I finally saw Precious the other day.  I like what Matt Parrott in TOQ wrote about it.

Precious, the titular monstrosity, fantasizes about being a blonde White woman, has a crush on her White math teacher, and is eventually rescued from a cast of literally and figuratively dark characters by White, nearly White, and very light heroines. White and light social workers, like guardian angels, are offering salvation, but the dark forces of Black culture try to pull her away from the heavenly glow of literacy, employment, independence, and Whiteness.

By the end of the movie the beast is close to eighteen years old and proud of being at an eighth grade reading level.

While Parrott sees a political message behind the film, I don’t.  Precious is saved by do-gooders and social workers, but at the same time it’s clear that welfare has been bad for the fat girl’s family.  The movie just caters to the perverse fascination whites have with the black underclass and only a black director could have made such a movie.  

Precious is supposed to be a sympathetic figure, but I couldn’t feel for her.  Fat people have let themselves get that way, though if you don’t believe in God/free will it makes no more sense to blame them for their predicament than it does to be mad at pigs for getting dirty. I understand that at an intellectual level, but still.

Of course with an obese white woman the general public feels no need to be nice and indulges in its natural feelings of disgust.

For all its posturing as a defender of free speech in China, Google English thus far has been caught censoring from its search prompts the phrases climategate, Islam is, Epic Beard Man and Pat Buchanan.  The pattern is unmistakable.  A few months ago I noticed that if you put “why are” into the search engine “why are black people so loud” was the first prompt.  I’ve been keeping an eye on the phrase and it had moved into first place when somebody simply types in “why.”  My page is currently in second place on the results page.  I’ve been watching every day to see if I could overtake Stormfront and I still may.  

Apparently, word was getting out about how popular this search was.  Somebody left the following comment on my page.

I actually sumbled onto this website because of the “why black people are so loud” search..all I put in was “why” and that was the first prompt…I had to to search it just because it was so damn funny that that was the 1st thing that google popped up and I found this blog…I do have to say it is one the funniest things I’ve read on the internet in a long time..I’m not exactly sure what determines what google suggests first but if it is indeed popularity, and google is not incorrect, that would be incredibly funny. Funny, not surprising as black people are loud, but if that is truly the biggest “why” question in the US, our country as a whole really is going to end up failing just as some international scholars predict.

It had gotten to the point where a thousand people per day were finding my website through searches for “why are black people so loud” alone.  I made sure to put up a link to Race, Evolution and Behavior on the specific page and encouraged people to read it.  I wondered whether eventually all you would need was a w.  

In the back of my mind I knew that this state of affairs couldn’t last, that my website being the second one under the first prompt of a “wh” question word was too good to be true.  And today, I awoke to find that “why are black people so” had been censored from Google.

From Haareetz

“We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other,” Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan tells Haaretz as she explains why she chose to dress up her baby daughter as the most evil historical figures of the 20th century. 

“Even my daughter could end up ruling Denmark with an iron fist. The possibility is still there. You never know.” 

In the controversial photo-series “Potency,” Kleivan’s daughter Faustina, then a few months old, depicts such infamous personalities as Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Chairman Mao, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Adolf Hitler. The aim is to illustrate just one thing: We all begin life the same. We all have every opportunity ahead of us. To do good, or inexplicable evil…

When Kleivan gave birth to Faustina, her second child, serious pelvic joint pain kept her in hospital for two months, then captive at home in a wheelchair for another four months. Bored out her mind and incapable of accessing her studio, she found a canvas in her newborn daughter. She began sewing small costumes using items at hand, dressing her child up as the worst dictators of recent history, and photographing the results. First was Stalin; Hitler was the last. When her husband saw the swastika armband lying on the desk, he cracked. 

“‘I’m aware that you’re an artist, but this is wrong,’ he told me. I’ve pondered that a lot myself: Could I really do this? I agree it’s on the verge, especially Hitler, whom I and most others view as the incarnation of evil. He and Stalin were the hardest to do. It hurt.” 

And not for nothing. Kleivan was raised by a father in the Norwegian resistance movement who had been captive in a German prison camp. 

