married couples with children now fewer than 1/4 households

Read the Washington Post article:


Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households -- a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census.As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent.

Republican Party Falling Apart

LA Times Article:

Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged during George W. Bush's presidency, as attitudes have edged away from some of the conservative values that fueled GOP political victories, a major survey has found.

The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, 50% of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, whereas 35% aligned with Republicans.

What's more, the survey found, public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats' values.

Banyan trees on mars?

Banyan trees on mars?

Tawfik Hamid - My Life as a Muslim Terrorist

I just finished listening to an amazing podcast, the kind of podcast that can change your perception of the world and shake your preconceived notions to the core.

The "Point of Inquiry" podcast I'm talking about is from the Center for Inquiry, an organization that promises to "Promote and defend reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor."

Featured in this podcast is an interview with Tawfik Hamid, an expert in Islamic terrorism. This guy has a lot of credibility in my mind given that he's a former member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a terrorist organization led then by Ayman al Zawahiri Tawfik. He managed to use his sense of reason to realize that he was doing something deplorable, and he managed to escape. He now speaks against Islamic hate, violence, and he's an advocate of sweeping Islamic reform.

In a few remarkable minutes this man helped me really understand the mind-set of the terrorist, the reasons for the spread of Islamic terrorism, and he helped me see how realistic notions like "bringing democracy" to the middle east really are.

Click here to read the Point of Inquiry description of the article, or click here to download the MP3 and listen. Here's a link to his amazing book.

Amazing life-changing stuff!

Anne Coulter, again...

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot–so….’"
- Ann Coulter

Yes, you read it right. Ann Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot" -- to riotous applause no less! Where? at the Conservative Political Action Conference -- the preeminent conservative event of the year.

Don't believe me? Watch the video. Read the article by Glenn Greenwald.