STARK RAVING MAD

"But do they take requests? B.C. Greens recognize the 'spiritual' value of 'singing trees'' by Rick Hiebert in Alberta Report, p 24, No-vember 7, 1994, describes a situation in south-eastern British Colum-bia, where logging has been stopped by enviros who claim that trees actually sing. One G. McIntyre of the Applied Ecological Stewardship Coalition claims to have heard the trees singing "a hymn of joy of creation.'' A local Anglican cleric joined McIntyre in calling for preservation of the trees because of their "spiritual force.'' In response, the British Columbia Commission on Resources and Environment has recommended and agreed "to identify and conserve physical conditions necessary to the super-physical life-force renewal function.''
Since there are politically incorrect racial differences in the experimental results, it has been out of fashion in recent decades to speak of genetic influences on intelligence. There are, in fact, significant differences in the mean intelligences of different races, yet these differences are entirely irrelevant with respect to specific individuals because the distribution functions overlap so greatly between races. (There are also sexual differences in distribution shape which lead to the differences in SAT math averages for girls and boys that educrats are so desperately trying to remove from SAT scores.)

C. Murray recently coauthored a book with R. J. Hernnstein entitled "The Bell Curve'' and then felt compelled to write a Wall Street Journal editorial (December 2, 1994, p A12) trying to mitigate the political controversy that their efforts to discuss this matter had caused. This was followed by a long Wall Street Journal editorial (December 13, 1994 p A18) in which 52 academic experts on intelligence attempted to summarize the known facts about heredity and intelligence. Their points include that heredity is between 40% and 80% responsible for IQ differences and that the IQ curves center around 100 for whites and 85 for American blacks with Hispanics roughly midway between.

Ralph Nader, Ernest Sternglass, Carl Sagan, and even Jane Fonda probably have high IQs, illustrating the great difference between good equipment and worthwhile skill, while the works of many brilliant black Americans testify about the distribution function overlap even before we see the data. Racist efforts to make all groups equal rather than giving equal opportunity to all individuals are, of course, inconsistent with science in this case.

I can think of no better reason to teach all Americans about statistical distributions than to enable them to understand this important subject (not only with respect to IQ but also other measures of innate ability). In the absence of this knowledge, demagogues have manipulated Americans into public policies harmful to those with least ability.

These Wall Street Journal articles belong in "Good Reading,'' but we'll leave them in "Stark Raving Mad'' since madness is where deliberate ignorance about human similarities and differences will lead.

•	Information
•	``GOOD' AND ``EVIL'
•	RADIATION RISK
•	ANTHRAX AND YELLOW RAIN
•	RECYCLED PROPAGANDA
•	*STARK RAVING MAD*
•	GOOD READING

Vol. 22, No. 5

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 5

Date: January 01, 1995 03:10 PM (For actual publication date see newsletter.)
Title: Information