Read it.

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

When even Pravda thinks you’ve gone too far left, well….

Jerry Pournelle has about the best capsule description of the Ricci case that I’ve seen.

As appears to be becoming traditional, the villain of the piece isn’t the city of New Haven but a stupid law passed by Congress based on bad science. (Gee, where have we heard that before?)

The only thing that saves us is that we don’t get all of the government we pay for.

Read it.

Millions of years before early humans evolved in Africa, their ancestors may have lived in Europe, a 12-million-year-old fossil hominid from Spain suggests.

Or maybe he was just on vacation.

Take a look.

And place your bets on how long it will be before black poachers kill them to sell their skins to Arab and Asian collectors.

I give it about a month.

Megan McArdle has a low Bullshit Threshhold.

GM’s main problems are

1)  A terrible, bloated cost structure
2)  A terrible, bloated bureaucracy
3)  A bunch of meh car lines

Which of these is the government going to solve?  That terrible, bloated cost structure supports a bloated union whose jobs are the entire rationale for the government intervention.  Leaning on the parts suppliers just risks UAW jobs further down the supply chain.  Maybe we can take it out of the budget for copy paper and pencils.

Forgive me if I am skeptical that the government is going to show GM how to streamline its bureaucracy.

Read it.

Gone to goldbricks, every one….

Rick Brookhiser knows whereof he speaks.

George McGovern give the Obamassiah some advice.

Of course, this is like getting advice from Jimmy Carter on how to handle the economy and relations with Muslim states.

Read it.

1. Within 20 years, Europe will be a collection of Islamic states.

2. Within 10-15 years, active Moslems are likely to outnumber active Christians in Canada.

3. Islam is preparing for a serious-minded and well financed missionary activity in the West.

The “clash of civilizations” that started in the 7th century is far from over. Orthodox Christianity has been on the front lines of the struggle against Islamic aggression during the whole of that time. That is experience that you ignore at your peril.

The demographics are radically on the side of Islam. They do not have to convert even one person in order to be able to dominate Europe. People in Western cultures are reproducing at a rate below 1.5; Moslems living in the West are reproducing at a rate of 4-6, even 8. Christians have abortions, Moslems do not. Christians have small families: on average, 1 or 2 children; Moslems have large families, on average 6 to 8 children. Moslems maintain their traditions, most Christians do not. Commitment and attendance at Mosques outstrips that of Christian commitment and attendance in Church.

Within your lifetime you will be required to choose — if you’re lucky — what sort of world you want to live in. It’s not too early to start to think about what your answer will be.

Faith can only be challenge by faith; commitment can only be faced with commitment.

Jerry Pournelle looks at certain controversial issues.

A major problem in education is that half of the children are below average. As an example, here is a question from a national test for 8th graders. The example is from page 56 in Charles Murray, REAL EDUCATION.

There were 90 employees in a company last year. This year the number of employees increased by 10%. How many employees are in the company this year?

(A) 9    (B) 82   (C) 91   (D) 99    (E) 100

As Charles Murray notes, anyone who reads this web site (or reads to page 56 of his book) would expect “that almost everyone should be able to handle a question like this. Children are taught to divide and calculate percentages in elementary school. Dividing by ten is the easiest form of division… It is a problem based on a simple mathematical concept, using simple arithmetic, requiring a simple logical interpolation to get the right answer. It is an excellent example for starting to think about what below average means in mathematics — because 62% of eight-graders got this item wrong.”

It is unlikely that anyone who cannot correctly answer this question in 8th grade will be able successfully to complete a four year college education. Assume that’s wrong; assume that fully half those who couldn’t answer the question correctly in 8th grade were able to master Algebra in high school. I find that unlikely; but that’s still 30% of  the population who simply cannot complete a college-prep high school curriculum. My guess is that the number who can’t finish (or at least won’t benefit from) a real college-prep education is more like 80%.