“I grew up with a tremendous hatred towards the Germans,” Kleivan says, reminiscing about how she would, as a child, carry a note in her pocket with the name of her father’s prison guard, so that when the day came, she could identify him and kill him. “Even though my father stressed that you shouldn’t hate anyone, not least the Germans. Hatred is a dead end.” 

Kleivan’s art brims with references to World War II, often incorporating power and powerlessness, victims and culprits, innocence and guilt. Even so, none of her works have caused as much stir as this, and it’s all because of one particular image. 

“Nobody reacts to any picture other than the one of ‘mini-Hitler’. Even though my generation doesn’t speak out about the war, silently our cultural circle sees Hitler as evil incarnate.” 

See the photos here.  The Khomeini costum was the only one that made me laugh.  For Milosevic she just dressed her up in a suit and tie.  

In other Hitler news, Germans Cringe at Hitler’s Popularity in Pakistan

Germans are popular in India and Pakistan, but not always for the right reasons. Many in South Asia have nothing but admiration for Adolf Hitler and still associate Germany with the Third Reich. Everyday encounters with the love of all things Nazi makes German visitors cringe.

Pakistan is the opposite of Germany. The mountains are in the north, the sea is in the south, the economic problems are in the west and the east is doing well. It’s not hard for a German living in Pakistan to get used to these differences, but one contrast is hard to stomach: Most people like Hitler.

I was recently at the hairdresser, an elderly man who doesn’t resort to electric clippers. All he has is creaky pair of scissors, a comb, an aerosol with water. He did a neat job but I wasn’t entirely happy.

I said: “I look like Hitler.”

He looked at me in the mirror, gave a satisfied smile and said: “Yes, yes, very nice.”

I decided not to challenge him, went home and tried to get rid of the strict parting he’d given me.

Embarrassing Moments

I was glad I avoided the usual Hitler conversation. Pakistanis always hone in on that topic whenever they talk to Germans. “We’re Aryans too,” they say, because there was an Indo-Germanic race, the Aryas. Besides, Hitler was a military genius, they add.

Sometimes it’s better to keep quiet about one’s German origins. It’s embarrassing because people here think they’re doing you a favor by expressing their admiration for the Nazi leader. I suspect most Indians and Pakistanis have no idea what this man did. They see him as the bold Führer who took on the British and Americans.

In the Islamic world, not just in Pakistan but right across from Iran to northern Africa, anti-Semitic sentiment of course plays a role. Conversations with German visitors rapidly turn to the injustice being suffered by the Palestinians who were robbed of their land.

The Desire to be Swallowed up by the Ground

One can try to cut such conversations short, like a German acquaintance of mine did recently. He told a taxi driver in Iran he should stop talking nonsense because he as a dark-skinned person wouldn’t have survived long in Nazi Germany. The taxi driver looked at him surprised and said: “But I’m Aryan!”

No dark skinned person could survive in Nazi Germany?  There were blacks there, and they survived  to write books about it.  Making the Nazis into cartoon villains stops people from asking questions about World War II

JFK wrote 

Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived…He had a mystery about him in the way that he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made.

There’s something abut him that speaks to people.  This is because love of race, respect for rank and social conservatism are healthy things.  Even when these values are taken too far, people are inspired by those who fought for them.  As P.J. O’Rourke put it, “no one has ever had dreams of being tied down and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.”

Hitler’s popularity with nonwhites leads me to believe that when people come across a more successful race, the natural reaction isn’t envy or hatred, but respect and admiration.  The more intelligent group is despised only when it’s masochistic, as whites are today.

Those at the bottom of society on their own wouldn’t get it into their heads that society was to blame for their failures without more intelligent liberals.  I believe that blacks in the American South respected whites until the Civil Rights movement, though maybe somebody more familiar with the era could shed some light on this.  

Nietzsche:

Whom do I hate most among the rabble of today? The socialist rabble, the chandala apostles, who undermine the instinct, the pleasure, the worker’s sense of satisfaction with his small existence–who make him envious, who teach him revenge. The source of wrong is never unequal rights but the claim of “equal” rights.

