The AP reports:
First lady Michelle Obama set out Monday on a listening tour through the federal bureaucracy, stopping first at the Department of Education to thank employees for their service and rally them for the tough work ahead.
"So many of you have been here struggling and pushing for decades and Barack and I want to say 'thank you' for what you've done and 'thank you' for what you will continue to do," she told 350 employees who filled a department auditorium to capacity. ...
In thanking the workers, she told them: "I am a product of your work."
I reported on her actual unhappy educational experience for VDARE.com a year ago.
She was educated at the top public high school in Chicago, Whitney Young, which only accepted the highest scoring applicants on the entrance exam—within each race. Time reported in 1975:
"… the $30 million Whitney M. Young Jr. High School will open as a magnet in the fall with—among other things—an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a special center for the performing arts and a separate curriculum for medical studies. Whitney Young also has a strict admissions quota: 40% white, 40% black, 10% Latin, 5% other minorities and 5% at the discretion of the principal."
Michelle was overshadowed by her smart and athletic older brother Craig Robinson, who is now the head basketball coach at Brown University of the Ivy League [now coach of Oregon St.]. Newsweek's cover story recounts:
"For Michelle, Craig's easy success was intimidating. 'She was disappointed in herself,' her mother tells NEWSWEEK. 'She used to have a little bit of trouble with tests …'"
Her poor performance on tests remains a sore point with Michelle, who brings it up in odd contexts, such as when discussing her husband's standing in the polls last November:
"You know, [I've] always been told by somebody that I’m not ready, that I can’t do something, my scores weren’t high enough."
Newsweek describes her career at Whitney Young:
"… but she was not at the top of her class. She didn't get the attention of the school's college counselors, who helped the brightest students find spots at prestigious universities. … Some of her teachers told her she didn't have the grades or test scores to make it to the Ivies. But she applied to Princeton and was accepted."
It just got worse from there.A reader notes:
Instead of lecturing (and patronizing) these people, why doesn't Mrs Obama demonstrate her commitment to the cause by sending her own daughters to a state school?
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Posts
65 comments:
Thanks for bringing this up again, Steve. It should be shoved in the face of all those who are so quick to insist that Michelle Obama is a "very intelligent" woman. I'm sorry, but very intelligent people don't make it to twenty-one (or fourteen) years of age thinking that "thank you" is hyphenated.
"Thanks for bringing this up again, Steve. It should be shoved in the face of all those who are so quick to insist that Michelle Obama is a "very intelligent" woman. I'm sorry, but very intelligent people don't make it to twenty-one (or fourteen) years of age thinking that "thank you" is hyphenated."
Actually Green Mamba, it should be 'all OF those'. A conjunction is necessary between an adjective and a noun in this case.
Craig is now the coach at Oregon State.
I believe Craig Robinson is now the coach at Oregon State. He is definitely no longer at Brown.
Oh come on Steve, Barack Obama is a public official and has signed up for any criticism that comes his way. His wife is not a public official and picking her apart only diminishes any legitimate criticism you make of the president.
Craig Robinson has since moved to Oregon State.
Link here.
As usual your post overflows with delicious non-PC titbits.
"stopping first at the Department of Education to thank employees for their service"
to say thank you for abusing the teachers union to put O in office.
"which only accepted the highest scoring applicants on the entrance exam—within each race"
funny how liberals have no sweat applying Apartheid (which is exactly what this is) when it suits them.
"But she applied to Princeton and was accepted."
Who wouldha thunk! Princeton never turns down a promising AA candidate.
Craig Robinson has been coaching somewhere in Oregon, he is no longer at Brown.
Actually Craig Robinson is now the head basketball coach at Oregon State.
Steve,
The first brother in law is now coaching at Oregon State University.
Poor spelling and punctuation are sometimes a sign of stupidity, but not always.
I had a professor in grad school who could not spell worth a damn. I once saw him write "scool" for "school" in a lecture. He is in the National Academy of Sciences, though, and most deservedly.
With Michelle, the spelling and grammar don't clash at all with the rest of the picture.
Is it just me or is she acting as though someone elected her?
...to thank employees for their service and rally them for the tough work ahead.
Is the vacation really over?
And yet Palin, despite all evidence to the contrary, and her (literally) retarded brood are all brilliant wonder people who should be given every benefit of doubt.
