Another Tragedy

I have not posted about he mine cave-in in Utah or the rescue attempt that has been going on for 11 days now. But there was just another cave-in on the rescue workers and one of them has died as a result. (UPDATE: Three rescue workers have died)

HUNTINGTON, Utah – A disastrous cave-in Thursday night killed a rescue worker and injured eight others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach six trapped miners, authorities said.

It was a shocking setback on the 11th day of the effort to find miners who have been confined at least 1,500 feet below ground at the Crandall Canyon mine. It's unknown whether the six are alive or dead.

"All rescue workers have been evacuated from the mine. Nine rescue workers were injured in the accident. One of those suffered fatal injuries," said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

One rescue worker was in very serious condition at Castleview Hospital, and two were in serious condition there, said Jeff Manley, hospital chief executive.

This is terrible. Yet still, tomorrow, more efforts will be made to get to the trapped miners. There will be more volunteers to take the place of those who fell trying to get to the men trapped underground. And it will go on until all hope is exhausted – and there will still be volunteers that want to keep trying. It is both tragic and incredibly heroic at the same time. How many times have you read of someone dying trying to save a drowning victim? How many times have you read of someone dying to try – with their very lives – to rescue another person from some accident or disaster?

Say a prayer for all of these men. If you do not pray, keep them in your thoughts. This is the best of what we all are.

Journalistic Fraud

I thought that the admission from the editor of the Seattle Times, Dave Boardman, that reporters were not unbiased was  refreshing. (Some of my regular commenters disagreed). My point was that there has been this illusion of its own impartiality pimped by the media that simply isn't true. Boardman at least acknowledged that – a real rarity in the news business. But Randall Hoven over at The American Thinker has taken all this a step further and documented a lot of journalistic malpractice in the real world. It is pretty darned ugly. A long list that has to be alphabetized often is.

1. Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press (2005).  Lying/fabricating.  In his sports column, he described alumni players at a basketball game who were not even there.
2. Stephen Ambrose, historian/author (2002).  Plagiarism.  He was almost a book "factory", writing eight books in five years.  But that apparently came easier when parts were copied from other books, without attribution.
3. Associated Press (AP)  (2005).  Fell for hoax and phony photo.  The AP ran a story, with a photo, about a soldier held hostage in Iraq.  The photo turned out to be that of an action figure doll; there was no such soldier.
4. Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe (1998).  Lying/fabricating and plagiarism.  Totally made up stories, including one about a black kid and a white kid with cancer.  Also used quotes from George Carlin as his own.  Fired from the Boston Globe.
5. Maria Bartiromo, CNBC (2007).  Conflict of interest.  She dated a Citicorp executive and received special treatment from him, and also owned stock in Citicorp while doing financial reporting for CNBC, including reporting on Citicorp.
6. Scott Beauchamp, The New Republic (2007).  Lying.  TNR hired this U.S. Army private and husband of one of its own reporters to write first-hand accounts from Iraq.  One of his accounts, supposedly demonstrating the dehumanizing effects of the Iraq war on him and fellow soldiers, occurred in Kuwait before Beauchamp even entered Iraq.  Other parts of his writing are likely false, and if not, constitute military crimes on his part.  In fact, his anonymous writing from a war zone is likely against military rules.  This story is currently unfolding.
7. Nada Behziz, The Bakersfield Californian (2005).  Lying/fabricating and plagiarism.  Writing mostly on health issues, she plagiarized from the New York Times and AP, made up sources, and got basic facts wrong.  An investigation counted 29 fabricated or plagiarized articles.  She also lied on her resume.  She was fired.

That is only the first seven – there are a lot more. The list totals over 60 entries. Some of the offenders were fired, others still have jobs. Still others have better jobs. Hoven is looking for anyone who has a more complete list or more examples.

“I’m Bored, Let’s Ninja.”

Telling police that they were "were tired of their lives, and they just 'gave up" a young couple from Wisconsin has apparently admitted going on a crime spree. They stole a car and held up a convenience store.

With a samurai sword.

Renee Ferreri, 22, told police that she and Brian A. Schmid, 24, "were tired of their lives, and they just 'gave up,'" according to a criminal complaint.

