OT "Coming Apart" and bubble test.

This is stupid; only 2 questions were asked and there was no score. I did not look, but what is this so-called "bubble"?

You're out of touch. It was not too long when virtually everyone in this co untry was what would be called blue collar or at least made a career out of a job that didn't require much of a skill set. These days almost everythin g is specialized and complicated, farmers with advanced degrees in agricult ural science, construction firms managed by civil/structural engineers, HVA C design, install and maintenance performed by MEs, landscape nurseries man aged and worked by pros with degrees in horticultural science/ plant scienc e or some other related degree, and the list goes on and on. There's no suc h thing as a hard working laborer unless the person is brain damaged or an illegal immigrant (functionally the same as brain damaged from what I've se en).

It certainly is. And it reminds me very much of the horrors that took place during the disastrous Chinese Cultural Revolution. We seem to be going backwards. :(

Seems a little improbable. You've got to be pretty noisy to attract the attention of a number of students, and most non-liberal ideas won't persuade even one student to chase you or scream while they are doing it.

Eliciting that kind of reaction calls for self-publicising skills that few have mastered, right wing provocateurs excepted.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a series of silly idea imposed from the top down. It's not remotely comparable.

Well my "Coming Apart" arrived the other day. I blew through it in a day.. bit more. Great book, (IMHO). It's about America, so I don't know if Europeans, and others should be allowed to read it. :^)

Murray tracks his four pillars of America through time and class, (Working class and the relatively new elite upper class.) You'll have to buy it to find his definition of upper class.

His four pillars of America are (I don't think he calls them pillars.)

Industriousness, Living to work, not working to live. Marriage, He thinks earlier is better. Honesty Religiosity

I like all of that. I want to say Religion doesn't have to be all about Jesus, though of course his are timeless teachings that are so much a pattern in America. For me church is about community, part just talking, but also working together to do "good stuff". (I think I'll go on Sunday.)

Anyway, at the end he has thoughts about the welfare state in Europe, I recommend that to all my more liberal friends here. (I better order a copy for my church.)

George H.

Oh I don't want to get into the whole Bell Curve thing again. But Murray has a piece about IQ on his AEI website.

Crap... I had " of course those are timeless teachings" and then changed "those" to "his", please change it back. GH

"Religiosity" is an odd word to choose. In my book it means ostentatiously looking religious, rather than quietly doing stuff that benefits other people.

For me the signature feature of "The Bell Curve" was flattery for the reader, laid on with a trowel. "The Bell Curve" had a lot of other weak points

is perhaps the most thorough demolition, but the flattery was what I first noticed.

Charles Murray is a member of the American Enterprise Institute

which has supported the pro-smoking lobby and climate change denial. He might not be a right-wing "liar for hire" but that is the company he keeps.

't like it don't show up.

assuming the assaults were equivalent on what basis can that be argued

diminished capability?