I love the smell of hypocrisy.
The actual motto of government workers is:
"Hey, I don't work here - I'm just an employee."
Her brother is the coach at Oregon State now. He (at 6"6) was very visible at the inaugural, wearing a black and orange OSU scarf which the elitist media assumed was a Princeton scarf.
A president with daddy issues and a first lady absolutely seething with resentment over her patronized status. Gonna be a long four years.
--Senor Doug
there's something so funny about Michelle complaining that someone was telling her that her scores weren't high enough. I guess the teacher shouldn't have said anything... just pointed to the test and shugged her shoulders.
"Oh come on Steve, Barack Obama is a public official and has signed up for any criticism that comes his way. His wife is not a public official and picking her apart only diminishes any legitimate criticism you make of the president."
Says who?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090203/pl_politico/18329
Lie down with dogs...
Truth:
"Actually Green Mamba, it should be 'all OF those'. A conjunction is necessary between an adjective and a noun in this case."
I like you, Truth, but even a cool paleo-libertarian black iSteve reader can't escape Hartman's Law.
1. "All those" is fine in Green Mamba's sentence. I don't have a grammar book with me, but the construction is good enough for the King James Bible and the New American Standard Version.
2. The "of" in that sentence (which would also be okay) would perform the role of a preposition, not conjunction.
3. With the "of" in place, the "all" would be a pronoun, not adjective. "Those" is likewise a pronoun in that sentence.
Now the rest of you can point out my mistakes.
Michelle Obama is saying that workers on the government payroll helped get her husband elected? Did she report this to federal prosecutors?
Also sprach Diversity Czarina.
Mme Obama must be quietly boiling inside. Thanks to the media, world knows Michelle wasn't exactly an overachiever during her AA University Indoctrination days.
On top of this,lack of...ahem, superior mental faculties indicates she would become just another Progressive paper pusher gaming the system but...but,... thanks to old fashioned institution of heterosexual marriage she gets to play Big League ball.
Hell hath no fury....
I expect to see her taking more proactive role.
Instead of lecturing (and patronizing) these people, why doesn't Mrs Obama demonstrate her commitment to the cause by sending her own daughters to a state school?
Anonymous said...
And yet Palin, despite all evidence to the contrary, and her (literally) retarded brood are all brilliant wonder people who should be given every benefit of doubt.
I love the smell of hypocrisy.
Let's help you out a little. What Steve actually wrote about Palin (11/19) was:
"I would assume that Sarah Palin is about as smart as her erstwhile opponent, Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, a man who has gone through life with a giant chip on his shoulder about his IQ. Whether that's smart enough to be President, I'll leave up to you."
In short, unremarkable -- just the opposite of what you claimed.
Now, if Palin had been accepted at Princeton instead of the University of Idaho, you might have a point.
"(literally) retarded brood"
Really? Literally?
Have you got a cite for that? Special Ed documents, IEPs, IQ tests administered by a qualified school psychologist?
No?
Maybe you don't mean "literally" literally.
Maybe you're one of those low IQ people who say "literally" when they mean, literally, "figuratively."
Gee, I love it when stuck-up liberals display their retardedness (figuratively speaking) while claiming conservatives are stupid.
Takes a lot of guts to risk applying to the school at which one's brother is a star athlete. The marchers in Selma had it easy compared to that.
There were also a lot of people (mostly my sisters) who told me I wasn't qualified to work in my family's business but I overcame too and today i'm a fool partner.
Diversity is our strength!
Hail Victory!
Hail Obamadolf!
Tests really don't mean all that much -- at least not in contemporary American society.
I never had a problem on tests, but I sure got punished by teachers who didn't like my attitude! Several of my friends tested on the far right end as well, and what do they do today? One's a copy editor, another is a folk musician, and another a half-blind misanthrope who subsists on janitorial jobs. Of course, there's one who is a very successful attorney, but his is a miserable existence if you ask me.
Michelle's got the "right stuff," and it doesn't have a damned thing to do with her ability to test, so maybe the woman is right.
I knew a very attractive and intelligent woman in Beijing who was also very bitter about her trajectory. She knew Zhang Yimou personally, and was very pissed off at Gong Li, who she considered a simpleton who slept her way to the top. This woman told me that there are plenty of intelligent people in China, and it means little. I am starting to understand what she was getting at. Intelligence is kind of a common, contemptible thing. Definitely more so than the ability to slam-dunk a basketball or hit the right note.
