Patting the wrists, rolling the eyes.

[spookyfish]

Originally posted by bilmore
I can only say "fairly valid" - and maybe I should have said "seemingly valid" instead - because I ain't a statistician. But, read it. It does seem to make some sense. It doesn't come off as some race-baiting flame at all. Sowell's never been that type. He's more a Cosby-esque figure.

Come to think of it, Cosby kind of talks funny.

[William Faulkner]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Interesting article by Thomas Sowell, proposing that culture (more specifically, Southern culture), rather than race, is the primary reason for the disparity between blacks and whites:


http://www.opinionjournal.com/editor...l?id=110006608

Yes. We are, at base, a simple people. That it has taken so long for this illustrious Mr. Sowell to uncover our flaws and our colorful customs that obscure our unavoidable mediocrity, reveals almost as much about the the examiner than about the examined.

Wm. Faulkner

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by bilmore
He's more a Cosby-esque figure.

Fat cosby or thin cosby? Like the one who rails against "aks" and "you know what I'm saying this and you know what I'm saying that" and generally draws the ire of the NAACP for not following the party line that the Man is to blame for everything?

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Looks like W will be taking Tom DeLay on the fun-filled Social Security sales pitch tour.

Using DeLay to sell privatizing Social Security. This should be interesting.

I can hear the echo of Spanky's screams. On the plus side, it looks like I may not have to write a check to DeLay to help him stay firmly in the party vanguard.

In District 22 news, Richard Morrison dropped out of the race yesterday citing money problems and his wife's pregnancy with a fifth kid. Money is on former congressman and victim of redistricting Nick Lampson to pick up the torch, though Councilman Gordon Quan is also being discussed.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by William Faulkner
Yes. We are, at base, a simple people.

Were I to pull out the racism card so soon, I would likely do it anon also. We are, at base, cowardly people, aren't we?

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Fat cosby or thin cosby? Like the one who rails against "aks" and "you know what I'm saying this and you know what I'm saying that" and generally draws the ire of the NAACP for not following the party line that the Man is to blame for everything?

All of those, yeah. But, is that the fat or the thin one?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by bilmore
All of those, yeah. But, is that the fat or the thin one?

the thin one did "bigot" or whatever that film was: "There's another bigot out there just like me. I don't care for him much."

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
effective at what? Mortgaging the future?

Let me be somewhat more clear, so as not to be accused of dumbing down the dialog: Social security has been extremely effective at eliminating, or reducing substantially, poverty among the elderly. Arguably it has also stimulated the labor market by giving an incentive for less efficient workers to move into retirement, rather than hang onto a job. It's design, however, rested on a premise that time has disproven--that the fundamental contours of the age pyramid would remain the same, yet it hasn't. Because of the commitments put in place 50 or 75 years ago, the government now faces, or will face in future years, substantial payment obligations well beyond the funding available for them. While of course those obligations can be met, it will require resort to general tax revenues. In itself, not necessarily a problem. But the bigger pictue problem remains: how much of the country's future are we willing to mortgage by supporting an older generation who has been lulled into complacency with respect to supporting themselves by an ever-growing social support state.

Effective at substantially reducing severe poverty among the elderly. The longer-term demographic problems can be addressed by relatively minor adjustments to the benefit rates and retirement ages, as they were in the 1980s.

I don't think the elderly have been "lulled into complacency," and the statistics on the number of elderly who continue to work would seem to suggest that I'm right. I don't think many people relish the idea of having to rely on the safety net.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by bilmore
Could you first show me a copy of your check for Delay's re-election before I answer this?

That was an inside joke for Spanky. It was akin to Not Me saying that Rs should give money to Nader for the Prez campaign.

[William Faulkner]

Originally posted by bilmore
Were I to pull out the racism card so soon, I would likely do it anon also. We are, at base, cowardly people, aren't we?

You misunderstand, my flightless friend. From the WSJ's august pages, the author's condemnations extend to both Southern whites and blacks, and do not necessarily attribute the culture of the former to the trials and tribulations of the latter.

My response, which I attempted to make exceedingly brief, is to the author's conflation of observations and statistics about Southern culture and its inhabitants with a conclusion that this state of affairs causes lagging achievement among blacks.

What are we to make of this? The author's description of Southern culture (for both races) as one prone to "higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity" is certainly an interesting one, as is his rather wry observation that our culture has its "own way of talking, not only in the pronunciation of particular words but also in a loud, dramatic style of oratory with vivid imagery, repetitive phrases and repetitive cadences." How "fairly valid and dry," indeed.

His thesis that whites' and blacks' relative rates of economic success be tethered to their success in escaping from the purgatory of Southern culture is an interesting one, but I am far from convinced that the connection is more than a correlation, and in the meantime I take umbrage at the author's rather dismal characterizations, as applied to both groups.

You, in the meantime, appear convinced that I am "pulling out the race card," and apparently see no connection between a post commenting on Southern culture and a moniker dedicated to a Southern author. The "coward" comment was added, presumably, just for kicks. Your assessments of the intentions and meanings of those who post here remains unrivaled.

Your patella tendon is working as well as ever. You would do well to question what triggered it here.

Sincerely,
Wm. Faulkner

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Because of the commitments put in place 50 or 75 years ago, the government now faces, or will face in future years, substantial payment obligations well beyond the funding available for them.

This is not necessarily true, and depends on predictions about economic performance in the interim.

Which is not to say that we shouldn't manage the program in a prudent way. But a lot of people are pretending it's all doomed because they want to get rid of it for other reasons.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
That was an inside joke for Spanky. It was akin to Not Me saying that Rs should give money to Nader for the Prez campaign.

I know. See, there is room for humor.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Interesting article by Thomas Sowell, proposing that culture (more specifically, Southern culture), rather than race, is the primary reason for the disparity between blacks and whites:

Race is a cultural construct.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by sgtclub
Interesting article by Thomas Sowell, proposing that culture (more specifically, Southern culture), rather than race, is the primary reason for the disparity between blacks and whites:

I could've sworn there were poor black people living in northern cities for the past, oh, 200 years. But I guess that was my imagination.


I'm hoping that Gatti will weigh in on this as our resident sort-of-Southerner. But he's probably busy fucking his cousin.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I could've sworn there were poor black people living in northern cities for the past, oh, 200 years. But I guess that was my imagination.

Read the op-ed. He makes teh point (I think mostly, but not entirely, valid) that many black northerners emigrated from the south in the 19th century to escape slavery, and brought with them the culture of Gatti.