March 9, 2010

Obama Administration Promises to Make Public Schools Even More Dysfunctional

I've been pointing out for years that the theory and practice of disparate impact is fundamentally catastrophic to American public education, since any realistic, effective policy will have a racially disparate impact, and therefore make schools vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits. The Obama Administration today announced: Undermining public education is not a bug of disparate impact, it's a feature!

From the New York Times:
Officials Step Up Enforcement of Rights Laws in Education
By SAM DILLON

Seeking to step up enforcement of civil rights laws, the federal Department of Education says it will be sending letters in coming weeks to thousands of school districts and colleges, outlining their responsibilities on issues of fairness and equal opportunity.

As part of that effort, the department intends to open investigations known as compliance reviews in about 32 school districts nationwide, seeking to verify that students of both sexes and all races are getting equal access to college preparatory curriculums and to advanced placement courses. The department plans to open similar civil rights investigations at half a dozen colleges.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to announce the initiatives in a speech on Monday in Selma, Ala., where on March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers were beaten by Alabama state troopers.

Mr. Duncan plans to say that in the past decade the department’s Office for Civil Rights “has not been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities,” according to a text of the speech distributed to reporters on Sunday.

It continues, “We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement.”

At the end of high school, white students are about six times as likely to be ready to pursue college-level biology courses as black students, and more than four times as likely to be ready for college algebra, department officials said. White high school graduates are more than twice as likely to have taken advanced placement calculus classes as black or Latino graduates.

Assertions about discrimination in access to Advanced Placement (AP) classes can be easily tested by looking at performance on AP tests.

If smart blacks and Latinos are being kept out of AP classes at an unfair rate, then blacks and Latinos should be scoring higher on the actual Advanced Placement Calculus AB test, right? Because so many more low-potential whites are being channeled into taking the class and thus the test, whites should be doing worse, right?

Except that the average score, according to the College Board, on Calculus AB is (on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being best):

Asian: 3.23
White: 3.14
Mexican-American: 2.13
Black: 2.00

Since about 70% of blacks get a 1 (the lowest possible score, equivalent to an F in a freshman Intro to Calc course at an average college) on the Calculus AB AP test compared to about 30% of whites, there is more evidence to suggest that too many blacks are enrolled in Calculus AP courses than too few. Kids who get a 1 on the Calculus AB AP test would probably have been better off taking Statistics or a less fast-paced Calculus course or something else, because they apparently didn't get much out of their AP Calculus class.

The department enforces civil rights laws in schools and universities by responding to specific complaints from parents, students and others, but also by scrutinizing its own vast bodies of data on the nation’s school and university systems, looking for signs of possible discrimination.

I.e., the feds sniff out Disparate Impact.
A school seen to be expelling Latino students in numbers far out of proportion to their share of the student population, for instance, might become a candidate for compliance review, officials said.

The NYT Magazine and Newsweek have articles this week complaining that public school teachers can't maintain discipline in their classrooms.

Effect, meet Cause.

How are schools going to punish troublemakers fairly when the federal Department of Education threatens them if they do? What the schools end up doing, of course, is not punishing troublemakers adequately, which damages the learning environment for the good kids.
... Russlyn H. Ali, assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said in an interview that the department would begin 38 compliance reviews before the current fiscal year ended on Oct. 1. That number compares with 29 such reviews carried out last year, 42 in 2008, 23 in 2007 and nine in 2006, she said.

“But the big difference is not in the number of the reviews we intend to carry out, but in their complexity and depth,” Ms. Ali said. “Most of the reviews in the recent past have looked at procedures.”

In cases analyzing potential sex discrimination, for instance, federal investigators would often check to see if schools and universities had grievance procedures in place, and if so, take no enforcement action, she said.

“Now we’ll not simply see whether there is a program in place, but also examine whether that program is working effectively,” she said.

The department plans to begin a major investigation on Wednesday in one of the nation’s largest urban school districts, Ms. Ali said. She declined to identify it because, she said, department officials were still notifying Congress and others of the plans.

The compliance reviews typically involve visits to the school district or university by federal officials based in one or more of the department’s 12 regional offices.

The department intends to send letters offering guidance to virtually all of the nation’s 15,000 school districts and several thousand institutions of post-secondary education, officials said.

The letters will focus on 17 areas of civil rights concern, including possible racial discrimination in student assignments and admissions, in the meting out of discipline, and in access to resources, including qualified teachers. Other areas include possible sex and gender bias in athletics programs, as well as sexual harassment and violence. Other letters will remind districts and colleges of their responsibilities under federal law with regard to disabled students.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

99 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow.. spiraling downward...

PRCalDude said...

Paging Mr. Sailer.

Anonymous said...

It's home-schooling and private education from now on...

Anonymous said...

Oh, Sailer, look:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/09/AR2010030903532.html?hpid=artslot&sid=ST2010030903592

All your favorite topics in a single article: the education system, race, being black and raised by white grandparents, professional sports, the post-athletic-career/real-estate nexus, even racial biases in dating!

The Anti-Gnostic said...

I went to law school. This is the stuff that law review members and their tenured, ex-hippy faculty advisors dream up. This is the milieu where Barack Hussein cut his never-gainfully-employed teeth: extruded and rococco causes of action, theoretical rights, heads-I-win-tails-you-lose procedures.

These people need to be on their Presidential knee pads every day thanking God for our free enterprise system, because socialist states don't generate anywhere near the wealth to support real-dollar $100K+ salaries for DOJ lawyers over such crap.

Dahlia said...

David Brooks has a good article about the Dems' and Obama's passion about government-run healthcare versus other issues.

I wonder if equality of outcome in education will be his next mission as I've been hearing noises about education lately.

Steve, I read your book and understand Obama's criticism of Farrakhan's black separatist views and espousal instead of shaking down taxpayers.

Here is my question and I have no opinion. Does Obama believe equality (in all areas) is possible and financial punishment of taxpayers and other entities will help bring this about or is he a cynic going along with this lie who sees wealth transference as the desirable end in and of itself.

