Friends, it wasn't so long ago that Mom and Dad would pile in the ole station wagon with Fido and their 2.5 (or 3.5, or 4.5, or 5.5) kids and "See the U.S.A. in [their] Chevrolet". Well, no more. Station wagons are passé -- and so are kids. Fertility rates are crashing to record lows, and in most U.S. counties there are now more deaths than births. That makes immigration (legal and illegal) about our only hope to avoid a serious demographic decline. "Super!" says every Dem/progressive in existence, who can't abide the idea of more icky white people anyway. Let's just replace native-born Americans with Mexicans, Nigerians, and Bangladeshis instead! It's a novel concept, but I fear it won't be an adequate subsitute for the good, old-fashioned methodology of sexual reproduction. But then again, sex and gender aren't what they used to be, and it may not be long before we forget how to make babies. C'est la vie. Arguably, homo sapiens had a good run. Maybe it's time to start cloning dinosaurs and let them have another shot at being our planet's apex predators, huh? My advice to Mr. and Mrs. T-Rex: keeping up with the Joneses is all well and good, but you just haven't lived until you've seen a little baby T-Rex, with those big, watery, pitch-black eyes, staring up at you, knowing that he/she will someday grow up and bite the heads off of velociraptors, just like you did in your salad days... Bottom line: be fruitful and mutliply, people (and dinosaurs)!!! It's our prime directive.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/healthcare/us-population-growth-an-economic-driver-grinds-to-a-halt
In other news, Don, Jr. and Ron DeSantis are tops among Republicans in terms of net favorability. Meanwhile, Liz Cheney is trolling the depths with a -43 rating! Ouch. What does this mean? Not much, except that Don, Jr. and Ron DeSantis have a leg up, if DJT decides not to run in 2024...but what are the chances of that?
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/trump-desantis-cpac-poll/2021/07/26/id/1030035/
Speaking of everyone's least favorite Republican, Liz Cheney, she and Adam Kinzinger, Trump-haters par excellence, will be the only GOP Congressmen on Nancy Pelosi's Jan. 6th Committee. Shame on them. I fully support efforts to remove these renegades from their appointments on other Congressional committees and sub-committees, which are in the gift of the Republican leader. Simply put, Liz and Adam aren't members of the Republican Conference anymore -- not in any meaningful sense. They're creatures of Pelosi, and they should share her fate in 2022: forced retirement and disgrace!
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/nancypelosi-select-committee-kevinmccarthy/2021/07/26/id/1030049/
In education-related news, here's a great analysis of how progressives' use of race preferences in college admissions actually sabotages many black and brown students who, if they attended an institution more in line with their level of ability and preparation, could be more successful in life. But helping people succeed was never the point of affirmative action in the first place: the point is to burnish the "anti-racist" credentials of higher ed administrators. In that narrow sense, affirmative action is working like a charm!
https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/racist-antiracism-at-the-university
And here's a piece of good news: more and more parents are bypassing our woke, neo-Marxist public education system by homeschooling their kids. Now, if I could figure out how babies were made (I know storks are involved somehow...), I might have kids of my own -- and, if I did, I'd be strongly tempted to homeschool them. Increasingly, it's the right choice. Someday, it might be the only choice left to a responsible parent.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/26/ap-homeschooling-surges-across-u-s/
Nick, fertility rates have dropped most dramatically among 15-19 and 20-24 age groups (and Asian Americans). It's not clear why, though lack of economic opportunity, and wanting to delay having a first child helps explain the dropping birth rate of the two age groups. The group with the birth rate that declined the least -- Hispanic Americans.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: We tried homeschooling but it is so closely and exhaustively regulated in this People's Republic of NY! We gwve it up.
ReplyDeleteRod, I know people claim they're having fewer kids because times are so tough, but I'm sorry -- I don't buy it for an instant. Tell that to sub-Saharan Africans, for whom times are, and always have been, way tougher, but who still manage to crank out way more babies than we do. Materially, homo sapiens has never had it so good. We ought to be awash in babies, therefore. It's not a question of resources. It's a question of priorities.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that, Jack, but of course in other states the environment grows friendlier and friendler...
NIck, yeah, nothing gets me hotter than "Hey, babe, we need to keep it down because my parents are upstairs."
ReplyDeleteI would also venture that sub-Saharan Africans have less access to reliable birth control.
I'm sure you're right about the birth control, Rod, but the truth is that, in any traditional society, making babies and lots of them is the default way of life. High birth rates are needed to counterbalance high death rates. In modern society, by contrast, we have all sorts of choices. Kids are less necessary. They become discretionary. I don't begrudge anyone the choice of remaining childless, but I do question what the purpose of civilization is if we, in the aggregate, can't be bothered to reproduce ourselves...
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Yes,investigate and bring to justice those who savaged our police on Jan.6 but with equal determination deal with the 2020 insurrectionists. Since Nancy Pelosi excuses, by ommission, the latters, her impartialty in matters of judgement is completely compromised. So, McCarthy's denunciation of her Soviet style committee is completely justified. He is going to make a good Speaker.
ReplyDeleteJack, I'm VERY glad that the GOP didn't go along with Crazy Nancy's kangaroo court. That showed some rare common sense.
ReplyDelete