It's not demographic game over just yet. Fertility rates of blacks and Hispanics are falling, holding steady for whites. Could those lines cross?

Class was “Introduction to Congress”…

I say give the cheaters all A’s! They are totally immersed in the subject!

The electoral map of 2008 is racial more than anything else. Blacks voted almost 100% for Obama and Democrats for racial reasons, even though a large proportion of blacks are religious conservatives. Blacks live overwhelmingly in and near large cities.

Whites, although accused of racism much more than blacks, were far likelier to put substantive issues ahead of racial voting.

Looking forward, it may be that blacks and increasingly hispanics are voting Democrat for purely racial reasons and regardless of ideology. Since these groups are increasing as a share of the population, the upshot is a possible future of Democratic dominance that is not issues or performance-based. This is not a sunny scenario; consider how the leaders of Detroit and some California cities have been able to govern with virtually no accountability, to disasterous effect.

If Democrats can win elections regardless of performance due to racial voting patterns by minorities, an era of poor governance seems likely.

Perhaps the future will see: (1) large numbers flood the Democratic party so they can at least participate, after racial voting by minorities make Democrats the only game in town, and (2) eventual splitting of the Democratic party into a new two-party system.

A foreigner looking at the electoral map of 2008 would assume Republicans won in a landslide, rather than lost in a landslide.

“Being fat is like being gay”

I think you’ve convinced me to drop those pounds I’ve been meaning to lose!

This is an excellent post.

As Kanazawa has pointed out, smart people can get into trouble by believing in very foolish things.

(1) Blank slatism, no racial or gender differences
(2) Marxism/Communism specifically and redistributionism generally being wealth-building

Each of (1) and (2) has an unending mountain of evidence that the proposition is false. But smart people are really adept at explaining away and rationalizing any challenge to the outcome they want.

I think the ability of smart people to escape religion is a great hazard because most secular substitutes are worse.

People generally need a belief system, and most people act fundamentalist about something. If someone lacks conventional religious belief, they are apt to follow the tenets of modern leftism religiously, and the tenets of modern leftism are about fixing society.

Things that challenge (1) and (2) are literally attacks on the religion of leftists because such challenges show the utopian ideal is not actually achievable as they conceive it.

People of religious faith are (in my opinion) often a much steadier hand at the helm of leadership because they placidly believe that any injustices and unfairnesses will be made right by God in the hereafter.

As the twentieth century showed, leftists who religiously deny (1) and (2) can kill a hundred million or so to further their aims because they are driven by religious zeal without the many moral constraints brought by religion.

It is to Razib’s great credit that he has not fallen for leftist religious fundamentalism like so many atheists.

Hans Rosling’s TED talk was lies heaped upon more lies. He claims that religiosity has no impact on childbearing but nothing could be further from the truth.

Statistically there are a few giant predictors of fertility, being religiosity, national wealth (inverse) and woman’s education.

Within nations and among nations, the relationship between religiosity and fertility is strong. No secular nations are above replacement (unless you count Israel as secular). Many religious nations are above replacement.

Agree with Matt. This means nothing unless you also look at who is hosting social dinners generally.

I’d bet that people with grad degrees are hosting social dinners much more often than High School dropouts…

High school graduates are poorer and have smaller homes. People with advanced degrees are richer and have bigger homes. Who is going to hosting social dinners with non-family in general?

These are softball questions for the Muslim societies. The real questions that show how illiberal many Muslims really are, are not even asked in the World Values Survey.

Questions such as: should someone face death for leaving the faith (Islam or Christianity, respectively)?

Results you get are 76% in Pakistan, 84% in Egypt and 86% in Jordan, three illiberal countries.

http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=1184

Maybe these results by Pew overstate things a little, but Pew has no history of right-wing bias, and there are presently people on trial for apostasy in more than one Muslim country and facing death.

In America I have lived 33 years and interacted with tens of thousands in my lifetime and never known of anyone who believed in death as punishment for leaving the faith.

By this measure, ~80% of Muslims are less liberal than the most illiberal American. The most illiberal Christian I can think of Terry Jones, the illiberal pastor in Florida, has not gone as far as 80% of Muslims.

And isn’t tolerance of other faiths what liberalism is really about?

Stoning for adultery? Similar result.

These are softball questions for the Muslim societies. The real questions that show how illiberal many Muslims really are, are not even asked in the World Values Survey.

Questions such as: should someone face death for leaving the faith (Islam or Christianity, respectively)?

Results you get are 76% in Pakistan, 84% in Egypt and 86% in Jordan, three illiberal countries.

http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=1184

Maybe these results by Pew overstate things a little, but Pew has no history of right-wing bias, and there are presently people on trial for apostasy in more than one Muslim country and facing death.

In America I have lived 33 years and interacted with tens of thousands in my lifetime and never known of anyone who believed in death as punishment for leaving the faith.

By this measure, ~80% of Muslims are less liberal than the most illiberal American. The most illiberal Christian I can think of Terry Jones, the illiberal pastor in Florida, has not gone as far as 80% of Muslims.

Stoning for adultery? Similar result.

And isn’t tolerance of other faiths what liberalism is really about?

Good grief, Steve, are you retarded or were you trying to honor Hitchens by writing an essay while drunk?

Wikipedia:

The Tory ethics can be summed up with the phrase 'God, King and Country'.

Hitchens actively rooted for the other team during the Cold War as it pursued the destruction of the West, presumably because he thought that meant the triumph of his beloved Atheism. His brother Peter quotes him as saying, "I don't care if the Red Army watered its horses at Hendon".

Well lets see, that is zero-for-three on the whole Tory thing. No God, no King, no Country. How is your math looking, Steve?