As I ask it, I'm also thinking of the Black Farmers' discrimination lawsuit settlement that Obama worked on himself while in congress. 1.25 billion is to be awarded to black farmers.
http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2010/03/08/lawyers-black-farmers-shake-down-taxpayers-agriculture-department-capitulates

Lawrence Auster put it thus, "...Meaning, of course, that many black farmers applied for federal loans for which they were not qualified, and the resulting lower rates of loans for blacks as compared with loans for whites is now attributed to racial discrimination, for which the blacks are entitled to damages. Under liberalism, the discrimination that exists in nature is attributed to man, or, rather, it's attributed to the Man."

You racist said...

I'm sure that the system is weeding out the black students that would have scored 3 on the test. Racist policies, like administering the test in a written format are also to blame. The test should have an oral component where the learner is given a chance to explain the processes he would use and why he/she feels the question is wrong.

Anonymous said...

You racist,

That is exactly how Michael Oher was able to pass his classes in High School and attend Ole Miss (thus ensuring the Camp of the Saints lite "Blind Side" could be made.

Sailer, do us all a favor and read The Blind Side. Please!

It is a VERY politically incorrect book.

Stuff Black People Don't Like wrote a review of the movie that is interesting, but we need your touch!

Anonymous said...

.

HOMESCHOOL YOUR CHILDREN!!!

.

OneSTDV said...

Well there's goes my post for tommorow.

I was going to comment that by the standard of the stuff written in that article, the entire school system (not to mention every single other institution) is one big failure.

So if they were actually seriously considering all these schools and colleges for discrimination cases and not merely as a means to allay public outrage over the persistent achievement gap, they would basically have to censure every single school in America. Oh wait, besides the "miraculous" Harlem Children' Zone.

"Racist policies, like administering the test in a written format are also to blame. The test should have an oral component where the learner is given a chance to explain the processes he would use and why he/she feels the question is wrong."

Wasn't there a black debate team a few years back who actually did this, arguing that talking fast was somehow racist?

Reg Cæsar said...

The magic bullet, pardon the expression, with which to kill "disparate impact" is, as always, firearms. The other side can't comprehend, or even conceive, people of color being trusted with them. (A view they share with the Founding Fathers by the way...)

So how do you apply this to urban schools? Simple-- bring back the rifle teams!

You can bet that when PS 1775 extols its riflemen to the same extent as its hoopsters, the "compliance review" squads will turn their heads and go pick on some other school.

Melykin said...

Wow..very creepy. I wonder if they will shut down the Math Olympiad. Here are picture of teams going back to 1990:

http://www.unl.edu/amc/e-exams/e8-usamo/picsusamo.shtml

There seem to be a few students that look South Asian, and *lots* of East Asians. None of them look black.

Stir the Pot said...

Keeping down the public schools for the middle and lower classes makes the quality education received in private schools & upper class public districts (Greenwich, Beverly Hills) that much better by comparison.

If the kids of elites that go to these schools can do the same work, but gain a real advantage versus bad ed in most other public schools, then those elite policy makers will all around. Of course America as a whole loses, and someone else pays, while they as a group profit.

Funny, the way out of this for education, and many other US conundrums, looks much like America in about 1963. Admitting their practical & conservative parents were right would drive most lefty Boomers to use anti-depressants & other drugs. But wait, they do that now... ;-)

Anonymous said...

"Disparate Impact" = noose left on library chair. Let the feedback loop begin: spontaneous pre-planned protests, demands for new jobs to employ activists at taxpayer's dime, media circuis, the concessions by the brass, finis.

jody said...

my brother, who normally understands what's going on, seems to be convinced that there is still widespread and persistent discrimination black americans.

it's hard to believe anybody could still think this after considering the issue. euro americans are required to bend over backwards to avoid discriminating against them. with the current legal system you would have to be crazy to even think about discriminating against black americans.

there is very, very little discrimination against black americans anywhere, and in reality, the opposite is the rule. discrimination in favor of black americans is widespread and very powerful. it is a guiding force in modern american society.

Anonymous said...

Off-topic but Steve needs to comment on a couple of articles that came out today:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041225-28.stm

"Women of all races bring home less income and own fewer assets, on average, than men of the same race, but for single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0923528620100309

"About 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes, making it one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday.

Black women had the highest rate of infection at 48 percent and women were nearly twice likely as men to be infected, according to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Anonymous said...

1/6th of the recent math olympiad teams have been Indian-American. Not bad for a group that's 1% of America's population.

I know you're going to bring up that Indian immigrants are selected. True, but their children represent the regression to the mean.

gaga said...

Obama deserves an F on math too. Just look at his economic policy.

Anonymous said...

Diversity sure does make America complicated. This must all seem very strange in places like Japan.

Black Sea said...

I have a feeling they'll be going after home schooling in the next few years. The teacher's unions don't like it; it allows parents to spare their offspring from the cultural brainwashing of the public school curiculum, and it strikes a lot of progressive types as dangerously "anti-social" if not cult-like. All that they can envision is a brood of 6 or 8 Christian fundamentalists sitting around in gingham dresses and white, short sleeve shirts, memorizing the tenants of creationism and verses from the Bible.

l said...

Hobble public schools with 'civil rights' enforcement, while at the same time penalizing poor performing public schools under the 'Race To The Top' program? Does not compute.

levi johnston said...

A large part of the AP racial discrepancy is the aggressiveness on the part of administrators at KIPP and other urban schools to push subpar students into advanced placement courses (so they can say “20% of our kids are in honors programs!”) and then push them to utilize state resources which practically pay them to skip class and ‘attempt’ the tests.

In 2008, 259,588 AP and IB exams were taken by Texas public school students, approximately 69,800 of those by students with financial need

Check out the small states like Louisiana where mex-ams outscore whites on every exam or Iowa where blacks outscore whites on calc AB, etc.

S Blumenthal said...

***White high school graduates are more than twice as likely to have taken advanced placement calculus classes as black or Latino graduates.***

This is explained by Linda Gottfredson.

'Skills gaps, not tests, make racial proportionality impossible.'

Gottfredson, Linda S. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Vol 6(1), Mar 2000, 129-143.

www.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/2000skillsgaps.pdf

They could also consider this recent paper.

(2009). Whole-brain size and general mental ability: A review. International Journal of Neuroscience, 119, 691-731.

http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/rushtonpdfs/2009%20IJN.pdf

Anonymous said...

Why can't disparate impact be used against the expanding state?

