[SOC] IQ vs politics

[JMcAulay]

At 01:56 PM 05/04/2004 -0500, N8AU, Jim in Raymore, MO wrote:

>Here's the link.
>
>http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181


Please understand my reluctance to seek or expect political objectivity
from a site with domain "democrats.com." 

For that matter, finding objectivity in anything reported from American
Assembler would be rather coincidental as well as ironic, as objectivity is
not their purpose.  Note that they also report that Gore got more votes in
Florida than Bush, as does democrats.com.  This conflicts with independent
findings, as mentioned earlier. 

Anyway, I would have thought it embarrassing for some to report that only
the supporters of Gore were too inept to punch the ballot cards properly,
while few if any ballots punched by Bush supporters were inaccurately
done... no Republican hanging chad?  Amazing....  (Sorry, just couldn't
resist that one.  Yes, it was a dig, and I do hope you chuckled -- whatever
your political persuasion.  Humor is, after all, at least as important as
politics.)

Going down another notch, a look at some reviews of the book _IQ and the
Wealth of Nations_ show a rather striking assumption that the "Mational IQ"
numbers quoted are somehow valid.  Can't be, as many nations have no such
thing as "National IQ" testing.  As a retired California teacher, I assure
you that in California, it is illegal to subject entire student populations
to IQ testing.  Thus, there is no way to determine the "Average IQ" of
residents of California, juvenile or adult.  Furthermore, norming of tests
for nationally separated IQ test-takers would be almost impossible.
Professor Lynn is said to be "an expert on IQ"?  Hard to believe.  IQ is,
by definition, only a measure of the speed with which one can learn,
nothing else.  Economists, these guys may be... psychologists, they surely
are not.  How interesting it is to begin with specious data, use it as the
basis for a workable hypothesis, then use that same data to prove the
hypothesis.  Wow.  Sort of like measuring with a surveyor's chain, marking
with a chalk, and cutting with a microtome.  Only somehow more so.  

Of course, not having read the whole book, my comments just might be
totally full of s**t (or s**t*, depending upon... well, you know).  

Anyway, maybe it would not be so bad at all to be a Chinese peasant living
'way back in the hills with an income of a few hundred dollars a year.
Never tried it, so can't report. 

Opinions expressed are those of the writer only.  You may feel free to
ignore them.  Whether you do or not, writer is not responsible for any or
all the horrible things that may befall you.  This includes, but is not
limited to, all your progeny being born naked.  

I do hope that at least one candidate for President is able to address
three concerns which are deep in me.  Here they are: 

1)  They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,
deserve neither liberty nor security.  (Franklin)

2)  Any system which robs Peter to pay Paul is certain to have the support
of Paul.  (?)

3)  Poor people do not hire anyone.  (Mills) 

73
John WA6QPL  SOC 263