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Hard call on which article to link today: a nutjob progressive criticizing the women's march for its celebration of the "pussy hat" and gads of vagina signs as marginalizing women without vaginas (heh) or an attack on the ultrasound as the subversive work of pro-lifers. The former was published in some crackpot reader, while the latter was published by The Atlantic. So, I'll go with the credible, reputable publication: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...gnancy/514109/
Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]? Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.
Emily Nohr @emnohr[ame="https://twitter.com/emnohr/status/824260964438704128"]45s46 seconds ago[/ame]
BREAKING: #Nebraska Sen. Bill Kintner is resigning. Expulsion was likely to follow anyway at 9 a.m. Follow @OWHnews#neleg
glad to see this..
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
Hard call on which article to link today: a nutjob progressive criticizing the women's march for its celebration of the "pussy hat" and gads of vagina signs as marginalizing women without vaginas (heh) or an attack on the ultrasound as the subversive work of pro-lifers. The former was published in some crackpot reader, while the latter was published by The Atlantic. So, I'll go with the credible, reputable publication: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...gnancy/514109/
Go ahead and post the crackpot one too since acceptance of men who call themselves women has made it into mainstream. This discussion will just grow from this point forward.
Last edited by Hannibal; January 25, 2017, 09:28 AM.
It's from the NYT and it addresses, to some degree, whether the women's march should be about what unites women or about what separates them (race!!!!).
I did see some right-wingers enjoying a bit of mockery with: "it's soooooo white" comments about the march. That made me chuckle.
Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]? Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.
trump got elected because of the full time worker bees and those hoping to become full time worker bees were disillusioned of the status quo of the last 20 years.
you have the same full time workforce supporting more and more of the non working population. whether it be illegals or the baby boomers aging or people giving up on looking the total work force has remained static while those not working continues to rise
The number of employed Americans has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, but so has the number of people not in the workforce. Watch the U.S. employment picture change with our animated GIF.
shrinking the incoming population by closing our borders, opening up new opportunities by expanding infrastructure and deregulating business oversight, and creating an environment where it pays off to work instead of sitting on your ass and getting the same income through social programs.
I didn't vote for him for any other reason then something had to give before this country looks up in 20 years and medicare/social security and entitlements have busted us. I know he's a tool and a liar and an egomaniac but the deplorables were mad as hell and aren't gonna take anymore and went out and voted as opposed to those who didn't go out and vote and thought the gravy train would continue
While trying to block the Jill Stein recount in Michigan, the Trump legal team argued that the Election was fair and untainted by fraud, therefore the recount was unnecessary. LOL
If shrinking the incoming population is a strategy to boost opportunity for the people who are already here, I think it has to come with another element if it's going to work: people who are wiling to get off their asses, go where the jobs are, and work hard no matter what. Do the ranks of the under/unemployed have those kinds of people? I don't know. But the basic principles of economics suggest that shrinking the incoming population is more likely to erode competitiveness. You're telling employers that they can no longer hire people willing to move halfway around the world for an opportunity, and that they should instead hire people who aren't wiling to move, and who expect politicians to create opportunities for them. Not hard from the employer's perspective to figure out which is preferable.
Countries' cultures have been ranked on various scales like Individualism vs. Collectivisim, Masculinity vs. Femininity, etc. This is a good resource for seeing and comparing those rankings.
Geert and Gert Jan Hofstede's web site. Exhibition, theories, research and life. Hofstede's Globe. VSM. IPR and copyright. Partners.
The United States is #1 in Individualism with a score of 91 out of 100. It is our culture's defining trait -- people idenfitying as individuals insetad of identifying as groups. A culture that is high on Collectivism will have major issues assmiliating. Here is where some other notable cultures lie on the Individualism scale:
Australia -- 90
France -- 71 (!)
Italy -- one of the more commonly disliked immigrant groups in the early 20th Century -- 76
Canada -- 80
Poland -- the butt of the 20th Century immigrant joke -- 60
Saudia Arabia -- 25
Mexico -- 30
India -- 48
China -- 20
Syria -- 35 (a strange land where refugee children look like military age males in track suits)
Guatemala -- 6
Anyone notice a pattern here? Even France and Canada, which we poke fun at oftentimes for being more Socialist than us, are much closer to us in Individualism than any of our huge immigrant donors today. A welfare state makes immigration an economic matter as much as a cultural one, but even in a welfareless Ayn Rand Utopia, uncontrolled immigration from a society that is high on Collectivism would be a disaster. I have said before that immigration is more of an economic issue than a cultural one, but I have had to rethink that. Culture and economics are tied toegether.
