I Spent My Life Practicing Politically Incorrect
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1 I SPENT MY LIFE PRACTICING POLITICALLY INCORRECT SOCIOLOGY Thomas M. Kando, Sacramento 2007 TOPICS: Number of Items: 1. Intelligence, Stupidity, the Mind, and what’s wrong with Psychology 9 2. Education 6 3. The Classes and the Classless. Their Culture and their Leisure 9 4. Race, Culture, Race Relations, Affirmative Action 11 5. Sex, Gender, Transsexualism 6 6. Crime 4 7. Terrorism 4 8. Cities, Especially New York 5 9. Population, Demography. The Environment 8 10. Immigration 3 11 .Bureaucracy 5 12.The Family 8 13. Medicine 4 14. The Iconoclast, the Jokester, the Provocateur. 8 15. Post-Modernism and Heavy Sociology 7 16. The Economy: On the Left 6 17. The Economy: On the Right 3 18. The Economy: Other Related Issues 4 19 Taking on the Left: Political Correctness 12 20. Taking on the Left: Communism, Marxism, Russia 12 21. Taking on the Left: Media Bias 8 22. Taking on the Left: Presidents and Elections 5 23 Affirmative Action 6 24. Feminism 11 25. Homosexuality 3 26. Abortion 1 27. AIDS 2 28. Crime and Politics 10 29. Immigration and Politics 5 30. Education and the University 6 31. Defending Higher Education and My Department 12 32. Other University Issues 6 33. Academic Culture: The Iranian Hostage Crisis 10 34. What Happened to Academic Freedom? 6 35. The Disease of Anti-Americanism 14 36. Defending America 13 37. Defending Reagan 10 38. Defending the Moonies 4 39. War and Peace: Vietnam 2 40. War and Peace: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing 2 2 41. War and Peace: Other Issues 5 42. 9-11 9 43. Israel; Jews; Anti-Semitism 10 44. Taking on the Right: Opposing the Vietnam War 11 45. Taking on the Right: Opposing the Iraq War 1 46 Taking on the Right: Defending France 9 47. Taking on the Right: Defending Russia, Japan and Europe 4 48. Taking on the Right: Attacking Bigotry 2 49. Taking on the Right: Other Issues 9 50. Play: Science, Technology, Computers, Math, “Progress” 8 50. Play: Sports and the Outdoors 6 52. Play: Travel 3 53. Play: Language 11 54, Play: Other Ideas 5 55. Personal Relationships 13 TOTAL: 376 articles 3 I SPENT MY LIFE PRACTICING POLITICALLY INCORRECT SOCIOLOGY Thomas M. Kando, Sacramento 2007 Introduction 13 The Political Issues which I debated 1. Intelligence, Stupidity, the Mind, and what’s wrong with Psychology 1. Are People Getting Dumber? 15 2. Do Stupid People Know that they are Stupid? 15 3. Are Asians in fact the most Intelligent Race? 16 4.Wall Street Journal Contributor is too Dumb to Know the 16 Difference between Sociology and Psychology 5. The Mind is not a Computer 17 6. The Mind-Body Problem Solved 20 7. Encounter in Palo Alto 21 8. Anti-Psychology, or: Please don’t Help Me 25 9. Guilt 26 2. Education 1. Why is America such an illiterate Nation? 32 2. Facts versus Values? 32 3. Should we Teach Students Facts? 32 4. The Level of Thinking of some Contemporary College Students 33 5.Ignorance at the Student Daily, too 36 6. Ignorance at the AAA, too 36 3. The Classes and the Classless. Their Culture and their Leisure 1.Why is Beer the Favorite Drink of the Underclass? 37 2.Why do Proletarians Prefer Sports like Hunting and Bowling, 38 whereas their Well-heeled Counterparts Favor Skiing and Golf? 3. Social Class is more than just a Matter of Money. 38 4. Are the Rich Happier than the Rest of Us? 38 5. Who is Loud and Obnoxious? 39 6. Why is a Kind and Intelligent Person so Rare in Society? 39 Have People simply lost the Desire to be Respectable? 7. Why do Attractive People so often Appear Shallow and Unintelligent? 40 8. Are Mean People more Competent? 40 9. Are Mean Sociologists more Competent? 42 4. Race, Culture, Race Relations, Affirmative Action 1. Which is the most Alcoholic Culture? 45 2. Why are most Mobsters Italian? 46 3.Does a Nation Really Benefit from Ethnic Diversity? Aren’t 46 Homogeneous Societies more Stable than Mixed ones? 4. Will Racism and Sexism ever Subside? 46 5. Aren’t Blacks as Guilty of Racism as Whites? On that 47 note, aren’t Women as Guilty of Sexism as men? 6. This Joke is Politically Incorrect 47 4 7. Race: Nature or Nurture? Disturbing Thoughts 47 in the Aftermath of the ‘92 Los Angeles Riot 8. Los Angeles Riot Reminiscent of Kristall Nacht 50 9. Reversed Racism in Criminal Justice System 51 10. The Smugness and Intellectual Laziness of White Liberals 52 11. Sociologists don’t understand Race Relations 52 5. Sex, Gender, Transsexualism 1. Sex Changes 54 2. Transsexual Conundrums (Humor) 56 3. Sexual Propaganda Passed off as Sex Research 56 4. Dutch Pedophile Party 57 5. Why are there an Inordinate Number of Child Molesters in the Clergy? 