Minority Babies are a Majority

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.

-- LJ/Huffington Post

The day has been coming. City life has already been largely a minority, non-white experience, with no small thanks to "white flight", and it has been a largely poor experience for that demographic and sociological fact. And I am inclined to think that this change will only drive a Third World-ization of the United States as a whole, a process that is already well underway. The white money won't invest in a colored country, as they hoard their money in their little gilded enclaves, their gated communities.

Minority Babies are a Majority

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.

-- LJ/Huffington Post

The day has been coming. City life has already been largely a minority, non-white experience, with no small thanks to "white flight", and it has been a largely poor experience for that demographic and sociological fact. And I am inclined to think that this change will only drive a Third World-ization of the United States as a whole, a process that is already well underway. The white money won't invest in a colored country, as they hoard their money in their little gilded enclaves, their gated communities.

Quote of the Day

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

-- Winston Churchill

I never really want to lose sight of old Churchill, he having played such a key and dramatic role in the great Nazi drama of the twentieth century, when democratic Western civilization threatened to take such a nasty turn, threatening to become more like Orwell's "1984". I might even like to book-blog William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", if I had time enough and life enough to do all that I might please.

Quote of the Day

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

-- Winston Churchill

I never really want to lose sight of old Churchill, he having played such a key and dramatic role in the great Nazi drama of the twentieth century, when democratic Western civilization threatened to take such a nasty turn, threatening to become more like Orwell's "1984". I might even like to book-blog William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", if I had time enough and life enough to do all that I might please.

The Anthropocene Epoch?

About 12,000 years ago (give or take a thousand) the glaciers covering much of the northern hemisphere disappeared and an ice age gripping the Earth ended. The planet became warmer, wetter and entered the geological era scientists call the Holocene. Marked by a stable climate, the Holocene has been good to humans. The entire history of our civilization (agriculture, city building, writing etc.) is bound within the Holocene and its bounty of productive land and oceans.

Now, it appears, the Holocene is over.

Recently The Economist reported on a radical idea that has been floating around in the geological community for last few years: we are entering a new era in the history of the planet dominated by human "forcing." As the article aptly puts it: "Welcome to the Anthropocene."

-- Frank Adam at NPR.org

The question posed is whether we can survive our own epoch, but if that is too extreme, it is still interesting to wonder how we will survive it. What will civilization look like in, say, the year 2200, if there is a year 2200?

Personally, I will be happy just to have another decade or two of what we have. That is selfish, but I no longer tend to think in Utopias and of saving the world. I just don't want to be hurt.

Incidentally, I am not so certain that it will be gloom and doom. There might be a tough period, but I am impressed enough by human ingenuity that I would not be shocked if these problems are not only overcome but are absolutely transcended, and that the year 2200 will make the year 2000 look like what 1900 looks like to us. I think the odds are a bit against this, but it is hardly impossible.

The Anthropocene Epoch?

About 12,000 years ago (give or take a thousand) the glaciers covering much of the northern hemisphere disappeared and an ice age gripping the Earth ended. The planet became warmer, wetter and entered the geological era scientists call the Holocene. Marked by a stable climate, the Holocene has been good to humans. The entire history of our civilization (agriculture, city building, writing etc.) is bound within the Holocene and its bounty of productive land and oceans.

Now, it appears, the Holocene is over.

Recently The Economist reported on a radical idea that has been floating around in the geological community for last few years: we are entering a new era in the history of the planet dominated by human "forcing." As the article aptly puts it: "Welcome to the Anthropocene."

-- Frank Adam at NPR.org

The question posed is whether we can survive our own epoch, but if that is too extreme, it is still interesting to wonder how we will survive it. What will civilization look like in, say, the year 2200, if there is a year 2200?

Personally, I will be happy just to have another decade or two of what we have. That is selfish, but I no longer tend to think in Utopias and of saving the world. I just don't want to be hurt.

Incidentally, I am not so certain that it will be gloom and doom. There might be a tough period, but I am impressed enough by human ingenuity that I would not be shocked if these problems are not only overcome but are absolutely transcended, and that the year 2200 will make the year 2000 look like what 1900 looks like to us. I think the odds are a bit against this, but it is hardly impossible.

Peter Falk

Peter Falk, the "Columbo" star, is dead at 83. He was one of the best TV detectives ever, maybe even better than Joe Mannix, and he showed that guys with wonky eyes can succeed, though it is true that he never really did play a ladies' man.

Why are the TV stars of my childhood dying? Isn't it too soon? This is not fair. I still haven't grown up.

Let me cheer myself up with Amanda Seyfried:



Few things work as well as a little black dress
on a tight, hot blonde.

(Source: ONTD)

Peter Falk

Peter Falk, the "Columbo" star, is dead at 83. He was one of the best TV detectives ever, maybe even better than Joe Mannix, and he showed that guys with wonky eyes can succeed, though it is true that he never really did play a ladies' man.

Why are the TV stars of my childhood dying? Isn't it too soon? This is not fair. I still haven't grown up.

Let me cheer myself up with Amanda Seyfried:



Few things work as well as a little black dress
on a tight, hot blonde.

(Source: ONTD)