What you’d need to make in every county in America to afford a decent one-bedroom

He and you are in almost exactly analogous positions.

I don't believe TGF is a white supremicist, but he advances arguments sometimes made by white supremacists.

I don't believe you are an anti-semite, but you advance arguments sometimes made by anti-semites.

find me some elite white sprinters. By which I mean somebody good enough to medal in the men's 100M at the Olympics. Since there aren't any and haven't been any for decades, let's move on

find me some elite white sprinters. By which I mean somebody good enough to medal in the men's 100M at the Olympics. Since there aren't any and haven't been any for decades, let's move on

The estimates of how "white" American-born blacks are vary from 19 to 29% of their ancestry. Almost no African-Americans born here of parents born here have 100% African (much less West African) ancestry. Getting more precise than that varies upon the test but one number that gets repeated is that 60% of African-Americans are at least 1/8 white by DNA.

I was in Charleston for a wedding about a month and a half ago. I thought the downtown was really charming and the restaurants we stopped at were really great. Very strange and unsettling, however, to see the monuments to a bunch of treasonous a-holes.

You'd have to go back decades just to see a white man in the final 100M Olympic heat, let alone win a medal. That's simply a fact. The guys who have won all those medals over those years? Men we'd refer to as "black". No east asians, no southeast asians, no middle easterners, no white guys. Not one. What does that prove? Not much. But it's an interesting set of data points that merits further consideration and research. As equality of opportunity increases and artificial limitations to participation decrease, inherent ability becomes increasingly important.

And then a massive wave of post-cold war Eastern European fighters came rolling into the sports in the 90s and largely washed away that line of argumentation

You'd have to go back decades just to see a white man in the final 100M Olympic heat, let alone win a medal. That's simply a fact. The guys who have won all those medals over those years? Men we'd refer to as "black". No east asians, no southeast asians, no middle easterners, no white guys. Not one. What does that prove? Not much. But it's an interesting set of data points that merits further consideration and research.

I was in Charleston for a wedding about a month and a half ago. I thought the downtown was really charming and the restaurants we stopped at were really great. Very strange and unsettling, however, to see the monuments to a bunch of treasonous a-holes.


I lived there for a year. Four years ago they had a "Secession Ball" where local notables dressed up in antebellum costumes, including Confederate uniforms.

I was on a road trip up from Florida to Toronto last month and we stopped in a few places with war monuments.

According to the data, which track tuition costs from 1975 to 2013, the average number of minimum-wage hours needed to pay for an undergraduate degree in 1975 was 230. That number went up nearly 2½ times to 570 by 2013.

Professional faculties have seen the steepest increases. A dentistry student would have had to work 286 hours at a minimum-wage job in 1975 to afford the tuition fee then of $664.

In 2013, that same student had to labour for 1,711 hours to pay annual tuition costs of $17,324.

You hold Israel to impossibly high standards of behavior, vs. holding their Arab enemies to no standards whatsoever. This is the classic party line of Leftist anti-semites.

Even if this is true, since when is opposition to Israel the political entity the equivalent of anti-semitism?

It's not equivalent, but there's like an 80% overlap in those views.

Avocados, along with most produce, will go up in the near term. This has more to do with California's massive drought than it does with anything going on at the Federal Reserve.

war monuments

You hold Israel to impossibly high standards of behavior, vs. holding their Arab enemies to no standards whatsoever.

Why that is such a mind-blowing outrage of staggering proportions to some people has to do with things beyond the search for is true.

Watch it. What is socially and politically desirable is a poor way to go after scientific truth--any truth, really. The way I see it is that TGF is advancing the theoretical argument that not all groups of people have to necessarily be the same in all ways--and that includes mental ways. Why that is such a mind-blowing outrage of staggering proportions to some people has to do with things beyond the search for what is true.

The way I see it is that TGF is advancing the theoretical argument that not all groups of people have to necessarily be the same in all ways--and that includes mental ways.

