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2004-07-28 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-07-28 12:27:47 AM|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 And then there's Pakistan...

Posted by Rafael 2004-07-28 12:40:00 AM|| 2004-07-28 12:40:00 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 "Hell" is sort of the ultimate bitch-slap and wake-up call, lol! Makes sense to me!

I offer the following observation as a corollary:

English is today both the language of wealth and, more importantly, of aspiration to wealth. A fascinating statistic employed by Bragg compares the net worth of the speakers of various world languages, showing that although there are many more Mandarin-speakers than English-speakers, they are only worth Â£448bn. Against that Russian-speakers are 'worth' Â£801bn, German-speakers Â£1,090bn, Japanese-speakers Â£1,277bn, but English-speakers are worth a staggering Â£4,271bn - more than the rest put together.

Melvyn Bragg: The Adventure of English, 500 AD TO 2000: The Biography of a Language (hat tip to the Chicago Boyz - from a long ago post...)

Draw your own conclusions...

Posted by .com 2004-07-28 12:48:32 AM|| 2004-07-28 12:48:32 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Ryan TROLL 2004-07-28 12:57:23 AM|| 2004-07-28 12:57:23 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Lol! And your name is really Ryan, lol! FOAD twit.

Posted by .com 2004-07-28 1:05:44 AM|| 2004-07-28 1:05:44 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Lets be careful to detail the type of religion they are talking about: Judaeo-Christian basically. Not the Islamofascist.

Beating your wife silly because a pseudo religion says so, or robbing your neighbor because he has more than you or is from a different tribe - thats destructive, and has destroyed the nations in which it is the dominant practice. Sudan and Darfur, Afghanistan and Taliban, Palestine, etc.

Other than that stipulation, its a simple relationship:

Bad actions generate bad consequences. And religious individuals believe that individuals will bear the consequences of their actions.

You cannot shuck it off on "bad environment" or blame it on your socioeconomic group or your race, or other leftist claptrap. You made the decision, you bear the consequences.

Thats why this correlation is there. Moral thinking and behavior is a positive, and "doing the right thing" pays off - for yourself and those with whom you interact.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-07-28 1:41:18 AM|| 2004-07-28 1:41:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 I disagree with this article. If you look at the top 10 nations regarding lack of corruption and prosperity - it is full of mostly irreligous nations like Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands on the one hand; or non-Christian states like Hong Kong and Singapore on the other. Sub-saharan Africa is strongly religous, but is largely dirt-poor and highly corrupt.

Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-07-28 2:10:59 AM|| 2004-07-28 2:10:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 I don't think religion or lack thereof has such a simplistic cause-effect on a nation's corruption index. I think transparency of government has a more direct affect on a nation's corruption index, which in turn contributes to GDP together with the average IQ score for the nation.

A Stanford MBA graduate did a study of how corruption and average IQ of nations affected their GDP. For developing countries if corruption is medium, then IQ has equal importance as a link to GDP. But for under developed countries, if corruption is bad, IQ takes on a very very important link to GDP. Interesting statistics:
http://www.sq.4mg.com/corrupt.htm

Moral of the story: statistics lie ie. they can be manipulated to support an argument.

Posted by rex 2004-07-28 3:07:11 AM|| 2004-07-28 3:07:11 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 #7 I don't think religion or lack thereof has such a simplistic cause-effect on a nation's corruption index. I think transparency of government has a more direct affect on a nation's corruption index, which in turn contributes to GDP together with the average IQ score for the nation.

Thank you, rex.

Posted by Zenster 2004-07-28 5:48:21 AM|| 2004-07-28 5:48:21 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Be careful in describing Islamists and hell. Could you tolerate 70 PMS virgins?

Posted by Capt America 2004-07-28 11:03:02 AM|| [http://captamerica.blogspot.com/] 2004-07-28 11:03:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 If Kerry's elected...we'll find out.

Posted by tu3031 2004-07-28 8:36:20 PM|| 2004-07-28 8:36:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]

Posted by Ryan 2004-07-28 12:57:23 AM|| 2004-07-28 12:57:23 AM|| Front Page Top

01:01 Baba
00:57 Ryan
10:16 Frank G
09:03 Anonymous6406
18:15 .Abu Carver
18:11 Anonymous6189
18:10 Anonymous6189
09:03 Bulldog
05:23 Bulldog
04:16 Howard UK
03:21 Super Hose
03:18 rex
02:52 .com
02:21 rex
01:27 Super Hose
01:23 Super Hose
01:20 Super Hose
00:34 Anon-wetback
00:20 ed
00:03 Rafael
00:00 GreatestJeneration
23:52 FlameBait93268
23:50 Yank
23:40 Mike Kozlowski