The first is a link to Rumsfeld Fighting Technique. There is no doubt that Rummy’s kung fu is strong, but I don’t know whether it will protect him from his culpability in the incidents of prisoner torture in Iraq.

The second is a link to this article, which asserts that states with the highest IQs vote Democrat. Now, I don’t know how accurate the facts in this article are. The site itself isn’t even that committed to the accuracy of the data. It’s all in fun. The serious statistics are at the end of the article.

It does seems right, though, and it reminded me of an article I read last evening in the Duke alumni magazine. Apparently some conservative students at Duke have raised the issue that the Duke faculty tends to be liberal. From what I can tell, they seem to be asking for some sort of conservative affirmative action. At some point in the debate, Professor Robert Brandon, chair of the philosophy department at Duke reportedly stated:

We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.

Mill’s analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too

While I doubt Professor Brandon’s statement did much to promote a constructive discussion of this issue, I can understand the frustration that probably led him to make it, and it did make me smile.

Google lets me know that this Duke story has been picked up on The Volokh Conspiracy and elsewhere. So read on if it interests you.
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