Saturday, August 26, 2006

Web Wanderings

Ed from the Tao of Politics sent me this link on whether tall people are more intelligent than short people. I think he likes reading me tweak. Once again you can do anything you want with statistics or surveys. At 5'1" I find that most adults may be taller than me but I wouldn't say that most are smarter than me. From my perspective it looks like tall people are not as swift.

Now, do people on first impression think that I am mentally deficient? I am a short black woman and if you are the type of person that depends on stereotypes to form impressions, then I have to prove myself. This is more of an issue of prejudice, one that forms in early childhood and is perpetuated throughout life to justify the perks of being different. I had a friend that used to swear she wanted to come back in the next life as a tall blonde. She said the problem was that then short brunettes would be in vogue. Low self esteem and the other negatives associated with being short might be something that tall people like to point out to justify all the times they were given preferential treatment due to an accident of birth.
"As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns," they wrote.
Maybe their teachers select for them, maybe they are groomed to the extremes while shorter people get less food, less attention and NO respect.

Where have all the shark attacks gone? Probably retired to the same place as missing blonde women, waiting in the wings until needed for a slow news cycle or a distraction from real world news. The numbers are the same year after year but the reporting isn't. More people died this year than last but we were busy with coal miners, JonBenet and avoiding the debacle in the Middle East.

Well, why not? The elderly will die off, the returning convicts can always go back to prison, the unemployed aren't paying taxes and the homeless don't vote. While I agree that children and the working poor need help, the elderly's position can never improve without help. Very shortsighted plan.

Interesting stats. Reduce death to a clinical observation and remove the human element and then war is okay, some of the troops might be safer in Iraq than at home. What bunk even though it does point out that black women are enlisting at a higher rate. That wasn't the focus of this report but it does make one wonder.

As if my family could produce pictures of holidays. Not. We don't even have pictures of us hanging out and can barely pull it together for a posed group photo. Why doesn't somebody just ask the kids if daddy was home for Christmas? They remember stuff like that because it is important to them.

Standing up for what you believe in should be encouraged and supported, especially if you believe that what you are being ordered to do is an illegal order or fraudulent war in Iraq.

Will Disney be downsizing also? Eight, nine or twelve planets, it doesn't really make a difference since we won't make it anywhere off of our current rock in my lifetime. China and Russia have a chance but the United States is falling behind in technology, economics and science education. If you can't read and do higher math, you can't build a decent space vehicle and you won't have the imagination to consider any alternatives.

No comments:

Post a Comment