Just incase you're afraid of- you know- facing reality

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IQ testing and the eugenics movement in the United States

Eugenics, a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human population by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior and promoting those judged to be superior,[39][40][41] played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States during the Progressive Era, from the late 19th century until US involvement in World War II.[42][43]

The American eugenics movement was rooted in the biological determinist ideas of the British Scientist Sir Francis Galton. In 1883, Galton first used the word eugenics to describe the biological improvement of human genes and the concept of being "well-born".[44][45] He believed that differences in a person's ability were acquired primarily through genetics and that eugenics could be implemented through selective breeding in order for the human race to improve in its overall quality, therefore allowing for humans to direct their own evolution.[46]

Goddard was a eugenicist. In 1908, he published his own version, The Binet and Simon Test of Intellectual Capacity, and cordially promoted the test. He quickly extended the use of the scale to the public schools (1913), to immigration (Ellis Island, 1914) and to a court of law (1914).[47]

Unlike Galton, who promoted eugenics through selective breeding for positive traits, Goddard went with the US eugenics movement to eliminate "undesirable" traits.[48] Goddard used the term "feeble-minded" to refer to people who did not perform well on the test. He argued that "feeble-mindedness" was caused by heredity, and thus feeble-minded people should be prevented from giving birth, either by institutional isolation or sterilization surgeries.[47] At first, sterilization targeted the disabled, but was later extended to poor people. Goddard's intelligence test was endorsed by the eugenicists to push for laws for forced sterilization. Different states adopted the sterilization laws at different paces. These laws, whose constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court in their 1927 ruling Buck v. Bell, forced over 60,000 people to go through sterilization in the United States.[49]

California's sterilization program was so effective that the Nazis turned to the government for advice on how to prevent the birth of the "unfit".[50] While the US eugenics movement lost much of its momentum in the 1940s in view of the horrors of Nazi Germany, advocates of eugenics (including Nazi geneticist Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer) continued to work and promote their ideas in the United States.[50] In later decades, some eugenic principles have made a resurgence as a voluntary means of selective reproduction, with some calling them "new eugenics".[51] As it becomes possible to test for and correlate genes with IQ (and its proxies),[52] ethicists and embryonic genetic testing companies are attempting to understand the ways in which the technology can be ethically deployed.[53]

In most modern countries, having kids is the relatively easy part. Being a responsible parent, on the other hand....

But then again, overcoming the challenges (sleep deprivation included) are part of what make being a parent so rewarding. At least in my case, having kids made me a stronger and better person--I learned to be more patient and more compassionate, and I learned how to push beyond my supposed limits (I used to think I couldn't survive without 8 hours a night of sleep--HAH!).

No doubt it can be a struggle at times. My grandfather used to have a T-shirt that read, "Insanity is heredity: you inherit it from your kids."

But it also has those intense moments like your daughter singing the ABC song all by herself for the first time, or always belly laughing at the fart sound you make with your palms, or telling you she loves right before she goes to sleep that make all of the hassle completely worthwhile.

I know my momma loves me
I know my poppa loves me
I know the camera loves me
I can tell my brother loves me
I know that Boston loves
And San Francisco loves me
I love the city back,
I just can't help it, it's so lovely

I'm in my lucky underwear, i'm feeling debonair
If it's a lonely trip to heaven, I'm already there
I'm in the bedroom i'm like stepping like I'm Fred Astaire
I make it happen, battlerapping at my Teddy Bear
When I was twelve I'd leave my door open a crack
afraid if getting busted sneaking porno on my mac
I guess I was a freak
Until I got caught last week
(who's been loving you?)
I was reading Booker T, I threw the book at me
I go for the lookers but they never look at me
I would get a hooker if I could unhook her bra
I'd be looking soft as soon as she took her top. off
let's go rolling in a broken winnebago
stop and smoke a bowl out of a hollowed out potato
It's hash now, but it's hash browns soon
(who's been loving you?)

I know that Jesus loves me
I know that buddha loves
The fucking easter Bunny
and the ghost of gandhi love me
I know that santa loves me
I think my Aunties love me
I know my Grandma loved me
she thought I was handsome trust me

this insanity, that's heredity
it's my family, we can let it be
wish I pretended that mom and dad are dead to me
But i love my dad, that motherfucker read to me
my first words were "where's the love?"
mad smug, assed up on a bearskin rug
fashodo, mom'll show you the photo
(who's been loving you?)
I do embarassing better
I could wear a pink sweater
with a pair of slick pleather pants
derelicte e-va-ry day and it's well known
that I hop off stage with my cell phone
fake a dropped call when everybody's near me
and shout "I love you mom!" so everybody hears me
I need to and true nothing new but
(who's been loving you?)

