Conservative forum

Enforce Border Security With Military Troops

When I was in the US Army Reserves, my battalion actually deployed to Hollimon AFB (near Alamogordo, N.M.). Our mission was to set up Ground Surveillance Radar (GSR) equipment to monitor the empty, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands for illegal aliens and drug smugglers. The operation was called Joint Task Force 6. JTF6 came to end when a storm of negative publicity erupted after a US Marine fired at and killed a young man (whose nationality I cannot recall). It should be noted that the marine was acquitted of murder since the victim had fired at the marine first.

I applaud the recommendation for deploying troops to the border ["Put U.S. Troops on U.S. Borders," HUMAN EVENTS, June 24, page 11. However, prior to such a deployment, I would strongly urge Congress to mandate special "civil affairs" training for the soldiers. I would also confine the deployment to military police troops. Additionally, if possible I would outfit these border guards in uniforms other than the well-recognized camouflage fatigues, since the mere site of soldiers with helmets, flak vests and rifles could add fuel to already existing Mexican anti-Americanism.

-Brad O'Brien

Ft. Sam Houston, Tex.

Liberal's IQ Excuse To Stop Executions

Anne Coulter hit a home run ["Murdering the Bell Curve," HUMAN EVENTS, July 1, page 6] in pointing out the contradiction between liberal reliance on IQ when inventing a new constitutional right to free murderers from death row; and liberal rejection of IQ when it might be used to favor competence elsewhere, for example, employment.

-Barry Freedman

Los Angeles, Calif.

Does Ann Coulter really believe the 1994 book by Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein, The Bell Curve, has survived serious scientific scrutiny? To sample batches of people's IQ's by skin color and then assert that yellow people have higher IQ's than whites who have higher IQ's than blacks is meaningless. I do not have to do such sampling to determine these results. But Murray & Herrnstein concluded that to a degree, their "scientific" findings demonstrate that a human being's intellectual potential at birth is influenced by his/her skin color.

As Gregg Easterbrook noted in his scathing review of their book in the December 1994 Washington Monthly, the authors may not be "racist" per se, but they are "wrong-headed." But Easterbrook was being kind, for racist they are in the strictest sense. I've called them "benevolent racists," in that they are not suggesting blacks are "subhuman," as the term was applied in the Third Reich by the Master Race.

Murray was a sociologist and Herrnstein was a psychologist. Easterbrook quoted Evan Balaban, a former professor of evolutionary science at Harvard: "The people who say intelligence is genetic are the ones with no training in genetics." I remember seeing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in praise of the Bell Curve, signed by more than 200 professors of top-flight schools. There was no mention of their disciplines. I called Bob Bartley, editor of the Journal, and asked if he would mind checking. "Sure enough," he reported back, "They are all social scientists!"

-Jude Wanniski

Morristown, N.J.

Editor's Reply: Ann Coulter's column inadvertently cited the publication date of The Bell Curve as 1996. It was initially published by The Free Press in the fall of 1994 and released as a Touchstone paperback in early 1996.

Mr. Wanniski fails to appreciate the irony of his own claims-that popular misconceptions about the credibility of The Bell Curve's findings only makes Ann Coulter's points more salient. Aside from failing to notice this paradox, several of Wanniski's points reflect widespread fallacies about Herrnstein and Murray's book.

First, in establishing the criteria for assessing the scientific validity of The Bell Curve, Wanniski relies upon the judgment of a journalist (Gregg Easterbrook), who selectively cites the views of one scientist, rather than a convergence of scientific analysis. A geo-physicist who argues that the earth really is flat doesn't make the claim true.

Second, the Dec. 13, 1994, op/ed that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, "Mainstream Science on Intelligence," was signed by 52 experts and not as-Wanniski claims by "more than 200." Although most were "social scientists," Wanniski's point-that all of the signers, confirmed by Bob Bartley, were social scientists-is simply inaccurate. Vincent Sarich, a physical anthropologist at the University of California (Berkeley), and Garrett Hardin, a prominent biologist who has written several biology textbooks, signed and endorsed the statement.

Third, contrary to Wanniski's innuendo that those who make hereditarian claims about intelligence have "no training in genetics," a number of eminent geneticists and biologists have asserted the case for heritable differences of intelligence, including: Cyril Darlington, Sheridan Professor of Botany at Oxford University, John R. Baker, zoologist and Reader in Cytology at Oxford, Harvard geneticist Edward M. East, David C. Rife, a former Fulbright Scholar and geneticist at Ohio State University, F.A. E. Crew of Edinburgh University, and Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson.

Finally, several studies published since the appearance of The Bell Curve substantiate Herrnstein and Murray's findings, ineluding Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhannen's IQ and the Wealth of Nations, and a special issue of the journal Intelligence (JanuaryFebruary 1997).

Wanniski strongly suggests that Herrnstein and Murray view intelligence as merely "genetic" in nature. In fact, they clearly emphasize in The Bell Curve what most scientists recognize: Intelligence is a genetically and environmentally influenced trait.

GOP Treatment of Steel and Tancredo Deplorable

If Mark Racicot thinks firing every conservative Republican that disagrees with President Bush ["Racicot Fires California Chair From RNC Executive Committee," HumAN EvENTs, July 1, page 4] or with the so-called new GOP is good politics, he should reconsider. He may be fooled in his thinking that conservative, grassroots Republicans "don't have anywhere else to go."

And to Mr. Karl Rove, U. S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) is not persona non grata. It really makes a person wonder about the Bush Administration when Tancredo says what most of us are thinking and he is treated so badly.

-Dawn Case

Woodward, Okla.

Jeffrey Captures Essence Of Catholic Educators

I want to thank Terence Jeffrey for his words ["Dallas Not Last Word on Clergy Scandal HUMAN EVENTS, June 24, page 6]. They are very encouraging. And he is right about Father Drendel. My wife and I met Father Drendel while attending Sts. Peter and Paul in Wheat Ridge, Colo. Father is a great confessor and a good man.

-Jeff Janke

Los Alamos, N. M.

House Raises Debt Limit, OKs Drug Plan

On June 27, the House passed the 2003 Defense Appropriations bill, 413 to 18. Voting against the $354.7 billion for the Defense Department to help fight the war on terror were Democrats Baldwin, Brown (Ohio), Conyers, DeFazio, Filner, Frank, Jackson (Ill.), Kucinich, Lee, McDermott, McKinney, George Miller, Payne, Schakowsky, Stark, and Woolsey; Republican Paul and independent Sanders.

The same day, the Senate passed, 97 to 2, the Defense Authorization bill, containing $393.3 billion for defense programs, ballistic missile defense and counter-terrorism activities. Only Democratic Senators Byrd and Feingold voted no.

Just before the week-long July 4 holiday, the House increased the federal debt limit and passed a Republican prescription drug plan. (See rollcalls this page.)

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 15, 2002
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