You merely have to prove that the excessively complex and burdensome regulations are keeping minorities from forming small businesses at an equivalent rate to others, and the whole thing has to collapse.

Anonymous said...

The firing of the teachers in Rhode Island is a crack in the system. They are going to realize they can't fire all the teachers in minority schools, and they can't fire the students, so they are going to have to set realistic goals.

Anonymous said...

It is possible that kids who got 1s on the Cal AB AP went to schools that had weak AP classes that didn't really prepare them for the test. I had a couple of friends in college who had that with their high school physics: it was called "AP" at their school but really shouldn't have been. This might be more likely in rural or inner city schools. I doubt that explains everything, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of it.

Anonymous said...

The premise "all Races are born with the same average cognitive potential" is false, and so
one can ignore that reality, but one won't be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring that reality.

Mr. Anon said...

" OneSTDV said...
Wasn't there a black debate team a few years back who actually did this, arguing that talking fast was somehow racist?"

Yes, it was just a couple of years ago. They rapped it, and argued that they didn't really need to give citations. I don't know if they won or not, but they weren't summarily disqualified, which is what should have been done to them.

Mr. Anon said...

"jody said...

my brother, who normally understands what's going on, seems to be convinced that there is still widespread and persistent discrimination black americans."

An interesting question is: does he know and or routinely interact with any actual black people. Or is even forced to occasionally drive through a black neighborhood.

My experience is that those whites who have the greatest sympathy for blacks supposed woes are those who are essentially completely insulated from any contact with them.

Peter A said...

This is great news for the conservative elites and libertarians - they've been trying to destroy public education in the US since the nation was founded. Looks like Obama may be just the man to do it. As "Stir the Pot" points out - this "reform" will just increase the gap between the elites and white middle class that doesn't have the resources for private school or homeschool. I may be out of touch on this - but it seems to me that parochial schools are a shadow of what they once were. In the 1960s-70s a Catholic school was affordable and provided a quality education - that was the best option for a lot of middle class parents in the Northeast.

Eric Holdner said...

Is there any major public or private organization that doesn't exhibit disparate impact?

Isn't specialization a natural result of diversity?

How do we get DOJ to apply "disparate impact" standards to private and prep schools so elites can enjoy the benefits of diversity too?

Mr. Anon said...

"Anonymous said...

I know you're going to bring up that Indian immigrants are selected. True, but their children represent the regression to the mean."

Yes regression to the mean of a selected group - a selected group which consists largely of castes who have been genetically isolated for thousands of years. The mean IQ of Indians in India suggests that any onld Indian chosen at random is not likely to be very smart.

Anonymous said...

My daughter asked me yesterday about dropping out of school and what the dropout age was (out of curiosity I suppose). I told her that almost no students (if any) in our district drop out. I also told her that when I was in high school (only twenty years ago).

By the time we entered ninth grade. Those students that wanted to take a trade school tract enrolled in a local public trade school (there are many of them in Mass. available to anyone) and that usually be 10th or 11th grade, all of those that were going to quit did and that left a fairly core of either academically minded kids or kids who may not have been exceptionally bright generally liked school (realizing it's not a bad deal to be in High School).

That is quite a dramitic difference and I wish we could have a more sensible widdling down.
Basically in eight grade my class had 130 students. We graduated maybe 80 (some of course went to prep schools).

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
Indian kids represent a regression to the caste mean. There are some not-so-smart castes that drag down the Indian average, then there are the people that immigrate to the west.

Anonymous said...

We are sooooo doomed as a nation. I am simply amazed that ANY whites still adhere to their liberal racial fantasies. Even the uber elite that don't have to deal with the plebians hold one racial fantasy in their minds and then in reality act totally opposite of their "beliefs". That has got to be painful. I am absolutely 100% convinced that racial liberals (right, left, libertarian, et al) are simply mentally ill.

How any self-respecting white parents continue to subject their kids to this public school crap is beyond me.

Anonymous said...

They can make a logical argument that preserves their given that all races are equally intelligent but explains the demonstrable facts that NAMs are statistically underrepresented in AP classes and yet still underperform on AP tests: There are informal NAM quotas in AP classes but districts do not select the best NAMs for those slots. They either dole them out at random or intentionally select less able NAMs to perpetuate their failure.

Absurd? Obviously, but it's about the only counterargument that explains the facts without disproving the desired initial assumption. (The only other one is that NAMs receive less instruction in class and are thus programmed to fail.) Think of elegant ways to disprove both of those arguments because both of them will be made and both of them will be given the benefit of the doubt by an America that really, really does not want to face up to the implications of HBD.

Anonymous said...

"I know you're going to bring up that Indian immigrants are selected. True, but their children represent the regression to the mean."

1 billion people in a country don't regress to the same mean. You might be misinterpreting regression to the mean (in a slightly ecological fallacy sort of way). For different white families, the IQ they're likely to regress to may be 90, or 100, 110, 120, etc... regardless of the mean white IQ in their nation being 100.

Larissa said...

That sounds like a nightmare in the making.

Larissa said...

I am not a teacher, but I have talked to a few teachers who have taught at inner city schools. They have told me how emotionally and mentally draining it can be. I went to school with a few black students and if one of them ever showed any signs of promise they would immediately be mentored by several teachers.

Inner Party Uber Alles said...

Access to Obama's college records is forbidden. The President's bio is a no go zone for the American public. The GOP could have made this a huge issue in the campaign. If they had pounded this issue it would have struck at the basic issue of fairness in this society.

But no, the GOP did not make a big fuss over this issue. Because it's a bogus two party system that is controlled by the same Inner Party. And both sides want puppet candidates in the future whose bios are off limits to the public.

Unknown said...

From my experience in the public school system, most students disciplined are male (no surprise there). I'll bet that's one kind of discrimination that never gets investigated.

Chief Seattle said...

The only thing that can be done about this ridiculous state of affairs is a little good old-fashioned civil disobedience. The kind that doesn't require flying a small aircraft into an IRS building. Every parent of a moderate to high achieving student should list their son or daughter's race as black or Latino. No matter how blond their hair or yellow their skin. Because race is just a social construct. Then, the paper pushing bureaucrats can show much needed improvement in the racial disparity gap, and the parents and schools can get the well meaning but ignorant do-gooders off their back. It's a win/win situation.

