Though they always caution that “marriage is not a panacea,” social scientists almost uniformly accept the research that confirms the benefits for children growing up with their own married parents. Welfare reform and tougher child-support regulations have reinforced the message of personal responsibility for one’s children. The Bush administration unabashedly uses the word “marriage” in its welfare policies. There are even raw numbers to support the case for optimism: teen pregnancy, which finally started to decline in the mid-nineties in response to a crisper, teen-pregnancy-is-a-bad-idea cultural message, is now at its lowest rate ever.

And finally, in the ghetto itself there is a growing feeling that mother-only families don’t work. That’s why people are lining up to see an aging comedian as he voices some not-very-funny opinions about their own parenting. That’s why so many young men are vowing to be the fathers they never had. That’s why there has been an uptick, albeit small, in the number of black children living with their married parents.

If change really is in the air, it’s taken 40 years to get here—40 years of inner-city misery for the country to reach a point at which it fully signed on to the lesson of Moynihan’s report. Yes, better late than never; but you could forgive lost generations of ghetto men, women, and children if they found it cold comfort.

Lord Herbert wrote on May 14^th, 2013 at 11:06am:


Coming from a socksniffing dumbshit that honestly believes mixed-race couples are a recent fad I'm gonna call bullshit. Have you ever actually been the target of serious racism? Somehow I doubt a white boy from a country as racially homogenous as Australia has any first had experience with the subject other than from the perspective of being racist.


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Yes, the black guy is insensitive to the plight of black people...

Or you're just a smacking idiot desperately trying to backpeddle from the black guy you managed to offend with your racist assholerly.


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I'll apologize the second your mother apologizes for not swallowing and save the rest of us the hassle of actually interacting with you. Deal?i
[/quote]

Lord Herbert wrote on May 13^th, 2013 at 9:06pm:


You are worse than i thought. So you think what you think counts over the ppl concerned think? If david bowie has a life partner then he has a life partner.

SOB

Chard wrote on May 15^th, 2013 at 12:23am:


*ahem* If I may interrupt the showboating and moralising, he only made an observation - never did he say he disliked it. 

Carry on, someone might be watching.

Lord Herbert wrote on May 15^th, 2013 at 9:21am:


So, I guess you'd prefer to bring back apartheid.

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The sudden silence is deafening. I can hear an echo in here.

So, Chard, I think you should put that ball down and apologise to me.

As migrants to Melanoma Central, we in Australia are all destined to become coffee-coloured anyway as a Darwinian Survival Technique for surviving the sun's damaging rays.

If we don't all look like Abos in a thousand years time ~ they'll be none of us albinos left.



And frankly, I'm tired of being the brunt of racist taunts from our Sydney Abos, immigrant Indians, and Pacific Islanders.

"Hey honkey! Get off my turf! This OUR hood, dog!"

I get it all the time.

My local MP slams the phone down every time I try to talk to him about this constant racial harassment.

And I'm tired of our coloured taxi drivers not stopping for me. I've complained, but no one wants to know.

And in some of the outer parts of Sydney the privately owned bus companies still make us white folk sit at the back with the caged chickens and ducks on the way to market.

I believe there's a movie under production now called 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' It stars Morgan Freeman whose daughter unexpectedly brings home a white man to dinner. The mother's played by Whoopi Goldberg. There's a lot of tension beneath the superficial civility.

Aussie wrote on May 15^th, 2013 at 12:09pm:


Is there a difference between trolling and being an agente provocateur? I'm in two minds. I used to want to ban racists, but now I think there's a lot to be said for letting them out in the open where they can be stamped on; and I don't mind much if somebody wants to lure them out from under the rock.