Obviously, there’s a lot of affirmative action in the med school racket: the acceptance rate (43%) for Mexican-Americans is virtually the same as for non-Hispanic Whites (44%) even though Mexican Americans average around the 26th percentile of the white distribution in MCATs and college GPA. And 36% of blacks get accepted compared to 44% of whites even though blacks scores and grades are down around the 17th percentile of the white distribution.
In fact, the AAMC posts offical grids showing how much easier it is to get into medical school for Non-Asian Minorities (NAMs) than for overall applicants. For example, 32.4% of “self-identified” NAMs get accepted to medical school with 3.00 to 3.19 GPAs and MCATs of 21-23, while only 13.4% of overall applicants get in with the same credentials. For applicants with 3.40 to 3.59 GPAs and 24-26 on the MCAT, 67.1 of NAMs get in versus 27.5% of the overall applicants (and somewhat less for Whites/Asians, of course).
In summary, it’s probably a good idea to get a second opinion.
Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.
As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of America?
After that it degenerates into optimism, but the “point of recognition” is close at hand. The rebellion of conservative governors (including our own chameleon conservative Rick Perry) refusing federal funds is a very positive development. If what good for the feds isn’t what’s good for Texas, well that opens up all sort of possibilities.
I think it hit me tonight that I am officially a parent. It occurred to me as I lead my two year old with a sore throat and fever in this prayer after correction:
The increase in the size of a religion’s fundamentalist population can change the local and even national politics of a country. During the twentieth century, conservative Protestants increased from little more than a third of the white Protestant total (among those born in 1900) to almost two-thirds (for those born after 1975). Only a quarter of this effect was down to changes in switching patterns, the rest accruing to demography. Indeed, one graph showed the relationship between a state’s non-Hispanic White total fertility rate (TFR) in 2002 and the percent vote for George Bush in 2004. At one end of the spectrum was Utah, which had the highest TFR and percentage of people who voted for Bush, and on the other end was Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Kaufmann hypothesizes that while the Fukuyama, “post-historical” core societies — liberal democratic, capitalist and secular — have been able to survive external threats like the advancement of technology and the challenge of socialism, it may not be a demographically sustainable system. There is the possibility that the stark differences in growth rate between religious fundamentalists and others could threaten this system from within.
In reply to a question, Kaufmann speculated that demography may expose a contradiction, first cited by Nietzsche, between liberalism’s practical need to defend itself and its inability to legitimate the illiberal policies that may be required to do so.
Or as Robert Frost put it, a liberal is someone unwilling to take his own side in an argument. Raising conservative babies is one of the most aggressive acts you can take against the system. Call it the Palin Revolution. Guns, Babies, Jesus!
It occurred to me that I’ve let the social mood grab me too hard here lately. Gloom and doom is not really what I believe, though some sort of realignment is necessary before things can get better. You have to dig out the foundation to fix it. But I do believe there are two great causes of hope, as we enter some difficult times, that are unique to our point in history:
1) The Internet. If you believe in such a thing as truth, and you also believe truth must prevail, then a great free market in ideas like the Internet is a good thing. The media stranglehold on our people has been broken, once and for all. Not all will seek it, but the truth is out there and easily found. Though a great deal of evil is facilitated by the Internet, much more good will ultimately come. Water will seeks its own level and the great sifting of history will speed up as the degenerate become yet more degenerate while the fit and regenerate sharpen each other.
2) The Death of the Empire. I saw a video the other day that challenged my mental model of how things will play out:
Ignore the rest of the video about biotech (which is interesting) and let’s focus on the part about fedgov spending. Essentially, the government is broke by 2017. I had predicted the death of this country by long-term demographics, but it looks like Bush-Obama are going to push us over the brink to insolvency before that really happens.
When the Federal Empire is dead, it will be as if a great vise has been broken, an oppressive force that holds together the unnatural arrangement of our country. The worst possibility would be a strong, solvent ideologically coherent federal government able to smash the square peg of demographic catastrophe into the round hole of our civilization. By 2017 things will have degenerated a little further, but the great regional indigenous cultures of this country will still be there: Texas will still be Texas and the Christian Heartland will still be largely intact.
The witch is dead, and we know not what will come after, but we know that what will come cannot until the present evil has passed. Fedgov will likely enter a supernova stage as it angrily exits the stage of history, but it will be mere birth pangs to a new era. But praise God that the evil government that takes our guns, steals our money, aborts innocent children and disinherits our progeny will soon perish.
That it will pass sooner and while the American people remain largely intact is a cause for great hope. And maybe, just maybe, the sons and daughters of the pioneers will finally have a country that is truly their own.
Ding, Dong, the (Feminist) Witch is Dead:
Obama Sends a Shout-Out to His Homeboy Pastor Rick:
Huckabee Is Finished:
Nightline Report on the "Quiver Full" Movement:
This Warms My Heart: