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Conservatives and racists are actually stupid, study finds |
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BY MICHAEL HENRICH |
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 A
new study bound to stir controversy found that people with a low I.Q. are drawn
to prejudice, racism and a socially conservative political ideology.
The study was conducted by researchers at Brock University in Ontario and
published in the journal Psychological Science.
The study's lead author, Dr. Gordon Hodson, told LiveScience that people with
lower intelligence scores are attracted to the "structure and order" of these
ideologies because they make it easier to comprehend a complicated world.
"Reality is complicated and messy," Dr. Brian Nosek of the University of
Virginia, who was not involved in the study, told The Huffington Post.
"Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may
not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to
simplifying ideologies."
For more information on how the study was conducted, visit
LiveScience. |
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NEWT: WHACK-JOB EXTRAORDINAIRE |
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Your Daily Newt: Saddam Hussein's Hacker Army |
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by TIM MURPHY (from
Mother Jones) |
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Newt Gingrich was speaking candidly when he told a New York Times
reporter in 1995, "I don't do foreign policy." But that didn't stop his mind
from occasionally wandering over to the national security realm. In Gingrich's
1995 college course—funded mostly by donors to his political action committee—he
used the work of his futurist mentors, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, as a starting
point for discussing America's precarious place in the world. Specifically,
Gingrich warned of a horror scenario in which Saddam Hussein trained a hacker
army to cause civil unrest by issuing 500,000 American Express cards and then
charging absurd fees:
There are implications of the emerging Third Wave information age for the world
system and for national security. That's part of why I mentioned Toffler, Alvin
and Heidi's book,
War and Anti-War, because you've got to think about, you know,
what would have happened if Saddam Hussein had hired 10 hackers at the beginning
of 'Desert Shield' and had decided to electronically try to break down American
system? Not killing people, not setting off bombs, but, for example, issuing
500,000 new American Express cards. Or simply charging absurd fees. Breaking
down telephone systems. Sending signals to turn off Georgia power company's
electric plant. I mean, how much damage could you do on the information side?
Which raises the question: If Saddam Hussein had tried to destroy the American
economy by charging absurd fees on credit cards...would we have even noticed? |
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Why the GOP race could be irrelevant |
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While the Mitt and Newt show rolls on, Obama is enjoying some of the best
news and best poll numbers of his term |
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BY STEVE KORNACKI (from
Salon) |
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 Republican
presidential candidates have devoted months, if not years, of their lives to
chasing their party’s nomination, they’ve raised and spent (along with their
Super PAC allies) tens of millions of dollars, and they’ve participated in more
than a dozen debates – each of which has attracted a massive television
audience.
But a startling new poll underscores what has got to be a maddening possibility
for Republicans: It could all be for naught – and there may be nothing they can
do about it. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey points to a measurable
uptick in optimism about the country’s economic direction, and in the public’s
assessment of President Obama’s performance.
By a 37 to 17 percent margin, respondents said they expect the economy to
improve in the next year; back in October, they thought it would get worse by a
32-21 margin. And the number of Americans who believe the country is heading in
the right direction now stands at 30 percent – hardly a huge number, but a clear
jump from the 17 percent who said so in the fall. Overall, Obama’s approval
rating is at 48 percent, the highest it’s been in an NBC/WSJ poll since June,
when he was still basking in the afterglow of Osama bin Laden’s demise.
The numbers are a reminder that a president’s reelection fate is ultimately more
dependent on the state of the economy than on what strategy the opposition party
employs and which candidate it nominates. If economic anxiety and pessimism are
rampant, then winning a second term is a profoundly uphill slog, even if the
opposition fields a supposedly weak nominee. But if the public widely believes
that conditions are healthy or at least improving, then credit – deserved or
undeserved – invariably goes to the White House occupant.
More than anything else, this is why Obama, for all of his (perfectly valid)
reminders that the economy he inherited was in freefall and that the 2008
meltdown had occurred on his Republican predecessor’s watch, enjoyed such a
brief polling honeymoon at the start of his presidency and why he’s been saddled
with mostly meager numbers since then. The overriding tendency of swing voters
is to find reasons to express displeasure with the president when times are
tough, and to look the other way when they’re not.
