Are You Smarter Than a 1930s 8th Grader?

Almost certainly not - at least based on this 1931 test given by the West Virginia Department of Education.

The scope and depth of the exam speaks for itself. What is important to understand is that the students came from families that were very challenged financially, especially during the depression years. They lived on small family farms, and, just to make ends meet, every member of the family had to work on the farm. Each child had chores to do before and after school, and, as there were very few automobiles in that area, they walked to and from school each day, some of them walking several miles each way. At night after chores there was homework and then to bed.

But of course whether a test is hard or easy very much depends on the particular curriculum that the students have been following as one commenter points out:

Moreover, look at what *isn't* on the test that we would assume students in 8th grade would have covered. The math is very elementary - it includes no geometry, very little algebra, no statistics or probability. The science is even more sparse - other than 'hygiene', there is no coverage of basic biology, chemistry or physics.

Having a good base of knowledge and the ability to think and write coherently goes a long way in the real world. And if you've already got these tools, then learning algebra, chemistry, or anything else will far easier.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:57 PM | Comments (968)
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A KC-135 An Omega71 aerial refueler crashed this evening at Point Mugu NAS in California. They were fully loaded with JP, and crashed on takeoff. So far reports say all 3 crewmembers escaped with minor injuries. Thank God.

Just a thought, it's a dangerous job, even if they aren't deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

UPDATE: several commenters including xbradtc pointed out this is an Omega71, not a KC-135. My bad. I saw the 707 airframe, heard tanker, and figured "well what the hell else would it be, there's only like thousands of em.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:41 PM | Comments (45)
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A history of rape, and no one cared?

Well, it's France.

A Paris attorney who specializes in defending victims of sexual violence, who didn't want to be named, says he has "an entire pile of complaints" from women who say they were attacked by Strauss-Kahn. Like Pierrat, he says last weekend's news evoked déjà vu. And like Pierrat, he says he has a consistency of accusations against Strauss-Kahn. "It's all so similar," he says. "The lock thrown on the door, the pulled or ripped undergarments, the physical force that turned violent as resistance mounted, all of it.["]

There are named accusers, too, standing behind their complaints, and attorneys who are willing to state their own names, though the clients making the charges remain anonymous. I just selected that one quote as representative -- and it had the "pile of complaints" quote.

France's culture, the article says, writes off a lot of behavior that would be considered in the Anglo-American world to be borderline menacing and assaulting -- not rape, but the knocking on that door -- as some kind of boys-will-be-boys seduction.

Then there is the French gender double standard — and the cult of what the French call the seducteur, the charmer, the operator. "It's not just that the word of a woman doesn't necessarily have the same weight as that of a man in many situations," says Rokhaya Diallo, president of Les Indivisibles, an association that promotes diversity in France. "It's that there's still this enduring attitude that seduction, conquests, affairs and flings by men is somehow O.K., even sort of admirable, while women who complain of sexual aggression are either making it up, or just having buyer's regret. Clear sexual violence is taken seriously and punished, but this wider tolerance of male conquest turns the other aspects of aggression gray in the minds of many people. Which I suppose is one reason people don't seem surprised to learn of Strauss-Kahn being caught in a sex scandal. His reputation led people to assume he'd be caught up in one sooner or later. The real debate is whether it involved sexual violence or not."

There is a plausible defense -- this is one of the few guys who can claim he has people out to accuse him of rape for political reasons, and not be laughed out of the room -- but the guy sure does seem to have "misunderstandings" with women a lot.

Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (273)
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Totally. Except she looks a little like an overweight, aging Charo, mixed with The Joker.

Which I guess is just Cesar Romero, but she he wasn't that overweight.

As the old saying goes, cheating men aren't looking for better, they're just looking for different.

Posted by: Ace at 01:48 PM | Comments (481)
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I was just looking for this, having heard about it, and oh look, it's on Hot Air.

Often people play the Race Card, the Woman Card, the Whatever Card. Some kind of Victim Card. We -- especially conservatives -- react pretty badly to that, because we see it so damn often from our opponents.

