There isn't much controversy in the actual sciences about whether or not IQ tests are relevant. They are. Whatever they measure is highly correlated with positive life outcomes.

>Everyone is exactly as intelligent as a human, unless they're brain damaged by disease or defect. Any child, any adult, properly motivated, with proper practice and effort, can be a genius. It is just that simple.

This is false on its face. It does not matter how much some people try, or study, or work hard - they will never be a genius in anything and it's not because they have brain damage. There are variations in how our brains work, just as with how the rest of our bodies work, that are heritable and that limit how much we can achieve. I think it's a disservice to tell people that the reason that they aren't succeeding at something is because they aren't trying hard enough, when in reality they are literally incapable of that kind of performance.

Well, no.

http://www.penguin.com/book/a-troublesome-inheritance-by-nicholas-wade/9781594204463

>There's nothing in this research that shows equal opportunity or head start programs don't help, much less that they are a "waste."

Well, not in *this* research. The government's own research does shows that head start is a massive waste of money:

"In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole."

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/executive_summary_final.pdf

As it should be.

I can also assure you that most people who attend do not buy or sell anything outside of coffee and ice.

>He parsed is words in such a way that he was deliberately misleading while telling the absolute truth.

Are you insane? Read the quote that Uberbah posted below and tell me how it can be parsed in any way that makes it less than a lie. There was no wiggle room in his statement, he flat out answered 'no'. And it's not just our phones that data is being collected about, it is the content of all of our emails and text messages, which he also knew about. He belongs in prison with Oliver North - oops! yet another example of how the laws in the US only apply to us little people.

It doesn't matter what Tenet insists, the US has prosecuted people for waterboarding in the past, both in world war 2 and domestically. It doesn't magically become legal just because some bureaucrat insists that it is.

>We are a nation of laws, not men

Lol! Really? So when is James Clapper going to be charged with contempt of congress for telling them that the NSA isn't spying on millions of Americans? When are the people in the previous administration going to be held responsible for ordering torture - also a felony? We ceased being a nation of laws a while ago.

Is that unusual?

> I agree that the influence of the book wasn't all bad, but I claim the influence of the book did much more bad than good. The so-called "influence on Western civilization" is little more than holding it back.

I am approximately the least religious person you'd be able to find, and I disagree. Western civilization may not have ever progressed to the point that it's in without the influence of the bible. The reason for this is the belief that god has laid down the physical laws of the universe as immutable things. If you believe that at any moment, the spirit of a rock might decide to change itself into something else, or that your god will decide to change the color of the sky, you're going to have a hard time conceptualizing the rules that govern the universe.

As to whether it's holding it back *now*, I might tend to agree.

Totally worth doing! Now if only there were some way of playing that analog record with fidelity anything even remotely approaching a dollar store cd player. Even the most expensive record player has measurable wow and flutter, and driving a needle through vinyl grooves immediately degrades the sound. What's the point of this again?

Yep, it's the same way in Seattle. There is so much competition for good programmers that you can almost write your own paycheck.

> Universities are (for the most part) private institutions,

There are very few Universities in the US that do not accept some form of government funding. Because of that, they cannot legally restrict you from any of your constitutional rights.

Doesn't the Securities Act of 1933 make it illegal to place an order on the stock market when there is no intention of that order being fulfilled?

Quoting the act:

"(2) To effect, alone or with 1 or more other persons, a series of transactions in any security registered on a national securities exchange, any security not so registered, or in connection with any security-based swap or security-based swap agreement with respect to such security creating actual or apparent active trading in such security, or raising or depressing the price of such security, for the purpose of inducing the purchase or sale of such security by others."

Why don't we just start prosecuting these jokers with already existing laws?