The couple needed money to leave town, so they stole a 2000 Mercury Sable on Aug. 8 from the Jeepers Gin Mill and drove to their home to pick up the sword and two stocking caps, police said.

Then Ferreri drove Schmid to a gas station, where a clerk said he threatened her with a "Japanese-style sword" and forced her to give him several hundred dollars from the station's registers.

Police arrested the couple after a Plover officer remembered seeing several samurai swords in their apartment when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in May.

22 and 24 years old and they have pretty well ruined their lives. On the bright side, it could have been a lot worse.

NASA Decides Not To Make Repairs To Endeavour

NASA has decided that repairs to a gouge in the heat shield tiles on shuttle Endeavour will not be required. The affected area was not deemed a risk to the lives of the crew, instead Officials were worried about possible damage to the shuttle's aluminum frame. After a five hour meeting today, it was decided not to try a risky spacewalk to try to repair the damage.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA decided Thursday that no repairs are needed for a deep gouge in Endeavour's belly and that the space shuttle is safe to fly home. Mission Control notified the seven shuttle astronauts of the decision right before they went to sleep, putting an end to a week of engineering analyses and anxious uncertainty — both in orbit and on Earth.

Endeavour's relieved commander, Scott Kelly, thanked everyone on the ground for their hard work. Mission Control replied, "It's great we finally have a decision and we can press forward."

After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs, after receiving the results of one final thermal test. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavour would suffer no serious structural damage during next week's re-entry.

Their worry was not that Endeavour might be destroyed and its seven astronauts killed in a replay of the Columbia disaster; the gouge is too small to be catastrophic. They were concerned that the heat of re-entry could weaken the shuttle's aluminum frame at the damaged spot and result in lengthy postflight repairs.

The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said Johnson Space Center's engineering group in Houston wanted to proceed with the repairs. But everyone else, including safety officials, voted to skip them.

"I am 100 percent comfortable that the work that has been done has accurately characterized it (the damage) and that we will have a very successful re-entry," Shannon said.

I have no way of assessing the two different positions given the information in the news reports.

Another Fabulous AFP Scoop!

Boy, it's a good thing Charlie Foxtrot is there to spoonfeed the really good photographs to AFP.

Meanwhile, Further Down The Slope

Well, let's move along from Venezuela and the news that (T)Hugo Chavez is taking that country down into a dictatorship and look at one that is even further along the descending path into total chaos. That would be the nightmare of Zimbabwe. British Ministry of Defense officials are actively reviewing plans to evacuate 22,000 British citizens from that hellhole before it hits bottom.

British military commanders are reviewing contingency plans for the evacuation of up to 22,000 Britons from Zimbabwe after months of rising violence and food shortages.

The Ministry of Defence has been asked to look urgently at what logistical help it could provide amid “real concerns” in Whitehall about Zimbabwe’s slide into chaos.

Diplomatic sources said that the review was focusing on a “civil contingency plan”, which included seeking help from neighbouring countries. There is no plan to send in troops. “Military evacuation from a third country would only be used as a last resort,” one source said.

Under existing plans, Britons would be advised to take routes out of Zimbabwe into South Africa and to head for a former military base at Artonvilla in Limpopo province. The MoD has been asked to consider whether it could help in the airlift of Britons from the region. The diplomatic sources said that if the MoD were unable to do so, chartered commercial aircraft would fly the evacuees to Britain.

Unfortunately, the dire circumstances of the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe appear not to have shaken African support for the man who has singlehandedly wrecked that country's economy and productivity.

LUSAKA (AFP) – Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe was given a hero's welcome Thursday at the opening of a southern African summit set to be dominated by international concerns over his country's meltdown.

The embattled octogenarian leader received thunderous applause as he walked into the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) — in stark contrast to polite claps reserved for other heads of state.

In his welcome address before the meeting went into a closed door session, the summit host, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, told delegates to be "mindful" of the difficulties Zimbabweans faced.

The incoming SADC chairman, who had previously likened Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic", also urged Zimbabweans "to retain unity and safeguard your hard-won independence."

"My advice to my brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe is: maintain peace and stability at all costs.

"In the meantime, SADC is there for you. This organisation is always ready to assist where it can to resolve the problems affecting member countries."