"And yet Palin, despite all evidence to the contrary, and her (literally) retarded brood are all brilliant wonder people who should be given every benefit of doubt.
I love the smell of hypocrisy."
Oops, there's no hypocrisy there at all. Haha, epic fail.
Everyone point at the guy who doesn't know what "literally" means!
"Really? Literally?
Have you got a cite for that? Special Ed documents, IEPs, IQ tests administered by a qualified school psychologist?
No?
Maybe you don't mean "literally" literally.
Maybe you're one of those low IQ people who say "literally" when they mean, literally, "figuratively."
Gee, I love it when stuck-up liberals display their retardedness (figuratively speaking) while claiming conservatives are stupid."
One of Palin's children "literally" has Down's Syndrom. You lose.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/382560.html
Considering that at least one of Palin's children has Downs, I think that qualifies as "literally" retarded, not figuratively.
So what kind of Secretary of State do you think Michelle Obama will make?
(At least she didn't repeatedly fail the bar exam like the current Secreatrey of State).
So, one of Palin's children is retarded.
Our hypocritical liberal friend wrote children (plural).
I'm not aware that any of the other children are retarded.
TomV, I think your mistake is thinking Truth is cool or libertarian. He strikes me as a run-of-the-mill SPLC-style guiltmongering leftist. Unless I've got the wrong Truth. I mean ... grammar pounce because someone criticized Mrs. God? Is that something paleo-libertarians are likely to do?
It'll be fun to hear him respond about affirmative action doesn't hurt white people, or that mass quantities of black-on-white rapes don't matter, or whatever. Tell me, does my race mean I don't have a right to my opinion? And how does your answer distinguish you from a gender feminist, who would say my sex means I don't have a right to my opinion?
Come on, I want the Truth!
Or rather, a good laugh.
- white male who will sure be quiet real soon if you just apply your blame & shame tactics a little more
"One of Palin's children "literally" has Down's Syndrom. You lose."
No, squidgems, I don't. Our stuck-up liberal said "(literally) retarded brood." The literal meaning of "brood" is children, plural.
Only ONE child in the Palin family has Down Syndrome.
There is no evidence her other children are retarded.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brood
brood
3 entries found.
1brood (noun)
2brood (adjective)
3brood (verb)
Main Entry: 1brood
Pronunciation: \ˈbrüd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English brōd; akin to Middle High German bruot brood and perhaps to Old English beorma yeast — more at barm
Date: before 12th century
3: the children of a family
Yes, M.O. had an advantage (two actually as a legacy), but so what? Guess what, we all have advantages, be it blonde hair, white skin, black skin, height, dogged determination, a great ass, intellect, a witty repartee, good luck, physical toughness...whatever.
Basically gentelmen, what it all comes down to is that there are two types of people in this world, and it's not black and white:
There are the winners that use their god-given advantages to their benefit to create the life they desire, and the cowardly pantywastes, who spend their entire lives on blogs whining about the winners and how they took advantage of their gifts.
LL Cool J had a rap back in the 80's I remember and it's a little fuzzy now, but the great line went something like this:
"When you die, someone will ask you what you did with your life;
You'll say I hated LL and I carried a big knife."
There are the winners that use their god-given advantages to their benefit to create the life they desire, and the cowardly pantywastes, who spend their entire lives on blogs whining about the winners and how they took advantage of their gifts."
Truth, that is funny.
Please consider that many black politicians in America make their bones by agitating against more successful ethnicities (i.e. the other 87% of America).
Truth said: "Actually Green Mamba, it should be 'all OF those'. A conjunction is necessary between an adjective and a noun in this case."
The only social habit more annoying than grammar correction is incorrect grammar correction.
Truth, your screen name is hilarious.
"Considering that at least one of Palin's children has Downs, I think that qualifies as "literally" retarded, not figuratively."
Downs is not a function of being born into a household of dimwits. It can occur in any family. In our church there are Down's sufferers from otherwise intelligent families.
To paraphrase liberals: using the Downs syndrome of Palin's kid as an excuse to associate her with low IQ is contemptible.
