About a month ago I subscribe to one of these counter dealies so I would know how many people were reading my blog. Based on my comments section I had little reason to believe that I was having much effect. Imagine my amazement to find these stats:
Lobojos DenSite Summary
VISITS
Total
1,446
Average Per Day
36
Average Visit Length
2:40
Last Hour
3
Today
46
This Week
253
PAGE VIEWS
Total
2,128
Average Per Day
59
Average Per Visit
1.6
Last Hour
8
Today
76
This Week
415
Wow, imagine my excitement at these stats. Wait a minute though. You mean that 46 people visited my blog today and actually read my blog and some old ones too.
My stats: 46 visits and 76 pages read just for today.
To good to be true? You betcha. My actual number of readers is 11.
Digging into the data, only 11 of those 46 "visits" actually stopped and read anything. So they read my current blog right? Not really. 7 of the 11 (neat the way those numbers worked out), read 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 of my recent blogs. One guy from Germany and another from Australia read my blog on Lewis and Clark in Space (this is my most popular blog, exceeding any other by a factor of 4). The site at the National Defense University in D.C. scanned my blog for 38 seconds like they do every other day. One guy from somewhere wanted to read about my blog on dog faced saints.
So much for my bubble.
So only 1 out of 6.4 visitors actually read my current blog.
Tommarow I'll do a blog on John McCain's Fight Club. But after the election the first thing I plan to do is do an indepth review of Flesh Gordon complete with photos. That should get some readership.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Keep Schmidt Away From All Pig Farms.
Regan & Atwater beget George W. & Karl Rove beget McCain and Steve Schmidt.
Schmidt, the technical grandchild of Lee Atwater is following his play book line by line.
The end is near.
The question is will McCain implode or explode.
Will he become a black-hole or debris.
The other question is what will happen to the demon that passed from Atwater to Rove to Schmidt? I hope someone studies this trio or is he legion?
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Lee Atwater works at CNN
CNN participates in Republican Bigotry. Willingly????
The ACORN crap is an old story, that goes all the way back to 2000.
CNN is broadcasting a report form one of their reporters full half truths and fraudulent facts about ACORN. Example, their reporter picks up a pile of bad registration forms bundled up and sent in by ACORN as bad, as per legal requirement, and infers that it is a typical group of submissions.
It is a simple example of the "Southern Strategy", the Atwater technique to yell N*#&@ without yelling N*#&@. That CNN has it's head so far up its ass that it falls for this is sad, so very sad. CNN you've been conned big time. So very sad. Are you vying for FOX viewers.
Here is the ACORN rebuttal to the Republican propaganda machine.
"For Immediate Release: October 7, 2008
ACORN Statement from Bertha Lewis, Interim Chief Organizer, on Incident in Las Vegas:
"Over the past year, ACORN has worked hard to help over 80,000 people in Clark County register to vote. As part of our nonpartisan voter registration program, we have review all the applications submitted by our canvassers. When we have identified suspicious applications, we have separated them out and flagged them for election officials. We have zero tolerance for fraudulent registrations. We immediately dismiss employees we suspect of submitting fraudulent registrations.
For the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application into election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual.
Election officials routinely ignored this information and failed to act. In early July, ACORN asked to meet with election officials to express our concerns that they were not acting on information ACORN had presented to them. ACORN met with Clark County elections officials and a representative of the Secretary of State on July 17th. ACORN pleaded with them to take our concerns about fraudulent applications seriously. One week later, elections officials asked us to provide them with a second copy of what we had previously provided to them. ACORN responded by giving election officials copies of 46 "problem application packages," which involved 33 former canvassers.
On September 23, ACORN had received a subpoena dated September 19th requesting information on 15 employees, all of whom had been included in the packages we had previously submitted to election officials. ACORN provided our personnel records on these 15 employees on September 29.
Today's raid by the Secretary of State's Office is a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than discredit our work registering Nevadans and distracting us from the important work ahead of getting every eligible voter to the polls."
And in regard to Indiana, from an ACORN spokesperson earlier today...
The Republican Party is trying to use this attack to stop early voting from happening and disenfranchise tens of thousands of Lake County residents.
ACORN has submitted 1.3 million applications nationally and over 23,000 in Indiana.
ACORN engages in comprehensive quality control procedures, every card is called through three times.
ACORN flags and turns in three kinds of cards, those that it can verify, those that are incomplete, and those that it flags as problematic. It turns those in labeled in a special way and are very conservative in terms of what it flags as problematic. It has stacks of problematic cover sheets.
The Lake County Board of Elections refused to acknowledge the categories of cards when ACORN turned them in, or sign its paperwork. The Lake County Board knew about the questionable registrations today because ACORN flagged them for the board. For example, the Jimmy John's card is one that a caller had flagged and labeled as problematic. ACORN can get that caller to talk to the press.
ACORN did Voter Registration from in July and some parts of August. As it was doing quality control ACORN noticed a large number of problematic cards and because of this it eased doing registration until late September when it could clear its quality control backlog.
ACORN's recent cards from September and early October are not problematic at the same levels."
Listen carefully. Listen to the talking points. The same talking points come from every Republican spokesman. Look at their eyes. Hear that sound in the background? Nigger-Nigger-Nigger: Lee Atwater is alive and well and has conned CNN.