The 14-member regional bloc is under renewed pressure to seek a resolution to Zimbabwe's woes, characterised by an inflation rate exceeding 5,000 percent, four in every five people jobless and 80 percent living under the poverty line.

I guess I missed something here. What in the heck were they applauding? Starvation? Lawlessness? Ruined economy? Britain is actively planning a rescue mission for its citizens and other nations in the region are applauding the "genius" who wrecked what was once the breadbasket of Africa.

Chavez Opposition Vows Resistance

Opponents of (T)Hugo Chavez's plans to alter the constitution on Venezuela to allow him to be president for life are vowing to fight the changes Chavez is demanding. They have no chance of stopping it in the legislature, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of (T)HugCo Enterprises. But they do stand a chance to beat it in a referendum – if (T)Hugo doesn't cheat.

Ok, they probably can't stop it.

Some of the more sweeping constitutional reforms proposed by Chavez Wednesday night would extend presidential terms from six to seven years and eliminate current limits on his re-election. He also wants the central government to have greater control over local government and would end the autonomy of Venezuela's Central Bank — potentially funneling billions of dollars in foreign reserves into social programs.

Chavez called for a transition to "a new society" that will lift millions in the oil-rich nation out of poverty. He said the constitutional changes are necessary so that capitalism in Venezuela "finishes dying" to allow his socialist revolution to flourish.

But his opponents see the move as another power grab by an increasingly autocratic leader and fear he wants to steer Venezuela toward Cuban-style communism.

"We will go from town to town to mobilize the people to confront this attempted constitutional coup," said Manuel Rosales, the leader of Venezuela's largest opposition party. "A constitutional reform isn't necessary. What the people want is for this constitution to be obeyed."

If approved, the reforms would be Chavez's most radical step yet in his drive to transform Venezuela into a socialist state. Since his December re-election, he has already nationalized the oil, telecommunications and electricity sectors.

Among other reforms proposed Wednesday, Chavez would create new types of property to be managed by cooperatives, reduce the workday to six hours and create "a popular militia" that would form part of the military.

He also urged lawmakers to increase the government's power to expropriate private property before getting a court's approval to remove obstacles to his plans to redistribute "unproductive" farming lands to among the poor and open the way for cooperatives to manage failing factories.

It's all downhill from here for Venezuela – right into another Cuba.

UPDATE: And scales fall from one set of eyes on the left. Self-professed left-leaner Jeb Koogler, writing at The Moderate Voice has seen, at last, what Hugo Chavez is – and where he is dragging Venezuela.

But it’s time to wake up and get our priorities straight. We should not be blind to what is going on in Venezuela. We can no longer forgive Chavez’s dictatorial tendencies merely because of his avowed commitment to the country’s poor. Indeed, it is a grave mistake to overlook tyranny or authoritarianism even when it is couched in the rhetoric of liberal reform and social justice. Ultimately, while Chavez’s vision of an end to poverty and the creation of a more equitable society is an honorable and an important one, his way of achieving these goals is not. Upholding democracy is infinitely more important than any of these other aims.

Koogler admits that Chavez's use of the "right" words and support for the "right" causes blinded him to Chavez's real intentions. I sincerely mean no disrespect to Koogler here and I am not trying to be snarky. But have you, by any chance, taken a hard look at some of the others who mouth the "right" words and support the "right" causes? I'd submit that it might be a worthwhile endeavor. Again, no disrespect, but if you were blinded once by rhetoric, wouldn't it be a good idea to check to make sure it has not happened on other issues?

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

Jose Padilla has been convicted on all three counts he was charged with. So were his two accomplices.

Padilla, 36, and his foreign-born co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, which carries a penalty of life in prison. All three were also convicted of two terrorism material support counts, which carry potential 15-year sentences each.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke set a Dec. 5 sentencing date for all three defendants.

In a three-month trial, the three men were accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help persecuted Muslims in war zones with relief and humanitarian aid.

Padilla was first detained in 2002 because of much more sensational accusations. The Bush administration portrayed Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, as a committed terrorist who was part of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S. The administration called his detention an important victory in the war against terrorism, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks.

I'd imagine that Padilla and company will be heading for the Supermax.

A Murder Of Crows

Ever wonder why a group of crows is called a 'murder'? Well, it could have something to do with their ability to use tools:

One species of crows is known for its clever use of tools, but a study now suggests that the birds' ability to put sticks to good use rivals that of bigger-brained primates.

