No Hell, No Hand Basket

At this festive time of year, there are always articles by War-on-Christmas types lamenting the sorry state of the world, the lax values of our society and of the youth in particular, and expressing feelings of persecution. "If only the atheists hadn't driven Christ out from Christmas, if only children were allowed to pray in schools, if only, this country and this world wouldn't be sliding into ruin." Fortunately, their underlying assumptions are all objectively, factually, wrong. People are kind and decent, and the state of the world has never been better. Without further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, some holiday cheer:

The United States is safer than it has been in two generations. Rates of both violent crime and property crime are down to levels not seen since the early 1960s. This downward trend in crime rates has been sustained for decades, and across the whole country.

The whole world is safer, on average, than it has ever been. Murder rates have declined by at least two orders of magnitude over the last few centuries. And on a more recent scale, large countries have almost entirely stopped warring with one another over the past 75 years, a situation never before seen since countries were invented.

People almost everywhere are wealthier than in decades past, and are living longer, healthier, lives. Around the world, life expectancy has climbed steadily, and birth rates have declined, to the point where there is now very little difference between those statistics in so-called developed countries and in many so-called developing countries. Even in those countries that are the very worst off, people are as wealthy and long-lived today as those in wealthy countries were just a generation or two ago.

Young people today are remarkably community oriented, they value marriage and stable families, and they get along well with their parents. School violence is down, drug use is down, and teen abortions are down. You will be excused for reaching the opposite conclusion based on the nightly news.

Finally, for those readers who still believe that religious affiliation has anything to do with compassion and good values: three quarters of Americans self identify as Christian, and far more Americans say that their religion is very important in their lives than do citizens of any other developed country. So No, American Christians, you are not members of a persecuted minority. You have every President and Vice President in history, and a disproportionate number of legislators, in your camp. Your children are welcome to pray and to read their Bibles in the public schools. You can relax.

Therefore, rejoice, my fellow Americans, and my fellow citizens of planet Earth. The world is a pretty great place right now, and you are among the most fortunate who have ever lived here. In the words of the Bard, "there art thou happy."

Typical Conversation Between an OO Programmer and a Functional Programmer

Functional Programmer: Monads!

Object-Oriented Programmer: What's that?

FP: Read this math-heavy paper, and learn to write your whole program on one line!

OOP: No one can read your code.

FP: Category Theory!

OOP: (walks away)

I will now do you a favor, oh humble Object-Oriented Programmer:

A Monad is a special kind of Decorator that helps you deal with incomplete data and partial failures.

(Dear Functional Programmer: I understand you hate my definition. When you can provide an alternative without using the words "functor", "flatMap", or "category", or any math at all, then we'll talk.)

Now let's imagine how the conversation might go differently:

FP: Monads!

OOP: This helpful technique informs my OO code on a regular basis.

FP: Category Theory!

OOP: (smiles indulgently)

Equal Protection?

Some have questioned today's decision by the US Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on due-process grounds rather than on the basis of equal protection. The former is narrower, in my opinion, and I agree with it. The Court has reaffirmed that discretion lies with the states, and has ruled only with regards to whether the federal government can strip away protection to a particular class, once granted.

I suspect that I differ from most of my liberal friends in that I agree with conservatives this far: recognition of gay marriage is a change in the understanding of marriage in our society. I just happen to believe that the change is a beneficial one, one that is consistent with and strengthens traditional values, and moreover only the most recent of very many more-substantive changes, ancient and modern. (I have been heard to quip that I support Biblical marriage: one man and one or more women, who are his property.)

It is useful and relevant to advocate for marriage equality on the basis of equal protection. I have done so and will continue to do so as an individual. But for the Supreme Court to make that same argument with the force of law is hard for me to agree with. It's clearly not true from an originalist perspective, and also hard to support from an "evolving society" perspective, given that gay marriage remains illegal in most states. It is not the business of the Court to declare what the law ought to be; it is to clarify the law as it exists already.

Some will argue that the Court today acted in a cowardly fashion, and on the wrong side of history. Perhaps. But for me, the consent of the governed is no small consideration. I'm heartened by the state-by-state momentum of the marriage-equality movement. My preference from political and governance perspectives is that that momentum should continue to play out.

In Defense of Marriage

The Supreme Court of the United States today reaffirmed in two separate opinions that the responsibility for defining civil marriage law rests with the states. Furthermore, once a civil marriage has been recognized by a state, the legal and civil protections that go along with it cannot be stripped away by the federal government or simply because a married person crosses state lines.

These decisions strengthen the institution of civil marriage specifically as well as the principles of federalism and the rule of law more generally. They also make a huge difference in the social, financial, and political lives of millions of people. I'm so happy today, and so proud of my country.

Required Reading: The Big Sort

I haven't read anything in a long while that made me think so deeply about America's divided body politic as Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort". From the last paragraph:

In a country that is dividing by economic prospects, by years of education, by the look and feel of what constitutes a family, and by politic persuasion, we continue to believe there might be a more important message we all need to hear. The message people living in a democracy must understand, more than any other message, is that there are Americans who aren't just like you. They don't live like you, they don't have families like yours, and they don't think like you. They may not live in your neighborhood, but this is their country too.

A Beer Monopoly? No.

The New York Times asks, "Are We In Danger of a Beer Monopoly?" (Thanks to MC for the link.) The subject of the article is the proposed purchase by InBev, the parent of Budweiser, of Grupo Modelo, the parent of Corona, Negro Modelo, and others. Those willing to pollute themselves with fizzy yellow adjunct beer would perhaps fear the prospect of higher prices from such a merger. But beer-as-big-business is obscuring the big picture: beer as small businesses.

Davidson writes, "InBev is already facing staunch competition from Denmark’s Carlsberg, Britain’s SABMiller and Japan’s Asahi. It’s not exactly worried about Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada." But the public has been fleeing watery American lagers for a generation, and not for the "super dry" Asahi. The winners are the thousands of craft breweries that have exploded unto the scene during the same period. They brew good beer, and they are legion.

The low end will always consolidate: if you can't charge for quality, you've got to make money on volume. But merger or no merger, it's never been a better time to be a beer drinker.