In a related note, there is a very strong correlation between how Collectivist your country is and how much it sucks to live in your country. The one big exception to the rule is Japan. Not only are some cultures incompatible, but there is a very strong argument that some cultures are objectively better than others. The statement "some cultures are objectively better than others" is anethema to the concept of multiculturalism and most people will call you a bigot or a racist for saying so. But even people who feel this way have, at some level, accepted that some cultures are better than others. They just can't admit it out loud. e.g. nobody in this forum would rather live under Sharia law than in a free liberalized society. We have accepted in the United States that chopping off the heads of homosexuals and stoning women for adultery is objectively bad.
If we import people from a toxic culture, then we need to require them to check their culture at the door and assimilate. In order to make this possible, you have to limit their numbers. Otherwise, as we are seeing especially in Europe, when outside cultures gain critical mass, they revert back to the ways of the motherland and start making their own demands. The pressure on immigrants to assimilate should be stronger, but it is weaker than it ever has been.
You can pay attention to a theory or you can pay attention to reality. Immigrants have a track record of coming here for work and working. And in the process becoming regular Americans like anyone else. People work illegally now doing jobs no one else wants. People came from all over the world when Henry Ford put out the call. If I have the history right, the Yemeni wave got Detroit started as a place for Arabs to come. And they fit right in, just like so many others. One GOOD thing about immigrants, actually, is that they actually understand the value of hard work in a free environment, because they know what it's actually like to try and exist in an environment that's worse. If more people whining about immigration got off their entitled asses, and moved to the jobs, instead of voting for someone peddling a false narrative in which jobs will come to them, or dabbling in some stale ivory-tower bullshit whilst simultaneously ignoring all the verifiable experience and evidence around them, this would be less of a problem. Relative prosperity has made a lot of people soft in this country, and prone to bullshit.
It's an odd state of affairs when Garrison Keillor offers a basic lesson in economics, but here it is:
“American carnage,” my Aunt Sally: the correct term is “American capitalism.” Jobs are lost to automation, innovation, obsolescence, the moving finger of fate. The carriage industry was devastated by the automobile, and the men who made surreys and broughams and hansoms had to learn something new; the Pullman porter union was hit hard by the advent of air travel and the porters sent their sons to college; the newspaper business was hit hard by Craigslist. Too bad for us. I know gifted men who were successful graphic designers until computers came along and younger people with computer skills took their place and those gifted men had to do something else. T-shirts are made in Asian countries because Americans don’t want to pay $20 for one. Coal yields to natural gas as renewable energy marches forward. Who doesn’t get this? The idea that the government is obligated to create a good living for you is one the Republican Party has fought since Adam was in the third grade. It’s the party of personal responsibility. But there he is, promising to make the bluebirds sing. As if.
Everyone knows that Donald Trump is a fabulator, oblivious, trapped in his own terrible needs. It is up to Republicans to save the country from this man.
Keillor is absolutely correct (with possible nitpick of the energy example).
However, in a world where people increasingly (seemingly, to me) cry injustice and politicians listen and take action, one ought not be surprised that a group would cry injustice and a politician would listen.
Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]? Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.
You can pay attention to a theory or you can pay attention to reality. Immigrants have a track record of coming here for work and working. And in the process becoming regular Americans like anyone else. People work illegally now doing jobs no one else wants. People came from all over the world when Henry Ford put out the call. If I have the history right, the Yemeni wave got Detroit started as a place for Arabs to come. And they fit right in, just like so many others. One GOOD thing about immigrants, actually, is that they actually understand the value of hard work in a free environment, because they know what it's actually like to try and exist in an environment that's worse. If more people whining about immigration got off their entitled asses, and moved to the jobs, instead of voting for someone peddling a false narrative in which jobs will come to them, or dabbling in some stale ivory-tower bullshit whilst simultaneously ignoring all the verifiable experience and evidence around them, this would be less of a problem. Relative prosperity has made a lot of people soft in this country, and prone to bullshit.
I read that post by Hanni, and thought back to when I was a kid, and you could still find shop windows in South Omaha that had advertisements in English...and Italian. Much the same for Central Nebraska towns, where shops had signs in English, but also Polish or German.
Why? Because immigrants of these cultures came here in droves, then flocked together to a point of critical mass. Eventually, they assimilated to the point where you can order eggplant parmesan in english without too much trouble.
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