"Aim for the hungriest one."

"So the media would help by taking cameras, going out, filming poor people that are starving, and then broadcast that on national TV?"

"They certainly would."

"Okay, I just want to make sure that came out of your mouth the way that I heard it." 

:-(.


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"In Texas, it's way easier to get a gun than a college degree."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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That is probably true in most states. I watched Bowling for Columbine.

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A baby paradox

Minority births on track to outnumber white births, by Hope Yen, AP via Yahoo! News.

Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.

In fact, demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.

The numbers are growing because immigration to the U.S. has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Minorities made up 48 percent of U.S. children born in 2008, the latest census estimates available, compared to 37 percent in 1990.

"Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century. For America's children, the future is now," said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire who researched many of the racial trends in a paper being released Wednesday.

Johnson explained there are now more Hispanic women of prime childbearing age who tend to have more children than women of other races. More white women are waiting until they are older to have children, but it is not yet known whether that will have a noticeable effect on the current trend of increasing minority newborns.

[ . . . ]

Whites currently make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, and recent census estimates suggest the number of minorities may not overtake the number of whites until 2050.

First of all, if there are going to be more nonwhite people in a country than white people, it is becoming increasingly illogical to call nonwhite people "minorities." I have never liked calling people minorities, because most "minority" people aren't a minority in the world. There are 1 and 1/2 continents full of Latino people, 1 continent full of black people, and a ginormous continent full of Asian people. Yet they are "minorities". Hmm.

Second, this phenomenon of minorities overtaking white people (?) is primarily attributed to "immigration" boosting "the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years" "who tend to have more children than women of other races." Oh my.

a) Not all Hispanic people immigrated here. Some Hispanic people were actually born here. So were their ancestors.

b) Some Hispanic people are white. Who knew? I think these people knew. These people, too!

Third, another assumption in the article is that white women give birth to white babies, Hispanic women give birth to Hispanic babies, Asian women give birth to Asian babies and so on. But what about Native American and Middle Eastern babies in the US? What about Kendra's baby? What about Nicole Richie and her unfortunately named babies?

Fourth, I'm of childbearing age, yet where are the 2.13 children that I am supposedly having? How can I contribute to the upheaval of American society?

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"Snow in 49 states at one time."

"Which state is holding out?"

Is it Hawaii?

49 states dusted with snow; Hawaii's the holdout, by Seth Borenstein, AP via Yahoo! News.

I was right!

More than two-thirds of the nation's land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned yesterday, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50.

At the same time, those weird weather forces are turning Canada's Winter Olympics into the bring-your-own-snow games.

Who's the Great White North now?

Who? I'm still going with Canada:




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My favorite advertisement of the week

And it's only Tuesday!

Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico, Reuters via Yahoo! News.

The distillers of Sweden's Absolut vodka have withdrawn an advertisement run in Mexico that angered many U.S. citizens by idealizing an early 19th century map showing chunks of the United States as Mexican.

The billboard ad has the slogan "In an Absolut World" slapped over a pre-1848 map showing California, Arizona and other U.S. states as Mexican territory. Those states were carved out of what had been Mexican lands until that year.

Although it was not shown in the United States, U.S. media outlets picked up on the ad, and after a barrage of complaints, Absolut's maker said on Sunday the ad campaign would cease.

Defending the campaign last week, Absolut maker Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the U.S. market.

"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokeswoman wrote on Absolut's Web site.

"Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal," she wrote.

Absolut's blog cite has received more than a thousand comments since the ad campaign was launched a few weeks ago, with many calling for boycotts of the Swedish company.

"I have poured the remainder of my Absolut bottles down the sink," one blogger wrote.

Well that blogger was not this blogger. I would have taken the ad even further by simply adding a vodka bottle to this thanksgiving comic.

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