But the past few months have brought some of the most encouraging economic news
of the Obama presidency. The most recent jobs report, released at the start of
this month, pegged the unemployment rate at 8.5 percent, the lowest it’s been in
three years and showed the economy adding 200,000 jobs in December. As Salon’s
Andrew Leonard put it when the report came out:
But make no mistake, the new numbers do signify an economic recovery. Overall
economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 is likely to be above 3 percent,
by far the best quarterly performance in 2011. Excluding the Cash for Clunkers
turbo-boost, the U.S. auto industry had its best two months since the crash in
November and December. The manufacturing sector is surprisingly healthy.
Compared to Europe, the U.S. economy is in an enviable situation.
With good economic news in the headlines, it’s hardly surprising that we’re now
seeing real signs of public optimism, with a corresponding improvement in
Obama’s own political standing.
To be sure, the NBC/WSJ numbers are tenuous; the progress that Obama has made
these past few months can easily be erased in the next few if the recovery
falters or regresses. The example of the last one-term president, George H.W.
Bush, looms large here. He actually seemed in decent shape to win reelection in
the early months of 1992, but in the middle months of the year, the bottom
seemed to fall out on the economy, at which point he fell behind Bill Clinton in
polling and never regained the lead the rest of the way.
But it can work the other way too. You’d never know it from the hagiography that
has set in, but at the halfway mark of his first term, Ronald Reagan was largely
seen as a failed president. This was the result of a nasty recession that took
hold about eight months into his presidency and that ultimately pushed the
jobless rate to over 10 percent. His party suffered a drubbing in the 1982
midterms, his approval fell to the 30s, and polls showed his most likely
Democratic opponents running well ahead of him.
But by the time the 1984 Democratic race, which turned into a months-long battle
between Walter Mondale and Gary Hart, wrapped up, the economy was growing at a
rapid rate, with unemployment falling, public confidence swelling, and Reagan’s
approval rating surging. It rendered the Democratic race practically
meaningless; Americans wanted to reelect Reagan, and they did by an 18-point
margin.
Obama is obviously not on course for that kind of landslide. The scale of this
recovery is not nearly as dramatic as that of the mid-‘80s. But if it endures,
so will Obama’s polling comeback. And if that happens, there won’t be nearly as
many sympathetic ears this fall for the Republican argument against him. |
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The secret lives of
feral dogs |
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A Pennsylvania city instructs police to
shoot strays, opening a sad window on animal care in the age of
austerity |
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BY WILL DOIG (from
Salon) |
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Want to get people riled up? Institute a new policy about shooting
puppies.
The city of Harrisburg, Pa., learned this last week when an internal police
department memo went public, instructing officers of the cash-strapped city to
stop bringing its growing number of stray dogs to the shelter. Instead, it said,
they should release them in another area, adopt them themselves — or just put a
bullet in them. Now that’s the new austerity.
Read More |
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Why isn’t capitalism working? |
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Some thoughts from a man that may have helped create some of our economic
problems |
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BY LAWRENCE SUMMERS (from
Reuters) |
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Americans have traditionally been the most enthusiastic champions of
capitalism. Yet a recent American public opinion survey found that just 50 per
cent of people had a positive opinion of capitalism while 40 per cent did not.
The disillusionment was particularly marked among young people 18-29, African
Americans and Hispanics, those with incomes under $30,000 and self-described
Democrats. Read More |
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The anti-Obama cult |
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In the GOP’s hatred of the president, the rote ravings of True Believers |
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BY GARY KAMIYA (from
Salon) |
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 On
Wednesday morning, I opened the New York Times to read that president Hu Jin-Tao
had denounced the West for launching a culture war against China. “We must
clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic
plot of westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are
the focal areas of their long-term infiltration,” Hu pronounced in “Seeking
Truth,” a Communist Party magazine. “We should deeply understand the seriousness
and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain
vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond.”
Read More |
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The GOP's Crackpot Agenda |
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The top Republican candidates share a single, radical vision: to trash the
environment, shred the safety net and aid the rich |
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BY TIM DICKINSON (From
Rolling
Stone) |
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By all rights, 2012 ought to be a cakewalk for the GOP. Unemployment is
pandemic. Riot police are confronting protesters in public squares and on
college campuses. In an epic fail of foresight, the Democratic convention will
be held in one of the world's banking centers, Charlotte, North Carolina –
setting the stage for violent clashes not seen since the streets of Chicago,
1968. "I hope they keep this up," gloated Grover Norquist, one of the Republican
Party's most influential strategists. "Hippies elected Nixon. Occupy Wall Street
will beat Obama."
