Charles Murray: Ruggedly Ugly

Celebrated cryptoracist Charles Murray, who has made a career of providing statistics for the those inclined to bigotry, is feted in this week's New Yorker. In Saturday's Arts and Ideas section in the New York Times he was referred to as "ruggedly handsome" in a largely positive piece by one Emily Eakin. Murray, who co authored The Bell Curve with Richard Herrnstein (who had the good taste to expire before publication) argued that African Americans have the lowest IQ scores of all the races on this Big Blue Marbe and that is attributable to hereditary factors rather than, say, bad neighborhoods and schooling (environment). Conveniently, Murray and Herrnstein postulated that Asians have this highest IQs and Whites are .. just right. Rebecca Mead fawns over Murray's latest tome Human Accomplishment.

In Human Accomplishment Murray goes on to prove his own intelllectual shortcomings by rating Virgil a better writer than Count Tolstoi and Picasso a better artist than Rembrandt . That this man is postulating on intelligence and acquiring it in greater supply is ponderous. Charmed, I'm sure.