I'm pretty tired of these stupid spam comments. I turned on word verification for comments. It will now take several seconds longer to post comments here. For this I am sorry. Read below for an awesome post about demography.

Demographic Stuff

This just in from everyone's favorite dixiecrat ex-senator and full time old coot, Zell Miller. Apparently, old Zell has taken time out from his duelling career to try his hand at demography, suggesting that the source of military shortages, the present social security woes, and illegal immigration in America is (get ready for it) abortion. Luckily for everyone, I know a thing or two about demography myself, and can correct mister Miller on a couple of his mistakes.

First, the actual cause of the social security crisis is not the lack of chidren born since 1973, it is the number of children produced by Zell's generation. The Baby Boomers are the ones mucking up the system, as they have been since they started popping out in the late '40s. It is certainly not the fault of the Boomers or their children and younger cousins in Gen X for having avoided a repeat by practicing assorted forms of contraception. And it is certainly not the fault of the US Supreme Court legalizing abortion in 1973, for the reason previously stated, and also because the Baby Boom ended about 9 years prior, in 1964.

The military shortage is partially another effect of the above, but one other thing also comes to mind: there aren't enough people in the military because we keep sending them to die. People also probably notice the way we treat our vets in this country. Not a lot of reasons for people to want to join the military here and now.

Lastly, the illegal immigration thing. Now, this one at least shows some interesting critical thinking, and possibly even some amount of research on the part of the senator. It is true that underpopulated countries seem to be more likely to experience great amounts of in-migration. Countries like Spain, Russia, and Sweden are good examples of this. However! Given the number of unemployed people in this country, I'd say this one becomes hard to argue in this case!

So there you have it. Trust twenty-two year old college kids with blogs on matters of demography and public policy, not crazy old men with long government resumes and religious agendas.

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Good Times

School in Lake Stevens is stupid.

I wrote a letter to the editor about this. I don't know whether or not to expect it to be published. The article is like a week old now so probably not. Anyway, here it is:

"The fact that this teacher was reprimanded for this lesson is ridiculous. God or gods or turtle forbid that a high school teacher should attempt to teach his students to consider religions equally. And that is exactly what this teacher did. It is completely irrelevant that the teacher happened to be an Atheist, or that his students knew this. Would it be a more valid lesson if taught by a Christian? If he had replaced the Christian creation story with a Pagan one, would complaints by Pagan students be so indulged? All this teacher did was encourage his students to think beyond dogma and beyond standard high school expectations. If his students are unable to do that, it is their own fault and the fault of their previous teachers, secular and spiritual alike."