A college widow stood for something in those days. In fact, she stood for plenty.

Lindsey Graham questioning Alberto Gonzales is like a doberman questioning Groucho Marx. Graham relies heavily on weird mixed metaphor and fake outrage and Gonzales is so adept at Republican obfuscation and equivication that nothing of subtance is actually said. We don't get clarity, we get slobbering and surrealism. In fact, I would much prefer it if American political discourse would more closely resemble the first few minutes of Horse Feathers. At least I'd be laughing when the nukes arrive. And now that you've had your morning dose of alarmist oversimplification, enjoy the rest of your day.

"And they who is not us shall perish"

As aired on CSPAN, at this morning's Congressional Prayer Breakfast, Senator Tom DeLay tastefully read a selection from the Book of Matthew:

Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?

"Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you: depart from me, you evil doers.'"

Everyone who listens to these words of mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man, who built his house on a rock:

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house, but it did not collapse; it has been set solidly on rock.

And everyone who listens to these words of mine, but does not act on them, will be like a fool who built his house on sand:

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined."

Meanwhile elsewhere, George W. Bush announced that he would make a startling $10,000 personal donation to victims of the Tsunamis. Bush's net worth is estimated at between $9 and $26 million. The Presidential salary is $400,000 per year.

Hoax: IQ in Blue vs Red States

I have recently been referred to a chart of average IQ's which purports to demonstrate the correlation between average IQ within a state and the political leanings of that state. I had a hard time accepting this information for several reasons.

If a state has a "low" average IQ, then that must mean that "low IQ" is a strong genetic attribute of the state's population. I don't like this premise. The second possibility is that people of higher IQ simply move away. I am sure that this happens to a small degree, but not enough to create a huge deviation in the state's measured IQ, especially since IQ's are usually measured in childhood or young-adulthood, before most people have a chance to leave. The average IQ of each state should be close to 100.

Thankfully, Snopes.com has come to the rescue:

The chart's creator claimed to have been inspired by the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations and to have drawn his IQ data from the Ravens APM, but — save for the average income per state numbers, which were valid but outdated figures taken from the 1994 World Almanac — the chart was completely bogus. (The Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices is not really a general intelligence test, nor do its publishers offer state-by-state test results data.) Nonetheless, a number of news publications (including the staid Economist) were taken in by the hoax — some mistakenly citing the information as having come from the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, or even IQ and the Wealth of States — and published portions of the chart, and discussed it as if it were valid. (A similar hoax about presidential IQs produced similar media-fooling results back in 2001.)

Now, someone has dusted off the same chart and (omitting the economic data) applied it to the 2004 presidential election, keeping the primary gag intact: the "blue" (i.e., Democratic states) are all clustered at the top of the IQ scale, while the "red" (i.e., Republican) states are clustered at the bottom. Same hoax, different year. If 2008 produces another close presidential election as 2000 and 2004 did, expect to see this same joke again four years from now.

There is another, perhaps slightly more valid, estimate of "average IQ" for each state. These estimates are based on SAT and ACT scores, and probably reflect the quality of education and test preparation in each state. Notice that Utah is slightly above average (not second from the bottom). As always, though, Mississippi is dead last.

Based on this data, I've put together a possibly more accurate chart:

State	IQ
New Hampshire	104			LEGEND
Oregon	103	Above Average States
Wisconsin	103			Strong Kerry: >55%
Massachusetts	103	10 Blue – 42%		Weak Kerry: 51-55%
North Dakota	102	3 Purple – 12%		On the Fence: <51% for either
Montana	102	11 Red – 46%		Weak Bush: 51-55%
Nebraska	102			Strong Bush: >55%
Oklahoma	102
Washington	102
Illinois	102
Colorado	102
Kansas	102
Connecticut	102
Minnesota	102
Vermont	102
Iowa	102
Ohio	101
New York	101
Alaska	101
Missouri	101
Michigan	101
Maryland	101
Utah	101
Wyoming	101
New Jersey	100
Arizona	100	Average States
Rhode Island	100
Virginia	100
Maine	100	4 Blue – 36%
California	100	2 Purple – 18%
West Virginia	100	5 Red – 46%
Idaho	100
Nevada	100
Pennsylvania	100
South Dakota	100
Indiana	99
Hawaii	99	Below Average States
Delaware	99
Florida	98
Arkansas	98	3 Blue – 19%
Kentucky	97	1 Purple – 6%
North Carolina	97	12 Red – 75%
Alabama	97
Tennessee	97
Georgia	97
Louisiana	97
Texas	97
New Mexico	96
Washington DC	95
Mississippi	94
South Carolina	94

Sources:

• IQ Results are from http://sq.4mg.com/IQ-States.htm, titled “IQ averages in US States – best estimate available.” Sources are provided and methodology explained.
• Vote results by state are assembled from USA Today. The data is viewable at USA Today's web site.