Weird Sex Science

Sexual arousal tends to damp down the gross-out response, allowing people to do things they otherwise wouldn't. I suspect we knew this intuitively, but now there's scientific evidence. See this report of research on the ABC News website.

The Romney Route

Have you been wondering how Mitt Romney can get to 270 votes in the electoral college? Mark Halperin lays it out for you in a Time article. The key seems to be Ohio, which is trending Romney.

Quote of the Day

Neera Tanden, former aide to Clinton and Obama, quoted in a New York Magazine article by John Heilemann:

Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people.

Political Humor Alert

Victor Davis Hanson, cracking wise about the Obama presidency for National Review Online:

What, then, was Obama’s first term?

Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means.

A New Thirty Years' War?

Reuters reports, via Yahoo News, that Iraqi Shi'ite fighters are in Syria helping the Assad regime battle the Sunni rebels there. As the article notes:

Iraqi Shi'ite militia involvement in Syria's conflict exposes how rapidly the crisis has spiraled into a proxy war between Assad's main ally Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf states supporting mostly Sunni rebels fighting the president. 

The key phrase "a proxy war between ... Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf states" suggests the rebellion in Syria could degenerate into Islam's version of the Thirty Years' War.

N.B.,  the Thirty Years' War was a battle between Catholics and Protestants in early seventeenth century Europe.

Citation del Dia

Columnist Marco Sifuentes, cited in a Simeon Tegel article in Global Post, about the impact of the reelection of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela:

Latin America is not divided between rights and lefts, black and white, but in democratic shades and authoritarian shades. Between those who may not be perfect but guarantee a minimum of freedom to be able to decide where we are going, and those who believe they are perfect and have already decided that we are going with them.

Senor Chavez believes he is perfect; that as many Latinos as he can buy with oil will go with him.

Too Few Worker Bees

We've written a couple of times about people leaving the workforce. Here is a really startling graphic showing the relative numbers of people added to those not in the workforce (8 million) and people added to the workforce (800 thousand).

The graphic covers the period from January, 2009, to the present; the period of the Obama presidency. The ratio is ten to one; this hasn't been a period of growth.

We see the graphic courtesy of The Weekly Standard.  The Senate Budget Committee developed it from Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Quote of the Day II

Liberal Frank Rich, writing for New York magazine, on the persistence of conservative politics in the U.S.:

If history has taught us anything over the past half-century, it’s that the American right’s death wish is a figment of the liberal imagination.

What else would one expect? This is a basically conservative nation.

Quote of the Day

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, quoted in Business Insider about why the Court's members consist of six Catholics and three Jews:

I would like to believe that it's because of more religious toleration, but I think it's actually because of indifference.

The evidence suggests he is correct.

Time to Grow Up

I think it's time for Big Bird and PBS generally to get off the government dole and earn a living. What do you think? The same for the Muppets?

Tick, Tick, Tick....

A minister close to Prime Minister David Cameron is hinting the United Kingdom could leave the European Union, see the Reuters article in Yahoo News. Leave, or further reduce its ties.

As the article notes, the relationship between the U.K. and the E.U. has always been somewhat tentative. The U.K. has remained outside the euro zone and still operates border controls.

COTTonLINE would like to see the U.K. leave the E.U. and join a new bloc called the Anglosphere, which could also include the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and possibly Ireland. BTW, it will never happen - too logical.

Scotland, Flanders Each One Step Closer

If you are following the evolution of the various independence movements in Europe (Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders, etc.), there is a Reuters article on Yahoo News you'll want to read. It concerns Scotland's efforts to separate from the United Kingdom.

The interesting issue is whether Scottish separatists can convince 50.1% of Scots to sign onto their cause. Britain becomes a much less united Kingdom without Scotland.

Go here to see a Financial Times story about Flanders independence advocates winning local elections in northern Belgium, and using their wins to argue for more independence.

