I’ve always been sympathetic toward Howard Gardner’s popular Multiple Intelligences theory. I pointed out to him once that if there really are seven or eight separate intelligences, then it’s much less likely that all races have all the same intelligences than if the g factor was dominant. For example, we see that the two sexes have extremely similar g factors on IQ tests, which is hardly implausible purely from a stochastic standpoint since there are just two data points: male average IQ and female average IQ. But if we have, say, four or five racial/ethnic groups and seven or eight Gardnerian intelligences, that’s 28 to 40 different datapoints, and no way, no how are 28 to 40 different data points all going to come out the same in the real world.

He agreed.

But, I’m also frustrated by how little development has been done on his theory, by him or by others.

Reading his books, it’s pretty clear that, while he’s a bright, interesting guy, he pretty much made up his categories off the top of his head.

For example, if I recall correctly, he lumps agile athletes together with guys who are really good at working on their cars as all possessing high “kinesthetic” intelligence. The problem is that if you stop and think about the cliques at your old high school, you’ll note that there was little overlap between the jocks and the greasers. The gearheads tended to be a little uncoordinated and the football heroes were more into buying cars than fixing them. So, while I’m perfectly happy to agree that there are multiple intelligences, I’m don’t think Gardner’s term “kinesthetic” is actually pointing to a real single thing. Football star LaDainlian Tomlinson and car-fixer-upper Jesse James (Sandra Bullock’s husband) may well both possess unusually gifted cognitive talents, but I strongly doubt they are the same talent.

If anybody is actually interested in quantitatively investigating multiple intelligences, the military’s ASVAB test would offer a good source of data. The ASVAB, introduced in the 1970s, is a superset of the military’s traditional AFQT enlistment IQ test. To the four highly g-loaded AFQT subtests, the military added six more specific, less g-loaded subtests. For example, one was on auto repair, which would be relevant to Gardner’s kinesthetic category. Here are the ten subtests as of 1980:

• * general science
• * Arithmetic reasoning
• * word knowledge
• * paragraph comprehension
• * numercial operations
• * coding speed
• * auto and shop information
• * mathematics knowledge
• * mechanical comprehension
• * electronics information

We have a fantastic nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Youth sample of about 12,000 people who took the military’s ASVAB as young adults in 1980, and social scientists have been following the course of their lives with close interest ever since. Most famously, Herrnstein and Murray correlated what they were doing in 1990 against their AFQT IQs in 1980 to furnish most of the novel material in The Bell Curve. But the other six subtests, when correlated with the NLSY demographic data, might provide some clues as to what multiple intelligences actually exist.

If managed properly, sanctuary cities can have a silver lining. Really.

So says a starry-eyed columnist in Austin, Texas, which is a de facto sanctuary city.

After recounting the tragic execution-style murders of three young people in Neward, N. J., Alberta Phillips (e-mail) wraps up her call for tougher law enforcement against criminal illegal aliens this way:

I’m not ready to throw out the sanctuary policy entirely. The question we need to answer is how we retain the best elements of being a sanctuary city without sacrificing public safety, “Phillips: Our sanctuary city must not serve as a haven for criminals,” by Alberta Phillips, Austin American-Statesman, Sept. 16.

Memo to Ms. Phillilps: I was waiting for you to identify these “best elements” but came away disappointed when you didn’t. Would they perhaps include fewer jobs for your city’s legal residents, depressed wages, overcrowded schools and hospital emergency rooms, worsening traffic congestion, environmental degradation, etc., etc.?

John Leo has posted a list of of “Things you might not know about the Duke non-rape case if you haven’t read the new book “Until Proven Innocent, ” by Stuart Taylor, Jr, and KC Johnson.”

One of them startled even me:

The notably fair and accurate journalists who covered the case (a short list) included Dan Abrams of MSNBC, Chris Cuomo of Good Morning America, Kurt Anderson of New York Magazine, Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes and the first New York Times reporter, Joe Drape, who was taken off the story [emphasis added]shortly after concluding that the alleged rape looked like a hoax.
September 17, 2007
Things You Might Not Know About The Duke Case

The New York Times had the story, but didn’t want it. It must not have been “fit to print.”

We already knew that Mexicans are musically inclined, from their large output of narco-corridos which celebrate gangsterism hispanic style.

Recently their musical creations have come to the attention of diversity-loving NPR, which presented their songs as the folk expression of a people in struggle for a better life.

