Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wednesday's wash

COLLEGE CAMPUSES WATCH:
Racist incidents lead to calls for, you guessed it, more diversity:
"A firestorm over racially and ethnically charged incidents at several University of California campuses spread Tuesday as UC San Diego announced a KKK-style hood was found on campus and students in Los Angeles and Irvine demonstrated against intolerance. "What kind of campus promotes an environment that allows people to think it's acceptable to target people for their ethnicity, gender or sexuality?" said Corey Matthews, one of about 200 mostly minority UCLA students who held a lunchtime rally. "It's something about the tone of the environment that allows this."

Hmmm. Really? Look, no one is defending KKK activity or swastikas being carved in doors. But the thing is, any one or two crazies can carve a swastika. But that's the key--they're crazies. They're a tiny handful. They have no support. But they crave exactly the attention they're getting!! And we shouldn't be condemning entire campuses for the actions of a few crazies, we shouldn't act like there are no "diversity" programs when so many campuses focus so single-mindedly on it, and we shouldn't require students to take courses which have an ideological bent. Maybe those favoring "diversity" should talk more and take more action to secure INTELLECTUAL diversity on their campuses. That might just appeal to more students than they realize.

POLITICS WATCH:
Beware of polling methodologies. In polling on the generic congressional ballot, Ipsos/McClatchy recently polled over 1000 adults---note, not registered voters, and certainly not likely voters; just adults. Such a poll finds Democrats leading Republicans by ten points, no less! But polls of likely voters, such as that done recently by Rasmussen, show Republicans leading by 8.
In the most recent elections, Rasmussen polls did awfully well in predicting the outcome. So Republicans are still in good shape.

NBA DIARY:
Boston 105, Detroit 100: the Pistons have now lost 3 in a row. They are 21-39 on the season. Key stats: the Pistons actually out-rebounded Boston, 46-34. They competed. They hustled. But, Boston was 9 for 18 from 3-point land, while Detroit was just 3 for 20. The Pistons non-magic number for missing the playoffs is now 14. Any combination of 14 Miami victories/Pistons losses eliminates Detroit from the playoffs for the first time since 2000-2001. Rebuilding time...

NCAA HOOPS DIARY:
Michigan 81, Minnesota 53: Michigan's final home game meant a nice send-off for its seniors. Michigan surprisingly shot 60% from the field; where has that been? The Wolverines remain just 14-15 on the season.