THE SMART AND THE DEAD

There's good news and bad news for God's chosen people. The good news is that Jews of Eastern European origin -- Ashkenazi Jews -- have genes that make us smarter. The bad news is that those genes are killing us.

Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending at the University of Utah did the study. They found that Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group. We make up about 3% of the US population but win 27% of the US Nobel science prizes. Twenty percent of this country's chief executives and 22% of Ivy League students are Ashkenazi Jews. So are more than half of the world's chess champions.

The theory is that over the centuries only the smartest Jews survived persecution, and passed down their genes.

But these same genes are killing us. They carry inherited diseases like Tay-Sachs, Canavan disease, Niemann-Pick disease Type A, Gaucher disease, idiopathic torsion dystonia, non-classical adrenal hyperplasia, factor XI deficiency, sphingolipid storage diseases, glycogen storage diseases, clotting disorders, disorders of adrenal steroid biosynthesis, and disorders of DNA repair, mucolipidosis type IV, Fanconi’s anemia type C, Bloom syndrome, familial dysautonomia and others.

These diseases are all deadly. But they also promote the growth of nerve pathways. One copy of the genes causing these diseases can make you smarter. But two copies can make you dead.

I see this as just another practical joke God has played on His chosen people. What doesn't kill us makes us smarter.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"...how can you not reminisce about a childhood where you begin each day with the Pledge of Allegiance as little kids lined up in the schoolyard and then marched in two by two with a flag and a crucifix in each classroom?"
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

OH THOSE WACKY LEGISLATORS

It's time to take another look at politics as usual in Oklahoma.

Legislators are in a snit over a talk that scientist and author Richard Dawkins gave at the University of Oklahoma. He talked about evolution. That's not a popular topic among many Oklahomans, who lean more toward creationism.

Representative Rebecca Hamilton filed an open records request. She wants to know who paid for the speech and how much. Actually, Dawkins gave the speech for free.

Representative Todd Thomson filed a resolution denouncing the Dawkins speech, saying the university is trying "to indoctrinate students in the theory of evolution." Thomson also said, "His presence at O.U. was not about science. It was to promote an atheist agenda."

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The House passed a bill 96 to nothing requiring all public school students to not only pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag every day, but to the Oklahoma state flag as well. Who even knew there was a state pledge?

Representative Lewis Moore explained the need for this bill. He said, "In Oklahoma City, 40 percent of the students are Hispanic, and we wanted to maintain our culture and help them assimilate into America, and into the Oklahoma culture."

By the way, the state pledge goes: "I salute the flag of the state of Oklahoma. Its symbols of peace unite all people."

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Representative Mike Reynolds wants to ban embryonic stem cell research. His bill passed 82 to 6. No stem cells for you, Mr. Reynolds.

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Representative Rex Duncan wants to ban head coverings in driver's license photos. His bill passed 88 to 8. Although the bill seems to be aimed at Muslim women, Duncan says "It doesn't matter whether you're a cowboy and take off your cowboy hat, (or) a nun." He admits, though, that he got the idea when he heard that a Muslim woman took her driver's photo wearing a hijab.

Duncan was the representative who famously refused a free Quran given to legislators by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council because, he said, the book encourages violence and the mistreatment of women. As opposed, I guess, to the Old Testament, which encourages violence and the mistreatment of women. Duncan did accept a free bible given to legislators, but did he read it?

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U.S. Senator from Oklahoma James Inhofe proposed an amendment to a spending bill that would prevent the United Nations from taxing U.S. citizens. The amendment failed 43 to 52.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy characterised it as the "black helicopter" amendment.

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Here in Tulsa, the City Council is considering community gardens in vacant lots with the permission of the land owner. This has worked out well in other cities, no problems, makes people happy. But wait, not so fast.

Councilor Jack Henderson is against it. He says, "How do we know what people are going to be growing? Vegetables? Maybe. Or maybe something else."

Henderson says that allowing community gardens would lead to more salvage yards, and north Tulsa (his district) already has enough salvage yards.

That salvage yard thing just doesn't track for me, but I'm sure the councilor knows what he's talking about.

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IT'S TIME TO GET YOUR GUN

Tulsa has an ammunition shortage.

In particularly short supply is 9mm and .380 pistol ammo. Some people are buying ammo by the case. Some gun shops are rationing ammo, limiting customers to a single 50 round box. Gun sales are up as well. Buyers give several reasons for this.

• President Barack Obama is about to pass a law banning all guns and ammunition. His jack booted thugs will take your guns away. So now is the time to get your guns and stock up on ammunition.
• President Obama is about to cede sovernity of this country to the United Nations. U.N. troops will invade from Canada and Mexico, taking away our liberties and locking up dissidents in FEMA concentration camps. So now is the time to get your guns and stock up on ammunition.
• The current economic meltdown will lead to riots in the streets and the breakdown of civilisation as we know it. So now is the time to get your guns and stock up on ammunition.

Personally, I think the 33 round magazine on my Glock is enough to hold off a moderately sized drug crazed motorcycle gang until the police get here.