57 6. Sex and Sexual Preference 58 6. Crime 1.An Eighty Million Dollar Research Grant to Study Delinquency 59 2. How Polly Klaas Could have Been Saved 60 3. The O.J. Simpson Verdict: To the Winner Belong the Spoils 62 4. Steve Ellis: A case of Trial by the Press and Media bias 63 7. Terrorism 1. Terrorism Defined 65 2. International Terrorism 65 3. Is one Man’s Terrorist another Man’s Freedom Fighter? 67 4. Why do a Considerable Number of Terrorists and 69 Deranged Leaders Hail from the Middle East? 8. Cities, Especially New York 1. Should the West Bank be Developed? 70 2. Why are New Yorkers and Parisians Exceptionally Rude? 71 3. New York City: ‘The Shortest Visit is a Pain’ 71 4. Reactions to my Inflammatory New York Times Letter 72 5. Final reply to my New York City Detractors 73 9. Population, Demography, The Environment 1.How Worried should we be about Overpopulation? How many more People 74 can the World Accommodate before its Natural Resources are Depleted? 2. Five Questions about the Population Problem 75 3. Why does the Lower Class have more Babies (and more Dogs)? 76 4. Are Whites and Hungarians Becoming Extinct? 76 5.What is the Likely Fate of Social Security as the 78 Elderly Population Booms and Funds Dwindle? 6. Wars, including the Chronic Middle-Eastern Violence, 79 are Basically a Population Problem 7. Nuclear Energy is Great! - or Not? 79 8. Malthus, Death and Tsunamis 82 10. Immigration 1. A Texas Bigot Wants me to Leave America 83 2. Why be Ashamed of being a First-generation American? 84 3. Why does the Government not want Immigrants to Assimilate? 85 11. Bureaucracy 1. Too many Laws - Part One 87 5 2. Too many Laws - Part Two 87 3. Memo to Administrators 89 4. Memo about too many Memos 89 5. Mediocracy Rules 90 12. The Family 1. Is the Family Important? 91 2. Why has the Family Changed? Is this Good or Bad? 95 3. Is the Family Dying? 96 4. Once again: Is the Family in Decline? 98 5.Two Sides to the Family Decline Debate 101 6. Is the American Family Getting Better or Worse? 103 7. How Should Children be Raised? Should they be Spanked? 105 8. Sacramento Bee’s Movie Review Shows Bad Taste 106 13. Medicine 1. A Night in the Emergency Room 107 2. Torturing Terri Schiavo 111 3.Why are People Fat? 111 4. Is Being Evil also a Medical Illness? 112 14. The Iconoclast, the Jokester, the Provocateur 1. Sociology as Bullshit: Reply to Kozrow 113 2. Sociology as bullshit: Guilt and Innocence: How do 114 Sociologists Deconstruct the O.J. Simpson Case? 3. Sociology as Bullshit: :Postmodernism 114 4. Sociology as bullshit: More Nonsense 115 5. Sociology as Bullshit: A Typical Master’s Thesis 115 6. Some Thoughts I had, at one Time or Another 115 7. Provocations 116 8. Pessimism 118 15. Post-Modernism and Heavy Sociology 1. Comments on a Book by Dennis Wrong 118 2. Sociology in a Postmodern World 119 3. A Glimpse of Postmodernity before its Advent 120 4. Paradox Means Justice 120 5. Life and the Pursuit of Happiness 121 6. The Myth of Social Science 122 7. The Folly of Social Science 123 16. The Economy: On the Left 1. On the Left: Marching against Poverty on Solidarity Day 126 2. On the Left: Against Cutting Taxes 127 3. On the Left: Against Lunatic Tax Cuts 128 4.The Federal Deficit 129 5.The Federal Deficit - Redux: The Vicious Cycle of Indebtedness 131 6. On the left: Rush Limbaugh is Wrong 131 17. The Economy: On the Right 1. America is a High-Tax country 132 2. U.S. Is not a Low-Tax Country 132 3. The Perils of Clintonomics 134 18. The Economy: Other Related Issues 6 1. Honey, I Shrunk the Dollar 136 2. High Gas Prices Hurt America every Bit as 136 much as they Hurt Europe and Asia 3. How do the First, Second and Third World Stack up? 137 4. Ultimately, it is the Culture which Matters, not the Economic System 139 19. Taking on the Left: Political Correctness 1. New Fascism’s Pernicious Power 140 2. Arthur Schlesinger is Wrong: The Nature of Government is to Oppress 141 3. In the Newspeak of our Age, Good is Bad and Bad is Good 142 4. Vive la Difference 144 5. Who Deserves the most Love? 145 6. A Nation of Victims 146 7. The Popularity of Politicians: Flavor of the Month 149 8. Let’s Have a Group, the “Plumbers for Social Responsibility” 150 9. Mathematical Proof that Tradition Makes the Culture Perfect 151 10.