Who died and made us instapundit.com?!?
Responding to our post below, the good people at Trying to Grok offer this summary of our work:
His typical post consists of quoting some other blogger, saying “uh, not even” and then ending the post. Rarely does he give any insight into the issue; rather he seems to enjoy namecalling and “yeah, whatever” as his response. I’ve tried reading his blog before, but it’s so vitriolic and uncreative, just a bunch of nuh-uhs to other bloggers.
Insight? The blog who has given the world The Dickification of the Western Female (a post that rivals with Den Beste’s work for length,) is taken to task for not being creative. How very, very sad!
Update: We forgot to mention that Sarah also faults us for mocking Steven Den Beste given that we’ve never fisked him. We’ve shortened SDB more than once (on the old site at least) but we’ve never fisked say, his pet “theory” transnational progressivism for the same reason we’ve never fisked Sauron’s or Darth Vader’s plans for world domination. While they would likely all make for great conversation if you’re sufficiently drunk, it would be a shame to waste sober time on such works of fiction. [Shorter concept developed by Daniel Davies.]
Nobody who creates excellent games like The Besides That? Syndrome Game should be accused of lack of insight ;P
In fact, we should play a round:
Besides the fact that Trying to Grok is a silly blog maintained by an impressionable gal (“I love George Bush”) who can’t write (“See back in like the first week…”), it’s not that bad a site.
She wants to mother George Bush!
Holy fuck!
Did Seb watch CBS broadcast Janet Jackson’s pointy weapon to the nation?
Did Seb watch CBS broadcast Janet Jackson’s pointy weapon to the nation?
Sadly, No! š
But we can’t wait to see Brent Bozell’s “reaction!” (Thank you good night we’ll be here all week.)
Get thee to Fark then, sir!
Mister Seb, I have some information you might find interesting. Granted, these data sets are a bit old (2000 and 2002 mostly), but I doubt the rankings have changed much. If anything, the differences might have sharpened.
Anyway, here we go:
One Country, Two Realities
EDUCATION
Number of Top Advanced Placement Scores (3+ out of 5) per 1000 students, year 2000:
Background: The Advanced Placement (AP) courses cover college-level material during high school. A score of 3 or above is usually enough to exempt the student from comparable courses at most universities. A strong series of AP exam scores is becoming crucial to admission into the nation’s best undergraduate schools.
Summary: The Democratic states lead with 7 of the top 10 showings. The strongest performer is a Democratic state — New York. The Republican states account for 9 out of the 10 worst states in this metric.
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Number of Top SAT/ACT Scores (20% highest) per 1000 students, year 2000:
Background: The SAT and ACT college entrance examination scores are a required benchmark in college admission applications.
Summary: An even split, although the seven worst-performing states are Republican.
Percentage of families able to pay at PUBLIC 4-year Colleges, year 2000:
Summary: The top 4 states are Democratic. Of the top nine, 7 are Democratic. The tenth place is tied between a Blue and a Red state. Seven of the bottom 10 states are Republican. The state in worst condition is Republican.
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Percentage of families able to pay at PRIVATE 4-year colleges, year 2000:
Summary: The top state in this category is Democratic, and so are 8 out of the best 10. Thirteen of the bottom 15 states are Republican, as is the state in worst condition: Utah.
Note: The statistics for Wyoming were not available.
Percentage of students returning at 4-year colleges, year 2000:
Summary: Nine of the top ten states in this ranking are Democratic. The top state, Connecticut, is Democratic. Going further to the top 25 states, 19 are Democratic. Of the worst 23 states in this ranking (see Notes), twenty-two are Republican. Idaho, who voted Republican in 2000, came last.
Notes: No data was available for Wyoming or Alaska.
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Percentage of Bachelor’s degree completion (in 5 years), year 2000:
Summary: Eight of the top 10 performing states voted Democratic in 2000. The top performer, Vermont, is Democratic. 18 of the top 25 ranked states are Democratic. Louisiana, a Republican state, takes the last place amond the bottom ten states, nine of which are Republican.
Notes: No data was available for Wyoming or Alaska.
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Percentage of adults with Bachelor’s degree or better, year 2000:
Summary: The results of this ranking are more balanced. Of the top 10 states, only six are Democratic. Fully ten out of the worst ten states in the nation in this respect are Republican. The highest ranked, Maryland, voted Democratic.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
Gross State Product per capita, year 2000:
Summary: Including the District of Columbia — the nation’s highest GSP/capita area at $104,819.35 — seven of the ten best states in this ranking are Democratic. Nine of the country’s ten poorest states are Republican, including West Virginia at the bottom.
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Federal expenditures per taxed dollar, year 2002:
Summary: Two Democratic states sit at the top and bottom of this ranking: New Mexico receiving $2.37 per taxed dollar and New Jersey seeing only 62 cents return for every dollar sent to the federal government.
Thirty-three states are Takers — that is, they take from the federal goverment more money than they give it. Of those thirty-three Takers, twenty-four voted Republican. 80% the top ten Taker states voted Republican.
Giver states are the ones who put into the federal government more money than they receive. There are sixteen such states, and a full three quarters of them voted for a Democratic president.
Notes: As the site of the federal government, the District of Columbia is excluded from this ranking. Its ratio is 6.44/1.
Percentage of Children under 19 at or below 200% of poverty, years 2000, 2001, 2002 (average):
Summary: Arkansas had the largest percentage of extremely poor children on average between 2000 and 2001. The state voted Republican. Factoring in the District of Columbia as a Democratic state, still eight of the ten states with the largest percentage of such children were Republican. 19 of the 25 most afflicted states are Republican. Eight of the ten states with the lowest percentage of very poor children are Democratic.
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Percentage of uninsured children under 19 at or below 200% of poverty, years 2000-2002 (average):
Summary: The Republican state of Texas, in the aftermath of Mr Bush’s governorship, had the nation’s highest percentage of uninsured, extremely poor children at 15.88% between the years 2000 and 2002 — 4.44 percentage points apart from the second worst state, Arizona. Arizona is one of thirteen Republican states among the nation’s fifteen most afflicted states in this respect.
Democratic Vermont holds the nation’s best record in this ranking at 2.16%. Of the fifteen states with the lowest percentage of such unfortunate children, eleven are Democratic.
Median income, years 2000, 2001, 2002 (average):
Summary: Democratic Maryland boasts the 50 states’ largest median income. Seven of the ten top earning states are Democratic. Aside from Maine and New Mexico, Democratic states are within the 29 states earning the most in the country. Nine of the ten states where one earned, on average, the least are Republican. This group includes the nation’s lowest average earner, West Virginia.
Did Seb watch CBS broadcast Janet Jackson’s pointy weapon to the nation?
Sadly, No! š
Not to worry! Luckily for S,N!, through the wonders of the Internet Janet’s pointy weapon may be seen here.