I can see the bumper stickers covering cars in every leafy suburb: "My son is a black honor student"

Inner Party Uber Alles said...

Delusional people think this academic "leveling" madness -- all part of the leftward shift in American society (marxism) -- is going to be pushed back sometime in the near future. "The madness must stop!"

WRONG. The madness has just begun.

This country is going hard left for the next 3-4 decades just like it did in the period from 1930-1970. We went hard left for decades as a result of the giant immigrant wave early in the 1900's. The Vdare web site is all about this dynamic.

But this time the immigrant wave causing the leftward shift is much larger and much more radical in their political leanings.

Demography is destiny and the demographic time bomb baked in the cake here in the U.S.A. says we are going hard left.

This morning I heard a "conservative right wing" talk show host talking about the Cuban-American "superstar" Rubio down in Florida being the future of the party. Rubio sounds like just the man to pass "Immigration Reform" (amnesty and continued mass immigration) in, say, 2016.

No, the GOP won't win in 2012. Yes, the GOP will win Congress in 2010. And then Obama will get four more years and a radical left wing Supreme Court.

The winning GOP ticket in 2016 will probably include a Rubio or a Jindal. Maybe even a "wise latina". The ticket will be pro-Affirmative Action, pro-Equal Outcomes In Education, pro-Banker Bailouts, pro-Open Borders, pro-Police State, pro-"War on Terror", pro-Islamic immigration, pro-H1b visa program, etc.

Anonymous said...

He's looking more and more like a one termer. Failing in all his practical endeavors he seems to be turning back to what his strong suit is: ideological pursuits. He seems to have less substance by the day than even his detractors originally thought. The system sure gave us a great choice last election, eh?

Jim O said...

Steve, that's why, as John Darbyshire notes, we are doomed. Or, at least, this is a prime exqample.

Next logical step: Asians and whites won't be allowed to score more than a 2. That'll show 'em, the insensitive, racist bastards. Too crazy? Just wait.

I tell you like his old Colonel told Rambo: it's over, Steve, IT'S OVER.

Anonymous said...

Web cameras in all public school classrooms! No more he said, she said. An objective way to monitor student misbehavior and teacher incompetence. As to who shall have access to the tapes, parents and administrators at a minimum. And when there are complaints of misbehavior, incompetence, and discrimination, then obviously the police, justice department, and arguably the general public who pay for public education should be allowed to see the evidence.

Arnie Duncan said...

For course there is discrimination against Blacks and Hispanics in the AP exams. Just look at much smaller a percentage are allowed to take them.

"The Calculus AB is (on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being best):

Asian: 3.23
White: 3.14
Mexican-American: 2.13
Black: 2.00

Since about 70% of blacks get a 1 (the lowest possible score, equivalent to an F in a freshman Intro to Calc course at an average college) on the Calculus AB AP test compared to about 30% of whites, there is more evidence to suggest that too many blacks are enrolled in Calculus AP courses than too few."


This disparity in test results only shows that the exams are not being graded fairly. Obviously at least +1.14 needs to be added to black test takers scores to balance out historical disadvantages. Perhaps +1.5 to account for the greater number of expected black test takers that may bring the current average down.

Fix the AP attendance and grading discrimination and you fix the gap.

Anonymous said...

Watch this drive more high performing students out of public ed. and thereby hasten its demise.

josh said...

GENDER discrimination??? Even tho the school system bends over backwards to favor females,this basketball playing moron,who failed utterly in doing anything to uplift Chicago public schools,btw,is going to screw over white male students for being not just white,but male too?? Who is going to be going to college,anyway? Entitled white girls and utterly baffled black people? Notes:A)Arne Duncan was of course a failed basketball player who did find some success in the Eurotrash leagues. He talked about how great it was that he would go to tough tough ghetto hoods to play ball with the city's best(wait--you mean then city's best B-Ball players arent in Schaumburg??)and he seemed really touched that they didnt,you know,like kill him and stuff. He has some weird Father Pfleger/James Cameron complex about being a leader of these wonderful people...the Great White Good Guy. B) They had a story Sunday in Chicago about the Urban Prep school,an all black male charter school,where every student was accepted to college. One guy was accepted to Johns Hopkins--with an ACT of 15. It said he,fortunately,passed on the school,for financial reasons. What scum is running our universities these days.

Anonymous said...

Diversity is our strength!

Glossy said...

"I wonder if they will shut down the Math Olympiad."

That would be so fiting. As the Dark Ages encroached on classical antiquity, th emperor Theodosius shut down the original Olympics.

"I know you're going to bring up that Indian immigrants are selected. True, but their children represent the regression to the mean."

But the higher castes, from which most of those kids come, have higher means than do the lower castes which have stayed behind in India.

kurt9 said...

The effect of this policy on public education will be to increase the white migration to the "whitopias". Young people will live in places like Dallas/Ft. Worth or SoCal to build careers. However, when they get married and decide to have kids, they will move to the whitopia to have their families. In addition to a better quality of life, the whitopia often has lower housing costs (Affordable Family Formation) which allows them to buy a bigger house with a big yard.

Rich Benjamin (who is black) wrote a fairly entertaining book on "whitopia", which are regions of the country (such as Idaho and Montana) that are alomost exclusively white and have high quality of life.

http://www.richbenjamin.com/

ben tillman said...

I know you're going to bring up that Indian immigrants are selected. True, but their children represent the regression to the mean.

No, regression toward the mean, assuming that concept is valid in this context. No one ever seems to be able to explain it, though, for some reason.

Svigor said...

Here is my question and I have no opinion. Does Obama believe equality (in all areas) is possible and financial punishment of taxpayers and other entities will help bring this about or is he a cynic going along with this lie who sees wealth transference as the desirable end in and of itself.

I have a hard time believing either, and I ask myself this question about diversitards all the time.

I have an easier time believing they just don't ask themselves too many questions. E.g., Obama is surrounded by commies dying to effect massive state intervention in the name of equality. He doesn't have to think too hard, he just has to sign at the bottom. Something similar can be said of all those commies; the thing has its own momentum at this point.

They probably think about it as hard as Bush thought through his stupid-but-short-term-profitable housing policies.

The media doesn't ask questions, in fact the media covers for them, so they have every reason to do as little hard thinking about the matter as possible.

