Author: Greg Saunders

Charles Murray tells us the real problem with American schools. It’s not that they’re underfunded or overcrowded or fraught with inequality, but that some kids are just too dumb to learn.

One word is missing from these discussions: intelligence. Hardly anyone will admit it, but education’s role in causing or solving any problem cannot be evaluated without considering the underlying intellectual ability of the people being educated. Today and over the next two days, I will put the case for three simple truths about the mediating role of intelligence that should bear on the way we think about education and the nation’s future.

Today’s simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon.

Our ability to improve the academic accomplishment of students in the lower half of the distribution of intelligence is severely limited. It is a matter of ceilings. Suppose a girl in the 99th percentile of intelligence, corresponding to an IQ of 135, is getting a C in English. She is underachieving, and someone who sets out to raise her performance might be able to get a spectacular result. Now suppose the boy sitting behind her is getting a D, but his IQ is a bit below 100, at the 49th percentile.

We can hope to raise his grade. But teaching him more vocabulary words or drilling him on the parts of speech will not open up new vistas for him. It is not within his power to learn to follow an exposition written beyond a limited level of complexity, any more than it is within my power to follow a proof in the American Journal of Mathematics. In both cases, the problem is not that we have not been taught enough, but that we are not smart enough.

Why on Earth would anyone publish this horseshit? This whole article seems to be based on the bizarre notion that there’s a direct correlation between percentile intelligence (which is dubious on its own) and grades. It roughly follows, using Murray’s retarded logic, that those in the 90th percentile are the ones capable of making A’s (80th, B’s, etc.), therefore only the smartest 40% of kids are even capable of passing grades. The bell curve is adjusted a bit to get more kids to pass, but in the end, subjects like basic math, science, and English are just too hard for the dumb kids.

I cannot imagine a more simple-minded approach to education than the one laid out in this article and it’s the same arrogant junk science that Charles Murray has spent the last dozen years pushing. Some people are just “inferior” so we shouldn’t waste our time trying to help them. It’s a bullshit idea regardless of where you try to apply it and it’s especially heinous when applied to public education. The idea that the best way to fix our public schools is to stop trying to teach the kids who need our help the most is as immoral and ass-backwards as having a healthcare system that makes the sick fend for themselves. Then again, that’s pretty much how things work now…

Ummmm…Sen. Feinstein, you voted for the PATRIOT ACT twice. I agree that the Bush Administration’s mass-firing of federal prosecutors is an egregious abuse of power, but you and the rest of your timid colleagues are the ones who have allowed the President to consolidate power. To your credit, you’ve introduced a bill to change the PATRIOT ACT provision regarding the method by which interim appointments are made for U.S. attorneys, but isn’t the real issue here that the President has the power to purge ideological “enemies” from office at a whim?

I love this video (which I first saw at Crook & Liars) of Barney Frank giving his Republican counterpart a parliamentary beating :

There’s no shortage of things to hate about this Bush administration, but you gotta respect Rep. David Wu for finding a new reason to get pissed.



“These aren’t Vulcans!”

The positive press that the Democrats have been receiving for their “First 100 Hours” initiative really underscores the foolishness of the GOP’s political strategy of the past few years. It may have seemed like a brilliant idea to pander to their base at the time, but in hindsight, it makes them look like a bunch of idiots. You’ve won the battles, but losing the war gentlemen.

The GOP has spent the last few decades bashing the “Democrat(ic) party” as a bunch of out-of-control liberals and comforted themselves with the talking point that the country was moving to the right. The result? They’re controlled by the radical right while the Dems have been transformed into a party of Liebermen (and Liber-women). Thanks to the dynamic the GOP has put into place, the choices at the polls are rarely right vs. left, but extreme right vs. gutless centrist. With the Democrats finally being empowered to get some work done and stand up for themselves, the Republican party’s flaws are becoming clearer and clearer to the American people.

Which brings us to the “First 100 Hours”. Looking at this summary of the Dem’s agenda, the only thing shocking is how obvious every one of these proposals is. Raising the minimum wage for the first time in ten years. Enacting 9/11 Commission recommendations. Lowering prescription drug costs and student loans. Funding stem cell research. These aren’t wedge issues, they’re just common sense. The fact that these issues have been ignored while the Washington elite were busying themselves with Schiavo, Abramoff, and Foley will underscore how clueless the GOP has become.

What we’re seeing now is the Republican Party’s worst nightmare. The Democrats are defining themselves not just by what they would do, but specifically by what the Republicans wouldn’t do. And if they think this is bad, wait until the Democrats get into oversight mode and start investigating the scandals the GOP didn’t try to sweep under the rug like extraordinary rendition, war profiteering, signing statements, etc. This is going to be a fun year.

Editor & Publisher has a rundown of the voyeuristic and bloodthirsty media coverage of Saddam Hussein’s death. Although newspapers had a dilemma to face over which photos to print, their peers on television had it even worse. Not only did they have to contend with a live event that may or may not be happening on a Friday night, but they had to figure out a way to film their on-air personalities without showing their massive erections.

The glee that has accompanied the execution of Saddam Hussein is ghoulish. If anyone deserved to die, Saddam did, but it doesn’t make the American response any less shameful. It’s like our entire country is a big, torch-wielding mob…by proxy. Every aspect of Saddam’s trial and imprisonment was done by the Americans, but the actual killing was done by Iraqis. The news channels pat themselves on the back for their decency for not showing the actual moment of Saddam’s death, but giddily report that video has “leaked” (code-words for “look for it on Google”). For all the moral certainty of those who have cheered for Saddam’s death, they sure are a bunch of cowards.

And, it goes without saying that this incident, like everything else related to this foolish war, was a monumental, disgraceful, and preventable clusterfuck.