Remember my post from a few months back about the California (where else?) senator who wanted to give 14-year-olds the vote? Well, that bill, SB 1606, just passed the state Senate Committee on Elections and Reappointment. Don't know what exactly that means for the bill's chance of success, but the fact that such an inane idea passed muster with any group of adults is a little scary. I have to say I love Right Thinking From the Left Coast's take on it: "And look, the idea of children voting is offensive. The reason they can't vote is because they are children, and therefore are idiots. They can't legally enter into a contract, but they can vote? Idiocy. If people in this state aren't interested in voting, then the way to get them interested is by fielding candidates who aren't a bunch of complete tools."
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In Great Britain, the National Foundation for Educational Research and the Department for Education and Skills have teamed up to study, and promote, a skill that doesn't seem to have much to do with education. But this type of research is certainly more interesting than crunching scores on educational tests, isn't it? And I wonder - will the "skills" in question lose their appeal when teachers start promoting them?
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A tribute to Mother's Day that notes the importance of ignoring "self-esteem" and displaying a zero tolerance for whining. A tip for mothers out there: This is one way to teach your kid proper bathroom etiquette.
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Finally, Steve Sailer has had just about enough of the current rumor floating around, disguised as research, which says that states who voted for Bush in 2000 have lower mean IQs than state who voted for Gore. Not only does Steve deflate the rumor entirely:
Hoax Update: The table of IQs by state spreading across liberal blogdom is purportedly based on the Ravens Advanced Progressive IQ Matrices test. Psychometrician Chris Brand tells me: "John Raven knows of no comprehensive State-by-State data for his test."
Case closed.
...he also points out the following attitude, which never fails to bug me, too:
Nothing demonstrates the hypocrisy of Democrats on the topic of IQ than the enthusiasm with which so many leapt aboard this bandwagon as a way to prove they were mentally superior to Republicans, despite, in the near-decade since the publication of The Bell Curve, having constantly denounced IQ tests as meaningless, racist, and evil incarnate.
The website which had the most to do with spreading the bogus graph now claims it was all a joke. Doesn't sound like Steve's laughing. Would these liberal "hoaxers" be laughing if, say, a rumor was spread that women's studies majors and Democrats all had demonstrably lower IQs? Or would that be termed "hate speech"?
Posted by kswygert at May 9, 2004 09:11 AM