On the other hand, Jews have always been ethnocentric, successful and socially conservative but nobody likes them. My theory is as simple as third worlders have a visceral negative reaction to Jews because they’re ugly and like Germans because they’re good looking.  Peter Frost in Fair Women, Dark Men theorized that our natural dislike of dark skin has made racism against blacks more viscous than it is against others.  I would add that perhaps only an overreaching system of taboos against racism keeps whites from behaving very nastily towards Africans.

A talk radio host calls for suppressing speech he doesn’t like

Fred Phelps, founder and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., claims to be a man of God. But when I interviewed him days after he initiated a vulgar protest at a dead Marine’s funeral, he reminded me more of Lucifer.

America, he insisted, had “gone the way of the Brokeback Mountain,” before adding: “God’s wrath is upon this nation. And he’s pouring out that wrath by killing these soldiers and maiming these soldiers in Iraq and sending them back in body bags. And it’s only going to get worse.” Though we “met” by way of a cable television connection, I remember how disturbed his fiery eyes left me.

Phelps was belligerent to the point that I had to cut off the interview just moments after it started. Now I hope the Supreme Court will do likewise.

The case the high court has agreed to hear pertains to Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who died in combat in Iraq on March 3, 2006. Joining his family, friends, and loved ones at his funeral a week later were Phelps and several protesters from Westboro Baptist. According to a lower court’s recounting of the facts: “They traveled to Matthew Snyder’s funeral in order to publicize their message of God’s hatred of America for its tolerance of homosexuality.”

Unfortunately, their signage reflected that perverse ideology: “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “Pope in Hell,” “America Is Doomed,” “Fag Troops,” “You’re Going to Hell,” “God Hates You,” “Semper Fi Fags,” “Thank God for IEDs,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

Following that debacle, Snyder’s father, Albert, sued Phelps and some of his parishioners, initially winning a $10-million-plus award. That sum was reduced by a district judge and eventually, last September, thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

“As utterly distasteful as these signs are,” Judge Robert King wrote in the court’s opinion, “they involve matters of public concern, including the issue of homosexuals in the military, the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens.” They are protected by the First Amendment, the court concluded, because they didn’t assert “objectively verifiable facts” that specifically apply to Matthew or Albert Snyder.

It remains to be seen whether those sentiments will carry when the Supreme Court hears the case during its next session, which begins in October.

The lawyer in me hopes the court restricts Westboro’s free-speech rights in the same way it has in the past with regards to defamation, obscenity, and so-called fighting words. It’s a crime to yell “Fire!” in the theater. It should be one to yell “fag” at a fallen soldier’s funeral as well.

That said, the extent to which we afford freedom of speech to funeral crashers is hardly the most important element of the Snyder case.

The First Amendment reads in full: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

But by picketing Lance Cpl. Snyder’s funeral, didn’t Westboro Baptist infringe upon family members’ First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion? Which on March 10, 2006, took the form of a burial service at St. John’s Catholic Church in Westminster, Md.

And because the Westboro demonstrators weren’t protesting on a street corner or in a public park, it could also follow that they infringed upon the Snyders’ right to peaceably assemble for that private funeral.

Where did this idiot get his J.D.?  (the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, apparently)  First of all, private citizens can’t violate another person’s constitutional rights.  Only the government can.  Secondly, the only people whose peaceful assembly rights are being challenged are the protestors.  $10 million for hurting a guy’s feelings?  Grow up.  What especially bothers me about this article is that it’s legally wrong while being the easiest position in the world to take.  And if the First Amendment (the part about speech, freedom of assembly is long gone) is ever rendered meaningless in this country, they’ll start with Westboro Baptist. 

As for the church’s theology, it’s ok to say God blesses America, so why can’t He collectively curse a nation when upset?  Homosexuality was why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, showing that God has a special hatred for that particular sin.  If public acceptance of sodomy didn’t lead Him to punish us, then what would?

This is very depressing.

All airline passengers in the U.S. will eventually be required to undergo a full-body scan before boarding planes, just as metal detectors became a standard and accepted part of the screening process at airports decades ago, the federal transportation security chief in Chicago said today.