Newt Gingrich has just played the Down-Home Aw-Shucks Just-Folks Outsider Picked On By The Ruthless Connected City Elite Card.

And he dealt it, as Robert Shapiro might say, from the bottom of the deck.

Gingrich press secretary Rick Tyler fired off a response blasting the political and media elite.

“The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,” Tyler wrote. “Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.”

Is this college professor/historical novelist/professional lobbyist/former Speaker of the House/member of the permanent DC establishment/fixture on political TV shows Newt Gingrich we're talking about?

Or is there a different Newt Gingrich?

Well, let me tell you something: That guy at the hotel was not a heckler. That guy was a goddamned psychic.

But Newt did not heed this Comfort Inn Cassandra's call, and now he has made an even bigger fool of himself.

The easy glean here is that Gingrich is in fact done. All done. As Krauthammer predicted. But this is confirmatory. He's gone.

I guess a slightly less-obvious take is that this is a shot across the bow of other candidates. The party has taken to the Ryan Plan. Even those who disagree with it, I'd imagine, take him seriously and respect him for actually trying to do something.

Although I don't think candidates will rush to embrace the Ryan plan, they'll distance themselves more gently, keeping it (and all the Representatives who endorsed it) viable.

Rich Lowry wrote a piece about this affair noting that Newt Gingrich just can't help himself from deploying his silly flamethrowers when a gentle distancing would do the trick.

And so it goes.

The field continues to take shape, by both addition and subtraction.

Funny RD: I don't know what RD is riffing on exactly, but in the sidebar he makes fun of Gingrich's flack's grandiloquent poppycock:

But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who wonÂ’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces....

RD Brewer continues that statement thus:

...Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming, in thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove. That, if requiring fail, he will compel; and bids you, in the bowels of the Lord, deliver up the votes, and to take mercy on the poor souls for whom this hungry campaign opens his vasty jaws; and on your head turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries the dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans, for husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers, that shall be swallow'd in this controversy.

Gingrich is apparently Viggo the Destroyer.

Just a minor thing: Gingrich's flack called out those with "bylines and handles," and mentioned tweets, too. So, just a little confirmation that the media environment is different now.

Can't Catch A Break: A gay protester showered Newt in glitter.

Nothing says "Accept Me" like a camp assault.

But, again, he winds up looking foolish.

I think God is trying to tell Newt something and it's not "Keep rockin'!"

Thanks to Missy Matt.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (187)
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Guess which one?

When I read this, I thought, for a moment, that NewsBusters intended to knock CNN's round-the-clock coverage, and spotlight one single anchor who rose above the personal stuff to talk about hard news.

I even thought this when I read the name of the anchor.

Then, a second later, it dawned on me.

Elliot Spitzer.

Oh.

Ohhhhhh.

Even the slow boats eventually cross the river.

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (95)
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This is old, and probably not worth a post, but it's funny.

Maetenloch pointed out The Onion had a spoof-report on Denmark's tourism board asking depressive psychotic/Nazi Lars Von Trier to shoot commercials for them.

I gotta ask: Why is The Onion The Onion and SNL SNL?

One of these is very funny, and one of these is prominently broadcast on TV.

Posted by: Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (98)
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How can she not recuse herself?, a commenter asks.

Well, I think if you've set out to lie and falsify the record to get on the court you are prepared to just lie some more, eh?

In an email dated Jan. 8, 2010, then-Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal sent an email to Senior Counsel Brian Hauck and Deputy Attorney General Thomas Perrelli that indicates Kagan played a key role in coming up with a legal defense.

“Brian, Elena would definitely like OSG [Office of Solicitor General] to be involved in this set of issues … we will bring Elena as needed.”

In an email on March 21, 2010, Katyal urged Kagan to attend a health-care litigation meeting on defending the law. “I think you should go, no?” wrote Katyal. “I will, regardless, but feel like this is litigation of singular importance.”

The documents also show that once Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court, she and Katyal immediately switched course to distance her from discussions about the legislation.

On May 17, 2010, for example, Tracy Schmaler, a Department of Justice spokesperson wrote to Katyal, “Has Elena been involved in any of that to the extent SG office was consulted … ?”

