tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post1464852297872535590..comments2024-03-29T05:14:33.223-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Logic and LuckUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29634279136764939832009-06-17T18:25:44.087-07:002009-06-17T18:25:44.087-07:00I don't what's motivated Mr. "Tillman...I don't what's motivated Mr. "Tillman," of all people, to step forward as Mrs. Obama's defender, especially since I was sort of defending her to begin with, but here is an answer to him: <br /><br />http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/02/michelle-obamas-thesis-unblockaded.htmlJames Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54403305757305083932009-06-15T18:13:23.926-07:002009-06-15T18:13:23.926-07:00"Thank-you" wasn't always used as a ...<i>"Thank-you" wasn't always used as a noun. It was very odd and was much commented on here at the time.</i><br /><br />How in the world would you work "thank you" into a college thesis?ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56475051664765658592009-06-14T18:31:38.061-07:002009-06-14T18:31:38.061-07:00Again, another exhibit of Lucius' failure to u...<i>Again, another exhibit of Lucius' failure to use his microscope of scrutiny evenly.</i> <br /><br />In light of the intense grammar checking that is being used to discredit Sotomayor's speeches and writings, I feel obligated to admit to this incomplete sentence of mine. The sentence should have been, "Again, <b>the above excerpt is</b> another exhibit...."<br /><br />By the way, did any of you parse the past works of Alito and Roberts for grammatical mistakes?DAJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86125124442334567372009-06-14T18:17:54.350-07:002009-06-14T18:17:54.350-07:00This is not the right time or place to be talking ...This is not the right time or place to be talking Sarah Palin, but trust me, she is as smart as a whip.<br /><br />You should have seen her understated sarcasm [as a 20-something-ish sportsbabe] in the old Anchorage television tapes [before the commies who owned the station demanded that the tapes be taken off the web] - the chick is a natural.<br /><br />PS: And I am getting sick and tired of the astroturfing of Sarah all over the web by you Romney people [and all the rest of you RINO commies] - I see it almost everywhere I go.<br /><br />It makes me so dadgum angry I could NEVER pull the lever for Romney.Lucius Vorenusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52557811729265643482009-06-14T13:58:26.788-07:002009-06-14T13:58:26.788-07:00PPS: Would you guys PLEASE stop dissing Sarah Pali...<i>PPS: Would you guys PLEASE stop dissing Sarah Palin?<br /><br />She ad-libbed her entire RNC nominating speech from memory after her teleprompter went down.</i><br /><br />Again, another exhibit of Lucius' failure to use his microscope of scrutiny evenly. With Obama and Sotomayor, any evidence that counters their perceived intelligence is indisputably damning (no publication as Law Review editor, mysterious parallels in diction and syntax between <i>Dreams from My Father</i> and <i>Fugitive</i>, senior thesis on an obscure Hispanic, etc.), whereas all supporting evidence is cavalierly dismissed (magna at HLS with blind grading, summa at Princeton, Law Review membership, etc.). <br /><br />He applies the converse with a fertile, white conservative like Sarah Palin (despite multiple transfers among mediocre colleges and increasingly softer majors, her claim to high intelligence is undeniable as per Lucius).<br /> <br />The glaring bias is unfortunate. It distracts from the otherwise insightful analysis in many of his posts.DAJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-10106706229096656832009-06-14T13:36:00.237-07:002009-06-14T13:36:00.237-07:00I don't know if I'm the only one to point ...I don't know if I'm the only one to point this out, but if Sotomayor is confirmed to the High Court then it will have <b>six</b> Catholic justices, and two Jewish ones. For all of the effort that Evangelicals have made as the foot soldiers of the party the get <b>no</b> representation on the highest body in one of our three branches of government. <br /><br />If you don't believe me go the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States#Current_membership" rel="nofollow">wiki page</a> for the Supreme Court and click on each judge's names to see his religion. <br /><br />Right now the court breaks down as 5 Catholics (including Clarence Thomas), two Protestants, and two Jews. With one of the Protestants retiring right now, potentially to be replaced by Sotomayor. <br /><br />SOme may say that conservative Protestants don't have the brain power to serve on the court, but CP's run the military, the oil industry and the fastest growing region of the country: Dixie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56130637099071263002009-06-13T22:18:05.069-07:002009-06-13T22:18:05.069-07:00Consider the precursor elements of the political j...Consider the precursor elements of the political justification for the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor:<br /><br />1. The civil rights agenda and in particular racial preferences extend to people who are not descended from slaves brought to America;<br /><br />2. The civil rights agenda includes explicit preferences for women, even though they were not shipped over as a group in chains to America<br /><br />3. These people include "Hispanics"<br /><br />4. Included in the definition of Hispanics are people from Puerto Rico, therefore "pan-Hispanicism" is in effect, and Mexican-Americans, for example, are expected to accept Sotomayor as one of their own;<br /><br />5. Included with people from Puerto Rico are individuals who were born and raised in the United States (no 14th Amendment logic here!), whose parents happen to have been born in Puerto Rico<br /><br />The Republicans could object to any one of these assumptions and cut off the prevailing argument that opposition to Sotomayor's nomination is inconsistent with America's politics of racial reconciliation, but they haven't. If they don't, then the next nominee will be an Asian, or a homosexual, or a Middle Easterner, or what have you, and the liberal politics of this individual will go through unopposed because it will be impermissible to deny the nominee from yet another putatively unrepresented but deserving group.Steinernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48710986989364107632009-06-13T18:43:06.530-07:002009-06-13T18:43:06.530-07:00To those of you who believe that Sotomayor is even...To those of you who believe that Sotomayor is even [fully] literate to begin with: May I assume that you have yet to read <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTQyNDNiZDI1YmRkNTc5Yjc2ZThlY2RmN2MyNGIxZTA" rel="nofollow">Heather MacDonald's note</a> from the other day? Or e.g. <a href="http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/06/sotomayor-on-affirmative-action.html#c6237425191056150092" rel="nofollow">Ben Tillman's post on this board</a> from a couple of days ago?<br /><br />I mean, good grief, just a few weeks ago, <a href="http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=45d56e6f-f497-4b19-9c63-04e10199a085" rel="nofollow">the EDITED were screaming at the tops of their lungs</a> that she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the pack [I think they might be worried that she is susceptible to coming under Scalia's influence - at least to the extent that she is an ostensible Catholic].<br /><br />PS: For an analysis of Michelle LaVaughn Robinson's Princeton thesis, <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JC04Aa01.html" rel="nofollow">see Spengler</a>.<br /><br />PPS: Would you guys PLEASE stop dissing Sarah Palin?<br /><br />She ad-libbed her entire RNC nominating speech from memory after her teleprompter went down.<br /><br />Obama, by contrast, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=obama+teleprompter+site%3Ayoutube.com" rel="nofollow">can't tie his own shoelaces</a> without Axelrod [or Ayers] guiding him through it step by step.Lucius Vorenusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14443558875116142262009-06-13T18:07:39.936-07:002009-06-13T18:07:39.936-07:00You're touching on an interesting phenomenon o...You're touching on an interesting phenomenon of the Marxist push for forced equality: It generates mediocrity which then leads to the self-destruction of those institutions which were occupied by same Marxists. Good examples: Fall of the Soviet block, Zimbabwe, increasingly South Africa and AA US. This is even happening in the socialist party in Germany which is illogically self-destructing, just as the world financial crisis (acronym anybody?) should have saved it.headachenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9189238935883231242009-06-13T06:03:57.091-07:002009-06-13T06:03:57.091-07:00"Thank-you" wasn't always used as a ..."Thank-you" wasn't always used as a noun. It was very odd and was much commented on here at the time. <br /><br />Who is carrying water for anyone? All I'm saying is that there's a pretty big gap between "genius" and "moron," most people fall in that gap, and even affirmative action is unlikely to lift someone all the way to an A who really deserves an F (unless, as I said, one thinks all minority students receive summa cum laude, which is clearly false. Indeed, don't we often show the folly of affirmative action by noting how AA admits often have inferior grades? Those aren't all science or math majors.) <br /><br />If we actually knew what the test scores were, things would be a lot easier. Were they something like 1250, or were they more like 1050? If they were in the 800s or lower (unlikely, but I will apologize if they are), then words like "moron" can start being thrown around.<br /><br />Quite likely she is rather mediocre, as many Supreme Court justices of both sexes have been in the past (although yes, O'Connor did graduate third in her class at Stanford Law. Does that prove she's actually smart? Who knows? She was a bad justice, and that's what really matters.) <br /><br />Good to see Udolpho is still around, though.James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67780842347092725542009-06-12T21:44:26.229-07:002009-06-12T21:44:26.229-07:00Good grief. This woman claims her test scores are...Good grief. This woman claims her test scores aren't that hot because the tests were culturally biased. Go ahead and carry water for her, but it's clear she's a mediocrity on par with Ginsburg or O'Connor. (Cue effusive replies which mark O'Connor out as a genius of the court.)Udolpho.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12976984423336975944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-19091404085199703532009-06-12T21:02:30.927-07:002009-06-12T21:02:30.927-07:00I'm not sure how things were decades ago, but ...<i>I'm not sure how things were decades ago, but today a person that gets into Princeton and Yale law based on AA is still smart enough to go to a lower Ivy or a lower T14 school. An AA Yale admit might be equal to merit based Columbia- good enough for the Supreme Court.</i> <br /><br />Lunacy. An "AA Yale admit" (law school) has academic qualifications that would put him in the middle of the pack at Baylor or Texas Tech. And you're seriously underestimating Columbia.ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-24200624173795855442009-06-12T20:39:04.275-07:002009-06-12T20:39:04.275-07:00Affirmative action or not, the smartest Latina is ...<i>Affirmative action or not, the smartest Latina is still the smartest Latina. And there's no reason to believe that the smartest Latina cannot be fairly intelligent.</i> <br /><br />But there's no reason to believe she's the "smartest Latina." In fact, I know a grand total of one "Latina" from Puerto Rico, and that one "Latina" (who is a med student at Baylor) belies your claim. Even if you're limiting your claim to "Latina" judges or lawyers, how can you conclude she's the smartest?ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67751664987921448602009-06-12T20:33:12.304-07:002009-06-12T20:33:12.304-07:00From what I've seen of Michelle Obama's th...<i>From what I've seen of Michelle Obama's thesis (I admit I had neither the time nor the inclination to read the whole thing), there were two major grammatical problems with it: she had the strange idea that "thank you" should be hyphenated (a small point, but she did it over and over again)....</i> <br /><br />It should be hyphenated, when it's a noun.ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-8231363336354144432009-06-12T17:32:25.289-07:002009-06-12T17:32:25.289-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35290973374605897392009-06-12T16:59:43.125-07:002009-06-12T16:59:43.125-07:00Steve, I don't understand how this fits with y...<i>Steve, I don't understand how this fits with your racial theories. Sotomayor and many other Hispanics look Caucasian or near Caucasian.</i><br /><br />Those are some thick beer goggles you're wearing....ben tillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34921346824361431092009-06-12T15:06:47.031-07:002009-06-12T15:06:47.031-07:00I'm not sure how things were decades ago, but ...I'm not sure how things were decades ago, but today a person that gets into Princeton and Yale law based on AA is still smart enough to go to a lower Ivy or a lower T14 school. An AA Yale admit might be equal to merit based Columbia- good enough for the Supreme Court. This is no Miers here. It's unfortunate for people like Sotomayor who probably really could have become qualified for the Supreme Court based on hard work and merit and perhaps some general sympathy for the difficult circumstances of their upbringing (poverty is hard on anyone). People like Buchanan can always claim that people like Michelle Obama and Sotomayor don't deserve their place in society when realistically they could have achieved about as much even if they had slightly worse educational credentials.Deleted https://www.blogger.com/profile/04940731555820938750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23027778097150102102009-06-12T13:20:51.400-07:002009-06-12T13:20:51.400-07:00Stephen J. Gould back from the grave said:
"T...Stephen J. Gould back from the grave said:<br />"These facts you point out seems to go against the "race realist" position. If I'm not mistaken, the very white Serbians have an average IQ of 89, which is very similar to the IQ which African Americans now have. There are indeed large gaps in IQ within "partially inbred extended families.""<br /><br />Just like the original Gould, you're constructing a straw man. All that 'race realists' believe is that different biogeographical ancestral gene pools have somewhat differing frequencies of genes that influence traits like g or time preference. It really isn't about external appearance. It's about what selective pressures their ancestors faced re these traits and the fact that these traits are, to some degree, heritable so natural selection can act on them. There's no reason to believe that two similar looking European populations couldn't develop different average genetically influenced behavioral characteristics due to natural selection over the course of time and not diverge in appearance if appearance is not being selected for.<br /><br />For instance, if the advent of large, well organized civilizations created conditions where jobs in which success has a high g-elasticity (e.g., managerial, technical, financial, mercantile) had high pay-offs in resources and allowed successful practitioners (through higher reproduction rates and/or lower death rates) to leave a higher than average number of offspring (greater fitness), one would expect genes leading to higher g to become more common in the breeding population. (This is the basis of Cochran and Harpending's theory on how the elevated average level of g arose among the Ashkenazim and there's no reason it couldn't have occurred to some extent in other populations.) Also, if some cultural conditions like greater state stability meant that property was less likely to be stolen or confiscated, there would be potentially greater rewards to having a lower time preference and thereby being more predisposed to saving and lending for interest. Genes influencing this trait could also become more common in a population in a matter similar to theat proposed by Cochran and Harpending for intelligence (e.g., see Gregory Clarke's work). <br /><br />Now, perhaps the conditions that prevailed in Medieval and Early Modern Britain and Western and Central Europe were somewhat different than in the Balkans re the relative rewards of having high g or low time preference. Over centuries and millennia, don't you think this could lead to real differences between populations in these traits?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27281744637179234332009-06-12T12:22:27.093-07:002009-06-12T12:22:27.093-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85944974254588789262009-06-12T11:52:15.059-07:002009-06-12T11:52:15.059-07:00You don't graduate summa cum laude from Prince...