The New Caledonian crows, native to the Loyalty Islands east of Australia, use sticks in the wild to fish ants out of nests. The new research shows the birds can also use common sense, not trial and error, in figuring out how to combine available tools to retrieve a snack.

"It was surprising to find that these 'bird-brained' creatures performed at the same levels as the best performances by great apes on such a difficult problem," said Russell Gray of the University of Auckland in New Zealand…….

……..The researchers placed a meaty snack in a hole too deep for the crows to reach—to get it, they needed to fish it out with a long stick, as is a natural behavior for them. Yet the long stick was also placed out of reach, leaving the birds with only a small stick to grab with their beaks.

"The creative thing the crows did was to use the short stick to get the long tool out of the box, so that they could then use the long stick to get the meat," said Alex Taylor, also of the University of Auckland.

You realize that these scientists are training the crows to use more elaborate – and potentially lethal – tools, don't you? How far is it from using a long stick to get a meaty snack to using, say, an icepick to make you a human snack? Hmmm? Don't think we're the only ones worried about it, either. Bruce Webster sent us this a few days ago. Zombie Crows are bad. Zombie crows with icepicks would be ever so much worse.

(Many thanks to Bruce for sending that along. I embedded the YouTube version here which runs a bit better at lower bandwidths)

Twisting Tragedies

I saw this story over at the Washington Post and it concerned me a bit. An increase in suicide rates among soldiers is not to be taken lightly. But then I read what Marc Danziger wrote about it and felt that the subject wasn't as bleak as the headline makes it sound. Before I could post anything, James Joyner addressed it – and between those two excellent treatments about the subject there really is not a lot to add.

Marc Danziger, whose son has recently enlisted in the military, has done some calculations and found that the Army suicide rate, even at this peak, is actually lower than for their civilian cohorts. That’s interesting indeed and speaks to the Army’s vetting process and support system.

Still, the fact that the Army is experiencing a spike in suicides, which seems correlated with deployments to war zones, is naturally disturbing. And it leads Jeralyn Merritt to serve up the Democratic Talking Point of the Day: “I blame President Bush. Every day he keeps our soldiers in this war, more of them are going to die.”

It’s true, of course, that soldiers die in wars. And not simply from combat action but from the added stress, including the effects the deployment has on their personal lives.

When I heard this story on NPR this morning as I was awakening, my initial reaction was that it’s not surprising that it’s been 26 years since the numbers were this high, since that was the last time the Army was engaged in a sustained war. But, of course, my groggy math was off by a decade: 26 years ago from 2006 is 1980, the last year of the Carter administration and a full seven years after our departure from Vietnam. Which means that, despite legitimate concern about suicides rising during this war (see here and here for stories from 2003), the rate was actually lower than it was during the peacetime Army of 1980.

Joyner also has a link to a study about suicide rates that shows that random variation is the likely reason for the uptick.

Every, single one of those suicides is a tragedy, especially for those left behind. It really is beneath anyone to make a political issue of it. Don't inflict more pain on the survivors.

Lightning Strikes

Horsepower: 700. Acceleration: 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. Top Speed: 130 mph. Range: 250 miles. Total exhaust emissions: zero. Meet the Lightning.

For drivers who want to be green but not boring, the new electric Lightning supercar could prove the ultimate eco-friendly boys' toy.

This emission free 130mph sports car – which has a hint of Jaguar, Aston Martin and TVR styling – can outpace a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari 575 – sprinting from rest to 60mph in under four seconds.

And though it will cost you a tingling £150,000, it is simply powered by 30 rechargeable batteries and doesn't use an ounce of fossil fuel.

The British-built two-seater 'Lightning' is fitted with four wheel-mounted motors that combine to power the car to 60 mph in under four seconds.

It develops 700 brake-horse-power – equivalent to about seven Ford fiestas.

The batteries have a range of 250 miles, take just 10 minutes to fully charge from home or on the road – thanks to 12ft cable which you simply plug into a socket.

The car is also equipped with regenerative braking – recovering some energy when the brakes are applied. This is not the same car that Tesla Motors has been developing (and are in the process of safety testing.) But Tesla is reportedly also in the process of developing a sedan that may come in around the $50-70k mark. Still awfully expensive, but that is starting to get down to more affordable numbers.

