Code words
Quote for the day: “Every group has its code words. These words serve an important social function—they enable the members of the group to deliver a harsh judgment on others without accountability.” (Deal Hudson)
James Kalb
Crime and marriage
The old ball and chain really does work: University of Florida study: Marriage can reduce life of crime. The effect is said to be “strong” among hardened offenders in their late teens and early 20s, although the article unfortunately doesn’t give figures. And it has to be marriage; shacking up doesn’t do the job. … More ...
The New Order in Britain (cont.)
Two stories from Britain illustrate the discipline now imposed on words or actions at odds with the emerging order of things: Top Tory backs blast at gays and lesbians and Farce as heroes nick thug.
The first involves a senior Tory baroness, Caroline Cox, who lent her support to a book written by an … More ...
Family life in black and white
This seems to add a piece to the puzzles regarding the comparative weakness of the ties between black men and women worldwide: Public policies promoting marriage may not benefit all children, Cornell social policy expert finds in study. What the study suggests is that white children are affected more by broken homes, black children … More ...
The study of liars
Some tricks worth thinking about: Seeing through the lies. Long pauses, short sentences, and frequent errors in diction or grammar can be a tip-off that someone’s lying. Here’s a more complicated system: Become a Human Lie Detector. Act truthful in one way and something else you do will betray you.
No system works … More ...
Against interpretation (of 9/11)
Here in New York we didn’t know what to say about the September 11 atrocities, so we repeated old patriotic speeches and spent a couple hours reading the names of those who died in a sort of spoken equivalent of the Viet Nam Memorial. In England they apparently had the same problem, and Spiked provides … More ...
Traditionalist architecture in Britain
The forces of built tradition are rallying in Britain and making headway against modernist tyranny: All the King’s Architects: The surprising success of Prince Charles’s anti-modernist crusade. Unfortunately, there are no pictures in the online version of the article, so unless you’re unusually good at visualizing buildings from lists of details you’ll want to … More ...
Smith college today
This woman sounds like a parody, but not by much: Smith presidency offers a bully pulpit . Carol Christ, the college’s new president, thinks that “equity and access are some of the key issues facing American higher education.” She’ll therefore be pushing for colleges to bring more gender balance to their faculties, especially in the … More ...
Racial profiles
What happens when journalism gets too real? ‘Philly Daily News’ Ponders Photo Controversy. The paper ran a spread on the city’s at-large murder suspects and two of them got caught. Unfortunately, the suspects were all the wrong color. The paper had to apologize in response to a flood of angry phone calls and emails, … More ...
The political complexion of the ‘net
Rumors that the Right owns the ‘net are greatly exaggerated. It sometimes seems that way, since the Internet is one of the few settings in which the Right is allowed to exist and make its points, but Google searches on leftist and rightist slogans suggest the contrary. The buzzwords of the Left (e.g., … More ...