<i> You don't graduate summa cum laude from Princeton by being a dummy. </i><br /><br />More precisely, you don't *usually* graduate summa from Princeton by being a dummy. <br /><br />But if you take classes where getting an A+ means reciting leftist agitprop rather than solving differential equations, it's not that hard. <br /><br />Sotomayor is a moron. Her videos, writings, and tests all point in one direction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18905256003917610812009-06-12T10:07:16.112-07:002009-06-12T10:07:16.112-07:00"'Looking white' doesn't make you..."'Looking white' doesn't make you smart. And Caucasians as a whole have a median IQ close to the global median, ca 90. <br /><br />*European* median IQ outside the Balkans though is 10 points higher, ca 100."<br /><br />According to how I read Steve's racial theory, if you have any relatively large group of white people (such as light-skinned Hispanics), you can expect that a decent percentage of them will be "smart" or be able to engage in cognitively demanding tasks like jurisprudence. Genes are really what matter. Culture and social structure have little influence on social mobility. <br /><br />It should also be noted light skinned Hispanics tend to have European, non-Balkan ancestry, e.g. from Iberia, Italy, Germany, etc.Stephen J. Gould back from the gravenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-36157037046482477802009-06-12T09:33:37.040-07:002009-06-12T09:33:37.040-07:00"No one wants to admit that frauds and parasi..."No one wants to admit that frauds and parasites like Sotomayor are really frauds and parasites. So, Sotomayor, Michelle O., et al, benefit from social promotions the whole time they are in "prestigious" institutions like Princeton."<br /><br />Look, I dislike Sotomayor's views and the motivations for nominating her as much as anyone. Don't compare her to Michelle Obama, though. She doesn't hate "White America" to nearly the extent Mme Obama does. She is definitely more intelligent than Obama's wife. She's probably more intelligent than Obama himself.<br /><br />No, she's not a genius, nor was she the best legal mind available, as liberal news outlets would have us believe. But she's not a "dunce" or a "moron" either. Affirmative action or not, the smartest Latina is still the smartest Latina. And there's no reason to believe that the smartest Latina cannot be fairly intelligent.<br /><br />Besides, if somehow Sotomayor fails the confirmation, the alternatives will be far worse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55245066201196344942009-06-12T08:45:08.789-07:002009-06-12T08:45:08.789-07:00"in the next eight years watch obama replace ..."in the next eight years watch obama replace all the white post-modern liberals on scotus with minorities who are openly anti-white leftists.."<br /><br />Not necessarily a bad outocme. After all, he's going to nominate liberal judges regardless. Better minorities than white sellouts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70290909337072923182009-06-12T07:29:20.523-07:002009-06-12T07:29:20.523-07:00When I said she was qualified on paper, I was refe...When I said she was qualified on paper, I was referring to her years on the Appeals Court (as opposed to Harriet Miers who had only a few years as Bush's personal lawyer to recommend her). I have no idea what Miers's grades or test scores were; they might have been good for all I know. <br /><br />I am not an apologist for Sotomayor and would probably not vote for her if I were a Senator, but these hyperbolic arguments against her make the opposition look foolish. We've moved from "summa cum laude doesn't prove she's smart" (which I agree is true; sometimes people manage to glide through on hard work and the good luck/sly planning to take easy courses) to "she was a moron who probably really deserved to flunk" (for which there is no evidence whatsoever; do you think all Hispanics graduate summa cum laude?). <br /><br />From what I've seen of Michelle Obama's thesis (I admit I had neither the time nor the inclination to read the whole thing), there were two major grammatical problems with it: she had the strange idea that "thank you" should be hyphenated (a small point, but she did it over and over again), and like many students, white and black, she seemed very confused about when to use a comma vs. when to use a semicolon. The idea that it was incoherent is simply false. Whether the content was worthwhile is a different matter, of course.<br /><br />Here is a typical sentence: "Thus, Carmichael and Hamilton define separationism as a necessary stage for the development of the Black community before this group integrates into the 'open society.'" Dubious politics (yes, Carmichael is just who you think it is), perfectly coherent expression.James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59800556897899719292009-06-12T06:51:36.165-07:002009-06-12T06:51:36.165-07:00If there were lots and lots of very smart Latinas,...<i>If there were lots and lots of very smart Latinas, then they wouldn't be an aggrieved interest group demanding that the Supreme Court continue to protect their special legal privileges.</i><br />With all due respect, that is complete BS. Aggrieved interest groups demanding special privileges is a fully entrenched industry. Having lots and lots of smart members of that interest group around would only make matters worse. We can only thank the stars that Obama chose a dim bulb for this SC opening.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com