More stuff = lower self-esteem

The Daily Galaxy reports on the inverse relationship between self-esteem and materialism:

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. The also found that as self esteem increases, materialism decreases. . . . The paradox that findings such as these bring up, is that consumerism is good for the economy but bad for the individual.
The study announcing this finding was by Lan Nguyen Chaplin (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Deborah Roedder John (University of Minnesota), to appear in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Continue ReadingMore stuff = lower self-esteem

Numerous American Muslim clerics guilty of sexually abusing children.

Just imagine how incensed most Americans would be if they saw the above (untrue) headline on the front page of their daily papers. Do you have any doubt that they would quickly investigate and prosecute the offenders, then throw them into prison? How amazing that when we substitute "Catholic" for "Muslim," so many Americans forgive the rapists and lean upon their victims. This is a paraphrase of a line used by Christopher Hitchens in an Slate article where he describes the unwieldy Belgian "problem" of the Catholic church. Well, the Belgian criminal justice system is now starting to crack down and the Catholic clergy continues to condemn this intervention of government, all the while stifling the investigations by attempting to withhold the evidence. The Catholic clergy would much rather be left alone, of course, but Hitchens sees this new development--that of "earthly justice"--to be an important and necessary step. If only this interest in those who have obstructed justice would happen with vigor everywhere. I would offer this suggestion: Dress up the American Catholic clergy as though they were Muslim clergy--tell people that they were Muslim sexual predators rather than Catholic sexual predators--and then watch the American media and justice system go at the offenders like attack dogs. We might even see some action aimed at those numerous accomplices who have worked so hard to cover up the evidence. Hell, we might even see Americans tear down Catholic churches that were within 10 miles of ground zero, if only we could somehow convince Americans that the Catholic clerics were disguised Muslims.

Continue ReadingNumerous American Muslim clerics guilty of sexually abusing children.

Anti-communist propaganda alive and well

For some reason, our government and its propaganda arm, the mainstream media, refuses to give up beating the dead horse that is Cuba. We've had it in for them ever since they went Commie, and we're not about to quit now! I just noticed this article from Newsweek entitled "Castro tells the truth about Cuba" which gives us the current bad news:

He has outlasted eight U.S. presidents, survived countless CIA efforts to do him in, and his communist regime has remained in power for a generation after the collapse of his Soviet sponsors. So what does the leader of the 1959 Cuban revolution think now of the system he created? Last week The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported Fidel Castro’s startlingly honest assessment: “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.” Some observers suggest that the 84-year-old Castro’s unexpected honesty may be a belated attempt to throw himself on history’s mercy. After all, they say, Cuba is in tatters. According to Andy Gomez, assistant provost at the University of Miami, tourism on the island has declined 35 percent this year, and remittances are expected to drop to $250 million—far below the peak of $800 million earlier this decade. Cuba’s own National Statistics Office has reported that economic indicators, such as construction and agriculture, were down significantly in the first half of the year. And last month, President Raúl Castro began a process of dismissing or transferring some 20 percent of state employees—a major move, given that the government employs more than 90 percent of the country’s labor force. Says Gomez, “The Cuban economy is the worst it’s ever been.”
How dare Castro "survive countless CIA efforts to do him in", who does he think he is?? Anyway, some of these numbers are meaningless without comparison, so let's look at the good-old U.S. of A. [More . . .]

Continue ReadingAnti-communist propaganda alive and well