Watch it. What is socially and politically desirable is a poor way to go after scientific truth--any truth, really.

The way I see it is that TGF is advancing the theoretical argument that not all groups of people have to necessarily be the same in all ways--and that includes mental ways.

So, do I think there are races in biology as well as culture? No. Nothing I have seen indicates that humans nicely group into distinct populations of less than the 54 found by Feldman’s group (probably a lot more – for instance, Papua New Guinea is not represented in their sample set). And this leads us to the paper by the Human Race and Ethnicity Working Group (rare to see a paper that doesn’t list all the authors). They rightly observe that while there are continental differences in genetics, there is no hard division, and genetic variation doesn’t match up with cultural differences per se. There is a genetic substructure to the human population, but it isn’t racial.

Your refusal to swing over to Montgomery to take in the First White House of the Confederacy, a couple of miles from my house, is duly noted & hereby goes on your permanent record.

Does this mean Israelis that oppose the political goals of their government are 80% anti-semitic, as well?

He trumpets anything that favors his world view, however shoddy, while at the same time dismissing or ignoring hard data that cuts the other way.

To be fair we all do that to some degree or another, I think the issue most have with GF is that he is more strident than most in insisting that he (and he alone) is immune to that.

YC? Man, I guess all us Yankee fans must look alike.

There's no difference between the Koches of this world and the Attila the Huns

Yes, all that sort of thinking can be abused in social and political context.

YC? Man, I guess all us Yankee fans must look alike.

It's the horns and smell of brimstone that causes the confusion.

Can we ever have a discussion about this without the continual insistence on disclaimers, genuflections, and kowtowing at the conventional beliefs? Apparently not. Can we ever extend it to an overarching view of race and other ethnic differences, cultural and biological? No, it can only be discussed in terms of a very short span of history involving one very restricted special class--except they aren't in the broad scheme of history.

This. The only reason they're not throwing your sorry ass in a mine for company tin (i.e. eating you alive) is because they're restricted by the government you claim to abhor. Your childish, naive notion of a state of nature that isn't nasty, brutish and short would be laughable if it weren't shared by so many similarly childish, naive people.

This makes no sense to me. Israel a small Western democracy, beset on all sides by enemies who would literally exterminate them if given the chance. They have been attacked since the very moment of their inception. The enemies of Israel specifically target innocent women and children, using their own women and children as suicide attackers.

To me, Israel gets a lot of credit for being as restrained as they have been.

Several people have been talking about exactly how such a discussion might happen. Another person has insisted on implausible constructs as scientific markers.

Don't you just love conservatives? We believe in freedom, as long as it's our type of freedom.

Assuming that were really true -- that the Kochs are as misanthropic as you are, and would go around enslaving people if they could -- I don't know how you think this undermines my argument, precisely because I don't "abhor" government when it's limited to doing things like preventing rape, murder, and slavery.

I don't think any conservative (or libertarian) believes in the freedom of government employees to use government funds however they wish, without any oversight by the elected officials who run the government.

Yes they have the power now, but if they ever lose it, do you doubt their enemies would at best, expel every Jew from Israel? At worst, conduct a 2nd Holocaust? In that environment, it would be foolish to make any compromise at all in terms of security.

Yes they have the power now, but if they ever lose it, do you doubt their enemies would at best, expel every Jew from Israel? At worst, conduct a 2nd Holocaust? In that environment, it would be foolish to make any compromise at all in terms of security.

3. "Bill Kristol's arguments in his latest op-ed directly put the interests of Bibi Netenyahu's government ahead of US national interests." - not anti-semitic

That depends what those arguments of Kristol's are that you're claiming to be disloyal.

One needs to be careful about lying down with dogs.

Meanwhile, in today's awesome, the husband cuckolded by Dinesh D'Souza has produced audiotapes of his adulterous wife discussing D’Souza’s plan should he get caught making the illegal donations.