It is culturally unsettling to hear “This Land Is Your Land,” the old Woodie Guthrie standard, being sung in English with a Mexican back-up. (There’s a Spanish version also, naturally.) The song is sung in words we Americans can understand in order to communicate the full insult as intended: not only are they invading our country, they are stealing our songs too, particularly the lefty ones.

“Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940, at a time when migrant workers from the Great Plains were being displaced by drought and the Dust Bowl,” Dies says. “They were traveling and looking for opportunities, for a chance to work and feed their families.”

Many Mexican migrant workers of today can relate, so Dies decided to translate Guthrie’s classic into Spanish, while adding a few lyrics of his own: “In the world there are people who are poor / In the world there are people who are rich / And then there are the others, the travelers / who are seeking an opportunity.”
[Immigrant Songs Offer New Twist on Old Sounds, National Public Radio 9/16/07]

There was one tune I enjoyed…

Other immigrant farm workers are not as optimistic. Benigno Pedraza sings, “The doors of opportunity are closing in America, so I’m going back to Mexico.”

Since this is NPR open-borders radio, there was no mention of the destruction wrought by job-stealing illegal foreigners on poor Americans. Those folks are singing the blues.

Incidentally, this radio project was apparently sponsored by the Western Folklife Center, the organization that hosts the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Their celebration of the invasion of America seems tone-deaf, to say the least. Why don’t you ask them what they think they are doing these days: wfc@westernfolklife.org.

There’s a notable quote from a Seattle employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an article (”Feds told of foreign-born jail inmates,” Salem, OR, Statesman Journal, September 16, 2007) about local/fed enforcement cooperation in Marion County, Oregon. Introducing Lorie Dankers, who probably has no future with ICE, as she hasn’t learned to obfuscate:

“The main goal of the program is to deport immigrants, both illegal and legal, who are judged a danger to society, ICE Seattle office spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said. Agents interview the suspects once notified by local police, and then decide whether a detainer should be placed against them.

“‘Being in the country illegally is also a crime, but our goal is really to focus on public safety,’ Dankers said. ‘People who are legal, permanent residents here are still guests in this country, and they must adhere to the laws of this country.’”

Of course the straightforward statement that “Being in the country illegally is also a crime” shouldn’t be notable. But, alas, in our mad times, it is.

One of the online commenters at the article (Stephen, at 11:02 a.m., September 16) adds something interesting (click on through to the first full page of comments). After confessing his status as a refugee from California and revealing his forebodings about Oregon’s future under the invasion, he writes:

“On a last note, I check news, and I have a police scanner. I dont care WHAT the statistics are, all I hear and see ALL the time is hispanic names over my scanner and hispanic crime in the news. Scanners only cost $100 if you dont believe me, and I will give you the channels to program in. The police force is quite busy to say the least.”

This is a horrifying story of a murder:

A day after a double homicide took the lives of a 7-month old baby and his young father, detectives announced the unthinkable Saturday: the infant had not been accidentally caught in gunfire but was intentionally shot, execution-style, in his car seat.

Seconds after shooting down 21-year-old Sean Paul Aquitania during a suspected home-invasion robbery in southeast Sacramento County Friday afternoon, two suspects fled the house, authorities believe. They stopped just long enough at Aquitania’s Chevrolet Malibu to fire a single bullet into the head of the man’s infant son, Sean Paul Jr., before disappearing.

By Saturday, the suspects had not been located.

If the suspects hadn’t been located, the paper can help the public by printing their description, can’t it?

They’ve offered little description of the two suspects — one of whom reportedly was wearing a black, hooded sweat shirt, the other, a green shirt and a green Oakland A’s hat.News - Baby’s killing shocks, angers By Kim Minugh, Sacramento Bee,September 16, 2007

The same story, from the local TV news station:

News10.net - Friends of Double Murder Victims Speak Out
Authorities said the one of the attackers was reportedly an African American wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, while the second man was described as Hispanic and wearing a green shirt and a green Oakland A’s hat.

Both reporters presumably received the same description from the police. It’s just that the Sacramento Bee wouldn’t print it.

Just for the record, the Sacramento Bee’s values include

• Journalistic commitment to the public interest.
• Integrity in journalism and business.
• Performance and accountability.

Oh, and let’s not forget

• Strength through diversity.