Anyone commented on this 'atheist fundamentalism'? I don't believe in God, but I don't feel any need to evangelize my unbelief or spread the nongospel to nonnonbelievers...er, believers. And I'm certainly not going to be martyred (socially, anyway) for something I don't believe in! If the rest of the world believes there are pink elephants floating in the sky and gets very angry when you say you don't see the elephants, I just say, "oh, yes, I see the elephants" and be done with it. 
 
Besides, I have to admit fear of hell does make people behave.

Sweden. 
 
Don't expect anyone to agree with me... ;)

Seem like a harmless bunch of dancing people to me. A bit 50s but I've seen a lot worse. 
 
Really, there are nations that do a lot worse.

Ice Cube as Kotter? 
 
I'm sorry, that's just funny.

"Why are upper-middle-class people so often so much more unhappy than middle-class people are?" 
 
What a great question! I have pondered this for many a year, and have come up with a (possible) answer. 
Joe O points out above that people with 150,000 a year are happier than people with less than that. Quite right, but is $150,000 really upper middle class? It is upper class (or at least income) in some regions of the country, and middle class in others. (How far do you think that would take you in Manhattan?) 
 
We are conflating class and income. They're correlated, of course; lower-upper-class people (new money) make more money than upper-middle-class people (professionals). But they are not the same, and some of Mr. Blowhard's writings on the professional-managerial-class (which I believe he referred to from Barbara Ehrenreich) hint at the differential. 
 
Urban professionals--the lawyer-and-corporate-MBA couples who make up much of the Democratic party's strength--are some of the most stressed-out people in the world. They hold highly competitive careers in very expensive areas. They are easy to ridicule, for their situation is far better than that of the classes below them materially, but they still suffer great subjective distress. 
 
And there's just a bit of suppressed rage in any upper-MIDDLE-class rank. Think about it: there is only one class standing between you and the top of the heap! A middle class person knows that there are plenty of people above, and plenty of people below, and can feel content with his or her lot. But oh, to see there is nothing standing between you and the CEO position except for the boss's son! Why, if corporations paid more attention to your fine credentials instead of nepotism, YOU'd have the big glass office, no? 
 
I mean, think about it: if someone blew up Harvard tomorrow, isn't at least one person you'd suspect the president of Yale?

Now here's a question for all you righties who are scientists on the blog: capitalism doesn't get you guys a lot of money, it all goes to the smirking frat boys who used to give you wedgies in high school. Bigger government means more $ to spend on research. Why be capitalists?

I'm just curious about the truth, whether it's left or right. I think the establishment right is the lapdog of the corporations and lies to protect them (i.e. global warming), and the establishment left is the lapdog of the minority groups, and lies to protect them (i.e. most of the stuff discussed here). 
 
most individual righties or lefties are picking the lesser of two evils--you might not really trust big business but be more afraid of leftie softness vs. al qaeda, for example.

Out of curiosity, couldn't the rate of geniuses have gone down because more people are involved in cultural matters? 
 
i.e. if you have ten Newtons, they can only get a tenth as much attention each. 
 
I've never seen this addressed in discussions of Murray's book...

I'm the child of immigrants, and I'm in favor of immigration restriction. Mostly because I'm a lefty and don't like seeing wages driven down.  
 
I DO think (as was written in the American Conservative) that we need to work harder to avoid even the appearance of racism in our arguments. I think PC sensitivity is overrated but it is a reality we have to deal with and this problem is going to become irreversible if it isn't stopped. Working hard to make the movement as multicultural as possible (irony of ironies!) and stressing economic factors like depressed wages can help us win over the middle.

Hybrid vigor. Men like exotic women. I'm sure this has been written on here somewhere.

"Good lord, a chick speed-cuber. Do you suppose she's hoping her speed-cubing will help her find a hot guy?" 
 
Oh, a 100 to 1 male-female ratio still leaves that 1 female. I think most likely she just enjoys it. 
 
Or maybe she has a geek fetish. Leave aside the lack of romance, he won't cheat on you or beat you up...

Oh, there are some of us who went to elite universities back in the day. I think the hard part is getting anyone to agree to this; the Jewish community is scared sh**less of anything having to do with eugenics because, well, look at who the last guys doing it back in Germany in the 1930s were. You might be able to do it on the sly. Keep in mind that stealing the mailing list for a *testing* service won't do you any good. One way might be to look at the family trees of famous Jewish scientists, etc.; were there children who died of Tay-Sachs who there is some record of?

Come on, the reason people don't believe in evolution is Christianity, and you know it.

"sell his sperm to a Jew mother?" And he works in the media? 
 
Man, this dude's asking for it...

A conservative rock star? How odd...

Yes, they're the same girl. 
 
Funny. I liked the one on the right too.

Hard to say. The evangelicals are in ascendance now, but they're despised at Harvard. You'd have to get the economic and cultural elites together and that's though; the cultural elite is very anti-religion.

devo and evo? 
 
I presume you're not talking about 80s rock.

Actually, as I recall HIV hides out in the CNS (not sure if this includes the eyeballs) and the lymphatic tissue.

What is it with us nerds and libertarianism...? Though slashdot at least has gone straight liberal these days..,

You are a 
 
Social Moderate 
(56% permissive) 
 
and an... 
 
Economic Liberal 
(31% permissive) 
 
You are best described as a: 
 
Democrat 
 
You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (24, -69) 
 
I think everyone gets that last one.