Even though I owe them money
I think it's pretty likely
that my whole family loves me
My lovers tend to like me
I know my homies love me
My teachers loved to hate me
The haters love to fuck with me
the fickle love me lately

I'm a percussionist. I never knew guitar
it's cheesy, but I'm stunting like a superstar
it's easy man I'm hopping out a moving car
call me weezy cause I'm coughing at the hookah bar
I don't do cigars, but I got hella game
I can make a lady out of styling gel and cellophane
so you can yell my name, I make the bed frame move
(who's been loving you?)
me and my better friends are heading to the town strip
if they don't let us in we'll never take roundtrip
because I took an hour picking out my outfit
and then I took another slicking down a cowlick
and I like house sitting, but fuck it now's different
I'm going out and there ain't a bouncer for cowtipping
So I'ma tear this joint up
And i'ma party till the hoofs point up
(who's been loving you?)

this is for Charles Barkley
This is for Poison Ivy
This it's for Draco Malfoy
And it's for Bill O'Reilly
This is for Ned Mencia
It's for the corporate lawyers
it's for the backseat drivers
And for my friend Ann Coulter

I find that women are always less likely to want to juggle my balls once they realize I have 5. They always assume it's because of my job at the nuclear power plant, "BUT NO!", I tells them, "IT'S HEREDITY GODDAMIT!! MY GRANDPA HAD 11 BALLS!" Ol' 'lleven ball we used to call him... back before the war. He ended up losing 3 balls in Vietnam, and then another in Iraq. But he still had seven, which, even still, is a respectable collection of eggs to have in your Easter basket. What were we talking about again?

>> ^quantumushroom:

With apologies because Netrunner isn't here to comment on his comment:
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It does seem like the right-wing consensus will be to just double-down on the original racist dog whistle, rather than shift to one of the others they've tried out since 2007.

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Stop hiding behind your extremist rhetoric and engage in an ACTUAL dialogue with left leaners and you'd realize that we all want the same thing.
>>> It's sad that demanding a reasonably-sized government answerable to the Constitution is now considered "extremist".

I'm easilly summoned, just put an @ sign in front of my name, and I'll appear.

I don't think living up to the Constitutional requirements are "extremist", what I think is that Obama met the legal standards all the way back when he got on the ballot. I think the witch hunt we've seen the right go on has pretty obviously not been about the Constitution, but about the refusal to accept the legitimacy of a black Democrat being President.

I'm sure for some people it's more about the "Democrat" half than the "black" half, but it's never really been about the documents or the Constitution.

>> ^quantumushroom:
The left views free market capitalism as exploitive and evil (to an extent true) while "my" side sees it as the fastest and most efficient way to lift people out of poverty. It's impossible to argue anything without common ground, and the reality is, not everyone in life ends up a winner, due to poor choices, heredity or plain bad luck. It's not government's job to right every wrong.

I think a lot of the problem I have with the right is that they see distributive justice and market prosperity as being mutually exclusive, and that there's some a priori reason government shouldn't be about righting every wrong.

Personally, I think markets are a good thing on the whole, and I wouldn't get rid of them. I think the difference is that when they lead to human suffering, I think that's a black mark on markets as a societal mechanism, while on the right it seems like if the market causes a human to suffer, that human should have a black mark on them. It comes across to me (and probably most liberals) like some weird superstitious cult: "he got laid off when the recession hit, therefore we should not give him medicine when he gets sick for fear that it would anger the gods of moral hazard."

I think the only reason to shy away from trying to have government "right every wrong" would be over practical concerns -- I don't think we can always properly recognize every wrong, I know that we can't substantively help with them all, and I do recognize that government is still comprised of fallible human beings who might do stupid or immoral things. But, if there's a clear way to recognize them, a straightforward way to help, and we set up reasonable checks and balances against stupidity or evilness, then I see no reason not to try it out.

GenjiKilpatrick:

Would you please stop babbling and step into reality.

>>> You're the one on the unicorn.

Talk to Dag or Blankfist or Dystopian or Me or even.. Westy for fuck's sake.


>>> I have, and will again.

We're all ACTUAL people who have identified Obama's corruption, incompetence, & hypocrisy for what it is to varying extents.

>>> You have collectively been disappointed that His Earness hasn't closed Gitmo, ended the wars, brought about universal health care, etc. That's not the same as noting corruption and incompetence. Hypocrisy, incompetence and corruption are endemic to politics, but there are degrees of severity. This guy has made us a laughingstock amongst our enemies and his trillion dollars of spending haven't done JACK SQUAT to "fix" the economy. America is living on borrowed time, money and Vaseline and the dunce is out golfing while the world burns. The only way to stay sane is to assume that was his plan all along, taking America down a notch in the name of social justice. To imagine any other outcome means he's a total n00b (which he is).


