Jonah's interview of Judith Rich Harris is much recommended. Clearly related to my post on adoptive parents.
More like this
Over at The Corner at National Review Online John Derbyshire has been getting into a debate with his colleagues over Judith Rich Harris' work, and her two books
I'm only just digesting this, but it appears that Judith Curry, climate scientist turned anti-climate change activist (more or less) has joined the Koch Brothers front group "Cause of Action".
I'm not going to talk about Mark Steyn, other than to say that if you know who Rush Limbaugh is, Mark Steyn is a bit to the right and a tad more obnoxious, but not as smart.
I had an email exchange with JRH that was frustrating. Her endlessly reiterated point was, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear." Well, duh. But what about parents who try to make a sows ear out of a silk purse? THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN! you say, in middle-class horror.
Well, it does. Parents do all kinds of things to their children. They brutally put them down, suppress their kids, compete with them, and interfere with them. No names, but this happens.
JRH's observations about the importance of the peer group are pretty sharp. But her dismissal of parental importance vitiates her contributions. She's not a scientist. She's a yenta.
If there is a golden mean there are always exteremas. Of course, that kind of things happen, I happened before and will happen in the future. What is important - we are conscious about it, that meant we are albe to do something about it. Now it's up to us. And that's the point!