Silence

Bruno

The Entrepeneur

Rumble

Texas Cultures Wars, Round Two: First Science, Now History

WSJ:

The fight over school curriculum in Texas, recently focused on biology, has entered a new arena, with a brewing debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms.

The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state’s social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.

Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.

“We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” said Rev. Peter Marshall, a Christian minister and one of the reviewers appointed by the conservative camp.

Three other reviewers, all selected by politically moderate or liberal members of the board, recommended less-sweeping changes to the existing curriculum. But one suggested including more diverse role models, especially Latinos, in teaching materials. “We have tended to exclude or marginalize the role of Hispanic and Native American participants in the state’s history,” said Jesús F. de la Teja, chairman of the history department at Texas State University.

The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America’s founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man’s fall and inherent sinfulness, or “radical depravity,” which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances.

The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good — and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.

“America is a special place and we need to be sure we communicate that to our children,” said Don McLeroy, a leading conservative on the board. “The foundational principles of our country are very biblical…. That needs to come out in the textbooks.” (emp- SC&A)

Read it all.

Mighty Obama At The Bat

Sacrifice

Forget climate change, ageing populations are the real problem

The First Post:

Perhaps it is because we are so preoccupied with climate change that we pay so little attention to another form of change – this time demographic – which is also creeping up on us. Already, Europe’s people are older than any other continent’s and its fertility rate, at 1.5 children per woman, is way below replacement level. Across the continent deaths outnumber births. At the same time life expectancy is increasing, so much so that 19 out of the world’s 20 oldest countries, in terms of population age, are European:

*In 1950 there were 5.5 million people aged over 65 in Britain. Now there are more than 10 million, and in twenty five years time there will be over 15 million. But the number of people of working age, who will have to support them, is likely to stay roughly the same at a little over 40 million.

*The British birth rate has been below replacement level since the mid-1970s, yet our population is not just growing but rocketing. By 2030 it is projected to increase by 10 million to over 70 million. By 2050 it is projected to reach 75 million

*This is mainly because net immigration into this country over the last decade has been running at 200,000 a year, sometimes even more. Allowing for the 200,000 people who also leave the country annually, we have recently been taking up to half-a-million migrants a year – the highest in our history.
Without immigration, the population would rise to just 64 million by 2030, mainly as a result of people living longer, before slowly declining. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe the big worry is what will happen when populations fall.

*The Russian population is already dropping at the rate of 10,000 a week, thanks to a very low birth rate and reduced life expectancy after the collapse of Communism. In 2000 there were 148 million Russians, by 2050 this is projected to fall to 116 million.

*In Germany they live longer, but a birth rate of just 1.4 children per woman and comparatively low immigration means their population is also projected to fall – by 12 million between now and mid-century.

*Countries with very low birth rates and emigration, rather than immigration, will shrink even faster. By 2050 Bulgaria is projected to lose 30 per cent of its population, Ukraine and Belarus nearly 25 per cent apiece, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania roughly 20 per cent each, Croatia 15 per cent and Hungary 10 per cent.

*It had been thought that Italy and Spain would also shrink because of their very low birth rates. But immigration into both countries has recently been even higher than it is here. Between 2000 and 2005 net immigration averaged 500,000 a year in Spain and 350,000 a year in Italy. As a result the populations of both are now expected to level peg, but this will not stop them ageing dramatically. By 2050, a third of all Italians are expected to be pensioners.

Around the world, by mid-century the UN reckons that there will be over a billion more Asians, just under a billion more Africans, 200 million more Latin Americans, 130 million more North Americans – and some 40 million fewer Europeans.

Crazy

Lost Appetite

Alleged U.S. white supremacist arrested in Israel

Reuters:

When Micky Mayon fled the United States, where he faced firearms charges, the alleged member of an anti-Semitic white supremacist group chose what he might have seen as a perfect hideout — the Jewish state.

Mayon, 32, of Steelton, Pa., was arrested in Tel Aviv on Monday by an Israeli law enforcement unit that searches for illegal migrants. He had been on the run for two years.

“He was here because he thought this was the last place they would look for him,” said Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Interior Ministry which oversees the unit.

Mayon fled the United States after he was suspected of burning the car of a judge who had ordered he stand trial on the firearms charges, Haddad said, basing her information on details provided by Interpol.

Haddad said Israeli authorities were told by Interpol that Mayon belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group described by the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League as a racist, anti-Semitic movement.

“The search for Mayon came to a successful conclusion today with the actions in Israel,” said U.S. Marshal Michael R. Regan. “Locating and identifying Mayon in a foreign country sends a strong message that you can run, but you cannot hide.”

Mayon was being sought by U.S. marshals on two arrest warrants. Charges included illegal possession of a firearm, reckless endangerment and flight to avoid apprehension.

Read it all.

The Dark Side of Tolerance: British Anti-Semitism

World Affairs Journal:

The specter of anti-Semitism is stalking Britain. It is guilt-free and unrestrained by historical literacy. According to a recent survey, many British children believe Auschwitz is a brand of beer. Placards equating the swastika to the Star of David have become so common a feature at demonstrations that the linkage has become virtually common wisdom. The Holocaust is not so much something that happened, as something that is happening now—to Palestinians. With all the obstacles to ignorance presented by an informed understanding of the past now being smoothed away, the future is increasingly shaped in Britain by a politically tinged anti-Semitism that seeks to impose itself on national culture wherever possible and by whatever means available. This triumphalist movement’s fanciful but murderous perception of Jews has become one of those bad ideas whose bad consequences are everywhere on display in British society.

As Israel’s military operation in Gaza came to a halt in mid-February, a Jewish defense organization had already recorded some 270 cases of anti-Semitic attacks and harassment in Britain. This figure included 88 violent assaults and 74 cases of damage to Jewish property. The year 2009, therefore, is likely to surpass the total of 598 and 541 anti-Semitic attacks for the entire years of 2006 and 2008 respectively, hitherto the highest on record. These incidents were mostly disorganized, local disturbances in the street or the playground that were anecdotal in character but nonetheless a barometer of evolving public opinion. A man, incidentally a lawyer, shouts “Jew boy” at a fan of the rival team at a football match. In Birmingham, a 12-year-old girl and the only Jewish child in the school is terrorized by a mob of twenty youths shouting, “Kill all Jews” and “Death to Jews.” In the East End of London, windows are smashed and “Kill Jews” daubed on a supermarket, part of a chain started by a Jewish owner.

Such events have played out against a backdrop of demographic change whose net effect has been to remind Britons which side their bread is buttered on. There are roughly 300,000 Jews in Britain. Over the decades, Muslims have been immigrating legally and illegally, often not identified as Muslims in censuses, and therefore not easily quantifiable. But according to best estimates, there are probably 2 million in Britain.

True to their pragmatic nature, the British dealt with Muslim immigration by improvising an informal policy of multiculturalism, which in practice became a high-flown euphemism for separation. Politicians did not bother to think through the consequences of the new social world being created as a fact on the ground. In what was assumed to be their best interest, Muslims were encouraged to stay together but apart, to build mosques, keep to Islamic dietary injunctions, and cultivate their original languages and customs. When these customs included Jew-hatred, the authorities, which had enabled these developments by surrendering their ideal of assimilation, had little choice but to look away. Whether to promote further multiculturalism or to reverse it, and if so how: these are questions that demographic critical mass and past political incoherence forbid being asked today.

She’ll Call