As a body-scanning machine was used today to screen passengers for the first time at O’Hare International Airport, federal and city officials said they expect the airport will receive more body-imaging technology later this year to help address one of the biggest terrorism threats to commercial aviation — suicide bombers on planes.

The Transportation Security Administration plans to send hundreds of the scanners, which cost $130,000 to $170,000 each, to all major U.S. airports, including Midway Airport. The scanners use low-dose X-rays to penetrate clothing and display weapons, explosives and other objects that might be hidden on the body, above the skin.

So far, 21 airports have been equipped with the units, and nine more are slated to receive the scanners soon, officials said. The agency plans to deploy a total of 450 body scanners to an undetermined number of airports this year.

Kathleen Petrowsky, the TSA director at O’Hare, said she anticipates the body scans — now optional for passengers — will become widespread to guard against improvised explosive devices being smuggled onto airliners. Currently, passengers have the option to submit to a physical pat-down and wanding by a TSA officer using a metal detector.

At 19 airports that received scanners more than a year ago, the devices are used as a primary means of screening, whereas before they were utilized only after a passenger set off a metal detector or failed a pat-down.

“We expect at some point all passengers will receive a body scan,” Petrowsky said.

Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said she thinks future versions of the body-scanning machine, which weigh 2,200 pounds, will be smaller and blend into security checkpoints.

This is why we have to wholeheartedly reject the concept of a war on terror.  Trying to stop terrorism by using the government is like fixing your mouse problem by releasing poisonous snakes in your home.  

As I’ve said before, get government out of the security business and let private airliners and consumers decide how to balance security and convenience/cost.

If the terrorists decide to diversify their tactics and start suicide bombing buses, will getting on public transportation also require a full body exam?

Fear and PC combine to give us the worst of all worlds.  Cowardice leads us to put up with any indignity and anti-racist thinking prevents us from paying any special attention to the 2% or so who may actually pose a threat.  

Someone perceptively wrote in the comments of my article on Mitt Romney

In a GOP Presidential debate, Romney came out in favor of waterboarding, declaring it was not a form of torture. Of course, waterboarding is a form of torture. This is an unacceptable position for a civilized person to hold. Civilized people don’t engage in torture. That is true even when torture may “save lives.” [I'm sure that if torture were legal, the police would take more murderers off the streets, and save more lives, than otherwise, etc.] What is Orwellian is claiming waterboarding is not a form of torture.

Of course, if it wasn’t for immigration we wouldn’t even have to have this discussion.  If there are people living among you who think they have a religious justification for nuking you and you didn’t have these people fifty years ago, then a reflective society would discuss how they let this happen, not whether giving the government the power to hold you indefinitely or make you think you’re drowning is a step that needs to be taken.

I think I may have found a primitive way to estimate the tax burden by race.   According to the chart on the middle of this page, the following quintiles in earnings pay the following percentages of the tax burden.

Now the Census Bureau has the racial breakdown in each quintile.  It’s conveniently in chart form at Wikipedia.  If we assume that every race is proportionately represented throughout each quintile, we get the following results

For example, whites are 81.27% (87.16 – 5.89 Hispanic) of the top 20% in earners and the top 20% in earners pay 53% of the tax burden.  So .53 x .8127 = .43.  Whites in the top quintile alone pay 43% of the tax burden.  I got my totals by repeating the process for each race in each quintile and then adding the five racial quintiles together.  

I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in my methodology, but I haven’t seen anybody even try to estimate this before. To be honest, 16% of the tax burden paid for by blacks and Hispanics sounds high. The top 1% of all earners pay 25% of the tax burden.  I don’t know what percentage of them are white, but among the top 5%, 86.7% are.  If we pretend that the racial breakdown for the top 1% is the same as it is for the top 5%, we end up with whites paying almost 79% of all taxes, the Asian total rises a bit and the NAM share drops.

I really miss Howard Stern’s E! Show.

A black judge threatens to put a woman in jail for 24 hours for being late for jury selection.  The more power blacks have the more unbearable they tend to be.

