Always look on the Bright Side of Life

Here’s a quick one.  Happiness comes with age. Or so says Gallup.

Three kids rule

Very cool presentation of the changing look of motherhood in the US.  Since 1990, mothers are 3% less likely to be under 20, 5% more likely to be over 35, 10% more likely to be Hispanic, and 13% more likely to be unmarried.

24% of mothers were foreign born in 2004, compared to 15% in 1990.

54% of mothers were likely to have some college in 2006, compared to 41% in 1990.

Anyways, lots of cool statistics that will no doubt completely reshape the next 20 years.

This one hits home.  I wonder about the spike in the 1990s of three kid desirability.  Cosby Show influences?

http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/754-new-demography-of-motherhood.pdf

Tranquil Land of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This post is great. 

I wanted some quote about the lunatic fringe in here.  Henry Louis Mencken, the 19th century journalist who coined the Scopes trial the “monkey” trial had a good one: “the lunatic fringe wags the underdog,” which when you read the post you’ll see in full bloom.

Mencken had some other great quotes too … here are my favorites:

“Love is like war, easy to begin but very hard to stop”

“The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God’s children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.”

“There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.”

Anyways, good post above.

American Individualism – Really?

This is an interesting article by Claude S. Fischer who asks the question – are Americans really individualistic?  The whole thing doesn’t come together until the last paragraph of Explanations when he defines Americans through voluntarism.

Wonkbook and Energy

If you don't subscribe to Ezra Klein's Wonkbook, you should.

There's a great link in this morning's edition comparing the House Energy bill with the Kerry-Lieberman proposal released today and once backed by Graham.