No God But Allah

Al Arabiya, which has every reason to be pro-Obama, is reporting that Barack's wedding band carries the Islamic confession of faith: "There is no other god but Allah." Do you suppose it is true, or was true until this announcement? Lucianne.com provided the link.

Oddly, the teapot tempest will move few voters. Dems basically don't care what his faith is, and those who do care were already sure to vote against him. Perhaps it will further energize the GOP base.

Racism in Florida

CBS News Tampa reports the Florida State Board of Education has passed a plan to set racially based goals for students in reading in math. The CBS Tampa website has the following, which they source (without a link) to the Palm Beach Post:

On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities.

Commenting on this story for American Thinker, Thomas Lifson notes that it comes about in part as teachers complain about being held to the same standards for educating students from vastly different backgrounds. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.

I remember a line attributed to speechwriter Michael Gerson and delivered by President George W. Bush that describes this action:

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

Poor Kids on Rx Speed

Some physicians who want to help poor kids do well in school are prescribing the uppers (e.g., Adderall, Ritalin) normally given to kids diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A doctor says:

We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid. 

Because of the great leeway physicians are given to prescribe a drug for conditions other than those for which it is approved, doctors can not only get away with the practice, they can brag about it and get it paid for by Medicaid. See this New York Times article for details.

Quote of the Day

Art Gary, an information technology specialist, cited in this Associated Press article  about black prejudice against whites:

There is racial bias amongst whites, and there is racial bias amongst blacks. But as far as the press is concerned, it only goes one way. 

Somebody needed to say this.

Americans* Avoid Density

Our favorite demographer Joel Kotkin checks in with an article for New Geography concerning suburbanization. In a word, he finds it is continuing.

Kotkin uses a more sophisticated methodology which looks at neighborhood density, and finds that Americans continue to move from more dense neighborhoods to less dense neighborhoods, regardless of whether or not they are located within the limits of the core city.

There is, however, growth within the most dense urban neighborhoods, reflecting some modest gentrification of the highest density urban settings. Kotkin's point, I believe, is that this "reurbanization" has been over-emphasized in the literature.

*The French do not, along with other Europeans.

The Wrong Recipient

As the European Union struggles to find ways to survive, the Nobel Peace Prize committee awards the European Union the prize. Reuters reports that the EU has won the prize for 2012. Amazing.

It is likely the EU will survive for a few more years, in one form or another. It may, like the UN, survive for many years without accomplishing its stated purpose - namely, in the case of the UN, preserving peace.

The EU shares the purpose of peace, and intends to merge into a pan-European nation as well. To date the EU appears to have succeeded in preserving peace in Europe but is having difficulties in becoming one nation, a goal it will likely not achieve.

I say "appears" because the actual reason peace has persevered in Europe since 1945 (if one overlooks the genocide in the Balkans which were not a part of the EU) is quite different. The real reason Europe has experienced peace for almost 70 years is that the United States has provided its military security for all that period, at enormous cost.

In the absence of the U.S.'s heavy footprint in NATO during that period, it is likely that Joe Stalin's Soviet Union would have swallowed Europe whole, without chewing. There are times - when Europe is particularly petulant and ungrateful - that I wish we'd let it happen.

So the Nobel Peace Prize committee awards the EU a prize the U.S. earned via Pax Americana - typical.

Noonan on the VP Debate

I've read several analyses of the vice presidential debate, including that of Dan Balz. To date the one I like best is that of Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Noonan lays out what each needed to do in the debate and then analyzes whether each accomplished those tasks. Her conclusion: Ryan largely succeeded, Biden largely failed.

You may say that's the outcome I wanted to read, and I admit that is true. Nevertheless, her analysis is good.

The Alternative Is Worse

Imagine, Vice President Joe Biden ... last night's Mr. Giggles and Smirks ... is one heartbeat away from the presidency. Our situation is worse than we thought.

Now we understand Senator Obama's reasoning in selecting Biden as vice president-elect. It's a life insurance policy. However lame the Obama presidency has turned out to be, the idea of a Biden presidency seems substantially less desirable.