TomV
What a delight it is to read that post and to see fine distinctions made in the name of truth and accuracy. Better even for being done in face of appeals to emotion or attempts to humiliate - isn't that why we are all here?
Your mistake:. With the "of" in place, the "all" would be a pronoun, not adjective.
"Oops, there's no hypocrisy there at all. Haha, epic fail."
The hyprocrisy is that Steve uses any current events story about Michelle Obama as an excuse to snear about her test score insecurity, but he will bend over backwards to concoct a scenario where Palin COULD still be smart. (Palin merely lacked the education, after all Margret Thatcher had to go through a period of education before she made head way in politics. And their both women, so it's completely comparable! What, it's not like because Thatcher has degrees in the natural sciences from Oxford and Palin took five years to get through a joke major like journalism that we should expect one to be less educable than the other. Next you'll be telling me intelligence is inherited!)
Actually Green Mamba, it should be 'all OF those'. A conjunction is necessary between an adjective and a noun in this case.
Is your point that in terms of IQ:
You>Green Mamba>Michelle Obama?
Cause I could buy that.
Poor spelling and punctuation are sometimes a sign of stupidity, but not always.
Are the vast majority of computer science types this variety of "stupid"? Because I see it all the time, programmers who can't or won't spell for shyte.
"politics attracts idiots",
The diff between Palin and MO is that the former never acted like she was smart. She was always the ordinary small-town chick getting things done the practical way. The latter and her hubby are trying to tell us that they are much smarter than we assume on the basis of being AA recipients. They may be smart but we have justified scepsis because of the AA slant.
Steve was doing a rough guesstimate of Palin's intelligence precisely because she made no deal of it whereas many attacked her for it. With MO it's the opposite way around, another AA case in the argumentation if you will. I think all this was pretty clear from Steve's writings.
"...and the cowardly pantywastes..."
Pantywaist.
Please consult your dictionary before attempting to correct others. Thanks.
Attracted-to-politics Idiot:
Your hypocrisy is, while hrrumphing with indignation when your Beloved, Mrs. Anointed One, is blasphemied, and I would venture to guess, draw yourself up to your full height, look down your nose and radiate disapproval at or shout down anyone who would mutter a racial slur, you toss around slurs like "retarded."
Really, you are wasting your efforts. This is not Democratic Underground. Here at isteve you'll not gain brownie points for toeing the politically correct line.
We bestow approval on clear reasoning.
TomV:
Is a book written in 1604 that makes liberal use of the word "thee" really the definitive guide on propper English?
I mean, think about it, the King James Bible also talks about people turning into pillars of salt. Does that make it the definitive guide on biology?
" I mean ... grammar pounce because someone criticized Mrs. God?"
I didn't "grammar pounce"; more accurately, I corrected the grammar of someone snarkily used poor grammar to indicate a lack of intellect in someone else.
Glass houses?
As far as the rest of your post, Grasshopper, all you must do is ask:
"It'll be fun to hear him respond about affirmative action doesn't hurt white people,
This is not much of a question, but I'll do my best to respond quickly and succinctly. Forty years ago when A.A began, white people were 80% of the population and owned 99% of everything; now white people are 67% of the population and own 95% of everything. Apparently it hasn't hurt white people much.
The question that I believe you were asking in a roundabout way is "why don't I live like one of those white people I've always looked up to?" It could be IQ, attitude or simply that you spend all of your time whining about how in forty years, white people have gone from 1% US ownership to 2%. Ultimately, only you can answer that question.
"mass quantities of black-on-white rapes don't matter,"
Most white women, are, were, and always have been raped by white men. I think each and every single rape matters. I think rape is a terrible thing, whether it be the thousands of black on white rapes that happen today, or the thousands of white on black rapes that happened a century ago (and made the general complection of black Americans so much lighter than that of Africans)..Take heart, maybe in 50 years ago it will be "your" turn again.
Tell me, does my race mean I don't have a right to my opinion?
"why would it"
And how does your answer distinguish you from a gender feminist, who would say my sex means I don't have a right to my opinion?"
I don't really understand the question, but I believe you are entitiled to your opinion, and I also believe I am entitled to my opinion on your opinion.
"- white male who will sure be quiet real soon if you just apply your blame & shame tactics a little more"
Please go back into the archives and point out instances where I've used "blame & shame" tactics.