Neo-con Marxist Christopher Hitchens says anti-semitism is the “godfather of all other forms of racism.”

A gay porn star gets pulled over and tries to swallow a bag of weed.  The cops taser him, he chokes on it and dies.  Watch the video.

Eric Massa went around groping men in the Navy.

80 percent of NFL players are “flirting with bankruptcy” two years after they retire and 60% of NBA players end up broke within five years of retirement.  That’s pretty incredible and illuminates the difference between intelligent/conscientious people and those who are average or below.  The majority of the wealthy either earn their money in fields other than sports or inherit it, both of which indicate traits for IQ and responsibility.  But give your average man on the street a million dollars and it’ll be gone within a year.

Elite units in the army have the least racial diversity.

Wyoming declares its sovereignty.

A lesbian gets the ACLU to sue her Mississippi school to let her girlfriend attend the prom.  They decide to cancel the whole thing, so now there’s a lawsuit to try to force the school to have the dance, lesbians and all.

Auster defends his litmus test by posting a comment that says Western civilization has “its roots based on Judaism’s idea of equality under God.”  Actually, the Torah is based on Jewish supremacism, the same ideology of the Israel firsters.

A white man in Chicago stands up against diversity in his neighborhood.

TNR profiles Randian Republican congressman Paul Ryan.  He looks like an Arab.

William Saletan stupidly says that anybody who opposes abortion has to oppose gun rights since both kill blacks.

New York magazine profiles Liz Cheney.  This motivated me to check out some videos of her on YouTube and I was impressed.  God willing, one day we’ll have good looking and smart women willing to stand up to liberals on something besides war and torture.  Oh yeah, she’s super PC on race.  Like PC enough to shock George Will.

The people of Texas didn’t get the memo from the neo-cons that the culture war is dead.  

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas State Board of Education agreed to new social studies standards on Friday after the far-right faction wielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free enterprise system, religion and other topics.

While the Texas standards are described as “far right,” I somehow missed the headline which told us about the “far left” takeover of the education system which presents Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks as more important than Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison.    

In a vote of 11-4, the board preliminarily adopted the new curriculum after days of charged debate marked by race and politics. In dozens of smaller votes passed over the three days, the ultra-conservatives who dominate the board nixed all but a few efforts to recognize the diversity of race and religion in Texas.

Decisions by the board — long led by the social conservatives who have advocated ideas such as teaching more about the weaknesses of evolutionary theory — affects textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers’ biggest clients.

As part of the new curriculum, the elected board — made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others — rejected an attempt to ensure that children learn why the U.S. was founded on the principle of religious freedom.

But, it agreed to strengthen nods to Christianity by adding references to “laws of nature and nature’s God” to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.

They also agreed to strike the word “democratic” in references to the form of U.S. government, opting instead to call it a “constitutional republic.”

In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class and agreed to require economics students to “analyze the decline of the U.S. dollar including abandonment of the gold standard.”

Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement that already includes country music.

“We have been about conservatism versus liberalism,” said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. “We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it’s appropriate.”

Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards “world class” and “exceptional.”

Over the past three days, the board also argued over how historic periods should be classified (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether or not students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.

A day earlier, longtime board member Mary Helen Berlanga accused her colleagues of “whitewashing” the standards and walked out of the panel’s meeting in frustration. Berlanga voted against the standards on Friday.

Berlanga also bristled when the board approved an amendment that deletes a requirement that sociology students “explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.”

Funny that she would appose “whitewashing” school standards as it appears that Ms. Berlanga has been whitewashing her appearance.

Alternative Right is back and today I review Mitt Romney’s No Apology.  He’s decent enough on domestic policy buy unfortunately a neo-con.  Supporting the American empire is a deal breaker for me.  

If Obama launched a war in the Middle East white America wouldn’t rally around him.  The test will be when a Republican is in power and wants to bomb Iran or somebody else.  Will Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, FoxNews and 70% of white America line up behind him?  Or will skepticism of the federal government translate into a lack of enthusiasm for global adventurism?

