[ExI] Armchair Evolutionary psychology

[Lee Corbin]

I've calmed down now---and maybe my conscience was beginning
to bug me.

Terry wrote

> [Lee wrote]
> > Stuart our Avantguardian wrote 
> > > If people had complete knowledge of themselves at the genetic
> > > level, I am certain that practically everyone would belong and 
> > > identify with one genetic minority group or another,
> > > irrespective of the biological fallacy known as "race".
> > 
> > This is an important point. Many people today ignorantly assume
> > that there is some racial difference between two of the remaining
> > Democratic Party candidates running for president here in the U.S.
> > Time and time I hear one of them being regarded as "black", as
> > though he were of a different "race", or were partly of a different
> > "race". You would not believe how widespread this fallacy is here.
> > 
> > It gets worse. Much worse. The New England Journal of Medicine
> > actually reported an investigation of differences in the effectiveness
> > of two types of hypertension medication in the so-called "black"
> > people and the so-called "white" people here in the U.S. You won't
> > believe this, but they even went on---surely in the full knowledge
> > that race is a biological fallacy (they're surely not that un-read)
> > ---to allude to a so-called "fact" that the so-called "black" people
> > are more likely than the so-called "white" people to have nitric-
> > oxide insufficiency. (Can you believe it??)
> > 
> > Which of course is flat-out impossible, since race doesn't exist.
> 
> I'd like to know how nitric-oxide insufficiency contribute to more 
> hypertension among the black than among the white race.

I'm not sure where you could get that information. It would be
interesting, of course. Maybe there is some on-line, but it would
probably be tied up in that stupid JSTOR stuff, and inaccessible
to the common surfer.

> Skin color of course is genetically determined but since we all came 
> from Africa, those who went to Asia and Europe developed lighter skin 
> over time depending on the amount of time spent exposed to the sun's 
> rays.

Well, how about that!  I had thought that the sons of Ham were just
colored that way by the Big Man upstairs.

> I don't know about any hypertensive medicine's effectiveness being 
> affected by nitric-oxide insufficiency. It's interesting to know what 
> the pharmaceutical name or chemical name of the drug, for anyone
> who works with the medical industry.

I'll see if my book mentioned anything more.

> Evolutionary psychology is an applied science so its related to 
> chemistry. The pharmaceutical company make generic medicine for less 
> cost. Is it possible that the cheaper drug is offered to those who 
> can't afford the expensive drug?

Evidently that is *not* the explanation at all.  Or else the NEJM
(New England Journal of Medicine) has reached an all time low
in their authoritativeness.

> On another note, prescribing the drug should not be based on race but 
> on age, weight and some other medical complications.

No.   Prescribing what drug to be used should not be based on what
you or I think would be important, or politically correct, or according
to common sense.  It should be based *solely* on what is best for
the particular patient, and according to the latest unbiased medical
evidence.

Lee