It seems like the non-useful-idiots in this game are all the sort with extremely powerful motivations that let them whistle past the graveyard of bodies this stuff is piling up. They must exist; they can't all be useful idiots.

At bottom I think we've got, at best, willful negligence working against us; the active ingredients (non-useful-idiots) just don't want to hear what we have to say, because they don't give a shit what happens to us.

Lawrence Auster put it thus, "...Meaning, of course, that many black farmers applied for federal loans for which they were not qualified, and the resulting lower rates of loans for blacks as compared with loans for whites is now attributed to racial discrimination, for which the blacks are entitled to damages. Under liberalism, the discrimination that exists in nature is attributed to man, or, rather, it's attributed to the Man."

Seems to me that these folks can easily justify this to themselves, in the unlikely event they're ever forced to acknowledge the reality; in their minds blacks deserve an equal (based percentage of population, not merit) share of the farming dough regardless of competence, end of story.

Okay so, tons of speculation here. But WTF are we supposed to do? It's not like ANY of these people are being honest, i.e., answering our questions. They're obviously screwing us, and we get no serious explanations from the people doing it. This suggests malice at some point in the paper trail, but I have a hard time believing it's widespread.

C. Van Carter said...

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to announce the initiatives in a speech on Monday in Selma, Ala."

Following the annoucement will be a bloody shirt waving and a reenactment of the whipping of Kunta Kinte scene from Roots.

Anonymous said...

I console myself with the thought that this cannot go on much longer. If a liberal administration wants to prosecute the education establishment--the heart of HBD denialism--for their failure to turn sow's ears into silk purses, who can they turn to? The best hope of reforming the public school system is to enforce the punitive sanctions of No Child Left Behind until the educators cry uncle.

ijoviems said...

Disparate or DESPERATE Impact?
It's as if liberals are desperate to prove their bogus theories correct.

I'll tell you one real disparate impact. Black on white crime.

Arminius said...

Repeat after me class:

1) Ability varies;

2) Half of the children are below average;

3) Too many people are going to college;

4) America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.

How come Murray didn't ask Steve to blurb his book?!

OhioStater said...

Minority births outnumber white births in the US for the first time; you may need a subscription to see this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703701004575113710327322240.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news

"Broken down by race, about 52% of babies born in 2008 were white. That's compared to about 25% who were Hispanic, 15% black and 4% Asian. Another 4% were identified by their parents as multiracial."

"The numbers highlight the nation's growing racial and age divide, seen in pockets of communities across the U.S., which could heighten tensions in current policy debates from immigration reform and education to health care and Social Security."

...and more strain on public schools.

OhioStater said...

Minority births outnumber white births in the US for the first time; you may need a subscription to see this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703701004575113710327322240.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news

"Broken down by race, about 52% of babies born in 2008 were white. That's compared to about 25% who were Hispanic, 15% black and 4% Asian. Another 4% were identified by their parents as multiracial."

"The numbers highlight the nation's growing racial and age divide, seen in pockets of communities across the U.S., which could heighten tensions in current policy debates from immigration reform and education to health care and Social Security."

...and more strain on public schools.

Tanstaafl said...

I saw some flaws in your recent VDARE essay Thoughts On America’s Jewish Ruling Class And Noblesse Oblige. The "disparate impact" argument wasn't one of them.

Anonymous said...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35793316/ns/us_news-life/

"Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century. For America's children, the future is now," said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire who researched many of the racial trends in a paper being released Wednesday.

spahnie said...

I repeat what a 34-year old black guy proudly told me on discovering that we'd both attended high school in S.F. in the '70's (his a largely black school): "You wouldn't have lasted a week at Lincoln, man."

HLS lawyer said...

Chief Seattle, you are brilliant. There is no penalty for calling yourself black. Nor is there any need to explain to the administration.

The smarter schools already see the handwriting on the wall and will get advice from their attorneys regarding whether they should merely accept a student's racial designation.

The attorney will advise them that they challenge someone's race at their peril, and that such questioning, particularly in view of the one drop rule (i.e. you can be "black" and look Scandinavian), can earn them a lawsuit.

As a result, your schools should follow their attorneys' advice and NOT challenge a racial designation made by their students. The result? If enough parents make this commitment to their school the schools can avoid getting hammered and taken over by the state ( or the Feds, now that Obama is cracking the whip).

And the smart parents I know that do this also lay a foundation for receiving AA for college.

This will NOT work for government set-asides, however. Typically the state or federal governments assign a certifying agency (eg the NAACP) to "certify" your claim to "blackness". They will do a home visit and ask for your bona fides.

Of course this will include hard questions if you look white, but in many states you can get your birth certificate "corrected" to say "black" with the right evidence, either by a county court or on appropriate presentations to the state vital records bureaucracy.

Rather than run from the problem, you need to see it as an opportunity and embrace it. Just ask yourself this question: would my children and myself (and now, "my school") be better off if our birth certificates said "black" or "white"? Think hard. Many of my clients now say, "black".

Whiskey said...

I don't see this doing anything other than bringing politics to a breaking point. It means the vast middle and working class White families with kids are going to be screwed over in favor of Black and Hispanic kids.

There is no other way to put it. And as Steve observed, pain spread over 66% of the population instead of 80% is far more ... painful.

David Duke is, if Wikipedia is to be believed, either in exile in Salzburg Austria milking a tiny living off neo-Nazi contributions, or a trailer park in Mandeville LA. Rev. Wright lives in a mansion on a golf course in a gated community, worth $5 million, and Louis Farrakhan's mansion is said to rival Oprah's. Plus of course Farrakhan has pricey paid goons (who are not cheap).

I doubt we will see a KKK or the rest of it, but we are reaching the boiling point. Not over "racism" (a feature of Blacks and Hispanics) but over spoils politics. This whole effort is basically an over-reach by Blacks/Hispanics/SWPL elites to screw over the White Middle/Working class and their kids, permanently.

Instead I can foresee something along the lines of a Howard Jarvis movement along with elements of Gert Wilders.

It has escaped no one'e attention that free breast cancer screening and treatment for White Women can be achieved by deporting all illegals (and those who cannot prove they are legal residents/citizens). Or simply denying them treatment.

