18 May 2005 @ 6:20PM >> It’s good to see Jeffrey Dvorkin, the ombudsman of NPR, thinking about diversity. In his latest column, Dvorkin asks, “shouldn’t NPR sound a little more like its listeners?”

Sounds nice, right? It would, if Dvorkin weren’t being so literal. Yes, he’s actually worried that the accents of the voices on the network aren’t diverse enough. Not in terms of perspective, but twang:

When it comes to aural diversity, NPR sounds, well... like NPR. That is, not very diverse at all.

Listeners say they can always tell when they are tuned to a public radio station. They say they can tell by the sound of the voices, the cadence of the delivery and the intonation of the reporters and announcers.

Jeff, you’re working at a taxpayer-financed radio network that routinely gives short-shrift to the views held by a majority of Americans (if we’re to judge by election results), and you’re worried that there aren’t enough different regional accents on your network? While you’re at it, why don’t you bean-count all the different shirt colors worn by the NPR hosts, just to be sure that mauve isn’t underrepresented.

There are less superficial categories that Dvorkin could be getting worked up about. Intellectual diversity counts for something, too. Who cares if everyone on NPR has different accents if they’re all saying the same thing?

18 May 2005 @ 12:39PM >> The end result of Europe’s blind multiculturalism and feel-good tolerance:

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity.

Where are the so-called women’s rights activists on these issues? Their hands are tied, because—like most good little liberals—they can’t break free of the politically correct notion that all cultures are inherently equal. If you believe a culture that encourages “honor killings” is no better or no worse than one that doesn’t, then you have no basis for criticizing the environment that gives rise to these vicious murders.