Migration Map Update

The Forbes U.S. migration map has been updated

Some Quotes for Today

Whittaker Chambers

A man is not primarily a witness against something. That is only incidental to the fact that he is a witness for something.

Whittaker Chambers

Ronald Reagan

At the root of everything that we're trying to accomplish is the belief that America has a mission. We are a nation of freedom, living under God, believing all citizens must have the opportunity to grow, create wealth, and build a better life for those who follow. If we live up to those moral values, we can keep the American dream alive for our children and our grandchildren, and America will remain mankind's best hope. 

Ronald Reagan

O, Fortuna - Steven Hayward

If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph.

T.S. Eliot

EU Debt Struggle

Ripped apart by financial crisis, Greek society in free-fall - AP

It has been three years since Greece's government informed its fellow members in the 17-country group that uses the euro that its deficit was far higher than originally reported. It was the fuse that sparked financial turmoil still weighing heavily on eurozone countries. Countless rounds of negotiations ensued as European countries and the International Monetary Fund struggled to determine how best to put a lid on the crisis and stop it spreading.

The result: Greece had to introduce stringent austerity measures in return for two international rescue loan packages worth a total of €240 billion ($313 billion), slashing salaries and pensions and hiking taxes.

The reforms have been painful, and the country faces a sixth year of recession.

Life in Athens is often punctuated by demonstrations big and small, sometimes on a daily basis. Rows of shuttered shops stand between the restaurants that have managed to stay open. Vigilantes roam inner city neighborhoods, vowing to "clean up" what they claim the demoralized police have failed to do. Right-wing extremists beat migrants, anarchists beat the right-wing thugs and desperate local residents quietly cheer one side or the other as society grows increasingly polarized.

"Our society is on a razor's edge," Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said recently, after striking shipyard workers broke into the grounds of the Defense Ministry. "If we can't contain ourselves, if we can't maintain our social cohesion, if we can't continue to act within the rules ... I fear we will end up being a jungle."

Political Polls in a Nutshell

The first thing to understand about political polls is that positive polling numbers are useful for political campaigns. They are used both to lend credibility for past performance and, more importantly, to create a sense of momentum and even inevitability. When one side is able to produce overwhelming polling numbers during the campaign, it is able to drastically reduce the enthusiasm for and campaign donations to the opponent's campaign.

Why The Polls Are Screwy (Best to Ignore Them) - Scripsit The Czar of Muscovy

Many folks are not interested in these byzantine and occult weighting systems that are based, ultimately, on desired results. Ever give a kid the answer to a math problem, and then ask him or her to solve the problem knowing the answer? You get handed the right answer, but sometimes some hysterical math to get there. In political science, this is called sophistry. And it is how much of the polling numbers are computed.