The Dish

Heather Mac Donald labels a trend:

It is an iron-clad rule, presumably taught in journalism schools, that when discussing black single mothers and their children, one must never, ever ask: Who and where is the father, and how many fathers are there?  Tens of thousands of articles have been written about the struggles of black single mothers, and the appearance of their children is always treated as a virgin birth. Not only are there no fathers in sight in such articles, there is no curiosity about where the fathers are and why they’re not stepping up to the plate.  Instead, the reader will learn in great detail either about the callous lack of taxpayer-funded social services or, as in the present article on black infant mortality, about the provisions that a wise and benevolent government has made available to the mothers and their miraculously-conceived children, who seem to appear with the same inevitability as the tides.

A classic from Ilya Somin, who can't quite seem to even believe his own post:

There is always the outside chance that Palin is deliberately pretending to be much more ignorant than she actually is, as Dwight D. Eisenhower did when he was president; perhaps for the purpose of getting her political enemies to underestimate her (which was one of Eisenhower’s motives). However, there are many obvious differences between Palin’s situation and Ike’s, such as the fact that only one of them had already proven his competence beyond reasonable doubt by successfully commanding the Allied forces Europe during World War II (a feat that required considerable policy knowledge and intellectual ability, among other things). 

Yes, that whole winning World War II thing is not quite the same as seeing Alaska Russia from your house, is it?

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finds that loneliness can easily spread through a social network:

[A] person's loneliness depended not just on his friend's loneliness but also on his friend's friend and his friend's friend's friend. Participants were 52 percent more likely to be lonely if a person to whom they were directly connected (one degree of separation) was lonely. For two degrees of separation, the number drops to 25 percent and 15 percent for three degrees. […]

An odd look or phrasing by a friend that wouldn't even be noticed by a chipper person could be seen as an affront to the lonely, triggering a cycle of negative interactions that cause people to lose friends. The upshot: A lonely person is likely to lose touch with another person, who in turn gets cut off from others, and both end up on the fringes of a social group.

A classic moment from the latest Palinpalooza, the Gridiron Dinner:

Yet “on my far left,” as she aptly put it, was the liberal Democrat Mr. Frank. At the other end of the dais, he looked stoic or even pained much of the time. But when Ms. Palin noted how busy she has been — with five kids, a book tour, running a huge state — Mr. Frank suddenly started and looked quizzical, seemingly wondering at her last item since she unexpectedly quit as governor last summer.

"The Desperate Housewives of 133, C Street" is a pretty good one, though, Barney.

Gwendolyn Bounds reports on the growing number of urban and suburban dwellers heading for the countryside:

Motivations can vary, but typically there are three groups: young people buying land as an asset or investment, with vague hopes to live on it someday; exurban commuters who have jobs in big towns or cities but want to escape the sprawl; and back-to-the-land types who want to dabble in hobby farming. While the 76 million-strong baby boomers eyeing retirement represent the largest ruralpolitan segment, they're being joined by a growing contingent of 20-to-early-40-somethings freshly imprinted by this recession's pain.

If baby boomers follow typical migration patterns, the rural population age 55-85 will increase by 30% between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. But other factors, such as widespread Internet access, are giving this current ruralpolitan trend new longevity, particularly among younger generations. Enhanced renewable-energy options and associated tax credits mean homes can be more affordably powered by the sun or wind in areas where utility companies won't service cheaply. […]

Interest in small-scale hobby farming has also bloomed, particularly among the young. When environmental-news Web site Mother Nature Network ran a piece called "40 Farmers Under 40" this year, it garnered nearly 100,000 hits, one of its most popular features since the site's launch. Visitors to the Web site of Living the Country Life magazine increasingly seek info on wood stoves, solar panels and windmills. "It's a little like the pioneer spirit," says Betsy Freese, the magazine's editor.

(Photo: Noah Kalina)

"I had an interesting conversation with an Alaskan two days ago who had spent time speaking with one of Sarah’s family members. My friend was curious how Sarah’s extended family and small circle of close friends, who know the truth behind many of the mistruths she tells the rest of the nation handle what they know her deceptions to be. “It was so surreal,” my friend recounted. It is as if there is real reality, and then there is “Sarah Reality” and in Sarah Reality whatever Sarah wishes were true at the moment, whatever she wants to be true, then that is what true is for her, and subsequently for those in her inner circle and her fan base. Sarah is not to be questioned. She is to be agreed with and honored. My friend went on to say this particular family member mentioned that Sarah was the “most important person in the world right now” and that Christians needed to get behind her and pray for her.

There seemed to be a total lack of understanding that all Christians may not agree with or support Sarah and Sarah’s viewpoint/s. If she were simply an isolated individual having what sounds to be some sort of delusional experience, it would be kind of interesting and sad. But it disturbs me that so many people across the country have seemingly swallowed hook, line and sinker whatever she tells them. It feels like her fans are more like disciples – not to a doctrine, since she doesn’t seem to have one – but just to her," – commenter on First Things, a Christianist-theocon publication.

An animated intro to a big environmental problem:

H2oil animated sequences from Dale Hayward on Vimeo.

(Hat tip: Likecool)

Unreasonable Faith floats a theory:

Atheists have always been a minority. Religious minorities are frequently in an awkward position, particularly when the majority considers their very existence to be a challenge. So atheists have tended to keep quiet, sometime not even realizing that the person they are speaking to is another atheist.

The internet has alleviated some of this problem. First it provides a semi-anonymity, which allows people to speak freely. Second, it’s created a way for people who are geographically spread around the world to meet together and discuss. So the internet provides something of a support group, which makes the atheists stronger and more confident. This also produces a group polarization effect, which makes the stronger atheists more confrontational.

So when folks like Dawkins came along, there was a ready made audience for their work. The success of The God Delusion helped get other atheist works published, creating the wave of “New Atheists” we see today.

Julian Sanchez, mulling over the existence of the self, quotes Hume:

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception. When my perceptions are remov’d for any time, as by sound sleep; so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist. And were all my perceptions remov’d by death, and cou’d I neither think, nor feel, nor see, nor love, nor hate after the dissolution of my body, I shou’d be entirely annihilated, nor do I conceive what is farther requisite to make me a perfect non-entity. If any one, upon serious and unprejudic’d reflection thinks he has a different notion of himself, I must confess I call reason no longer with him. All I can allow him is, that he may be in the right as well as I, and that we are essentially different in this particular. He may, perhaps, perceive something simple and continu’d, which he calls himself; tho’ I am certain there is no such principle in me.

Sanchez adds:

I see that he too stresses that this is a case where language is the true source of the puzzle, and that quandaries about personal identity “are to be regarded rather as gramatical than as philosophical difficulties.” Moving outside the Western tradition, of course, the “no further fact” view dovetails nicely with Buddhism, which is almost entirely an introspective research program. The illusion of the persistent and unitary self, that tradition teaches, dissolves not in the acid of theory but the light of committed inward contemplation.

And he concludes:

[W]hen people talk about the strong intuitions they have about the nature of the self, I think they’re often really talking about an attachment to a linguistic and social convention rather than an unmediated apprehension of what it’s like to be one’s self.