Mailvox: the quixotic crusade continues

Vox have you seen the discussion on various blogs about how your wife Spacebunny believes Japanese runners are as fast as blacks? It’s pretty funny, but tell me it isn’t true! I know she’s blonde, but she can’t be as stupid as this guy is making her out to be! He claims to be using direct quotes from your blog. Knowing you, I find it hard to believe your wife is that dumb.

No, nor do I imagine that most people have seen any such “discussion”. And while I quite like pretty dumb blondes, Spacebunny is far more intelligent than the 100-IQ norm. Once you understand that her brother is a former NCAA Division One champion runner and she’s married to a former NCAA Division One sprinter, I think you can guess where the probability lies with regards to Queerty having understood the issue previously under discussion and the accuracy of his subsequent efforts to characterize it. The quotes may well be accurate, but the context is significant.

You see, what happened was that the guy made an assertion to which no one seriously objects but with minimal supporting data. Spacebunny pointed out that there was data available which actually indicated the falsity of the original statement, despite its extreme obviousness. (The IAAF’s world top 50 rankings for the 50m through 100m show a number of non-black sprinters, including Japanese and Chinese sprinters). Instead of simply explaining how the IAAF data did not necessarily contradict his assertion, Queerty managed to confuse the criticism of his failure to support his assertion for criticism of the assertion itself, then obsessively posted about it in unrelated discussions until I banned him. Apparently he is still posting about it… which is fine as long as it is elsewhere.

Considering that I ran against the current world record holder of the 60-yard dash as well as a member of the US Olympic 4x100m team, Queerty appears to have chosen a particularly quixotic crusade with which to attempt impugning Spacebunny’s intelligence.