of learning to denounce politically incorrect opinion, not to evaluate, refute, or engage constructively with them", Daniel Fernald at Amercan Thinker, 8 May 2010, link:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/defining_dumbness_down.html.

Yes Fernald. We have more uneducated college graduates than ever before. Who needs them?

Indian Affirmative Action

"India's ruling secular Congress party has joined hands with Hindu nationalist parties on a bill to guarantee 33% seats in the parliament and state legislatures to women. ... Although caste has declined in India's large, cosmopolitan cities, elsewhere this system still restricts social mobility for the country's 100 million dalits (untouchables). They are not only consigned to demeaning jobs they're not even allowed to pray in the same temples as upper castes. ... But then came the fatal leap. They created a list or 'schedule' of all the dalit sub-castes deserving preferential treatment and handed them 17.5% of the seats in the parliament and state legislatures. They also gave them 22.5% of all public-sector jobs and guaranteed spots in public or publicly funded universities. ... This body, charged with examining the plight of the poor and disenfranchised, concluded in its final report that the original list of scheduled castes was too short. ... The report caused an uproar. Hindu students from nonscheduled castes castes, particularly from modest backgrounds, exploded into riots. Already rubbed raw from the existing quota regime which allowed academically inferior, scheduled-caste candidates to breeze into the best universitites and land secure government jobs while they struggled, they took to the streets. A few immolated themselves, one big reason why the government collapsed in November 1990. But the quota system survived, and post-riot governments have slowly expanded it. ... In a few states with their own quotas, almost 70% of government jobs and university seats go to the reserved castes. ... In some states like Rajastan they have actually instituted quotas for the poor 'forward castes'--code for upper-caste Hindus. ... It would be tempting to blame the abuse of quotas on the degraded state of Indian politics. But, in reality, India is demonstrating the reductio ad absurdum of quotas", my emphasis, Shikha Dalmia at the WSJ, 1 May 2010, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575215810722146240.html.

Shades of Asians applying to UCLA or Cal Berkeley. What else would the body conclude, if not that the schedule was too short? California's negroes lost the "quota derby" to Hispanics. Se la guerre. Quotas never go away. See my comments about the "Freedom Budget", my 1 September 2008 post:

http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/09/dead-elephant-in-living-room.html.

Greece and California

"In formally requesting Euro45 billion ($60 billion) from the [IMF] and [EU] Friday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sought to end the drama over whether Greece can pay its bills. ... What it would do instead is open a wide new world of moral hazard--for Greece, for the countries providing aid, and for the future of the entire euro-zone. ... Thursday's market turmoil left Greek bonds in emerging markets territory at 8.7% on 10-year debt--5.7 percentage points about the German benchmark. This came after the EU's statistical agency, Eurostat, said it still lacked confidence in Greek figures and raised its 2009 deficit estimate to 13.5% of GDP from 12.7%. ... Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Greek public workers took to the streets to protest the government's austerity measures, such as they are. Could there be a greater disconnect? ... But over the next five and a half years, Greece will face some Euro240 billion in debt-service and refinancing costs-roughly equal to Greece's gross domestic product. ... Loans might delay, but cannot prevent, a radical restructuring of Greek debt. ... Further austerity measures demanded as a quid pro quo might take some domestic heat off Mr. Papanderou, but the IMF's policy history does not bode well for future economic growth. ... If Greece is bailed out, the markets will rightly conclude that a line has been crossed, and that Portugal and even Spain will be rescued too. Even the Germans don't have that much money. ... Mr. [Wolfgang] Schauble is so worried about Berlin's finances that he opposes tax cuts for Germans, but he nonetheless wants to bail out a spendthrift Greece. In an interview Monday in Der Speigel, he warned that, 'We cannot allow the bankruptcy of a euro member state like Geece to turn into a second Lehman Brothers,' adding that 'Greece is just as systematically important as a major bank.' ... Far better for the EU to draw the line now, force Greece and its creditors to take their pain, and to demonstrate to markets that there won't be a rolling series of bailouts. To adapt Mr. Schauble's Lehman analogy, better to stop the moral hazard at Bear Stearns, lest Spain become Lehman. ... Greece's problems are familiar across Europe: a welfare-entitlement state that is unaffordable given the country's anemic economic growth. This is what has to change, but it won't as long as the Greeks marching in the street believe their standard of living will be salvaged by German or French taxpayers", my emphasis, WSJ Editorial, 24 April 2010, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703876404575200013667934980.html.

I agree with the WSJ noting the WSJ does not cite Islamic immigrants as a welfare-state problem in Europe. Nor does it compare Greece to California. Or the US. So I will.