My mistake has always been thinking that the neo-cons were only Jews or idiots, and not understanding that smart people in the Republican party who are neither have bought into the ideology.  Though I can’t picture Romney doing something as stupid as invading Iraq or Iran, I have to take his word for it when he says these aren’t such bad ideas. On a different note, I write

There are a few reasons that Romney might not win the Republican nomination: mainly he’s Mormon, a flip-flopper, and comes across as too perfect. But all that may not matter. After all, had John McCain not been around, Romney would’ve been the nominee in 2008. And the 2012 field looks just as bad. He doesn’t have to convince voters that he’s their soul mate, but just gather more votes than Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. It’s hard to see who else is going to pull it off.

Here are the odds I give for different candidates becoming the 2012 Republican nominee.

Mitt Romney-35%

For all the reasons mentioned above.  A lot Evangelicals don’t like his religious faith, but they weren’t enough to push Huckabee to the nomination in 08, and they won’t be this time.  

Sarah Palin-15%

By far the biggest star in the field.  I have a hard time believing that even Republican primary voters think she’s qualified.  On the other hand, I’ve been shocked by how much the proles love her.  A wild card.  May very well get 60% of Republican primary voters.

Mike Huckabee-8%

I really detest this guy, but the Wal-mart Evangelicals like him.  Has name recognition from last time.

John Thume-7% 

100% rating from the American Conservative Union.  Like Romney, he looks like a presidential candidate from central casting.  Unlike Romney, the boyishness of his face stops him from being off-putting.

Tim Pawlenty-4%

Boring white guy.

Ron Paul-4%

Will raise more money than anybody and be the only person who with an army of dedicated supporters.  Didn’t do him a whole lot of good vote wise in 2008 though and he’ll be 77 by 2012. 

Haley Barbour-4%

His term as governor as Mississippi ends in 2011 and he’s barred from running again.  Has visited Iowa.

Marco Rubio-4%

Flavor of the month and inexperienced, but who knows?  He may decide that he’ll never have a better chance than in 2012 when the field is weak and there’s no incumbent.  If he becomes a Senator in January 2011, he’ll only have a year in office before he starts campaigning for president.  We must remember how much the Republican establishment is in love with the idea of Hispanics becoming the new whites.  They may see making Rubio their candidate as their chance to bring that about.  

Bob McDonnell-3%

Like Rubio, a new guy who may decide there will never be another opportunity like 2012 again.

Scott Brown-3%

See McDonnell

Newt Gingrich-3%

Since he never ran before, I don’t know why he would try now.  Will only be 69 in 2012.  I thought he was much older.  

Rick Perry-2%

Has categorically ruled out running, but as the governor of Texas would be formidable if he ever wanted to throw his hat in the ring.  

Bobby Jindal-2%

Can win over white conservatives, as we’ve seen in Louisiana.  Very smart, very conservative.  Not being white will be an advantage if he runs.

Jeb Bush-1%

The Bush brand name is ruined.

Dick Cheney-1%

There will be some “national security” fascists who try to draft him.  He probably won’t run.  

John McCain-1%

Just when I think he’s going to go off and die he always comes back.

Someone else-3%

J.D Hayworth, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Tancredo, Pat Buchanan, Rand Paul, Liz Cheney, Glenn Beck, Duncan Hunter, Tom Coburn, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, John Boehner,  Rush Limbaugh, David Duke, somebody we’ve never heard of

Vegas has Romney and Palin tied at 4:1.  They think Charlie Crist has an outside chance for some reason, even though he’s probably gay and is going to lose the Florida primary to Rubio. They mention David Patraeus as a possibility.

The big news from Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest men is Carlos Slim overtaking Bill Gates for the top spot.  The magazine has a mini profile for everyone on the list.

Of the top 100, there are 85 men and 10 women for whom I could make out family information.  The men average 3.1 children each and the women 2.8.  Many of the males certainly aren’t finished yet and will crtainly bring this year’s average up by the end of their lives.  

When you’re rich enough for to be on the Forbes list keeping up with the Joneses isn’t a consideration and one can have as many children as one desires.  

Still, we shouldn’t get too excited.  Though billionaires are doing pretty well, they’re still way behind Africa.