I am reading Charles Murray's new book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. It's a fascinating look at the polarization within white America. Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard who reviewed Murray's book states:

No doubt the same politically correct critics will complain about this book, because it is almost entirely devoted to the problem of social polarization within "white America." They will have to ignore one of Coming Apart's most surprising findings: that race is not a significant determinant of social polarization in today's America. It is class that really matters...

Murray meticulously chronicles and measures the emergence of two wholly distinct classes: a new upper class, first identified in The Bell Curve as "the cognitive elite," and a new "lower class," which he is too polite to give a name. And he vividly localizes his argument by imagining two emblematic communities: Belmont, where everyone has at least one college degree, and Fishtown, where no one has any....

What can be done to reunite these two classes? Murray is dismissive of the standard liberal prescription of higher taxes on the rich and higher spending on the poor. As he points out, there could hardly be a worse moment to try to import the European welfare state, just as that system suffers fiscal collapse in its continent of origin.

Great book full of interesting statistics and charts for those of you who like such things.

Girls Who Kill on E! Entertainment

I was interviewed for a show for an "E! Entertainment Special: When Girls Kill" that premieres tonight, Thursday at 10:00 pm Eastern. The show looks at the case of four young killers, one of them Natasha Wallen Cornett:

Natasha Wallen was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder early in life and spent some time in mental hospitals. During that time Natasha developed a dark fantasy world, and attracted a crowd of like minded teenage outcasts. One April night in 1997, a tragic clash of innocence and evil lead to a violent and horrifying conclusion for Natasha and her friends. Serving a life sentence, Natasha, the alleged ring leader who was once fascinated with satanic rituals, speaks out about her horrible past and now contends that better mental health care as a youth might have prevented her unthinkable actions.

You can see more about the show here.

Update: You can also see the show today (Friday, January 20th) at 11:00 AM eastern and 3:00 PM eastern on E! TV.

"But if the victim were a woman, they wouldn’t hesitate, and the law needs to be enforced equally."

Laura Curtis at Pursuing Holiness Blog has a post on the double standards when men are sexaully assaulted:

This is an unremittingly bad story. An LSU fan was stupid enough to drink himself senseless in a public place and evidently didn’t have even a single friend willing to look out for him. An mob of stupid Alabama fans assaulted him – putting trash on him and even teabagging him. In fact, they were so stupid that they filmed their crimes and posted them on the internet.

Next, the New Orleans police department – with actual video of a sex crime in their possession- decided they couldn’t investigate unless the victim stepped forward.

Let’s do a little thought experiment. Let’s imagine that this was a girl who drank herself stupid. Let’s imagine that she was touched, her breasts were fondled, and that a man rubbed his genitals on her while she was unconscious. Can anyone imagine the NOPD – or any police department, anywhere – dragging their heels on investigating unless she came forward?

Given the way that our society laughs and mocks men who are abused in this way, I can understand the guy not coming forward, but he must. It is only when individual men start to say "No, this is not justice for all" and endure the ridicule that men everywhere will no longer have to endure their rights and bodies being violated in this absurd manner without consequence.