But don't go writing the president's political obituary just yet: He may
wind up being resurrected by the GOP itself. The Republican Party – dominated by
hardliners still cocky after the electoral sweep of 2010 – has backed its entire
slate of candidates into far-right corners on everything from the environment
and immigration to taxation and economic austerity. Whether the GOP opts for
Mitt Romney or an "anti-Mitt" is almost entirely beside the point. On the major
policy issues of the day, there's barely a ray of sunshine between any of the
viable Republicans, not counting those who have committed the sin of
libertarianism (Ron Paul) or moderation (Jon Huntsman). No matter who winds up
with the nomination, it appears, Obama will face a candidate to the right of
Barry Goldwater. Read
More |
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In Defense of Endless
War |
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As 9/11 showed, civilization has enemies
with which peace is neither possible nor desirable |
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BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (from
Slate) |
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 A continuous and repetitive thread in the
commentary on the decade since 9/11—one might almost call it an
endless and open-ended theme—was the plaintive observation that
the struggle against al-Qaida and its surrogates is somehow a
"war without end." (This is variously rendered as "perpetual
war" or "endless war," just as anti-war articles about the
commitment to Iraq used to relentlessly stress the idea that
there was "no end in sight.")
Read More |
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 The
Flintstones is not a documentary. |
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- Lewis Black, to creationists that believe
Jesus rode a dinosaur |
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One
man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity nothing
beats teamwork. |
| - Mark Twain |
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Do
you really think that the POTUS is really the one in power?
Do you really think that it matters who the current figurehead is?
Do you really think that your vote matters any more at all?
Do you REALLY think?
You should be pissed off at those that are REALLY in power, not the talking
heads that you see on the television that help the media owners sell more crap
to you. |
| - anonymous |
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| Mass Hysteria in
Upstate New York |
| Why more than a dozen teenage girls are
exhibiting Tourette’s-like symptoms. |
| BY RUTH GRAHAM (from
Slate) |
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| Last August, 16-year-old Lori Brownell passed
out while head-banging at a concert. A month later, she lost consciousness again
at her school’s homecoming dance in upstate Corinth, N.Y. Brownell says her
doctors put her on Celexa, but she only developed more symptoms, including
involuntary twitching and clapping. In videos she posted to YouTube, Brownell
flutters her fingers, touches her hair, snorts through her nose and throat, and
shouts “Hey, hey, hey,” seemingly without control. On Christmas Eve, doctors
diagnosed her with Tourette’s Syndrome. Now, however, her symptoms have another
name: conversion disorder, or mass hysteria.
Read More |
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| The men who died to
reach the North Pole |
| A new book explores the tragic journey of
the first team to make it to the Arctic's highest point |
| BY PETER LEWIS, Barnes & Noble Review |
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| This article appears courtesy of The
Barnes & Noble Review. |
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| At the opening of the 20th century, the North
Pole lay unreached. Over 1,000 men had given the pole their best shot, by ship
and sledge, without success, while 751 of them died in the trying. Only one team
had the audacity to make the attempt in a balloon. They died, too.
Read More |
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| What the Romney and
Gingrich 1040s Tell Us About How We Tax The Rich |
Ernest Hemingway: I am getting to know the
rich.
Mary Colum: I think you’ll find the only difference between the rich
and other people is that the rich have more money. |
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| BY HOWARD GLECKMAN (from
Forbes) |
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It turns out that when it comes to taxes, at
least, Ms. Colum, was mostly—but not entirely—right. To see why, let’s take a
quick trip through the tax returns of Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and their
spouses.
Admit it: Peeking at a celebrity’s tax return is more than a little voyeuristic.
But get beyond the sheer prurience of the exercise and the Romney and Gingrich
returns tell us a lot about the way those with incomes of $1 million or more are
taxed, and how they structure their lives to minimize taxes. But mostly, they
tell us that all those who make $1 million a year are not alike. And most of
them are surprisingly like the rest of us, only more so.
Read More |
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| The Dumbest Idea In
The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value |
| There is only one valid definition of a
business purpose: to create a customer. |
| BY PETER DRUCKER, The Practice of Management (from
Forbes) |
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 “Imagine
an NFL coach,” writes Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at
the University of Toronto, in his important new book, Fixing the Game, “holding
a press conference on Wednesday to announce that he predicts a win by 9 points
on Sunday, and that bettors should recognize that the current spread of 6 points
is too low. Or picture the team’s quarterback standing up in the postgame press
conference and apologizing for having only won by 3 points when the final
betting spread was 9 points in his team’s favor. While it’s laughable to imagine
coaches or quarterbacks doing so, CEOs are expected to do both of these things.”