"Please consider that many black politicians in America make their bones by agitating against more successful ethnicities (i.e. the other 87% of America)."
I hav considered that, and in my humble opinion, they're losers; just like the majority of you.
Amendment to my last post:
There is always a lot of anti Jackson/Sharpton sentiment on this website. I don't think much of either reverend (or practically anyone with "reverend" in his title for that matter) but you want to know the difference between Al, Jesse and you. Al and Jesse are DOING SOMETHING for "their people" whereas all you people do is whine about what they are doing for "their people" There is nothing stopping any of you from being a loud vocal advocate for "white people's rights." Check that, there is something stopping you, you have testicles the size of yellow raisins!
You have decided to spend your lives whining and gossiping like a bunch of 9th grade cheerleaders whereas the reverends are out on the front lines advocating what they believe. Even as misguided and silly as it may be.
Understand one thing, you hatred for Jesse and Al is totally one-sided; you hate them they don't give a fuck about you or even know who you are.
Is your point that in terms of IQ:
You>Green Mamba>Michelle Obama?
Cause I could buy that.
My IQ is around 140 so that's not a safe bet, Svigor.
Truth, what makes you assume that the commenters on this site have no lives offline? Doesn't the same accusation apply to you?
"Is your point that in terms of IQ:
You>Green Mamba>Michelle Obama?"
I don't know either of them so I can't make a logical judgement. I consider myself somewhat smarter than average but no genius.
"Doesn't the same accusation apply to you"
I don't spend my life childishly discrediting people who are more successful than I.
Steve talks as if Michelle Obama had no reason to be 'reminded of her blackness' other than her own personal shortcomings.
Uhm...Michelle's first roommate at the Ivies refused to room with her because she was black.
That's an interesting way to start college life.
www.mediatakeout.com/2009/29892-change_michelle_obamas_racist_college_roommate_speaks_out_in_support_of_the_obamas_.html
@truth:
A quote from LL Cool J? Some black kid who wears his underwear on the outside, no shirt, and a dorky 1950's golf hat? (Google: "ll cool j")
Thank you Jesus for letting me reach adulthood before MTV stunted the mental and emotional development of a nation.
My IQ is around 140 so that's not a safe bet, Svigor.
My point had to do with MO, you were just cannon fodder. :)
99% of grammar arguments are based on the propositions that:
1. Prescriptionist grammatical theories developed for other languages many centuries ago can be applied to English (see "split infinitive")
2. These theories were even correct at the time
3. I am really bored
"All those" is accepted by convention, and has been for a long time. "All of those" is unnecessary but equally fine. But in either case, I would defend "Truth"'s description of "all" as adjective and "those" as noun in either situation; some grammar nerd would say that in the sentence: "It should be shoved in the face of all of those", "all" is the noun because a preposition is like a magical little fairy bubble which spirits away the following phrase from the main clause, so of course "those" can't be the object of the main clause because it's in the magical bubble.
But if we are untainted by such superstition, it is obvious that in this case, throwing in "of" between "all those" does not change the semantic function of either "all" or "those". And to insist that we should categorize a part of a sentence based not on its real function, but on some theoretical structure, is foolish.
Personally, I don't know what to make of green mamba's original, grammatically-controversial comment because no one has intimated to ME, ever, that Michelle Obama is a very intelligent woman. I must hang out with a better crowd.
Then again, I HAVE noticed a bizarre propaganda campaign to convince me that Michelle Obama is GOOD-LOOKING. Steve himself seemed to echo these people, when he claimed (honestly I have no doubt) to find her "handsome", but of course I am thinking mostly of all these puff pieces in the news. I admit my tastes may be strange; I went to a mostly-black high school, and after seeing hundreds of black girls looking as good as they would ever manage to look, I thought exactly ONE of them was both more than half black, and even remotely good-looking (and I looked at them all - you remember being a teenager right? Btw I thought the best-looking girls in the school were mostly half-white, half-black, though this group was outnumbered by both whites and Hmong).
Then again, maybe most white guys would agree with me re: american black women (african black women are of course more heterogenous). Or maybe most of us never see enough of them to know - if not, well, think of Michelle Obama or Oprah. As the high end.
