January 23, 2006
Intellectual Skills of Conservatives
I enjoy brain teasers and other mental challenges. (Debating a liberal is not a mental challenge.) This weekend, I discovered and attempted a fun "Mensa" test. By coincidence, a Woody at a different site found a similar test from Mensa and posted it on his site. So, realizing that the stars must be aligned, I thought it appropriate to provide these brain exercises to our readers, who are bright and logical.
If you are a liberal, don't try them. It doesn't count if you call the test creators insulting names, cry that the tests are biased, say that any answer should be right in the name of diversity, and blame Bush for any question that you miss. And, oh yes, Mensa has nothing to do with a woman's cycle, so this test is probably anti-feminist.
BTW, the other Woody got 30 out of 30 on his test, and I got 29 out of 33 (so far) on my test. On the test that I took, I didn't get questions 14, 17, 30, and 31: which gripes me because I know that the answers will appear so obvious once I see them. Good luck if you attempt these quizzes. I have high expectations for our group.
While not a test but along the line of intelligence, another blogger named, yes, Woody recently exhibited his mental skills with an impressive translation of Osama Bin Laden's recent message from Arabic to English; thus, revealing much that the dominant media didn't tell us. Good job, Woody (not me...him.)
Let us know how you did on the tests or if you have any other challenges to recommend.
P.S. For extra points, has anyone heard from Cindy Sheehan lately? Is she still at her book signing?
Posted by Woody at January 23, 2006 07:50 PM | TrackBackI was about to post an entry called WHERE IS WOODY" since he hadn't posted anything but a paltry comment or two since January 9, 2006, (that is two weeks for folks that have trouble counting and subtracting).
But, I see that the muse of blogging found him and returned him to the fold. That is good, as I (GM, not Woody) was starting to worry and was going to send out the cast of Without A Trace to bring him back ALIVE.
Welcome home Woody!
Posted by GM Roper at January 23, 2006 09:00 PM
I scored 23 out of 33 on the first (genius, but not as smart or not as Woody, on the other hand, this IS my blog!
Posted by GM Roper at January 23, 2006 10:03 PM
Thanks for the welcome back, G.M. I hated not being able to contribute much, but, hey, some of us have to make a living, and year-end isn't exactly a slack time for accountants. I've considered various ideas for something to write, but creative juices don't flow when one is traveling and busy helping clients to help close their books, reconcile W-2's, and make fourth quarter tax payments--while trying to help the President build world peace at the same time. Anyway, you are doing a great job and didn't need me to pull you down. BTW, did you get any of the four questions that I didn't? I'm still upset that I couldn't figure them. And, where is Cindy Sheehan?
Posted by Woody at January 24, 2006 01:55 AM
Woody, you ADD to the blog, not "bring...down" anything. And no, I missed those four as well.
Posted by GM Roper at January 24, 2006 07:27 AM
If you would like me to hold forth on this subject at length, I would be glad to. In the late 80's I was president of the Prometheus Society and have a fair handle on what sort of folk the Hi-Q societies in general attract. People usually aren't that interested, thinking that Mensa is the top-of-the-line and not pursuing it further. But there were at that time, groups with cutoffs at 141 (Mensa is 132), 151, 164, and 176 IQ. I don't know what the current arrangement is. It was just too nuts for me.
Let me give you a hint. Mensa tends to be liberal, but the upper groups do not. Of course, they don't necessarily tend to be conservative either -- they tend to be fringe-y; libertarian, communitarian, etc, when you can categorise them at all. It was there that I unlearned liberalism.
Posted by Assistant Village Idiot at January 24, 2006 09:51 PM
AVI, I didn't know anything about the Prometheus Society until you mentioned it, but I went to their site and became impressed that you are a member. Do you think that you could get me in for getting 29 out of 33 of the questions!? If they need one or two more, I'll keep trying.
When I was working on my Master's, my roommate and his friends were all getting PhDs in math. They would sit around like mad scientists trying to solve difficult equations on a board. They were all geniuses.
Unfortunately, none of them had a life, much less any common sense. Naturally, they went into teaching.
Can you get the four questions that I missed? If no one gets them, I'm going back and try again.
Posted by Woody at January 25, 2006 05:34 PM
Sorry Woody, haven't looked. I find it makes me crazy. Sorry to leave you hanging.
Random points. Over at neo-neocon in the fall, there was some discussion about why therapists are liberals and it led to some discussion of other fields of study. Someone noted that those in applied maths strongly tended conservative, abstract math, liberal. Don't know if it's true.
That would certainly fit well with John Sununu, PhD, MIT, who was in Bush 41's administration and was Gov of NH before that. He tied for what was then the record on Ron Hoeflin's test that came out in Omni magazine: 44 out of 48, which I think worked out to IQ 184. Arrogant bastard, but very smart. His son is now Senator, and is one of the few who have some actual science training and understanding in that "august body."
I liken people with that much brain power to getting a screw cross-threaded. With enough force, you can screw it in anyway. That's the way these guys were with bad ideas. They were used to not having to listen to anyone else, and making it all work out in their heads. I have two older posts about it you might find interesting.
http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2006/01/your-new-masters-will-have-aspergers.html
http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2005/12/intelligence-isnt-everything.html
Posted by Assistant Village Idiot at January 25, 2006 08:13 PM
