IMHO, there book should just be seen as a starting point, but it is often used as a crude tool against blacks. There has since been lots of research looking at what actually leads to success. Intelligence is only one factor. This does not even address the methods used by Murray to measure IQ, since IQ testing is an area of considerable debate in itself.

How many who are utterly offended by what they think Charles Murray and Richard Herrstein wrote have ever read "The Bell Curve?" Over/under three.

Cognitive intelligence is thought to between thirty to seventy percent nature or nurture, either way.

Total cognitive intelligence has never been defined, and what has not been defined, can not be measured. Yet IQ does measure some unknown part of cognitive intelligence. IQ has predictive validity. That is it does measure future performance. Higher IQ does correlate with increased probability of success. Thus IQ, while an imperfect measure, is important.

The difference between the mean IQ of the white, black and yellow populations, is non-trivial. Say if it takes a minimum IQ of say 110, pass a bar examination, it stands to reason that a greater proportion of yellows will exceed the minimum than whites, and ditto for whites as compared to blacks.

This is not to say that a black can not excell as lawyer, but rather proportionally more yellows and whites will.

In a non-racist world, non-portionality would be accepted as normal and not as evidence of invidious discrimination. Alas.

IMHO, there book should just be seen as a starting point, but it is often used as a crude tool against blacks. There has since been lots of research looking at what actually leads to success. Intelligence is only one factor. This does not even address the methods used by Murray to measure IQ, since IQ testing is an area of considerable debate in itself.

Steve

Steve

Officers were God.

Even second lieutenants. Sometime in the early 80s, I was a newly minted butterbar and arrived at my technical school assignment after OTS. I wasn't very familiar with the new base and bumbled into the base theater where I opened a door and poked my head into it. I heard someone called the entire theater to attention and then I realized they were referring to me. Apparently it was full of new students just out of basic training. I remember the stories of officers getting salutes from basic training students at Lackland from across parade fields.

As to "The Bell Curve", a bell curve only applies to populations, not to individuals.

Have we finally gotten to the point where it’s no longer news that the military has blacks in leadership positions?

I got there in 1974, when my boot camp Company Commander was black. Even as a Texan (horrors!), it made no difference to me. All Company Commanders were assholes whose sole purpose in life was to make us miserable, regardless of race, color, religion, geographical origins or anything else. We were all recruits, and therefore scum.

The (enlisted, can't speak for officers) military, and the Air Force, too, have been race-blind meritocracies for decades. Women are fast approaching the same status.

Real achievement is based on many qualities besides intelligence, including discipline, empathy and ambition. The threshold effect is probably what is important, ie, one needs a certain minimal level for some jobs, rather than the highest intelligence test score being the best indicator.

Yes. Let us remember that this broad is the head drill sergeant. You are basically yelling at people , making them do pushups, and have them run 10 miles in the rain.

It ain't rocket science.

In the ongoing debate about intelligence and the conservative (some conservatives) position that blacks are too stupid to achieve, largely based on Murray's book, the military has a model which undercuts the argument.

All Murray and Hernstein say is that there are aggregate differences in IQ that may impact aggregate results. There's no claim whatsoever in the book that there aren't lots of outstanding individuals in all groups.

LOL. You and Dave take funny pills this morning?

To your larger point, yes. In the ongoing debate about intelligence and the conservative (some conservatives) position that blacks are too stupid to achieve, largely based on Murray's book, the military has a model which undercuts the argument. Real achievement is based on many qualities besides intelligence, including discipline, empathy and ambition. The threshold effect is probably what is important, ie, one needs a certain minimal level for some jobs, rather than the highest intelligence test score being the best indicator.

Steve