COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, February 04, 2011

America's Most Diverse City Becomes One of Five Most Miserable Cities

How many times have you heard our strength is in diversity? This was in 2002:

Welcome to America's Most Diverse City



Many William Land Elementary students speak a language other than English
LYNSEY ADDARIO/CORBIS SABA FOR TIME

Sequoia Way is easy for travelers to overlook. Nestled in the middle-class neighborhood of Village Park on the south side of Sacramento, Calif., it is an unremarkable stretch of single-story frame houses. But if you stroll a bit along the winding road and visit Sequoia Way's residents, you will quickly realize there's something extraordinary about this street.
You will meet Tom and Debra Burruss, who moved onto the street a couple of years ago. He's black and she's white, but on Sequoia the interracial union doesn't stand out. The Burrusses' next-door neighbors are also minorities, a Vietnamese couple named Ken Wong and Binh Lam. Living directly across are the Cardonas, a Hispanic-and-white couple. And nearby are the Farrys, a Japanese- and-white pair. In fact, sprinkled throughout the street are more flavors than you can get at Baskin-Robbins—Mexicans, African Americans, East Indians, Asians, you name it.
Now head downtown to William Land Elementary School. Here the classrooms are so ethnically diverse that teachers are considering switching from celebrating individual cultural holidays, like Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo and Chinese New Year, to holding a multiethnic festival. Of Land's 347 kids, 189 speak a language other than English at home. Immigrant parents are so common in Sacramento's public schools that one child volunteered that her father is also a foreigner—he's from New York.
Or go over to Downtown Plaza mall and chat with teenage couples like Kayla, 17, and Gerald, 18. Kayla's mother is white, and her father is black; Gerald's mother is Japanese, and his dad is black. As they munch pizza in a bustling food court as diverse as a U.N. cafeteria, Kayla shrugs her shoulders at the notion of same-race friendships. "Personally, it doesn't matter what color you are," she says. "I am mixed, he is mixed, and most everybody is mixed."
So it goes in America's most integrated city, as determined in research for TIME by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. In Sacramento everyone's a minority—including whites. Of the city's inhabitants, 41% are non-Hispanic white, 15.5% are black, 22% are Hispanic and 17.5% are Asian/Pacific Islander. Although many cities are diverse (think New York City or Los Angeles), in Sacramento people seem to live side by side more successfully. The city got that way thanks in part to affordable real estate for middle-class households (the black population has dropped in the Bay Area but increased in Sacramento over the past 10 years) as well as innovative housing programs for low-income families. In addition, state-government agencies and college campuses are sprinkled throughout the city, providing stable, well-paid, equal-opportunity employment.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,340694,00.html#ixzz1CyG36KdP






Here is how the "strength in diversity" is working:



California cities top most miserable list



(Reuters) - If the saying "as goes California, so goes the nation" still rings true, then Americans are facing a depressing future, according to a list of the country's most miserable cities.

Ravaged by falling house prices, high unemployment, a massive budget deficit, rampant crime and high state taxes, California filled four of the top five spots in the Forbes list of unhappy urban areas.

Stockton, in the state's Central Valley, topped the list, followed by Miami, in Florida, Merced, Modesto and Sacramento -- all in California.

44 comments:

  1. I would suggest that it's not the presence of minorities that makes these cities miserable, but their unfortunate tendency to vote for Democrats and their mindset that the "rich" are their own personal piggy bank.

    Carl's Jr. headquarters just relocated from California to Texas, a sort of corporate white flight. Same thing is happening in Illinois, where, ironically, Boeing in recent years relocated their corporate HQ from Seattle to Chicago. I wouldn't be surprised to see them move again to South Carolina.

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  2. I would not even blame the minorities for voting for Democrats, over Republicans.

    FDR did not make it into the Presidency with the votes of minorities. Reagan was an unapologetic New Dealer, until the day he died.

    The fact is that California is ahead of the cultural curve. As is New York and Illinois, when compared to places like Tennessee and Missouri.

    For those that care, the challenge is in finding a way to achieve the social progress that has been the goal of the people of the country, without demolishing the bed rock values that are cherished by the "conservatives", a voting minority.

    The challenge is in finding new and different ways to achieve health care coverage and provide quality education to all the residents of these United States.

    Along with the other social goals that the government has taken upon itself, like health care and retirement funding for seniors.

    I, myself, do not see any reversal in the trend lines. Not even a slowing of the pace of government expansion into the lives of the people. In fact I see the expansion of governmental interference, everyday.

    Learn to go with the flow, or drop out. Both, if you're smart enough to bridge the gap.

