SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

VERY SAD – FROM FOX:  PHOENIX – Charlie Rose, who was fired this week by CBS News and whose program was cancelled by PBS in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women, had accolades from two universities rescinded Friday.   Panels at both Arizona State University and the University of Kansas met this week and coincidentally came to the same decision on the same day.   Arizona's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication gave Rose an award for journalism excellence in 2015. But the actions reported about Rose were too "egregious" to ignore, according to Dean Christopher Callahan.  Probably deserved, but again it makes me uneasy.  People within the industry tell me that Rose's reputation for treatment of people was poor, and established years ago.  Did not any of the people making these awards know of that reputation?  Or didn't they care?  After all, getting Charlie Rose to come and accept an award was a big deal.  I wish people would wait a bit longer before making drastic judgments.

NOT GOOD FOR SURVIVAL – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Women are having fewer children than ever before and more are staying childless, new data reveals today.  Women who turned 45 in 2016 had an average of 1.80 children, down from 2.21 for their mothers' generation, who turned 45 in 1944.  The same generation also had fewer children by their 30th birthday, suggesting women are having children later in life. Women who turned 45 last year had 1.06 children by 30 compared to 1.8 in their mother's generation.
In total, 18 per cent of women who turned 45 last year had no children at all, compared with 11 per cent of women in their mother's generation.  The ONS said the figures, collected from birth registration data going back to the 1930s, defined 45 as the age by which most women had stopped having children.  Regardless of any aspect of feminist doctrine, birth rates are important.  You cannot reproduce a population, a culture, a nation, without a birth rate high enough to do it.  Some of the major countries of Europe, like the Netherlands, Italy and even Germany, are in danger of eventually disappearing because of low birth rates.

ANOTHER REASON WHY TRUMP WAS ELECTED – FROM AP:   AMHERST, Mass. –  A group representing gun owners says a "social bias" against firearms was behind a decision by the University of Massachusetts to nix a 4-H youth program that teaches competitive shooting sports.  A university center runs Massachusetts 4-H. University officials tell the Hampshire Gazette (http://bit.ly/2lKWvNY ) they decided against the program because they wanted to develop a broader youth development initiative that includes instruction in hunting and fishing.  Some version of the 4-H shooting sports program is offered in every state except Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Supporters say it emphasizes safety.  The head of The Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts, Jim Wallace, says the program would not have cost UMass anything and would have served more than 1,000 young people. He says UMass has a bias against "gun-owning families and their children."   Yeah, the bias is real.  Teaching a thousand young people about gun safety is worthwhile in itself.  UMass is being narrow and silly.  Big surprise.

November 24, 2017