Better schools for White kids can be achieved by spending all the money on them. This would require massive turn-over of the Supreme Court or constitutional amendments or packing the court, but things like this have happened before. Even in the Netherlands there is a boiling point.

Not the least of which is there is obvious power. Not in David Duke idiocy, but basic spoils politics.

"Money for us" is a powerful message, particularly in a lasting, deep recession/depression.

[Anon -- Non-Whites are sympathetic to Jihad and terrorists -- they share the same enemy: White People.]

Anonymous said...

I think Stir the Pot made the best point, and it's in line with a point that Steve often makes: that to understand public policy today, you have to ask the question "who, whom?"

David Davenport said...

Web cameras in all public school classrooms! No more he said, she said. An objective way to monitor student misbehavior and teacher incompetence. As to who shall have access to the tapes, parents and administrators at a minimum. And when there are complaints of misbehavior, incompetence, and discrimination, then obviously the police, justice department, and arguably the general public who pay for public education should be allowed to see the evidence.

Teachers' unions in general are opposed to class room security cameras and video recordings.

Deckin said...

Just to make sure this doesn't stand. The Iowa AP results on the Calculus AB exam, where Blacks did indeed have a higher average score, has a grand total of 7 Black students sitting for the exam. Outlier much?

Eric said...

I have a feeling they'll be going after home schooling in the next few years. The teacher's unions don't like it; it allows parents to spare their offspring from the cultural brainwashing of the public school curiculum, and it strikes a lot of progressive types as dangerously "anti-social" if not cult-like.

I think this is true, but I doubt they'll go after homeschoolers head-on. They'll just make sure the parents who want to homeschool their children have a mountain of paperwork to file, teach from government-approved lesson plans, and take expensive and lengthy certification courses before they can start.

In other words, it'll be regulated to death. I doubt they even need new laws to do it.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what life is like for Linda Gottfredson at her university.

Anonymous said...

"Teachers' unions in general are opposed to class room security cameras and video recordings."

Couldn't local school boards vote for them?

I don't see how teachers or their unions could stop it, assuming the majority of their membership wanted to. I know some teachers would like cameras as an aid to establishing classroom discipline.

Kylie said...

kurt9 said: "The effect of this policy on public education will be to increase the white migration to the 'whitopias'."


And just how long do you think that is going to be allowed to continue? From Benjamin's website, "On this improbable journey, I show you what Whitopias are like and the urgent social and political implications of this startling phenomenon."

No doubt the "urgent social and political implications" have to do with whites wanting a high standard of living and good quality of life for themselves instead of submitting to the redistribution of wealth to people of color that the left is pushing so relentlessly.

I love Benjamin's unintentionally humorous use of "startling" to characterize this phenomenon.

Reg Cæsar said...

Admitting their practical & conservative parents were right would drive most lefty Boomers to use anti-depressants... --Stir the Pot

Oh, right... those "practical and conservative parents" who gave Lyndon Baines Johnson the fourth biggest landslide of the 20th century? (The biggest, actually, to those innumerates who go by the "popular vote".)

Note, too, that in the only places where boomers' parents rejected LBJ, boomers' grandparents gave Guinness-qualifying victories to FDR. (Some counties were unanimous.)

So there's almost no place in the country without a leftist stain on the two generations preceeding the boom. Which no doubt explains why the boom is the most Republican generation since their great-grandparents in the 1920s.

Stir the Pot and other Blame-the-Boomers-First are the victims of New Math. They can't even subtract: 1964-1946=18

Yes, the boomers are racial liberals. The question is, who taught them to be? It was either their parents, or their parents' hirelings.

AmericanGoy said...

How the heck did I miss this by Steve-o?!

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/100308_jewish_ruling_class.htm

Mark said...

He's looking more and more like a one termer. Failing in all his practical endeavors he seems to be turning back to what his strong suit is: ideological pursuits.

Anyone seen any Republican who is willing to call it for what it is? I mean, I like Mitt Romney and he's definitely one of the more qualified candidates in recent memory, but do you think he's willing to even covertly give the middle finger to political correctness?

Because quite frankly it looks like the entire country, Palin- and Huckabee-voting Republitards included, is willing to follow this blank slate nonsense straight down the crapper. The amount of inefficiency it creates in the economy is no longer affordable.

P.S. As always - disparate impact does not apply to Asians and Jews. They earned their success. Gentile whites got it only by being racists.

Anonymous said...

I don't think we're ever going to get rid of these laws mandating equality in education. The upside to being flat broke is that we don't have to. Eventually we're going to have to start cutting somewhere to save money, like it or not.

So like the open-borders fanatics who achieved their goal by ignoring immigration enforcement, we'll achieve ours by ignoring civil rights enforcement.

Anonymous said...

The letters will focus on 17 areas of civil rights concern, including possible racial discrimination in student assignments and admissions, in the meting out of discipline, and in access to resources, including qualified teachers.

Uhhhh....yeah. Where I went to school - and it was a school where minority enrollment was pretty low - the "qualified teachers" (i.e., the best teachers) taught the most advanced classes, meaning AP and honors sections. Force the best teachers to take on the worst students and they'll either quit, move to entirely white districts, or move to provate schools.

This whole plan of action is simply a guarantee of more white flight.

Anonymous said...

Whiskey: I don't see this doing anything other than bringing politics to a breaking point.

Have you been following the Obamacare debacle?

It's not clear to me that we have politics in this country anymore.

Anonymous said...

Mark: Because quite frankly it looks like the entire country, Palin- and Huckabee-voting Republitards included, is willing to follow this blank slate nonsense straight down the crapper.

I dunno - it could just be that the little anti-modern bubble which I inhabit precludes me from measuring [accurately] the pulse of the zeitgeist, but I get the sense that people are just sick of this insanity.

And watching an affirmative action president destroy their country is surely going to drive a sizable portion of the populace into apoplexy.

Heck, Rush Limbaugh has taken to openly ridiculing Obama on this stuff:


LIMBAUGH: This is this morning, at the White House, President Obama addressing a National Governors Association - yeah, just a small portion of what he had to say here.

OBAMA: As a condition of receiving access to Title I funds, we will AXE all states to put in place a plan to adopt and certify standards that are college- and career-ready in reading and math.

LIMBAUGH: Ah, did you catch, did you catch that Snerdley, what did you, did you catch that? What, what? No, you missed it. You missed it. See, you're, you're listening to the substance here. You missed this. Play it again, Mike.

