Good news only, please.
The “Obama effect”
Sully says this blew his mind. It doesn’t surprise me at all:
In the study made public on Thursday, Dr. Friedman and his colleagues compiled a brief test, drawing 20 questions from the verbal sections of the Graduate Record Exam, and administering it four times to about 120 white and black test-takers during last year’s presidential campaign.
In total, 472 Americans — 84 blacks and 388 whites — took the exam. Both white and black test-takers ranged in age from 18 to 63, and their educational attainment ranged from high school dropout to Ph.D.
On the initial test last summer, whites on average correctly answered about 12 of 20 questions, compared with about 8.5 correct answers for blacks, Dr. Friedman said. But on the tests administered immediately after Mr. Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, and just after his election victory, black performance improved, rendering the white-black gap “statistically nonsignificant,” he said.
The reason this doesn’t surprise me is that it has been well-documented that African-Americans do worse on tests if they are asked to identify themselves by race before their test, so clearly people’s preconceived ideas “race” and “intelligence” influence their performance on these things . And, unlike some, I’ve never been one for half-baked white supremacist ideas about IQ.
To some extent all of this stuff indicates that the notion of using standardized tests to measure “intelligence” (to the extent that such a thing exists and is quanitfiable in the first place) is complete horseshit. And it also goes to something that everyone should just admit: we live in a society that makes blacks feel bad about themselves in a way helps cause them to do poorly on the bogus aptitude exams that we administer in order to convince ourselves that we’re a meritocracy.
All of that said, if there really is an “Obama effect” on African-American performance on standardized tests (the study hasn’t even been peer-reviewed yet, so it’s much too early to say), it’s great news for our society.
Tough Times For The Group That Is Always Your Friend In Tough Times
According to the Huffpo, the ACLU was hit hard by the Madoff scandal and has had to lay off 35 employees:
The American Civil Liberties Union, impacted by the unfolding economic crisis, laid off ten percent of its national workforce this week. Thirty-six staffers lost their jobs, including five in the Washington, D.C. legislative office, a source familiar with the firings told the Huffington Post.
A source in the ACLU’s Washington office confirmed that there had been layoffs, but couldn’t confirm the details. The ACLU has two separate Washington offices: a local branch that works on District of Columbia issues and an arm of the national ACLU, which works on legislative issues. The layoffs impacted the legislative office — though the District office is not necessarily immune to a budget shortfall.
The loss of the staffers means a likely reduction in influence for the civil liberties organization just as Democrats begin to push a legislative agenda as ambitious as any since the mid-sixties. Liberal advocacy organizations have been hit hard across the board by the economic downturn, as donations have fallen off and returns from investments have gone negative.
If you are able, now is as good a time as any to donate to them. I’m in for another fifty bucks.
And for the record, another thing I have never, ever, ever understood is the right-wing antipathy to the ACLU, which as far as I can tell, will stridently defend everyone’s rights, regardless of their political affiliation. Ask Larry Craig. Ask Jerry Falwell. Ask Rush Limbaugh. When we wanted to teach the Japanese about Democracy, who did Douglas McArthur send? You got it. Roger Baldwin, founder of the ACLU.
On inauguration day, Orin Kerr had a pretty snarky post that really made me laugh (particularly because it is something I said over and over again the past few years to my Republican friends– “Sure, you like this now. But do you want President Hillary Clinton to be able to do this?”) :
Just A Reminder, for the folks who thought that President Bush had the power to arrest anyone in the United States and detain them as “enemy combatants” without any hearing as part of his Commander-in-Chief power, that this power is now enjoyed by Barack Hussein Obama. That’s right: A liberal with the middle name “Hussein” who pals around with terrorists and is adored in Paris now has all that Commander-in-Chief power. And if he decides that you’re a threat to the nation, he can order you seized and locked up indefinitely. Congress can’t get in B. Hussein Obama’s way: As the FISA Court of Review emphasized back in 2002, Congress “could not encroach on the President’s constitutional power.” And that meddling Supreme Court can’t stop “The One,” either. Or at least that’s your view of things.
Of course, late conversions into believers of checks and balances are more than welcome.
You know who would be fighting for those people? The ACLU. Without hesitation. There simply isn’t a more American institution out there, and I do not understand why it is so hated by the right. Go give.
Tough Times For The Group That Is Always Your Friend In Tough TimesPost + Comments (152)
This Song Is Called Put Some Money In The Bucket
Barbara O’Brien, aka Mahabarbara, is the first blogger that I ever knew and one of the sharper commentators out there. If you have any change lying around consider passing it on to help keep medical bills from driving her out of her house.
This Song Is Called Put Some Money In The BucketPost + Comments (8)
Fifty-Two Thousand Words
A really interesting photo series of members of the incoming Obama administration and key members of Congress in the NY Times magazine that is worth your time. Several things stood out to me, chief of which is just how attractive many of the people are- Reggie Love, Mona Sutphen, and Eugene Kang all look like models. The other thing that struck me was how many people with red hair there were. Additionally, you really do get a sense of who they are just from a picture. The seriousness of demeanor and posture of Jones, Gates, and Shinseki, contrasted with the relaxed pose of Reggie Love and the intriguing gaze of Samantha Power.
Finally, of all the people pictured, only one of them really looks to me like he has no business in politics whatsoever- David Axelrod. Every time I look at him, I just think he is the prototype of what I have in mind when I picture the private detective in crime novels. Or maybe the guy who announced old boxing matches.
Check it out.
Eternal Sunshine
For no reason that I can think of, the following song has been stuck in my head since I woke up this morning:
Still one of the best theme songs, I think.
I saw a show on the National Geographic channel a while back that said that a series of Air Force tests on human reactions to extreme G forces years ago offered evidence that when people experience the “light at the end of the tunnel” in near death experiences, that it was actually the brain shutting down non essential functions due to oxygen deprivation. I have read a couple of books on memory for various classes, but I simply don’t remember any theories as to why songs get “stuck in our head.” Anyone know?
*** Update ***
Via the comments, this, which is just all sorts of excellent:
Listen to it a couple times, and spend one just listening to the guy singing “big baboon.” Reminds me of the background riff (the musical name is escaping me atm) to “Hey Ladies.” I had never heard of Moxy Fruvous before.
Open Thread
Millions of people have already packed the national Mall to capacity. I hope that someone remembered to bring a loaf and a fish.