Diversity helps US claim first prize in single parent department

The OECD report that made it into news cycles earlier this week for having discovered that children in the US are more likely to live in single parent households than children in other developed countries grabbed my attention for illustrating why ignoring racial realities and instead relying only on culture (or 'propositionalism') has significantly obfuscatory policy implications. The AP story reads:Experts point to a variety of factors to explain...

PNSer PNSing

... to describe someone who is pointing and sputtering, er, pointing 'n sputtering. Orally, each of the first three letters are pronounced individually, followed by the appropriate suffix. It fits--they do tend to be whiny little bitches, after a...

Like father (country), like son

The CIS recently released a detailed study on welfare usage by immigrant households in the US using Census data. That immigrants are more likely to use welfare programs than natives are hardly constitutes a novel discovery, though it's rarely acknowledged in Congressional and popular media debates on the subject. This could easily be remedied by the institution of a selective...

Catholic and Protestant fertility over time

Talking to my dad and brother, we somehow got into Catholic fertility in the US. After describing a family with five or six kids, it's still fairly common to hear the quip, "Are they Catholic?" I'm aware of the stereotype, though it wasn't formed from actual firsthand experience. The more noticeable distinction I've picked up on is between those who are genuinely religious...

Hello Helen

Pew recently released the results from the March 2011 News IQ quiz, a series of 11 multiple choice questions concerning current events given to a random sample of ~1,000 US adults. Previously, I posted on how men consistently outperform women on this quiz, and the most recent survey was no exception to this rule. I've updated the original post accordingly.The one question...

Rationed by income

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen on the Paul Ryan budget plan: This Republican Plan simply rations health care and choice of doctor by income. What bizarre rhetoric for a US politician in one of the country's major political parties to use. Everything we buy that is not subject to government price controls, directly or indirectly, is "rationed" by income. In the vernacular, this simply means the thing in question has a price to be paid by the...

Scientific literacy by belief

As an excuse to continue milking the GSS science module for posts, Top Arguments suggests breaking down answers by theism (or lack thereof).The following table shows differences in responses, by theistic confidence (for whites only), to the science module of items deployed by the GSS during 2004 and 2006 (except for the last 3 questions, which were asked in 1993, 1994, and 2000). Theistic confidence is characterized by breaking respondents up into...

Percentages of believers who don't attend religious services

Spurred by Sgt Joe Friday, I used the GSS to take a look at what percentage of self-identified firm theists do not attend religious services with any regularity (defined as going less frequently than once a month). He expressed surprise at how many on the right still attend churches that increasingly incorporate leftist causes (ie, environmentalism and open borders) into their services.To some extent, the political alliance between pious Christians...

Cletus is such a throwback

Syncretism makes three suggestions for Ngrams. When I was in middle school, I remember my older cousin's reaction when watching an episode of The Simpsons where Cletus returns a pair of boots to a telephone pole where he found them and says, "Back you go, to wait for a woman of less discriminating taste." My cousin burst out laughing. I didn't appreciate at the time that Cletus...

Hispanic birth rates declining more steeply than non-Hispanic birth rates

The Arizonan trend showing a steeper decline in the Hispanic fertility rate than in the non-Hispanic black and white fertility rates over the last several years is not an anomaly, but instead illustrative of the same sort of fertility pattern at the national level. Over the three year period from 2007-2009, Hispanic fertility declined at three times the rate of the non-Hispanic...

Scientific literacy by sex

The science module rolls on, looking this time at sexual differences in performance. Discussing sexual differences is not without its own risks, but it is far more culturally (and somewhat more politically) acceptable than discussing racial differences is.Many sexual differences are so blatantly obvious that media obfuscation of them can't be taken seriously by most people. Anyone who has played coed sports or visited a gym in their lifetimes can...