It's funny on this site, we have mused over roughly 47 posts about M.O.'s intelligence and another 16 over her level of attractiveness. Invariably, the intellect posts, for some reason I have yet to understand, come down to a comparison between her's, and a woman who ran for vice president. The attractiveness posts seem even stranger though. People jump all over themselves to talk about how ugly M.O is. To me, she strikes me as your average mid forties mother of two; not particularly attractive or unattractive and roughly on the level of the people she should be compared to:
Laura Bush, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Dukaukis wife, Rosalind Carter, etc. Look up their pictures and you will see what a group of ravishing beauties ex presidential wives tend to be (that's sarcasm in case you don't recognize it.)
It seems though that there is some rush to compare M.O to the Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson white woman ideal, that none of you could never in you lives get close enough to, to even breath on.
Why is that?
Laura Bush is very attractive. I got this from a black librarian who met with her during a meet-greet session. The black lady reported back that she was surprised how much better Laura looked in person and that she was quite pretty. Her daughters, much as I dislike them, were v. pretty and that would be due to Laura more than Mr.Bush.
I don't think it is the degree of beauty that MO has or doesn't have. Just don't compare her to Jackie during her WH years. That's just too much to expect anyone with eyes to bear.
In any case, it is not the strictly physical appearance of MO that people here are likely to find repellant. It is what they know about her, and what comes out from inside, so to speak. White race realists, or just more intuitive and insightful whites,know black res entment and hate when they see it. We have to. It's become a survival necessity.
"I am starting to understand what she was getting at. Intelligence is kind of a common, contemptible thing. "
Bill. I'm surprised at you. You hang out quite a bit here,yes? Statistics and all that--your 3 examples don't mean a damn thing. You alone don't mean a damn thing. Fact is, far right means better life outcome ON THE AVERAGE STUPID.
Now me,I'm in the upper 1% and it hasn't helped me financially. In fact, I've lost more jobs than most average sorts. However, that doesn't change the fact that statistically, high IQ people rule.
Unless you throw in world-class affirmative action and a white-run media that puts billions up your ass.
High IQ people invent the world; high average/average people keep it going. Low IQ people just live in it.
btw, the lower the iq, the more you don't know what it is you don't know. And that does help in getting elected to very high political office. Really. Local politics are much more demanding of intellect.
Why is that?
"Waah, Waah, why's everyone making fun of Michelle? Waah, Waah..."
C'mon man! Aren't you too busy winning to whine this much?
Basically gentelmen [sic], what it all comes down to is that there are two types of people in this world, and it's not black and white:
There are the winners that use their god-given advantages to their benefit to create the life they desire, and the cowardly pantywastes,
Al Capone must be one of your heroes. He used his advantages to create the life he desired...until some jealous folks put a stop to him.
None of the white First Ladies was hailed as a genius, or had her intelligence so pointedly remarked upon.
It's true Jackie O. was hailed as a fashion horse, and noises are made in regard to all FLs about how "socially minded" they are as they putter with their literacy committees etc.
(They tried to paint Hillary as a genius, but that sort of fizzled in the wake of her health care plan failure.)
MO, by contrast, is being played up as "an intelligent black woman." (As in: "She's an intelligent black.") Her husband even more so - though with better reason. She is also a "good-looking black."
Conservative: I oppose Obama's policies.
Liberal: But he's an intelligent black. And Michelle is SO good-looking, and intelligent too!
Conservative: I harbor doubts.
Liberal: You're jealous, and besides, I feel good about myself now that I've expressed those positive opinions of our new, black overlords.
Why do some some FLs get more flack than others, even though none is elected? Because some FLs behave as though they were elected. That's effrontery. Hillary with her Plans, Eleanor with her earlier Plans, MO as the Second Coming of Jackie O who is brilliant and proved it by being elected...er, by being married to someone who was elected president. (If you're so smart, why aren't YOU married to the most powerful man on earth, hm?)
Btw, etymology works on venerable precedent. (See the Oxford English Dictionary, Unabridged.) So the KJV Bible, while not definitive, is an excellent reference to consult when trying to understand acceptable English usage. (One should certainly follow it up with more recent references.)
Bill. I'm surprised at you. You hang out quite a bit here,yes? Statistics and all that--your 3 examples don't mean a damn thing. You alone don't mean a damn thing. Fact is, far right means better life outcome ON THE AVERAGE STUPID.