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  3. BusinessWeek -

    E-mails and other internal documents show that executives at JP Morgan Chase were complicit in Bernard Madoff's massive fraud, lawyers seeking to recover funds for his victims said Thursday.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Reagan's status as a political King Midas is all the more impressive when considering that on his trademark issue — shrinking government — he actually came up short.
    According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), federal spending grew 22 percent under Reagan. But Reagan's genius lay in his understanding that stage presence can go a long way in helping to cement an agenda in the permanent national culture.


    Read more:

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  6. Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia will spell an "irreparable defeat" for the United States, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday, adding that the recent wave of unrest sweeping through the Mideast was a result of Iran's Islamic Revolution.

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  7. The Israeli and Iranians finally finding agreement.

    They are deserving, of each other.
    Fuck 'em both.

    Time to ride, have a great day.

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  8. Economy adds an estimated 36,000 jobs in Jan.

    Obama adds an estimated 100,000 illegal aliens in Jan.

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  9. sorry to go OT gang but this article on AT suggests some major trouble with DOJ/BATF and is a must read:
    http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/death_in_the_desert_project_gu.html

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  10. The State has been under one party rule for some time.
    (Counting 'Rat's Hero Arnold, the Supreme RINO)

    To some, this is irrelevant.

    "Some" are irrelevant.

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  11. Cuomo Finds Fraudulent Funding Formulas

    Budget growth "is dictated by hundreds of rates and formulas that are marbleized throughout New York state law."

    "These formulas (predominantly in education and Medicaid funding) are often inserted into the law by pressure from well-connected special interests and lobbyists," Cuomo wrote. "This all must end."

    Cuomo's condemnation of the funding formulas and "trend factors" common in state government fiscal plans surprised lawmakers, complicating the next move of the Legislature.

    The Democrat said the practice this year is on track to automatically increase Medicaid and education spending by 13 percent, before budget negotiations.

    "Cuomo said that under the practice even a 7 percent cut announced publicly would still be a 6 percent increase in funding".

    Swapping those formulas for a simple inflation rate would turn the projected defict of more than $10 billion to about $1 billion, Cuomo said.

    ---
    "We look forward to reviewing the governor's budget and working with him to eliminate the deficit without raising taxes," said Scott Reif, spokesman for the Senate's Republican majority.

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  12. According to "some" Coumo is no better nor worse than any other politician.

    Likewise Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

    "Some" would be wrong again.

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  13. CA Pubs would never oversee running farmers out of business by turning off their water.

    The Democrats did.

    "Some" would say there is no difference.

    No need to go on reminding dear readers how wrong some are.

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  14. Nancy Pelosi had nothing to do with ballooning Federal Deficits over the past 4 years.

    Nor did Democrat Majorities in Reagan years.

    In the alternate universe of "some."

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  15. U.S. faces euro-like crisis, George Soros warn

    "George Soros warned today of a euro-like crisis in the United States as states and local government rack up debt.

    According to The Associated Press, the financier told a conference in Munich today that "in the coming two years you'll see something of a replay of the euro crisis in the United States in connection with the finances of the states and local governments."

    Mr. Soros, according to other reports, also warned of a Lehman-like meltdown in Europe unless governments clean up their fiscal mess and work toward fixing regional imbalances."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/us-faces-euro-like-crisis-george-soros-warns/article1894951/

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  16. Indeed, Ash.

    Even though "some" think present trends will continue.

    ...as if they could.

    Show me the money.

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  17. "Gorbachev is indeed a new kind of Soviet Leader.

    ...he weighs more than his wife."


    ~ Ronald Reagan

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  18. Scattered thoughts;

    1. We should have seen the Eqyptian debacle coming (I suspect there are many who did). Hosni has been grooming his son (unsuccessfully) for several years but as I understand, they started way too late and the son initially knew practically nothing about governing. The fact that the son had no profile should have been an indicator that he wasn't working out. Also, Eqypt is a country run and ruled by the military and Mubarak's attempt at dynasty was not well received by the Egyptian Colonels.
    ********************************
    We should have realized that the purple ink-stained fingers of voting Iraqis would find resonance throughout the Arab world. It looks as though the Neo-Cons are being vindicated.
    **********************************
    AT THE CLOSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government the Constitution was bringing into existence. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

    Revolutions can lead to good or ill. I like to think Egyptians or Iranians simply want to be free to lead modern, materialist lives free of dictators, oligarchs or theocrats. Palestinians, I'm not so sure about. The Muslim Brotherhood refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Israel and it could lead to disaster for the entire middle east if the Egyptians let that kind of thinking prevail.
    ******************************
    Mubarak is an old man and is ready to let go. His government has denied that the street thugs beating up journalists are his minions. I can believe it. Why, if he plans on a peaceful transition, would he order thugs into the street? Now, if the military has other plans, then that's a different story.

