Baa, baa, baa

The blogsophere has been lit up with the controversy over the abortive appointment of Ambassador Charles Freeman to assist the Director of National Intelligence in preparing estimates for the President.

Freeman, apparently, worked for a Middle East think tank funded partly by Saudi money (as opposed to those funded by Zionist money), and was insufficiently on board with the new-Cold-War -with-China meme of the neocons, having pointed out that the Tienanmen Square débacle could have been avoided if the problem had been addressed before tanks were needed. Freeman had also questioned Sacred Cow No. 1, the "special relationship" with Israel.

This was not a policymaking position, but a reporting position, where a critical approach is precisely what's needed, as opposed to a sheeplike adherence to conventional wisdom.

Well, baa, baa, baa! Steve Rosen, accused spy and ex-AIPAC staffer, and co-thinkers in the shrill Zionist bunker, began to kick up a fuss, a call was made to Rahm Emanuel (the President's chief of staff and son of an Irgunist, that is to say, a Zionist terrorist), and after the foofaraw ran on for a few days, Freeman was induced to withdraw.

The neocons at contentions are all high-fiving, while simultaneously accusing anyone who points out that there is an Israel lobby of antisemitism, or, if they suspect you're Jewish, "self-hatred." They are gabbling about "human rights" (something that doesn't bother the Israelis when they're peddling arms, in Beijing among other places) and "democracy" (synonym in Israel for "dysfunction" and not-to-be-mentioned in Palestine, where Hamas was chosen in a free election).

I have broken my rule and posted a few times at contentions, but have concluded I must stop. Anger is destructive generally, as is my political anger in particular, and my gorge rises at the arrogance and hypocrisy of these people. If you want to be a Zionist, go to Israel and take your chances. Keep the U.S. out of it, and considering that ethnic cleansing, land and water theft, and the semi-starvation of Gaza are ongoing, get off your high horse.

The continuing power of the Zionists as a veto group on their issues, and as political contributors even after Madoff, is a reality, and a danger to the Republic.

Damned Clever . . . But Why?

The New York Times has an interesting article on the predominance of Asian students at UC Berkeley, where racial preferences are forbidden by law. The article also notes the very low proportion of blacks and Hispanics there and at other University of California campuses.

The article also reports a discrimination lawsuit filed by Jian Li against Princeton University by an Asian student who contends that Asians with high SAT scores and grades are admitted in lower proportions than blacks with mediocre scores and grades.

The article discusses the effects on student social life, stereotypes of Asians, the hand-wringing by administrators, and the history of efforts to keep the campuses safe for upper-class white Protestants.

What the article carefully avoids discussing is the explanation for Asian academic success, and the poor results of Blacks and Hispanics despite 50 years of efforts to improve their results. Cultural factors reflected in family life are surely a part of the story. My discussion of cultural capital addresses some of these issues.

Another factor, surely, is intelligence. IQ is a pretty good measure of intelligence, and it's useful because so many tests have been given over so many years, with fairly consistent results. East Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) have at least one-half a standard deviation higher IQ, on average, than whites (about 8 points), which translates into much higher numbers at the upper edge of the Gauss ("bell") curve. American blacks' IQs are about a standard deviation lower than whites (about 16 points), again on average. Ashkenazic (Eastern European) Jews are about a standard deviation higher than whites in general, on average, which is one reason this small group produces extraordinary proportions of Nobel Prize winners, chess champions, and Supreme Court law clerks, to name a few élite postions.

Average IQ also correlates fairly well with national income.

Some portion of IQ results are no doubt related to nutrition, family stability and other environmental factors. As these improve, average results also improve. However, it's equally likely that heredity, as evidenced by identical twin studies, for example, plays a rôle. Given basically sound environmental conditions, people from certain groups, including East Asians, have higher average IQs, and form much higher proportions of the upper reaches of IQ results.

This fact doesn't the high-performing groups more worthy, nor does it justify discrimination, except perhaps in immigration policy. But it does suggest there are limits to what programs like Head Start or urban education grants can do to change these outcomes.

And it suggests that our best universities will be heavily East Asian for a long time to come.