OBAMA: As a condition of receiving access to Title I funds, we will AXE all states to put in place a plan to adopt and certify standards that are college- and career-ready in reading and math.

LIMBAUGH: This is, this is what, this is what Harry Reid was talking about. Obama can turn on that black dialect, ah, when he wants to and turn it off. I mean - President of the United States just said here, ah, 'as a condition of receiving' - I wonder if this was on the teleprompter - did somebody put this on the prompter? 'As a condition of receiving access to Title I funds, we will AXE all states' - who's he trying to reach out here to, the Reverend Jackson, the Obama criticizer? And who's he, who's he - now if, if I used the word 'AXE' for the rest of the day, ah, am I gonna get beat up and, and creamed, ah, for making fun of this clean, crisp, calm, cool, new, articulate President? Maybe we should do it and see what happens. I'll, I'll AXE my advisers, ah, and I might even AXE Governor Koomo, ah, as the Reverend Jackson pronounced his name. We'll be right back...


PS: As far as the rest of the sentence is concerned, STANDARDS aren't "college-ready" or "career-ready"; STANDARDS are supposed to form the basis of the system which would enable STUDENTS to become "college-ready" or "career-ready".

This is the kind of gibberish that Obama used to write back before he hired William Ayers and Jon Favreau to write for him:

But organizing the black community faces enormous problems

Organizers [as opposed to the gerund "organizing"] face problems.

Students [as opposed to "standards"] are college-ready.

Again, the use of [pseudo-] sentences like this are the hallmark of a person whose IQ isn't much above 110, or thereabouts.

[And the estimate of 110 might be generous...]

FelixM said...

will they make sure that shortish asians are fairly represented in basket ball?

(as compensation when their numbers are reduced in math olympiads)

Anonymous said...

Here is what life is like for Gottfredson.

Lessons in academic freedom as lived experience
Personality and Individual Differences, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 18 January 2010
Linda S. Gottfredson

By the way the strongest push back for dropping discipline standards will come from the teachers unions. Interesting battle between two Democratic Party groups. See Rockford Illinois and their changing of discipline standards for an example.

Someguy

Le Mur said...

Obama and Pals are bribing the teachers/teachers-unions:
http://biggovernment.com/vderugy/2010/03/10/who-is-the-stimulus-money-stimulating-teachers/

The "harass and bribe" method of Hope and Change?

bull said...
From my experience in the public school system, most students disciplined are male (no surprise there). I'll bet that's one kind of discrimination that never gets investigated.


It was already investigated - remember the "No fair! Boys get more attention in classes!" panic a few years ago?


Racist policies, like administering the test in a written format are also to blame.

The only fair thing would be to have students answer the questions by ESP.

Tanstaafl said...

So like the open-borders fanatics who achieved their goal by ignoring immigration enforcement, we'll achieve ours by ignoring civil rights enforcement.

This overlooks the small detail that, in contrast to immigration, the regime spares no expense to rigorously enforce anti-White civil rights.

Dalrock said...

@kurt9
The effect of this policy on public education will be to increase the white migration to the "whitopias". Young people will live in places like Dallas/Ft. Worth or SoCal to build careers. However, when they get married and decide to have kids, they will move to the whitopia to have their families. In addition to a better quality of life, the whitopia often has lower housing costs (Affordable Family Formation) which allows them to buy a bigger house with a big yard.

Just between SoCal and DFW there is a huge difference in quality of life, affordable family formation, etc. I grew up in SoCal and most of my family still lives there. You can buy a bigger/newer house in a nicer neighborhood (while still closer to the city center) in DFW for $150k than you can in SoCal for half a million (even after adjusting for differences in wages). In addition, Texas has very liberal gun laws and is very strict against violent crime, where SoCal is the opposite. There is also much more effort by people of all races to get along and be polite.

The migration from SoCal to Tx the above would suggest is already taking place, but a large number of people in SoCal are either psychologically or literally tethered to SoCal due to real estate. Most of those who aren't underwater on their mortgage still harbor dreams of hitting the jackpot on SoCal real estate.

I'm not sure Montana is so great for household formation, but it might be a great place to retire. My in-laws all live there and property values aren't that great compared to wages/jobs.

josh said...

A)Let them fire the white teachers,they are only turning their own schools into mini-Zimbabwe. B) Re Whiskey & David Duke:Good point re the "disparate impact" of the careers of Duke vs the dear Rev Wright. You might add that Sarah P --who has stated proudly she has a flag of Israel on her wall--can buy Rev Wright and keep him as a pet. As for Dukes "idiocy": what does that mean? Could you provide one major Duke assertion that is idiotic?I am a huge fan of Duke's. Theyre scared shitless of him in the media. I once saw him clobber Wolf Blitzed on CNN. They learned their lesson.I wont see that again,I presume. I wish he was running for Congress again--I'd vote for him in a second. President? Well,i wouldnt go that far. Having a guy who is an inexperineced outsider in the Presidency? One with a racial agenda? Come on! Not in MY America. The prob with Duke is not unlike the prob with,uhm,other voices who have blogs and stuff;its very importanat that theyre denounced and shit upon,but you cant be too clear on exactly what theyre saying thats so wrong-- could put idears into peoples heads. And,btw,I am a truther.( I am NOT a birther-tho I DO think its a tad suspicious that the Leader isnt forthcoming w/his birth cert. I guess you'd have to say Im a "partial-birther." ) I know that truthers are paranoid idiots,unpatriotic and such,but could you just explain about the Dancing Israelis? Just so I am clear.

William1066 said...

When I grew up, I attended for a time a segregated school - and we had 'tracked' sections. That is, we European-Americans were sorted into classrooms by academic ability. That stratification began to end when we integrated and the courts found that tracking resulted in the school having whites learning in mostly white classrooms and blacks in mostly black classrooms. Now, with the popularity of the AP and IB programs, we have found an 'acceptable' of tracking and thus re-homogenizing classroom complexions.

Since de facto segregation is what Obama, and the others are going after, they might as well go after the selective colleges too - where, in spite of affirmative action scholarships - those institutions are essentially still segregated (ignoring Asians here).

Anonymous said...