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  19. From Drudge:
    Iran: Riots sign of Islamic awakening
    Supreme leader Khamenei satisfied with Egypt uprising. 'The echoes of the Islamic Revolution are being heard. It is an earthquake and defeat for the US policy, and the Zionists are more concerned than anyone else,' he says during Tehran sermon


    I think the current economic crisis has more to do with this than Iran's revolutionary example.

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  20. It seems to me that Israel is the goat for any problem in the Islamic whirled.

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  21. You go broke slowly, then, all at once.

    Egypt has hit the "all at once" stage.

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  22. Who's behind this?

    Egypt VP Target of Assassination Attempt That Killed Two Bodyguards...

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  23. Not me, I was in Southaven that day.

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  24. The White House wouldn't even answer questions about it, today.

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  25. Mubarak has been identified here and elsewhere as a brutally repressive dictator. Sure, he was heavy handed at times, but brutally repressive?

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  26. whit said...

    "It seems to me that Israel is the goat for any problem in the Islamic whirled. "

    ---

    To the perpetrators of outrageous and slanderous propaganda:

    "Israel sealed that loss, when they attacked Turkish commercial shipping, in the middle of the Med."

    ...from the previous thread.

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  27. ...like the souls in the towers interfered with commercial air traffic on 9-11.

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  28. I dunno, is torturing and jailing any and all opposition simply "heavy handed" or is it "brutally repressive" or are you splitting hairs here?

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  29. I'm guessing you are one of those that don't mind if he is an asshole as long as he is our asshole.

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  30. doug forgets that it was the Republicans, in the majority and the White House, that enacted the largest Medicare benefit expansion.

    Providing prescription drugs to old folks, whether or not they were wealthy.

    Because the Republicans could.

    When doug-o does not like Republican policies, he calls the practitioners RINOs.
    Rejecting the reality of just who the Republicans are.

    Like "some" others do.

    As for that Democrat, Coumo, let's see where the budget falls, not withstanding the rhetoric before the "cuts" are made.

    Will Coumo veto the spending bills, like Mr Reagan did not?

    GW Bush, he never saw a piece of legislation worthy of a veto. No matter how much it cost.

    doug-o will proclaim GW a RINO, too. When in reality he was a Reagan acolyte, a New Dealer Lite.

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  31. Igniting 1,000 points of Federally funded points of light.

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  32. Well, doug, as for losing Turkey, they have called that Israeli raid upon their shipping piracy, comparing the Israeli to the Somali pirates.

    You may disagree with the Turks, thus furthering the loss of their support. The loss of Turkey, then, is on YOU and those that agree with YOU, like the Israeli, not on the US President.

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  33. The US has not attacked Turkish shipping, in the middle of the Med.

    The Turks have not proclaimed that the US Navy are Pirates of the Mediterranean.

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  34. By the bye, doug, they call what Mr Coumo just "discovered":
    Baseline Budgeting

    Nothing new.

    If Mr Cuomo is telling the truth, and it is a revelation to him, he is ill prepared for his new job.

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  35. As for "Raygun" Ronnie: He signed everyone of those budget increases. When he wasn't abandoning my fellow Marines in Lebanon, unsupported, and unavenged.

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  36. I'm guessing you are one of those that don't mind if he is an asshole as long as he is our asshole.

    Well, Ash, you're ours and I don't mind you. Just kidding. Couldn't resist. :)

    No, I'm not excusing Mubarak. I was simply commenting on comments that I have read here. As far as brutal, repressive dictators go, Mubarak is no Khomeini or Pol Pot.

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  37. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were two of the finest post WWII leaders of the free world. Reagan lead America out of a post Vietnam funk and Thatcher lead the way out of stifling, British socialism.

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  38. Mr Reagan led US to ever expanding deficits and huge debt loads.

    That he had stage presence, undeniable. That he set US on a course to financial meltdown with unchecked spending, at home and abroad, also undeniable.

    Free money is invigorating, for a while.

    Then the bill comes due.
    And it has.

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  39. I loved Dutch. But, I loved the Reagan that, actually, was - not some silly, revisionist misremembrance.

    The Gipper was a strong leader, and sometimes inspirational; but he wasn't perfect, and he awoke more than one morning with feet of clay.

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  40. Mr Mubarak was no Pol Pot, not Stalin or Hitler, either.

    But he was an autocrat, a despot and a dictator. He repressed political dissent and allowed for the persecution of Coptic Christians, in Egypt.

    He was undeserving of the unquestioning US support he received. More so during the last half of his tenure than the first.

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