None of us would ever call a person racism for agreeing with this understanding of events.

With apologies because Netrunner isn't here to comment on his comment:
----------

It does seem like the right-wing consensus will be to just double-down on the original racist dog whistle, rather than shift to one of the others they've tried out since 2007.

----------

Stop hiding behind your extremist rhetoric and engage in an ACTUAL dialogue with left leaners and you'd realize that we all want the same thing.

>>> It's sad that demanding a reasonably-sized government answerable to the Constitution is now considered "extremist". The left views free market capitalism as exploitive and evil (to an extent true) while "my" side sees it as the fastest and most efficient way to lift people out of poverty. It's impossible to argue anything without common ground, and the reality is, not everyone in life ends up a winner, due to poor choices, heredity or plain bad luck. It's not government's job to right every wrong.

It's only you and the douche bag neo-liberals who are your polar opposite, too caught up in dogmatic cheerleading, which are holding the rest of us back.

>>> If that belief comforts you...

>>> The Constitution is a "holding back" document, meant to limit the power of government. If you're waiting for government to make your life extraordinary and make everyone happy and equal, you could be immortal and still not have enough time.

>>> If the American people aren't smart enough to elect someone else besides BHO, they get what they deserve. Hell, they already have.

I read an article recently that pointed out that maybe the reason there is so much depression in western societies like the USA is because there is truly so much to be depressed about. It suggested that the depressed people weren't really "sick" as much as they were sensitive to, and aware of, the many failings of our culture, especially regarding things like fairness and justice.

Bi-polar is a little different animal than mere depression, and I personally think there are different manifestations of psychological illnesses ranging from, say, heredity to behavioral.

But I didn't see anything that would earn the "grade A bullshit" label of disapproval in this video.

That would be the Flip Wilson "The devil made me do it" defense.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Monty-Python-Every-Sperm-Is-Sacred

"Every sperm is sacred" was a great mockery of the pope's policy against contraception, and highly suggestive of the idea of a virus of faith (there are many religions in the world, making contradictory claims; with 90% heredity of religion, the ones that dominate will just be the ones that instruct their followers to have the most children)

Never knew about the fissures. What causes those? Is it simply a matter of heredity?

hmm. i know it's not a factor in the clip, itself? but Lynde was, among other things, *gay.
also very quick-witted, as this list can attest.

Q: Why was Nathan Hale hung?
Lynde: Heredity.

If most people were smart and open-minded, religion would be less hereditary. The sheer heredity, combined with the contradictions between major world religions, prove that most people are, like sheep, easily herded.

Take all reviews with a grain of salt. Many reviewers plagiarize other reviewers instead of reading whole the book, and they have ulterior motives. When I compare reviews to books or movies I've read or seen, I usually find the reviews terribly shallow. I recommend The God Delusion to anyone who can read.

Dawkins just mercilessly debates with reasonable arguments and sometimes satirizes opposing viewpoints for the sake of argument in a way that is not crude or personal. Politeness should not include an unwillingness to dispute matters of fact in public discourse. I applaud Dawkins for having the balls to go to Lynchburg.

Dawkins v. Haggard:
Dawkins was going to debate Haggard's assertion that the earth is 6000 years old and Haggard just dodged the question by calling Dawkins arrogant. Reviewers who call Dawkins a variety of unflattering labels are employing a similarly ridiculous tactic to try to suppress Dawkins' well written book and direct conversation away from the meat and potatoes.

jlee22 wrote: I think it would be unfair to assume that most, if not all of the adult religious population hold their beliefs simply because their parents do.

The demographic evidence seems to contradict your claim indirectly. Hundreds of mutually contradicting religious sects contain five-sixths of the world population. By comparing religious beliefs and populations, you can infer that most of the believers are wrong (without knowing which ones are wrong). Combined with the remarkably low apostasy rate, this proves that most people tend to believe whatever their parents believed regardless of the inaccuracy of those beliefs. I know of no other good explanation for the diversity and heredity of religion.

thanks for grossing us all out, dag.

... re-reading my statement, maybe I should note that if you like milk (and I do too) it does have vitamin D and A and some Calcium, so its better than drinking a soda. But if you don't like it (my girlfriend is mildly lactose intolerant) then whatever... you're not going to have a higher rate of bone breaking osteoporosis when you're 65. Heredity, followed closely by exercise, makes the biggest difference in bone health, but whatever.