Taksei on NASA

"What speaks the most to me, becasue I once ran an endless 21-kilometer half-marathon, is that the Orion Nebula is 24 light years across and 1,344 +- 20 light years distant. ... These are numbers that can sit honorably at the same table and have a drink or two with the [US'] national debt, currently estimated at $115 trillion. Tying the Orion Nebula and Obama Nation together is also the vast canyon of dust that the latter is being transformed into under much hopeychangey hot gas. ... The nebulous hot gas bullets were piercing the clouds of credulity already in August of 2008, when Presidential candidate Barack Obama during a campaign rally with NASA workers criticized thre Bush Administration for inadequate support of NASA and promised to change that (more here). ... We do not know to what extent the BHO administration has tackled and contained this idiocy. On the other hand, we do know that NASA now has a black chief and a female deputy chief, so at least we started out with what really matters: racial and gender justice. ... The funds are simply not there when you have to provide medical insurance to several million citizens of Mexico, to continue the wealth transfer mirage of Fannie 'n' Freddy and to offer free college education for every possible moron with high self-esteem and low competence at the multiplication table", Takuan Seiyo at Gates of Vienna, 25 April 2010, link:

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/04/vast-canyon-of-gas-and-dust-inshallah.html.

Here here Taksei. Your superior Wharton ways are coming through. I agree. The US pays Mexico tens of billions annually in "war reparations". Well Rev. Al., why don't you demand this stop and direct the reparations to your people.

Good Question Pat

"With the support of 70 percent of its citizens, Arizona has ordered sheriffs and police to secure the border and remove illegal aliens, half a million of whom now reside there. ... 'We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act,' said Gov. Jan Brewer. 'But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created an unacceptable situation.' ... Barack Obama ... is siding with the law-breakers. He is pandering to the ethnic lobbies. He is not berating a Mexican regime that aids and abets the invasion of the country of which he is commander in chief. Instead, he attacks the government of Arizona for trying to fill a gaping hole in law enforcement left by his own deriliction of duty. ... He has called on the Justice Department to ensure that Arizona's sheriffs and police do not violate anyone's civil rights. But he has said nothing about the rights of the people of Arizona who must deal with the costs of having hundreds of thousands of lawbreakers in their midst. ... The state has a fiscal crisis caused in part by the burden of providing schooling and social welfare for illegals and their families, who consume far more in services than they pay in taxes and who continue to pour in. Even John McCain is now calling for 3,000 troops on the border. ... If Arizona does not get control of the border and stop the invasion, US citizens will stop coming to Arizona and will begin to depart, as they are already fleeing California. ... Whose country is this, anyway?," Pat Buchanan at Vdare, 26 April 2010, link:

http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/100426_whose_country.htm.

Well said Pat. As far as Obama is concerned, non-Minority Americans are just cows to be milked for money to be given to "his" people.

What's A Rabba?

"Enthusiastic applause greeted Sara Hurwitz when she stepped to the podium last month to address a gathering of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance in New York. ... Rabbi Pinchos Lipshutz warned, 'We cannot allow someone whose guide is 20th century feminism ... to hijack and attmept to redefine Orthodixy.' ... The uproar threatens to formally splinter the long-volatile Orthodox movement into liberal and conservative factions. 'The two wings are moving further and further apart,' says Brandeis University historian Jonathan D. Sarna. 'The issue of women in a very significant divider, and it wlll take all the diplomacy that can be mustered to keep Orthodoxy from splitting.' ... In a 1984 essay she presciently wrote: 'It seems but a matter of time that a woman who is as well-versed in rabbinic sources as a male ... will say to herself" "Why not me?"' ... In March 2009, after months of deliberation, Rabbi Weiss invented a title for her, 'maharat,' which is an acronym of the Hebrew words for halachic, spiritual and Torah leader. ... The title failed to catch on. 'People didn't know what maharat meant,' Rabba Hurwitz says. 'Rabba is a more respectful and accurate description of who I am and what I do.' Speaking about the controversy, she adds: I understand that people are concerned. This is new, but nothing I am doing is outside the framework of Jewish law.' ... She can, moreover, do some things that a male rabbi cannot, like be a reasuring prescence on the female side of the barrier, or mechitzah, that separates men and women in an Orthodox synagogue; and she can field intimate questions that some women are more comfortable asking another woman. 'All of that,' Rabba Hurwitz says, 'adds to the community'," my emphasis, Evan Goldstein at the WSJ, 23 April 2010, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704671904575193990303740922.html.

Interesting. Weiss "invented a title for her", yet "nothing [she] is doing is outside the framework of Jewish law." What would Antonin Scalia say about this if asked?