Intelligenter than you!
 

It's heartening to see that, aside from our differences, we do share common goals.

a new thread!
 

POTD

Intelligenter than you!
 

Christ. It wasn't a real rant. I was expecting a mirror image comeback on democrats. Sheesh. You just took the fun out of it.

Intelligenter than you!
 

I have children. Protecting this country from your likes isn't always fun. It is however, something I owe my kids.

Intelligenter than you!
 

True. I could kick your kids' asses.

All over Gross Pointe (oops couldn't be based on your stats).

Or Birmingham.

Intelligenter than you!
 

Maybe your town skews the overall education level of the county upwards. Or do you live in the town that houses the servants of the rest of the people in your county?

Intelligenter than you!
 

Or because IQ tests aren't a good measure of intelligence. Or because, well, because there are racial disparities in intelligence levels.

Intelligence is something that is profoundly affected by prenatal/perinatal and early childhood conditions, as well as nutrional status in the early years of life. Babies born to mothers who don't get good prenatal care on average score lower on IQ tests. I doubt this is a cultural bias, but rather a very real organic phenomena - these people's brains aren't as good as they could have been if their mother had gotten better prenatal care. I think it is fair to say that blacks don't get the same quality and quantity of prenatal care as whites on average in this society.

Same is true of the perinatal/infancy period, in particular, if the baby is breast fed. Fewer blacks breast feed than whites.

Same is true of the nutritional status in the early years of life. On average, malnutrition in the US is more prevalent in black children than in white children in the US.

So there are legitimate medical explanations for why it could be that it isn't cultural bias that causes the racial disparity in IQ test scores. It could be that on average, blacks aren't as intelligent as whites in the US because of environmental factors that affect their developing brains in utero and early in life. But no one is allowed to discuss that without being called a racist in this society.

The head start programs and other interventions can only help a person reach their biologically determined maximum intelligence. If their brain developed under sub-optimal environmental conditions in utero or throughout the early years of life, their maximum achievable intelligence will be reduced from what it would have been had their environmental conditions been optimal. Once that occurs, it cannot be fixed by education or otherwise.

Intelligenter than you!
 

Sorry. birmingham went for bush (I think). Grosse Pointe is Wayne County.

Intelligenter than you!
 

No Michigan counties are in the Top 10:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...-wyoming_x.htm

Intelligenter than you!
 

The idea that there is something called intelligence that can be measured in this way is a fallacy of reification.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

• The Republican party is now committed to chronic fiscal irresponsibility, the micro-managing of people's private lives, the subjugation of political to religious discourse, and the politicization of the Constitution. In so many ways, it is an insult to the word "conservative."

cite

Intelligenter than you!
 

I give up. My final answer is:

Chocolate babies?

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

Agreed, and I still won't vote Democratic. What does that say . . .

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

I think we already covered the IQ subject for the day.

Intelligenter than you!
 

I agree with you if what you are saying is that IQ tests aren't a great way to measure the full spectrum of human intelligence. They don't measure creative intelligence at all, which IMO is the highest form of intelligence.

But the tests do measure some forms of intelligence and there are racial disparaties in the test scores. I doubt that culture bias can account for all of the disparities. There is plenty of reasearch to back up the claim that environmental conditions in utero and early in life when a person's brain is developing have a profound effect on the person's ability to think. And there is plenty of epidemological and social research to back up the claim that on average, blacks in the US are subject to less optimal conditions during the years when their brains are developing. Everything from nutritional status of their mothers during pregnancy to prenatal care to breast feeding to malnutrition in early childhood to delivering the proper stimuli to an infant to help their brain to develop can affect the person's maximum achievable intelligence level. On average, in the US, the conditions udner which black children develop are less optimal than the conditions under which white children develop.

This is not a function of race, but rather a function of economics. Regardless, the result is a very real effect on the brain that reduces the maximum achievable intelligence.

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Clinton opened the reserves in 2000 and it had a short term effect of lower prices from $37 to $31 or so per, so it's likely to have a similar effect in 2004.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

good one

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Some things are more important than an election to a boy from West Texas.

It's also not a forgone conclusion that it would be to his advantage. The release of reserves would at provide partial but not complete relief, and it is almost universally true that no matter what people pay for gas, they think it is too much.

On the other hand, by keeping crude prices up, more dollars are going directly into hands that are much more likely to donate to Bush than Kerry, from oil executives to roughnecks.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

Yes, we did. The Reps have higher IQs on average than the Dems. This is a function of economics, but still, a truth.

