03.03.08
Posted in Statistics at 6:42 am by Nick Soutter
It is a new year, and as we consider whom to vote for in this presidential election, the state of our economy, our environment, our society and culture, and the world and our place in it, let us consider some facts which may put the remarkable and unprecedented time in which we live into some perspective.
In America, the land of the free, we have 2.2 million people in prison, roughly 3.1% of our population. This is the highest percentage of any country in the world. Further, 25% of the world’s prisoners are in America, while America represents only 5% of the world’s population. China, with a population of 1 billion, more than three times our own, has only 1.5 million people in prison. Read the rest of this entry »
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09.30.07
Posted in Civil Rights, Politics, Racisim at 11:55 am by Nick Soutter
“That’s some nappy-headed hos there”
Don Imus, Radio Host and Shock Jock
“Nothing a white man with a penny hates more than a n***** with a nickel.”
Chris Rock, Comedian
“The Black is a better athlete to begin with, because he’s been bred to be that way”
Jimmy Snyder, Sports Commentator
“White people… I wish that you had my freedom of speech… You think you do?
Please, go into your work and tell my jokes on Monday.”
Carlos Mencia
Latin comedian specializing in racial jokes and satire.
“As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways”
“White folks were in caves while we were building empires. . . . We taught philosophy, astrology, and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos”
Rev. Al Sharpton
Perhaps Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s greatest contribution to the civil rights movement was an unwavering sense of respect, for blacks and whites alike. He had a true sense of equality and treated members of both races, not by the color of their skin but by their character. It was infectious, demanding respect and equality from a system that thought he deserved neither. Today there is a want of these virtues. Anger and bitterness have engendered self-righteousness and resentment in both blacks and whites to the point where dialogue on the subject is all but impossible, and true progress against racism is stalled, if not slowly regressing. It has even become all but impossible to know anymore what truly constitutes racism.
Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines racism as a doctrine or teaching, without scientific support, that claims to find racial differences in character, intelligence, etc., that asserts the superiority of one race over another. Snyder’s comments had scientific support, but were none the less considered racist (likely for the derogatory choice of the word “bred”). Imus’s comment doesn’t strictly fit the definition but was widely considered racist also. Rock’s comment, while not strictly fitting the definition either, was closer than Imus’s and was not considered racist. How can we as a society hold people to a set of standards which appears fluid enough that, at a minimum, even Webster’s can’t accurately define it? Read the rest of this entry »
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04.11.07
Posted in Psychology, Religion at 2:44 pm by Nick Soutter
“Killing infidels assures you of Paradise.”
Qur’an, 47:4-6
“Certain Men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying ‘Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known’; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search and ask diligently, and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you, Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein… and shalt burn with fire the city… for the LORD thy God.”
Deuteronomy 13:13-16
On November 14th CNN’s Glen Beck asked Representative Elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to congress, to prove that he wasn’t a terrorist “working with our enemies”.
The question was answered as best it could be. There were no cries for Beck’s resignation, no major newspaper articles, and no concerns raised over a CNN representative asking such a question.
The first problem, known to journalists, logisticians, philosophers, politicians, and lawyers alike, is that it’s often impossible to prove negative. How would you go about proving that you have never committed murder, robbed a bank, or attended a communist rally? While proving that you have not been caught doing any of these things may be relatively simple, proving you haven’t done them is all but impossible, and any responsible news commentator should know that.
But that Glen Beck could ask such an unfair question is not the most frightening part. What is most frightening is that it’s been five years since 9/11, and members of the mainstream media (and the public at large) still don’t understand who our enemy is or appear to have any interest in making a concerted effort to distinguish between them and us.
Read the rest of this entry »
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