And while we're at it, where's James Delingpole??

So Rob, if I understand you correctly, you're saying you can get us all free tickets to stuff??

High school is mostly a bad, dim, memory now (35th reunion coming up!). Being a teenager is awful - I wouldn't go back to that for anything. So much anxiety and uncertainty and drama. It's so much better being an adult!

College was better, and grad school better still.

I read somewhere that what really shapes you is what was going on in your early twenties. For me that was the dark days of Jimmy Carter and casting my first Presidential vote for Ronald Reagan.

My guess is that they paid the loans off as slowly as they could. It wasn't an issue of ability to pay, just that they paid the minimum required and that's why it took a while. If the interest is minimal, it makes sense to pay the loan off slowly.
 

I imagine they're already working on the stories:

"A President too smart for his country"

"Obama was too accommodating to the evil Republicans"

"We couldn't see his greatness"

"Some day we'll look back and wonder why we let him get away"

"Brought down because he tried to do too much"

"All he wanted was for us all to have healthcare and we wouldn't accept it"

James,

I was with you until "mourn" and "torn". In my neck of the woods they sound very different from "dawn". They rhyme with corn, born, and the first syllable of "ornery". Not at all like lawn or pawn.

Inland north. Also in Buffalo and dittos to everything Peter G. just said.

All the word combos in the quiz are pronounced differently. We don't have an accent!

You got it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo

One episode of "Only in America" with Larry the Cable Guy featured a squirrel hunt and feast. Seeing it on TV was close enough for me!

I wish he had used a word other then "severely" but other than that I'm with him.

Please engage in a can't-win discussion on the merits of John Derbyshire's views on race and IQ.

I don't think anything Derb said was incorrect, maybe incomplete...

If I had to walk from point A to B, and there was a group of young black men on the most direct route, I would take a longer route, no doubt. Now, I would also do this if it were a group of young Hispanic men. If it were a group of young white men dressed in the ghetto uniform, I would probably also avoid getting too close. Nor would I go into a biker bar. In many environments, I will make choices to feel safer.

It's perfectly reasonable, in fact important, for parents to give their less experienced children a heads-up on situations to avoid. It might be taking it a little too far to tell them that if they go to the DMV and there's a line with a black employee and one with a white employee, get in the line to the white employee. That's not an issue of safety, and whether or not it's good advice, you can let the kids figure it out for themselves.

Derb's just not in mood to say anything sotto voce.

Crow's Nest, I believe he was dead serious, not trying to be satirical.

I was not disgusted by the piece, I just thought, "Wow, Derb is poking a hornet's nest!"

Sadly, what follows in most places will be almost entirely about Derb himself, and what National Review does or doesn't do, and not on the content of what he said. 

But here at Ricochet is does seem that we can talk about the content, and I'm glad for that. 

I agree about Charles Murray - I've seen talks he's given and listened to interviews with him. He's calm, thoughtful, and deeply compassionate about people who are struggling in our society.

But the Left still treats him like a monster!

In his columns and podcasts, Derb has often lamented that more and more of life's realities have become off limits for discussion. I think he's trying to push back against that.

Note that every comment had a link to supporting facts. He's not just ranting about his personal experiences or prejudices. And he's mentioned some of these topics before, for example when he was househunting and every realtor talked about a neighborhood having "good schools" which everyone understood to mean, "not too many blacks."

He's had some health issues and is now receiving chemotherapy. This is naturally going to make a person reflect on their lives and contributions. Perhaps he feels that his time may be shortening and he  no longer has any reason to abide by political correctness. 

Perfect!!