One of the most unfortunate consequences of the controversy that enveloped The Bell Curve is that, by affixing the “racism” label to Murray and Herrnstein’s book, liberals discouraged people from acquainting themselves with the very valuable points the book makes about the structure of the modern elite. (This constitutes Part I: “The Emergence of a Cognitive Elite”; Chapter 1, “Cognitive Class and Education, 1900-1990,” is especially relevant.) While everyone was slinging around accusations that Murray and Herrnstein were advocating Nazi eugenics, or at least “social Darwinism,” they overlooked the book’s important examination of how standardized testing and democratization of educational opportunity have re-shaped our society.
Most Americans over 50 were raised to think that, if levels of education were any indication of social class, they divided people into two rather large classes — college graduates and everybody else. If you got your bachelor’s degree, you were about as qualified for success as anyone else. Graduates of elite schools like Yale or Harvard might enjoy some advantage, and those who pursued post-graduate education were obviously qualified for specific prestige professions like law or medicine, but anyone who possessed a bachelor’s degree was in some sense “elite.” Or so Americans generally believed, 40 or 50 years ago. Continue reading Ace of Spades Gets It →
Sean Hannity complained to [Fox News programming chief] Bill Shine about Beck. And it didn’t help matters that O’Reilly, who had become friends with Beck and can’t stand Hannity, scheduled Beck as a regular guest, a move that only annoyed Hannity further.
(Via Memeorandum.) That O’Reilly has always viewed Hannity as a rival is hardly a secret to people in the business.
As the network’s top primetime star, O’Reilly claims the right of first refusal on any big exclusive interviews: If you are a publicist who wants your client to appear on O’Reilly’s show, you’d better not schedule an interview with Hannity first, because that will be viewed as a betrayal of O’Reilly. And knowing themselves to have this power, O’Reilly’s producers do not hesitate to manipulate guests — hinting at the possibility of a “Factor” appearance, on a wait-and-see basis — to the frustration of these would-be guests and their P.R. people, who are left hanging on such hints.
However, to learn that O’Reilly was using Beck as a weapon to snub Hannity — and that Beck permitted himself to be used to those ends — adds something new to our understanding of the often-toxic behind-the-scenes rivalry among Fox’s primetime hosts.
BTW, I don’t doubt that people at Fox will dispute the accuracy of Sherman’s article, and they may dispute this particular item. However, the O’Reilly-Beck-Hannity angle matches what I already knew about the situation, so I’m willing to believe it is reasonably close to truth.
“I’ve never set out to win a popularity contest. I came from [being previously pro-choice], but when I was confronted with the science — and I spoke to top scientists throughout our country asking, ‘Would you please just show me some shred of evidence that the unborn is not a human being?’ and no one has been able to show me any, and I will continue to fight for those human rights until someone can show me otherwise.”
— Kathy Ireland, explaining her opposition to taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood
One reason that liberalism is so fashionable is that liberals astutely seek to associate their philosophy with prestige and glamour. Never mind that the most successful politician in show-business history was conservative Republican Ronald Reagan — Hollywood is, and always has been, politically dominated by liberals. (Indeed, Reagan himself was once a “hemophiliac liberal” by his own admission.)
It therefore behooves conservatives to celebrate those shining exceptions to the general rule, and what example could be more exceptional than Kathy Ireland, whose famous beauty graced the pages of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue for 13 consecutive years?
Ms. Ireland is nowadays a 48-year-old married mom (she and her husband, Dr. Greg Olsen, have a 12-year-old daughter, Lilly) and is not afraid to speak up about her Christian values.
(tie) Da Tech Guy, Lonely Conservative, That Mr. G Guy (5)
Thanks to all for the links! Blogspot bloggers, if you want to be included in next week’s roundup, please e-mail me your links with “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line by May 28 at Wombat-socho, because WordPress hates you.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told supporters in an email early Sunday that he will not run for president in 2012, a decision he said ultimately came down to his family’s reticence about a campaign.
The announcement by the former Office of Management and Budget director and favorite of much of the Republican establishment will again roil the unsettled GOP field — and likely intensify efforts to convince another major candidate to join the race, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Dear God, please not Jeb Bush! But you see the pattern: Barbour quit, Trump quit, Huckabee quit and now Daniels quits, while Herman Cain — the man who all the pundits say can’t win — just keeps going and going.
Chris Wallace: “What would president Cain offer the Palestinians to make peace?” Herman Cain: “Nothing. Because I’m not convinced the Palestinians are really interested in peace. If the Palestinians comje to the table with Israel with a genuine offer that the two of them can sit down and negotiate, the United States would, in fact, facilitate that discussion. But if we look at history, it has been clear that the Palestinians have always wanted to push the Israelis, and push Israel, for more and more and more. I don’t agree with that, and I respect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or taking a stand and saying they cannot give that up.”
Criticize that however you wish, Cain’s strong pro-Israel position aligns very closely with the views of most Republican primary voters.
Mitch Daniels’s overnight decision against a presidential bid will immediately raise the volume on the low-hum grumbling among Republican insiders that they’re gearing up to face President Obama with the weakest primary field in recent memory.
The pressure on a handful of Republicans who’ve insisted they won’t consider running but would be potentially strong alternatives to Mitt Romney will now significantly intensify, but the ultimate beneficiaries of Daniels’s absence may be two candidates already on course to run: Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman.
At the moment, though, the Indiana governor’s exit illustrates the degree to which the GOP race is being shaped by who’s not running.
Consider the list of would-be candidates who’ve passed on a campaign in the last four months: Mike Pence, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump and now Daniels.
Add Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan and Rick Perry – Republicans with star power who’ve said flatly they won’t run – and it translates into a GOP establishment deeply worried that the flawed options they’re left with won’t be any match for an incumbent president who seemingly won’t face a primary but is likely to shatter campaign fundraising records.
The discomfiture of “Republican insiders” is a very good thing. Can we get a show of hands of anybody who thinks “Republican insiders” (you know, the guys who backed Dede Scozzafava and Charlie Crist) have a clue as to how to win elections? Anybody?
So on a 90 degree Saturday in Hotlanta, Herman Cain drew 10,000 – 15,000 supporters. I’d say that’s not bad for a “long shot” presidential candidate ? particularly considering the fact that the crowd came out to hear Cain officially announce what he had already officially announced that he would officially announce…
How big have your crowds been lately, Mitt?
Palestinians will seek recognition as a United Nations member-state in September given the deadlock in U.S.-brokered peacemaking with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday.
Nabil Shaath urged President Barack Obama, who Thursday criticized the planned move at the U.N. general assembly, to join other countries in endorsing a Palestinian state taking in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. . . . “Of course we will go to the United Nations,” Shaath, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters.
“Especially after Netanyahu used the old pretext that he needs defensible borders’ to keep stealing our land, control the Jordan Valley and create demographic facts on the ground.”