Practical and affordable electric cars would go a long way toward reducing oil consumption and would spare the rainforests and orangutans. We would need more nuclear power plants, though. But that is possible* and doesn't enter into the wishful thinking school of solutions.

* For the inevitable "but what about the nuclear waste" people, there is – and has been – a solution to that for a long time.

Hi! Welcome To Deer-Mart!

We've posted about the criminal habits of deer on many occasions. They are the enforcers for the Animal Uprising™ and are also notorious shoplifters. So this report, from Canton, Ohio, comes as no surprise. A deer tried to get into the local Giant Eagle store. (Don't get your hopes up, Giant Eagle is a grocery store, but it doesn't stock eagle – we checked.)

The first call about a deer running into the entrance doors of Giant Eagle came into the Regional Emergency Dispatch Center at 11:11 a.m.

That was followed by a call from a store employee who said the deer broke the doors of the grocery store.

The animal failed to gain entrance to the store. After coming out on the losing end with the glass, the deer took off. “Officer (Todd) Macaluso tracked the deer to I-77 near Wal-Mart,” Zink said.

Frustrated in its efforts to shoplift at the grocery store, it headed for the local Wal-Mart. Looking for lower prices or a better selection, maybe.

Down Disney Way

The latest story of the continuing Disneyfication of wildlife comes from, appropriately, Orlando, Florida. Residents in a new subdivision called police after a couple of black bears started wandering around the area, tipping over garbage cans to find food. The ensuing ruckus, complete with subdivision residents ignoring pleas from police and snapping pictures, ended in the bear dying. Police believe the bears were attracted to the area by someone who just "loved" the bears so much that they fed the bears. As one Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official noted: "A fed bear is a dead bear."

Lights, sirens and a loudspeaker didn't scare the bear out of the neighborhood. Neither did the police officer drawing a shotgun. Or all the other people snapping pictures, screaming, even shoving a chair at the animal.

Then the year-old male bear, the animal kingdom's equivalent of an unruly teenager, made its fatal mistake. It headed for the Orlando police officer, who responded by pulling out a Taser.

After it was stunned twice and snagged with nooses generally used to trap much smaller animals, the bear that had unnerved residents collapsed Tuesday night and died.

It's not clear exactly what caused the black bear's death. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials think the bear, which had struggled with police officers once it was noosed, might have strangled. They don't know whether they'll order a necropsy on the animal, which appeared to weigh less than 100 pounds.

"It's just a bummer all the way around for us," police Sgt. Barbara Jones said Wednesday.

It's a twist on the old, sad story of a bear running into trouble after getting too friendly or aggressive with people.

Area residents are upset. The anonymous complainer doesn't acknowledge that some of the people in the subdivision were almost certainly the cause of the bear's demise.

"From my vantage point, I didn't see where it was an immediate need to Taser the bear," an anonymous neighbor said.

"I believe (sheriff's deputies) were out to protect the people and I think they were out to protect the bear also," Rodriguez said. "The bear didn't want to have anything to do with it."

"They did everything that I asked them to, which was to blow their horns, do their sirens and get the bear to go off in the woods," Orlando said. "Unfortunately the bear did not cooperate."

Authorities said many of the neighbors leave their trash cans out at night before a pickup which essentially trained the bear to feed in the area.

Officials also said some of the neighbors may have put out food for the bear before it was killed Wednesday.

Listen up, people. Bears are not warm, fuzzy, happy playthings for you to cuddle up to and "love". They do not obey the laws of Disney, they obey the laws of nature. And if they become habituated to humans because of your actions, they will have to be killed. You will have killed the animal you profess to "love". Leave the damn wildlife alone if you love them. Don't feed them, don't touch them, don't encourage bad behavior by leaving garbage out overnight. A fed bear is a dead bear. Every. Single. Time.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

(Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

I posted about the extremely negative impact of the biofuel craze on rainforests and orangutans. You know, minor things like the complete destruction of the rainforests and genocide of the orangutans. I've also written about warnings – from bona fide experts – that food prices across the globe are very likely going to rise by 40-80% as a direct result of diversion of food into biofuel. Not enough to worry about yet? How about one more dire warning from still other experts: The rush to produce biofuels is very likely to cause diversion of precious water resources away from food production, making the looming crisis even worse.