“No, she has never been involved in any of it. I’ve run it for the office, and have never discussed the issues with her one bit,” was Katyal’s response. He then forwarded the correspondence to Kagan, saying “This is what I told Tracy about Health Care.”

Kagan’s response: “This needs to be coordinated. Tracy you should not say anything about this before talking to me.”

Just a crazy question here -- has anyone said "We've got to get our stories straight" when everyone involved was planning on telling the truth?

Are "coordinated" stories generally more credible than uncoordinated, unscripted ones? I guess the Obama White House thinks so.

"Coordination"

It's a hip, smart way to say "lying."

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (114)
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Now, before you make fun of this guy for being an adult baby -- do check out the picture of the woman who babies him, and you tell me he's not Winning!, as another tiger-blooded man might say.

He said he has been living at least a partial adult baby lifestyle since his teenage years, though he does wear adult clothes when he goes out, fearing embarrassment otherwise.

Mr. Coburn said Mr. Thornton “is cognizant that his choice to live as an adult baby violates social norms,” though, and through both his projects and the adult baby support website he runs, www.bedwettingabdl.com, he appears to have the skills to hold down a job. That, the lawmaker said, should make him ineligible for disability payments.

Mr. Coburn also questions why Miss Dias, as a former nurse, collects SSI benefits, “since she is able to provide childcare” to Mr. Thornton.

In an extensive biography on his web page, Mr. Thornton says he worked as a security guard for a year and a half but said trauma stemming from childhood abuse, combined with other mental problems, made it impossible for him to hold the job, and he has been receiving SSI payments for most of the last 10 years.

And now that you're saying Man, Ace, I needs to get me some of that, well, I can't deliver this Venus of the Playpen to you, but you can watch a video at I Own The World.

I owe someone a thank-you for this, but maybe this is one of those stories where you don't want acknowledgement.

Posted by: Ace at 11:39 AM | Comments (165)
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Via Hot Air, racist conservatives engage in the ultimate expression of tokenism by rallying to Cain.

It's insidious -- using a black man to keep the black man down.

I love insidious.

For the first time in my life, I'm proud to be an American.

This month’s tracking poll asked only three questions: “Who would be your top pick for president?”; “Who would be your second choice for president?”; and “Who do you think is the most electable in 2012?”

...

Cain jumped to the top of the pack in terms of electability, taking 13 percent of the vote in the tracking poll, compared to the mere 3 percent he got last time. That puts him right behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – ever the favorite, even though he says he won’t run — who attracted 19 percent of the vote and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who gets 17 percent, a slight drop from the last poll.

Cain beats Romney as respondents’ top pick for president – netting 15 percent of the vote, an increase of 10 percentage points from the last poll. As a second choice, he ties Christie for the largest percentage of the vote – 11 percent – just ahead of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, and a significant increase from the 5 percent he got in the last poll.

There other news in the link: As you expected, Trump's share of the most electable designation (he was still polled for) dropped from 15% to 6%.

Cain seems to have just scooped all of that up. I think maybe the Trump voters were a bloc of "I want to vote Republican, but I don't like any of these guys" people, and after they also decided they didn't like Trump, they went to Cain.

Oddly, Newt Gingrich actually got a tiny bump in support, but this poll was conducted May 12-14, so his latest misadventures are not reflected there. Pawlenty also got a small bump, so I guess his debate appearance, and slowly growing acceptance as a real candidate, is helping some.

I'm still not on Team Cain. I'm a little worried that he doesn't have any government experience. I'm also a little worried that he had a bout with cancer, though I don't know how much people weigh such things in making decisions.

But most importantly -- I'm a racist, and I know this, because David Gregory told me so.

So, what I'm looking for from Cain is three things:

1, I want him to prove to me he's fluent with real policy details, not just broad themes.

2, I need to know he's healthy.

And,

3, I need him to be some other race. I will not insist on "White," but I refuse to go lower than "Dominican." That's my drop-dead position on race. I will meet him halfway, but only halfway.

Posted by: Ace at 11:22 AM | Comments (210)
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