Breeding value, not distrust
My usual pithy takes on the news and local events must take a backseat today. For I'm about to cut loose with something original, at least as far as I can tell.The subject is hybrid vigor, plus presidential politics, which I'll get to shortly.
But first let me dwell on some stuff I learned long ago at Texas A&M where I was an animal husbandry major (shortly before the specialty became “animal science").I know that’s ancient history now, but the concept of hybrid vigor in organisms isn't. It comes to mind today, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
But first you should know that my dad was a grower of purebred Hereford cattle. The breed was the most popular among beef cattle, and certainly the most physically attractive with their white faces and light-brown bodies. Their main competition was the Black Angus.Hereford breeders would shortly be aghast to find that Herefords were being bred to Anguses to produce what some called white-faced blacks and still do. These offspring were found to possess hybrid vigor, as evidenced in increased and more efficient production of beef than either of their parents could achieve from mating just within their own breed.
It's no secret today that some folks who are people of pallor and similar in beliefs to those old Hereford breeders (like my dad) are aghast that we contemporary Americans have also been known to do some cross-breeding ourselves. It's also no secret that some of the offspring have become exceptional individuals.
I would say such hybrid vigor helps explain the superiority of notables like Tiger Woods in golf, and perhaps even Barack Obama in politics. The latter, by the way, is typically mislabeled, in my humble opinion. He's no black. He is truly an African-American. His father was a Kenyan, his mother a white Kansan.Not that I intend to cast a vote for a Democrat, please understand. But it wouldn't surprise me to see Obama win the presidency. Hybrid vigor explains it as well as anything else. Regardless, ABC: Anybody But Clinton.
Now let me segue to a couple of comments from respondents who get my columns via e-mail.
Regarding my complaint last fall that mental patients now may hardly ever be forcibly confined, friend Dr. Manuel Belandres chimed in. You may recall he practiced many years in Stafford before being de facto retired by outrageously rising liability insurance premiums.
“Ben, in 1969-77, I was still in New York City when the wonder drugs invaded mental hospitals. They worked so well the decision was made to release all the mentally ill patients and set up outpatient mental health facilities. To continue in-house treatment was deemed too expensive and no longer necessary....But then the patients became the newly homeless. What went wrong? Who would expect that these patients would regularly take their daily dose of wonder drugs? By then it was too late to resurrect the mental wards.”
And check this illuminating clarification from a fan of Sen. Jim Webb, who I had dissed for being rude to President Bush at a White House reception:
“Senator Webb had just had a lengthy conversation with President Bush about Webb's son in Iraq before the media showed up. Then Bush asked him the same question--one they had just a moment before discussed thoroughly, "How's your son in Iraq." For the benefit of the media.”
True? I hadn’t ever heard that explanation of the incident. Any substantiation?
But first let me dwell on some stuff I learned long ago at Texas A&M where I was an animal husbandry major (shortly before the specialty became “animal science").I know that’s ancient history now, but the concept of hybrid vigor in organisms isn't. It comes to mind today, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
But first you should know that my dad was a grower of purebred Hereford cattle. The breed was the most popular among beef cattle, and certainly the most physically attractive with their white faces and light-brown bodies. Their main competition was the Black Angus.Hereford breeders would shortly be aghast to find that Herefords were being bred to Anguses to produce what some called white-faced blacks and still do. These offspring were found to possess hybrid vigor, as evidenced in increased and more efficient production of beef than either of their parents could achieve from mating just within their own breed.
It's no secret today that some folks who are people of pallor and similar in beliefs to those old Hereford breeders (like my dad) are aghast that we contemporary Americans have also been known to do some cross-breeding ourselves. It's also no secret that some of the offspring have become exceptional individuals.
I would say such hybrid vigor helps explain the superiority of notables like Tiger Woods in golf, and perhaps even Barack Obama in politics. The latter, by the way, is typically mislabeled, in my humble opinion. He's no black. He is truly an African-American. His father was a Kenyan, his mother a white Kansan.Not that I intend to cast a vote for a Democrat, please understand. But it wouldn't surprise me to see Obama win the presidency. Hybrid vigor explains it as well as anything else. Regardless, ABC: Anybody But Clinton.
Now let me segue to a couple of comments from respondents who get my columns via e-mail.
Regarding my complaint last fall that mental patients now may hardly ever be forcibly confined, friend Dr. Manuel Belandres chimed in. You may recall he practiced many years in Stafford before being de facto retired by outrageously rising liability insurance premiums.
“Ben, in 1969-77, I was still in New York City when the wonder drugs invaded mental hospitals. They worked so well the decision was made to release all the mentally ill patients and set up outpatient mental health facilities. To continue in-house treatment was deemed too expensive and no longer necessary....But then the patients became the newly homeless. What went wrong? Who would expect that these patients would regularly take their daily dose of wonder drugs? By then it was too late to resurrect the mental wards.”
And check this illuminating clarification from a fan of Sen. Jim Webb, who I had dissed for being rude to President Bush at a White House reception:
“Senator Webb had just had a lengthy conversation with President Bush about Webb's son in Iraq before the media showed up. Then Bush asked him the same question--one they had just a moment before discussed thoroughly, "How's your son in Iraq." For the benefit of the media.”
True? I hadn’t ever heard that explanation of the incident. Any substantiation?
posted by Ben Blankenship at
11:36 AM