Read More |
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| Applejack |
| A favorite liquor of the Founding Fathers
and a certain foolhardy underage drinker |
| BY TROY PATTERSON (from
Slate) |
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| The bite in the air and the crunch of the
fallen leaves indicate that this is the season for applejack, the cider brandy
traditionally described as "kinda like an apple whiskey." Not remotely as sweet
as a biddy's schnapps, not quite so refined as a Frenchman's Calvados, applejack
boasts a forthright character and an identity as American as apple pie. Our
forefathers drank cider like it was water, literally, their water being
undrinkable, but some they set aside to make the hard stuff, as if concentrating
the gaiety of the harvest festival to last through the hard months ahead.
More |
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| Grover Norquist: The
Billionaires' Best Friend |
| How the anti-tax activist hijacked the GOP
on behalf of the rich |
| BY TIM DICKINSON (from
Rolling
Stone) |
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Grover Norquist has never held elected office.
He's
not a political appointee or a congressional staffer, and few voters know his
name. Yet this anti-tax lobbyist wields immense power over the Republican Party,
enforcing a hard-line position that compels the GOP to protect tax breaks for
the rich and billions in federal subsidies for America's wealthiest
corporations. "It all comes from a single guy," says Alan Simpson, the former
Republican senator. So how does Norquist do it? Read
More |
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SOAPBOX |
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Free - at last, from Farming |
| BY LARRY LAIRD |
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 It
had been on my mind for a long time. I wanted to do it. I came
close many times. Then, finally, one rainy September morning I
made it happen. I pulled the plug. Yes, I stopped playing
Farmville, that damned-able application from Facebook.
Read
More |
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| And now for more evidence of why
America is becoming a third world country |
| BY LARRY LAIRD |
| |
 “Journalists”
like those of Fox News quoting unsubstantiated (and ultimately ridiculously
wrong) reports, worded in such a way as to be presented as facts, then hiding
behind a “?” as an excuse when they are shown to be full of shit.
People that jump on every story printed as if it were true, if it fits their
agenda. Earth 6012 years old… yes! Temperature trends can be ignored! Yes!…
Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist plant! Yes!
Politicians like Bachmann and Palin that use false information like this to
discredit and diminish the respectability of their own country.
Other politicians publicly stating that they would rather see America fail than
move forward under a leader (any leader) of the opposing party.
We are in a downward spiral of gullibility, intentional misinformation, lack of
honor and accountability, with so-called journalists and commentators (Limbaugh
and Beck) leading the decline of core American values. And as the recent
elections show, it is working, the American people are being led by the nose
down the path of ignorance and corporate slavery. |
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| Forget Dem vs Rep, Left vs Right,
Liberal vs Conservative — It’s Us vs Corporations |
| BY LARRY LAIRD |
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 Are
we/have we devolved into a de facto fascist country where the line between
government and big business is hard/impossible to distinguish? Or is it worse
than that? Add in law enforcement (local to federal) with diminishing limits on
power who are often called upon by corporations to enforce their business needs
(eg, MPAA & RIAA) and you have a dangerous mix. At least for us not running the
corporations.
Every generation or so, a major secular shift takes place that shakes up the
existing paradigm. It happens in industry, finance, literature, sports,
manufacturing, technology, entertainment, travel, communication, etc. I would
like to discuss the paradigm shift that is occurring in politics.
For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It
was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus
Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental
Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs.
Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets.
The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now
live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the
individual. These two “interest groups” – I can barely suppress snorting
derisively over that phrase – have been on a headlong collision course for
decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where
there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of
power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly
entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even
free speech rights. |
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We Are Not All Created Equal |
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The truth about the American class system |
| BY STEPHEN MARCHE (from
Esquire) |
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 There
are some truths so hard to face, so ugly and so at odds with how we imagine the
world should be, that nobody can accept them. Here's one: It is obvious that a
class system has arrived in America — a recent study of the thirty-four
countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found
that only Italy and Great Britain have less social mobility. But nobody wants to
admit: If your daddy was rich, you're gonna stay rich, and if your daddy was
poor, you're gonna stay poor. Every instinct in the American gut, every
institution, every national symbol, runs on the idea that anybody can make it;
the only limits are your own limits. Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the
world — just no longer true. Culturally, and in their daily lives, Americans
continue to glide through a ghostly land of opportunity they can't bear to tell
themselves isn't real. It's the most dangerous lie the country tells itself.
Read More |
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