Biofuels, which are made from crops, require huge amounts of water, a resource that is already in short supply in many parts of the world. Bioenergy could thus end up diverting water resources desperately needed for food crops.

"When governments and companies are discussing biofuel solutions, I think water issues are not addressed enough," Johan Kuylenstierna, director of the World Water Week conference, told AFP.

The annual gathering is being attended by some 2,500 water experts from around the world.

In the future "food production will need to increase, water consumption will increase dramatically in the agriculture sector and biofuels will increase. This doesn't add up for the water perspective," Kuylenstierna added.

"Where will the water to grow the food needed to feed a growing population come from if more and more water is diverted to crops for biofuels production?" asked Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) spokesman David Trouba.

According to SIWI, in 2050, the amount of additional water needed for bioenergy production will be equivalent to the amount required by the agricultural sector to feed the world properly.

"Biofuels are not 'the' solution, but one of the solutions," Kuylenstierna stressed.

Meanwhile Sunita Narain, the head of the Centre for Science and Environment in India and a prominent expert at the Stockholm conference, said biofuels were "good as an idea, bad in practice." (Emphasis added)

Wow. That should be carved in stone or something. As always, the headlong rush to "do something" leads to many unintended consequences. This one, however, could be a record-setter. Running short of food and water – not to mention rainforests and orangutans – to produce biofuels is looking less and less attractive every day.

Damning Diversity

Daniel Henninger takes a look at the failure of diversity. His starting point is the study by Robert Putnam of Harvard that found very, very serious problems with diversity. Putnam, in fact, found that diversity actually causes communities to withdraw from one another.

Now comes word that diversity as an ideology may be dead, or not worth saving. Robert Putnam, the Harvard don who in the controversial bestseller "Bowling Alone" announced the decline of communal-mindedness amid the rise of home-alone couch potatoes, has completed a mammoth study of the effects of ethnic diversity on communities. His researchers did 30,000 interviews in 41 U.S. communities. Short version: People in ethnically diverse settings don't want to have much of anything to do with each other. "Social capital" erodes. Diversity has a downside.

Prof. Putnam isn't exactly hiding these volatile conclusions, though he did introduce them in a journal called Scandinavian Political Studies. A great believer in the efficacy of what social scientists call "reciprocity," he wasn't happy with what he found but didn't mince words describing the results:

"Inhabitants of diverse communities tend to withdraw from collective life, to distrust their neighbors, regardless of the color of their skin, to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television." The diversity nightmare gets worse: They have little confidence in the "local news media." This after all we've done for them.

The problems of hammering diversity into every aspect of American life has left the various communities not stronger but weaker. These findings should cause a serious rethinking of the entire idea of diversity. That is, of course, doubtful. There are too many people who are too invested in the dogma of diversity. But Henninger points out that someone really needs to come up with a way past this mess:

The diversity ideologues deserve whatever ill tidings they get. They're the ones who weren't willing to persuade the public of diversity's merits, preferring to turn "diversity" into a political and legal hammer to compel compliance. The conversions were forced conversions. As always, with politics comes pushback. And it never stops.

The harvest of bitter fruit from the diversity wars begun three decades ago across campuses, corporations and newsrooms has made the immigration debate significantly worse. Diversity's advocates gave short shrift to assimilation, indeed arguing that assimilation into the American mainstream was oppressive and coercive. So they demoted assimilation and elevated "differences." Then they took the nation to court. Little wonder the immigration debate is riven with distrust.

The diversity ideologues ruined a good word and, properly understood, a decent notion. What's needed now is for a younger black, brown or polka-dot writer to recast the idea in a way that restores the worth and utility of assimilation. Somebody had better do it soon; the first chart offered in the Putnam study depicts inexorably rising rates of immigration in many nations. The idea that the U.S. can wave into effect a 10-year "time out" on immigration flows is as likely as King Canute commanding the tides to recede.

Assimilation, the bugaboo of believers in the mantra of diversity for its own sake, is the answer, of course. Even Putnam found that successful assimilation formed the strongest communities. Shared values build communities. Diversity for its own sake tears them down.