I think this is true, but I doubt they'll go after homeschoolers head-on. They'll just make sure the parents who want to homeschool their children have a mountain of paperwork to file, teach from government-approved lesson plans, and take expensive and lengthy certification courses before they can start.

In other words, it'll be regulated to death. I doubt they even need new laws to do it.


So you'll have sceloritic bureaucracies full of low-motivation dummies trying to oppress organized highly motivated parents with... paperwork. Oh I'm really scared.

It's comments like this that make me realize how out of it you people are when it comes to the realities of childrearing. You *already* need to have a filing cabinet for your progeny. You *already* need to show papers, stand in lines, and have everything in order if you want to leave the country with a minor, play sports, or do anything involving driving or overnights.

Oh and you do realize any attempt to regulate homeschooling in this way will result in endless turf wars among federal, state, and local authorities? In the time it will take everyone to work out who gets to oppress me, I will just move to Texas.

Anonymous said...

When do they sue God for not passing out brains on an equal basis?

I guess God doesn't have any money.

Anonymous said...

IIRC, there was at least one case were someone tried to sue either God or Satan for his/her personal misfortunes. The judge had enough sense to through it out of court.

Dalrock said...

One bright point. This should lower the cost of public education. Just look at how well this has worked out for Kansas City schools!

Anonymous said...

When do they sue God for not passing out brains on an equal basis? I guess God doesn't have any money.

You know, you joke about stuff like that, but I strongly suspect that the sort of insanity you are hinting at is precisely what occupies much of the waking thought [and likely the sleeping dreams] of the modern leftist-nihilist kook.

Toadal said...

3/09/2010
Blogger PRCalDude said...

Paging Mr. Sailer.


'The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong' by David Shenk.

While reading the Amazon book review, I thought David Shenk was possibly another Steven J. Gould, and could take up the mantle of Cardinal bishop for Liberal Creationists everywhere, however, after listening to his Nature Edcast book review interview, I realized his shallow arguments are much more akin to Malcolm Gladwells. Lots of quotes of authors and studies of questionable veracity.

Interview transcript here.

From the Nature Edcast Interview:
The reason that this (intelligence) hasn't really been articulated well is that up until really recently, this process of development was basically impossible to see. I mean after all, if intelligence is made up of a series of skills — of competencies, and of talent (or musical or athletic or other sorts of talent) — are made up of all these different skills, they actually represent tiny, tiny, tiny increments of improvement over many, many, many years time.

Duh. Anyone who has taught music to small children knows the musically talented can perfect playing, recalling and improvising classical pieces in a few hours time, while the untalented waste an eternity of time and patience.
Anyone who has taught mathematics or reading to small children also known talent is spread unevenly among children. Mr Shenk's naivete about exceptional children and their development is puzzling and disappointing.

None dare call it talent *or* the new human potential bowel movement

Again from the Nature Edcast Interview:
And let's instead to imagine where the science is pointing us, which is to a world that has really an extraordinary amount of potential — where instead of talent scarcity, this just an incredible amount of talent potential, arguably in all of us. Obviously we're all different beings, and so the potential is going to be different. But it really is this idea that we really haven't tapped into so much of our talent. And let's think about that is a whole new paradigm. That's the basic argument of my book.

And like Oakland, in 'The Genius in All of Us:' there is no there, there.

Anonymous said...

"When do they sue God for not passing out brains on an equal basis?

I guess God doesn't have any money"

No,they should sue their parents for giving them no brains or looks.
Jonathan Swift did not celebrate his brithday. He treated it as a day of mourning because he was brought into this world of misery.

Captain Jack Aubrey said...

Tangentially related, Obama has announced the recipients of the $1.4 million he "earned" from his Nobel Prize. Gee, don't you get the idea that Obama wishes he'd won the Nobel after leaving office, so he actually coulda kept the money? Of course, the "speaking fees" and other ex post facto kickbacks Obama will be receiving come January 22, 2013 will dwarf the Nobel money, but still...

Charities benefitting blacks:
1. Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund: $200k
2. College Summit: $125k
3. Posse Foundation: $125k
4. United Negro College: $125k
5. AfriCare: $100k

Hispanics:
1. Hispanic Scholarship Fund: $125k

Whites:
1. Appalachian Leadership & Ed Fund: $125k

American Indians:
1. American Indian College Fund: $125k

Muslims:
1. Central Asia Institute: $100k

Veterans:
1. Fisher House: $250k

$675,000 (48%) goes to charities exclusively helping blacks.

$400,000 (28.6%) goes to charities serving people outside of the United States.

$725,000 (52%) goes to ethnocentric organizations of any kind (the Appalachian Fund doesn't serve only whites).

Only $375,000 goes to organizations that might serve poor whites - the Appalachian Fund and Fisher House.

Kinda gives you an idea of the way Obama sees the world, doesn't it? Through the lens of race, and only through the lens of race.

I'm wagering that 100% of it would've gone to black charities if he wasn't expected to publicly release the list of recipients.

Anonymous said...

> Boys are socialized to be violent, the same way that minorities are socialized to [be] underachieving. <

Liberal.

Anonymous said...

> When do they sue God for not passing out brains on an equal basis? I guess God doesn't have any money.

> You know, you joke about stuff like that, but I strongly suspect that the sort of insanity you are hinting at is precisely what occupies much of the waking thought [and likely the sleeping dreams] of the modern leftist-nihilist kook. <

Their philosophy is the idea that only spirit matters, not the body. "We're all equal under the skin," "not this crude matter" (to quote Yoda), etc.

So "crude matter" and "social constructs" get in the way of "the genius in all of us."

It's dualism, big time. So they probably get a quantity of their mojo from religion.

ben tillman said...

Again, the use of [pseudo-] sentences like this are the hallmark of a person whose IQ isn't much above 110, or thereabouts.

I agree with you, of course, but in this context your subject-verb disagreement is awfully funny.

Anonymous said...

David: "Liberal".

It was parody, dude.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, it was shortly before dawn - right before I went to sleep - and I was typing into this impossibly tiny 2" X 3" text input area.

[Why do they always make these text input areas so tiny?]

Anyway, I was concentrating on getting an accurate transcript of the remarks from the Limbaugh show, and it was only after I typed the thing up that I noticed that the monosyllable "AXE" appeared in an ambient sentence which was utter gibberish.