The attorney representing conservative filmmaker and activist Dinesh D’Souza claims that the case against his client is politically motivated and that D’Souza is being singled out for prosecution because of his work to discredit and undermine the administration of President Barack Obama.

The New York Times reported, however, that campaign donation records and incriminating audio tape indicate that the right-leaning activist knew full well that he was breaking the law and was even planning ahead of time what he would do if he got caught.

One needs to be careful about lying down with dogs.

Even if this is true, since when is opposition to Israel the political entity the equivalent of anti-semitism?

It's not equivalent, but there's like an 80% overlap in those views.

This is a very unfair statement.

No. I hold governments who receive billions of dollars of US support annually to higher standards than I do governments who do not.

One needs to be careful about lying down with dogs.

You're misunderstanding the Fun Home incident if you think it falls into that category. No government funds were used for the program.

The current controversy began when a committee of College of Charleston faculty members chose the book as part of a campus program that encourages freshman to read a book and then take part in discussions and lectures about it. The school purchased copies of the graphic novel — which includes cartoons that show two women having sex — for every incoming freshman and paid to bring Bechdel to campus to speak.

Yes they have the power now, but if they ever lose it, do you doubt their enemies would at best, expel every Jew from Israel? At worst, conduct a 2nd Holocaust? In that environment, it would be foolish to make any compromise at all in terms of security.

Not really. Again, if I claim X and his argument Y indicate a preference for Israeli policy over US interests, that is not anti-semitic.

No government funds are used for a government school's "reading program"? Were the people running this program and handing out the assignments volunteers? Not to mention that the original story linked above says:

What does the question of whether he was breaking the law, or knew he was breaking the law, have to do with the question of whether the prosecution is politically motivated and whether D'Souza is being singled out?

The state provides 12 percent of C of C's budget. I don't know how the particular budget line for this was handled.

Every person who breaks the law is subject to prosecution for a perfectly valid reason, which logically undermines (though doesn't refute) the claim of political motivation.

It can be. "Kristol wrote a column opposing prosecution of Wall Street figures over the financial crisis. This indicates a preference for Israeli policy over US interests [because Jews control Wall Street and give their money to Israel, so prosecuting them would hurt Israel and help the U.S., whereas protecting them helps Israel and hurts the U.S.]"

No government funds are used for a government school's "reading program"? Were the people running this program and handing out the assignments volunteers? Not to mention that the original story linked above says:

Selective prosecution is not an argument that a defendant is innocent; it's an argument that a defendant is being singled out unfairly.

Wake me up the next time you post about the illegal Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

The national news stories are getting some of the facts muddied. The $52K for College Reads comes from a student fee specifically intended to be used to fund the program (something like $15/student IIRC). State money was not used to purchase copies of the book, nor was it used to bring Bechdel to campus.

Well, the actual Israelis don't seem to feel that way.

I thought the downtown was really charming and the restaurants we stopped at were really great.

Although fraud on behalf of a candidate who lost an election by 44 percentage points has to be the dumbest thing ever. Not to mention that Gillibrand outraised Long by about $15M to $700K; what could D'Souza possibly have thought an extra $15K would do for Long?

The restaurants in Charleston are indeed great and the waterfront is charming.

Right; it should have been about 95%.

So David, is the government of Israel the only one on earth that can't be meaningfully distinguished from the religion/ethnicity of most of its citizens?

When you have to cavort into such knots to make a theoretical case

In the spring.

The restaurants in Charleston are indeed great and the waterfront is charming.

In the spring.

what could D'Souza possibly have thought an extra $15K would do for Long?

Duh. The fact that the person is actually guilty, though, demonstrates a prima facie reason to prosecute.

Thus, the "however" clause you mentioned creates that prima facie case. If D'Souza wants to come forward with facts showing selective prosecution, he can do that, but that's irrelevant to your argument.