On another topic, membership in organized religion is negatively correlated with IQ, too. The higher your IQ, the less likely you are to identify yourself as belonging to a religion.

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

I am happy the prices are high. We need to discourage people from using so much gasoline in this country.

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Given the volume of oil in the world market and the volume in the strategic reserve, I find those numbers utterly implausible. Which is to say, cite please.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

Since we're making up IQ facts, let me point out that literal people have notoriously low IQs.

Hunts vs. Heinz
 

So ever since JFK became the Dem nominee, I have stopped buying Heinz products. I now buy Hunt's ketchup, but I find that I don't like it as much as the Heinz. Hunt's tastes sweeter to me and Heinz has more of an acidic bite to it.

If anyone knows of a non-Heinz ketchup that is not as sweet as Hunt's please post the info.

TIA!!

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

IF you watched Fox news, you wouldn't need him to provide you with a cite.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

I get the economic correlation, and could see that maybe among those people who are drawn to one party or another, Republicans might do better on the IQ thing.

But doesn't your second statement, with which I completely agree and which I suspect is well documented, contradict your first? I mean, not everybody is a Republican because they are rich. Some are just wingnuts.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

What about literal socks?

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

It really is just a matter of an average. Truth be told, a more useful number to look at is the median, not the average. The standard deviation would of course be important, too.

The mode would be useful to look at, too.

Intelligenter than you!
 

"I can't believe I paid $20 for this piece of meat."

"Chateaubriand?"

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

Let's see. Across the bench we have:

Higher Taxes
Affirmative Action
Overly-Broad construction of the First Amendment
Overly-restrictive reading of the Second Amendment.

Which party was he talking about again?

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Taylor is unspecific about timing, so it's a little hard to tell how long that $31 price held. This suggests to me that this government action only works if it's unanticipated by the market, because there is some short term inelasticity of supply, but that this effect doesn't last very long at all. Which is to say it really wouldn't do much good, as Taylor seems to acknowledge.

Welcome to the Big Tent
 

The Rep party is not conservative in the Barry Goldwater sense of the word anymore. The Rep party on whole is right of center but not right wing.

There are right wing elements within the party, but it is a diverse party with a common goal - less taxation.

It is a big tent, you know.

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Your sources suck.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

So which one are you against, speech or religion? On second thought, nevermind.

I'll note the Dems are the party of peyote sacraments and medical marijuana, which should help single-issue voters on bedshitting to decide.

Andrew Sullivan, about to jump ship
 

I understand this contradicts your dogma (or is that your culture?), but someone is going to have to pay for the money Bush is spending. If not now, later with interest. He's for taxing our kids.

Bzzzt. Non-responsive. Besides, didn't Bush try to finesse the UM case in the Supreme Court?

Yeah, whatever. If you think the wingnuts should be teaching creation science in the public schools, you should move to the boondocks for the quality of education you'll find there.

Sullivan was talking about all the attempts to amend the Constitution. You see, Bush wants to enshrine discrimination against Sullivan and other gays in the Constitution. I know you personally don't like this, so I can understand why you would change the subject.

And sooner or later we'll have the Second Amendment debate on this board and I'll kick your ass. I like guns as much as the next guy, but you guys just try to ignore the "well-regulated militia" part.

Welcome to the Big Tent
 

The one thing that unites Republicans is the thought that we can spend money today and have our kids pay for it tomorrow. Sooner or later, the grownups will put a halt to these sorts of tax cuts without concomitant cuts in spending, and then the party will be over.

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

http://www.freep.com/news/politics/gas19_20040519.htm

• The reserve was most recently tapped in 2000, when the Clinton administration put 30 million barrels of oil onto the market. Oil prices dropped to $30 a barrel, down from $37 a barrel, but rebounded within days to $36 per barrel.

Welcome to the Big Tent
 

Cutting taxes improves the economy which leads to a larger tax base which leads to higher revenues.

For the record, though, I don't have kids and never will. In fact, I hate kids and laugh at the idea that your kids will be paying for my benefits. Muaahahahaha!

No Release of Oil Reserves
 

Do you guys think prices at the pump would fall in this situation? Did it happen in 2000? If not, consumers aren't seeing any benefit, and middlemen are enriched. Retail gas prices are slow to drop.

Bravo Loyal Subjects!!!!
 

I would like to commend those who participated in the discussion on the PB today. Job well done.

That is all. You are dismissed.