xen·o·phobe (n.) A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

From a blog post today at London-based Free Exchange, "in which journalists from The Economist Newspaper, Economist.com and the Economist Intelligence Unit post their thoughts and observations":

I am often accused of "elitism" for supporting free immigration, which is completely baffling on its face, since the reason for my support is the welfare of very poor foreigners.

...Poorer Americans, in addition to having less money, are on the whole also more racist, xenophobic, and sexist than wealthier Americans. "The elite", like it or not, is generally a liberalising influence in politics, and populism can and does take savage right-wing forms.

The writer is clearly xenophobic (both contemptuous and fearful) about those strange and foreign "poorer Americans."

Labels: economics, humor, immigration, Media

A former student who works for the government collecting data says:

One of my girlfriends is a teacher in Peru. She said that Sunday is the day for the national census, as such they are required to stay at home from 6 am to 8 pm. Ah, to be a data collector in Peru.

Indeed, Peru does do a one-day census. "Stand still, I'm counting..."

Labels: economics, humor

A note from a student this PM:

I am not going to be in class today because I have to attend a wake. One of my girlfriends' uncle passed away unexpectedly so as you can assume things have been really crazy this week.

I hope one of his other girlfriends doesn't have a relative die this week, or he might be in some trouble.

Labels: humor

To listen to the mainstream media (MSM), one would believe that the ice in the Arctic Sea is melting, polar bears are disappearing and they definitely cannot swim. Therefore, if all this ice is melting, one should be able to take one's yacht and sail across the sea from Asia to Europe.

Brittish Andrian Flanagan wanted to prove the truth of this mantra so he decided to sail his yacht through the Arctic Sea. Unfortunately for him, he ran into an age-old problem: ice. It is still so thick, his yacht cannot make it through the sea. Now he has requested of the Russians to use one of their nuclear powered ice breakers to take his yacht out of the water and transport it over the most ice-bound portion of the Arctic Sea. During his current break from sailing, Mr. Flanagan discovered that the polar bears are doing very well, thank you. And, these polar bears can swim.

The groupthink mentality of the MSM is preventing people from even considering there might be other views related to the CO2 argument. We need to start reading more than one point of view on these issues. This is not to deny that the planet may be getting warmer (then again, we're not sure b/c much of the data used to calculate the rise in the earth's temperature was pulled from NASA records and a Canadian found a major flaw in their calculations - more on this later) but we certainly owe it to ourselves and the rest of the planet to consider options and other information. The argument that CO2 is the culprit and there is no more debate is arrogant and detrimental to plants, animals and other living things.

Labels: global warming, humor

The Lord is great, and He works in ways we cannot comprehend.

When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle.

So the engineering graduate built himself a contraption to help remind him of campus life: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.

...It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing machine, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.

With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet -- "far enough to get to the couch," he said.

Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.

I predict a drop in marriage rates; Foot will need a new use for his kid.

h/t: Newmark's Dukie Door

Labels: humor, ingenuity