OVO

Trevor Blake: Suffrage [LINK-ZUM]

Question: In the United States, is there a relation between when a group of people gains suffrage and the percentage of that group that is registered to vote?

Conjecture: The longer a specific group has suffrage, the higher the percentage of registered voters in that specific group will be.

Data: Voting in the United States is based on state law and not federal law. There is no nation-wide right to vote, only nation-wide laws that prevent states from excluding specific groups from voting. This survey uses federal laws preventing state exclusion of specific groups as data points.

1787: United States Constitution grants suffrage to 21-and-older land-owning white male non-Christians.
1856: Suffrage granted to 21-and-older landless white males.
1870: 15th Amendment grants suffrage to 21-and-older non-white non-Native American males.
1920: 19th Amendment grants suffrage to 21-and-older women.
1924: Suffrage granted to 21-and-older Native Americans.
1971: Suffrage granted to those 18-and-older.

The 2004 census makes suggests about specific groups and their rate of registration to vote.

I do not know how to make us of the following data in this investigation. These specific groups were granted suffrage in a staggered fashion. For example, blacks gained suffrage before women did, thus no single percentage can be listed for a group made up of both blacks and of women.

69.5%: white non-hispanic women.
67.9%: white non-hispanic, both sexes.
67.9%: black women.
67.6%: 18-and-older women, black and white.
66.2%: white non-hispanic men.
64.4%: black, both sexes.
64%: 18-and-older men, black and white.
60%: black men.

For the next set of specific groups, gender and ethnicity are not limitations to suffrage. All of the following specific groups have had suffrage for the same amount of time, 37 years.

55.6%: 19-year-old women.
55.1%: 20-year-old women.
53.8%: 19-year-olds, both sexes.
51.5%: 18-year-old women.
51.5%: 20-year-olds, both sexes.
50.2%: 19-year-old men.
47.9%: 20-year-old men.
46.8%: 18-year-olds, both sexes.
42.1%: 18-year-old men.

Conclusion: based on the data consulted and my limited statistical skills, I conclude that the length of time a specific group is granted suffrage is not related to the percentage of that specific group that will register to vote. Groups with the same time period of suffrage (37 years) vary by more than 13% in their registration rates. It is possible there is a relation between gender and suffrage, as women appear to register to vote more often than men no matter their ethnicity or age. My conclusion could be refuted by a better data set or increased statistical skills.

Note: this post has changed significantly over the course of the day, as I find and correct errors and omissions.

Labels: race, science, sex

Abul Taher: Muslims break taboo to allow guide dog into mosque [LINK-ZUM]

A retriever is in training to become the first dog in Britain to be permitted to enter a mosque, acting as a guide for its blind Muslim owner. The animal has been chosen because it salivates less than usual, thus reducing the risk of flicking spittle onto other worshippers at the Al Falah

Keeping pet dogs is considered "haram" (the Arabic word for "forbidden") in Islamic teaching, because they are regarded as unclean, particularly their saliva. The mosque took its decision after advice from imams and scholars at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), who carried out a full review of Islamic teaching on dogs. [...] Ibrahim Mogra, a senior imam at the MCB, who has overseen the review of teaching on guide dogs, said they could be justified as they served an "urgent practical purpose". He said: "We found the Koran allows Muslims to use dogs for hunting. So if Muslims can eat a prey bitten by dogs, then there should not be a problem using them to guide you if you are blind."

[Article continues at link. This is an example of how religion tries to have it both ways. On the one hand, keeping dogs is haram - an eternal, unchanging, infallible, supreme, all-knowing Allah told us so! On the other hand, we can talk about it and change the rules if it suits our urgent practical purpose. It might have helped the 'revelation' along that in June a UK Muslim cab driver was fined for refusing a blind couple with a guide dog access to his cab. Just as the 'revelation' to allow Black men to lead Mormon Boy Scout troops miraculously came at around the time lawsuits against the Mormons were being filed. Or the 'revelation' that Mormon polygamy was for heaven and not Earth miraculously came at around the time Utah wanted to join the United States. It is good that theists try to have it both ways. Debating religion and making changes are both steps toward secularization, in which human reason and compassion trumps tradition. Secular humanists, like atheists, just get on with things. Religious humanists, as these Muslims are whether they want to be or not, may cloak their reason and compassion in superstitious garb. But at the end of the day they recognize themselves and not an invisible monster that lives in the sky as the true active moral agent. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, mormon, race

Trevor Blake: The Latter-Day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America [LINK-ZUM]

Time magazine wrote in 2000 that Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population but make up 21% of the boys in the Boy Scouts of America. This suggests that while most BSA Scouts are not Mormon, most Mormon boys are BSA Scouts. Mormon sponsorship of the BSA goes back nearly eighty years. The Mormons like Scouting so much that it is an official Church program. Brigham Young University offers a major in Scouting [article] [description]. In some areas the only BSA Troop available for boys to join are Mormon BSA Troops. Mormon BSA Troops, with BSA approval, have their own requirements for membership, advancement, and activities. Until 1974, one of those requirements was that no leadership position could be held by anyone who was Black. No Black man could hold a leadership position in the Mormon Church, therefore they reasoned no Black man or boy could hold a leadership position in the BSA. Because of this discrimination a secular lawsuit against the LDS arose in that year. By magical coincidence the invisible monster that lives in the sky and talks to the LDS Elders chose exactly that time to tell them their policy had changed and Blacks could now lead Mormon BSA Troops. Currently the Mormons are developing their own Scouting program in case the BSA joins every other Scouting program in the world and allows openly homosexual people to be Scouts.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a terrible thing if the Mormons got out of the Scouting business.

Labels: atheist, mormon, race, sex

Science Daily: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors [LINK-ZUM]

In the last century, more than 100 million people have perished in violent conflict, very often because of local clashes between ethnically or culturally distinct groups. In a novel study recently in Science, researchers report on a mathematical model that can predict where ethnic conflict will erupt. The study, conducted by scientists at the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) and Brandeis University, can be applied to many areas and its predictions were tested on distinct ethnic groups in India and the former Yugoslavia. The researchers applied a model of global pattern formation that differentiates regions by culture. They discovered that heterogeneous areas with poorly- defined boundaries were prone to ethnic conflict.

The research asserts that in highly mixed regions, groups of the same type are not large enough to sway collective behavior toward claiming any particular public space; likewise, well-segregated groups are protected by clear boundaries identifying their space. However, the study concludes that "partial separation with poorly defined boundaries fosters conflict."

[Article continues at link. When this article speaks of being of the same type or being of a well-segregated group, what does that mean? If we can judge people as individuals, perhaps battling over the shifting turf of who we are in groups might occur less. Who we are as part of a group has cultural weight, but sometimes that weight has a high cost and low return. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: fight, race, science

unreason tags 2 [LINK-ZUM]

objectivist orgone overpopulation prohibition race radionics slavery socialism synanon taylorism technocracy ufo

Labels: objectivist, orgone, overpopulation, prohibition, race, radionics, slavery, socialism, synanon, taylorism, technocracy, ufo

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