SHOCK, HORROR! THE NYT MENTIONS RACE AND INTELLIGENCE IN THE SAME ARTICLE

But only obliquely. It refers to IQ as "test scores". Tests of how high you can jump, perhaps? Tests of what a good shot you are? Tests of how good you are at picking stockmarket winners? They don't say. They obviously think you would KNOW which test scores are being referred to

Roland G. Fryer Jr. is 27 years old and he is an assistant professor of economics at Harvard and he is black....

When he presents a paper, Fryer is earnest and genial and excitable, sometimes carrying on like a Southern preacher. While he denies that his work is united by a grand thesis -- he is a scientist, he explains, devoted to squeezing truths from the data, wherever that may lead -- he does admit to having a mission: ''I basically want to figure out where blacks went wrong. One could rattle off all the statistics about blacks not doing so well. You can look at the black-white differential in out-of-wedlock births or infant mortality or life expectancy. Blacks are the worst-performing ethnic group on SAT's. Blacks earn less than whites. They are still just not doing well, period.''

To Fryer, the language of economics, a field proud of its coldblooded rationalism, is ideally suited for otherwise volatile conversations. ''I want to have an honest discussion about race in a time and a place where I don't think we can,'' he says. ''Blacks and whites are both to blame. As soon as you say something like, 'Well, could the black-white test-score gap be genetics?' everybody gets tensed up. But why shouldn't that be on the table?'' ....

Glaeser and Fryer, along with David M. Cutler, another Harvard economist, are the authors of a paper that traffics in one form of genetic theorizing. It addresses the six-year disparity in life expectancy for blacks versus whites, arguing that much of the gap is due to a single factor: a higher rate of salt sensitivity among African-Americans, which leads to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke and kidney disease....

So here is Fryer's final anomaly: he is a man who revels in his blackness and yet also says he believes, as DuBois believed, that black underachievement cannot entirely be laid at the feet of discrimination. Fryer has a huge appetite for advocacy but a far larger appetite for science, and as a scientist he won't exclude any possibilities, including black behaviors, from the menu of factors that contribute to the black condition.

(Excerpts only above. More here)

**************************************

ELSEWHERE

An interesting finding about blog readership here: "The top states are nearly if not all Blue States - the bottom clearly Red with a few exceptions". So it looks like Leftists read blogs a lot more than conservatives do. As I pointed out some time ago, Leftist beliefs are so at variance with reality that Leftists are constantly looking for something to prop their beliefs up -- so they turn to the internet in droves for the reinforcement they need. For conservatives, however, it the opposite: Everything about everyday life confirms their beliefs so they don't need to do anything much to reassure themselves of the rightness of their beliefs. I go into all that a bit more here.

German obtuseness: "In a sputtering economy, Niles Werke shows how to get the German locomotive running again. The century-old machine-tool company is at the top of its field. Sales are expected to rise by 10 percent this year. "We expect 2005 to be another good year," says Frank Reichel, director of its Berlin plant. Defying a lagging economy, Germany's flagship engineering sector is booming. But despite plants that hum at capacity, companies like Niles aren't hiring. Its failure to create jobs is miring Germany in a political and economic crisis, making the country ground zero in a growing debate over Europe's economy..... "What we need is flexibility," says Reichel. "Our main problem is the job protection laws and regulation. Sooner or later, business will slow down again and when that happens we can't have too many people on the payroll." The problem, say analysts, is that the government, which is closely allied with labor unions, is unwilling to deregulate the labor market to the extent that economists say is necessary to boost investment and job growth..... German labor laws make it difficult for companies to reduce staff during weak business periods...."

There is a good satire here on the EU and "The Single European Tank". I suspect it's not far from the truth, in fact.

Australian Leftist historians revere Ward Churchill! "In Australia, Churchill is being presented as a scholarly authority on the Aborigines. In the newly released anthology Genocide and Settler Society, editor Dirk Moses of the University of Sydney's history department quotes Churchill's 1997 book A Little Matter of Genocide as one of his main sources on the Tasmanian Aborigines. Churchill compares the fate of the Tasmanians with that of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis..." (Via the Blithering one)

Shifts in Muslim opinion: "In Its final report, the 9/11 commission said that the United States must prevail over a 'radical ideological movement in the Islamic world.' Recent news from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, shows that this can indeed happen. A poll commissioned by the nonprofit Terror Free Tomorrow found the first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the beginning of the war on terrorism. More people in Indonesia now favor American efforts against terrorism than oppose them. In a dramatic turnaround, support for Osama bin Laden and terrorism have dropped significantly, while favorable opinion of the US has increased. The poll, conducted by a leading Indonesian pollster, showed that the reason for this positive change was the American response to the tsunami. Its implications are both broad and profound."

Sex-education classes attract parental opposition: "More than 200 people took part yesterday in an intense, three-hour meeting about teenage sexuality in Montgomery County public schools. The town hall meeting was sponsored by Citizens for Responsible Curriculum, a parent-run group opposed to new sex-education classes in the schools because of what they call 'moral and scientific gaps' in the curriculum. Among the concerns is a video on using a condom and elements of the curriculum that, group members say, portray homosexuality as the moral equal to heterosexuality, and fails to present alternative moral perspectives or full discussions on the health risks posed by homosexuality. 'I am shocked and appalled at what I have seen here today,' said Tonya Wilkerson, mother of a 16-year-old boy. She also said the video's failure to 'at least give equal billing to abstinence' was 'abhorrent.'"

Lost Tooth Society has a good article on the psychological connections between Leftists and Greenies.

My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at a Leftist claim that Republicans oppose what Christ stood for.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

**************************

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************