Better on the average for society perhaps, but my theory is that high IQ doesn't give all that much of an advantage to an individual except in cases of serious chaos or disaster. Ambition, health (both mental and physical), good looks and luck are more important to success.
Now me,I'm in the upper 1% and it hasn't helped me financially. In fact, I've lost more jobs than most average sorts.
I think people tend to overestimate average sorts.
However, that doesn't change the fact that statistically, high IQ people rule.
Maybe somewhat high IQ people rule, but those in the top 1% are overwhelmingly ruled and used to others' advantage.
Unless you throw in world-class affirmative action and a white-run media that puts billions up your ass.
Sounds like the world we live in.
High IQ people invent the world; high average/average people keep it going. Low IQ people just live in it.
And boy do they live!
btw, the lower the iq, the more you don't know what it is you don't know. And that does help in getting elected to very high political office. Really. Local politics are much more demanding of intellect.
Perhaps, but I am really sick of dealing with attorneys, and they certainly seem to have a stranglehold on politics no matter where you look.
Anyway, don't take what I wrote too literally. I've been feeling quite cynical lately.
"'There are the winners that use their god-given advantages to their benefit to create the life they desire, and the cowardly pantywastes,'
Al Capone must be one of your heroes. He used his advantages to create the life he desired...until some jealous folks put a stop to him."
Perhaps this is not so far from the mark.
I believe Truth's complaint is largely summed up in the expression "don't hate" - my knowledge is not au courant, but a decade ago anyway, "to hate" had an idiomatic usage in the black community. It was an intransitive verb meaning, "to denigrate one's social betters, being motivated by base envy." The "social better" in question was usually the speaker, of course, but not always.
Truth is basically calling Jesse and Al and Obama's critics "haters" or "player-haters" (though more by analogy than in the strictest sense; see below). And this very charge is (or was) a popular defense, or rather counter-attack, against blacks who disparage some prominent black man on account of his criminal or otherwise objectionable behaviour. So defending Al Capone would indeed be a typical use of Truth's rhetorical tactic - except that Al is both white and dead. Whites, as I understand it, are neither "player-haters" nor "players", though whites display many hater-like characteristics (and some few, in their fumbling white-boy way, even resemble "players" to some degree). In my researches I was unable to satisfactorily define "player", but I believe wealth and sexual prowess are involved.
On the subject of Michelle Obama:
"It seems though that there is some rush to compare M.O to the Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson white woman ideal, that none of you could never in you lives get close enough to, to even breath on."
In all humility, I have breathed on plenty of women of equal or greater beauty. It is a strange myth of our culture, that there is some sort of elite "super-beauty" significantly in excess of what we see in the prettiest decile or so of thin, under-30 women. Possibly this is a genetically or culturally based atavism, harkening back to societies with smaller, less well-nourished populations where a very small number of women would indeed be "the most beautiful". Possibly it is an artifact of propaganda; possibly a mixture of these. I cannot, however, understand how it survives in people who have
a) attended a large high school or college, or worked in a large office setting, and
b) looked around
That said, it is nonetheless unfair to compare MO even to the pretty girl I see at work every day; I wouldn't dream of doing it, except that other people are in "some rush to compare M.O. to the Cindy Crawford", and some of us are saying "please, please stop".
Congratulations my friend, that was the most well-written, prosaic, eloquent elucidation of a simpleton viewpoint I have ever read.
"I think people tend to overestimate average sorts."
No. At least I don't think so, if I understand your meaning. Not I. I know who they are. Intelligence is one thing I have had a nose for from my days in nursery school. They are the ones who think about things from different angles and are curious and dying to know more.
You just know it when you see it. OF COURSE it has to be allied with other, je ne sais quoi, qualities. But damn, it HAS to be there.
"Uhm...Michelle's first roommate at the Ivies refused to room with her because she was black."
I wonder if that's even true. Even if someone did fee that way, it may have been due more to Michelle's personality and in-your-face qualities than just her race. For god's sake, look at that high school picture.
In any case, I've had far worse things done to me by blacks in my teens and 20s. Nightmare stuff. And it came as a shock because I was such an earnest, but shy, liberal/new ager. I wised up pretty quick.
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