1.http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/08/opinion/edowd.php
2.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/09/MNB313DUTE.DTL
The ACORN crap is an old story, that goes all the way back to 2000.
CNN is broadcasting a report form one of their reporters full half truths and fraudulent facts about ACORN. Example, their reporter picks up a pile of bad registration forms bundled up and sent in by ACORN as bad, as per legal requirement, and infers that it is a typical group of submissions.
It is a simple example of the "Southern Strategy", the Atwater technique to yell N*#&@ without yelling N*#&@. That CNN has it's head so far up its ass that it falls for this is sad, so very sad. CNN you've been conned big time. So very sad. Are you vying for FOX viewers.
Here is the ACORN rebuttal to the Republican propaganda machine.
"For Immediate Release: October 7, 2008
ACORN Statement from Bertha Lewis, Interim Chief Organizer, on Incident in Las Vegas:
"Over the past year, ACORN has worked hard to help over 80,000 people in Clark County register to vote. As part of our nonpartisan voter registration program, we have review all the applications submitted by our canvassers. When we have identified suspicious applications, we have separated them out and flagged them for election officials. We have zero tolerance for fraudulent registrations. We immediately dismiss employees we suspect of submitting fraudulent registrations.
For the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application into election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual.
Election officials routinely ignored this information and failed to act. In early July, ACORN asked to meet with election officials to express our concerns that they were not acting on information ACORN had presented to them. ACORN met with Clark County elections officials and a representative of the Secretary of State on July 17th. ACORN pleaded with them to take our concerns about fraudulent applications seriously. One week later, elections officials asked us to provide them with a second copy of what we had previously provided to them. ACORN responded by giving election officials copies of 46 "problem application packages," which involved 33 former canvassers.
On September 23, ACORN had received a subpoena dated September 19th requesting information on 15 employees, all of whom had been included in the packages we had previously submitted to election officials. ACORN provided our personnel records on these 15 employees on September 29.
Today's raid by the Secretary of State's Office is a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than discredit our work registering Nevadans and distracting us from the important work ahead of getting every eligible voter to the polls."
And in regard to Indiana, from an ACORN spokesperson earlier today...
The Republican Party is trying to use this attack to stop early voting from happening and disenfranchise tens of thousands of Lake County residents.
ACORN has submitted 1.3 million applications nationally and over 23,000 in Indiana.
ACORN engages in comprehensive quality control procedures, every card is called through three times.
ACORN flags and turns in three kinds of cards, those that it can verify, those that are incomplete, and those that it flags as problematic. It turns those in labeled in a special way and are very conservative in terms of what it flags as problematic. It has stacks of problematic cover sheets.
The Lake County Board of Elections refused to acknowledge the categories of cards when ACORN turned them in, or sign its paperwork. The Lake County Board knew about the questionable registrations today because ACORN flagged them for the board. For example, the Jimmy John's card is one that a caller had flagged and labeled as problematic. ACORN can get that caller to talk to the press.
ACORN did Voter Registration from in July and some parts of August. As it was doing quality control ACORN noticed a large number of problematic cards and because of this it eased doing registration until late September when it could clear its quality control backlog.
ACORN's recent cards from September and early October are not problematic at the same levels."
Listen carefully. Listen to the talking points. The same talking points come from every Republican spokesman. Look at their eyes. Hear that sound in the background? Nigger-Nigger-Nigger: Lee Atwater is alive and well and has conned CNN.
1.http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/08/opinion/edowd.php
2.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/09/MNB313DUTE.DTL
Saturday, October 11, 2008
The Change of Days
Jesus is coming Soon.
The Rapture is upon us.
The End Is Near.
The Millenium of Christ is here.
These are the End Times.
George W. Bush thought so when God told him to become President.
Sarah Palin belongs to a sect outside the regular Pentecostal Church that believes that the End of Days means Joel's Army will fight the Anti-Christ of the World Government from the Alaskan fortress. She believes that she and Todd are God's instrument in all of that.
About this time in his run for the President John McCain probably thinks maybe his end is near.
Well they are correct to a degree.
The end is near, but not the one they think.
We have spent 30 years in the era of corporate business controlling and manipulating governments and workers. That is over. Americans have not seen any real increase in wages in two decades. The Rich get richer and the rest of us hover on the chasm.
That is over.
Within three weeks we will change.
Americans crave Change today. But not all crave the same change.
We have already taken the giant stride towards socialism by having governments across the world save their corporate economic structures by buying stock in them. Governments are becoming the corporations. America is becoming a economic stockholder of the world. Surely that is a harbinger of the "World Government".
We are faced in America with the most important choice since the Civil War. Which way shall we go. Shall we elect Obama and turn to our socialist natures that Roosevelt and Johnson inspired or elect McCain and chase ideologies that have already failed. Or shall we indulge in a new Civil War? Electing McCain or Obama could trigger that? Or if some nut takes out McCain or Obama that could most likely start such a conflict. William Ayers and the madness of 1968 are only a small taste of what we have become capable. 1968 compared to 2008 could easily be compared to the Weather Underground's 2lb bombs and McVeigh's 5000lb bomb in their difference. Maybe we will come to our senses. Maybe we will lose our senses.
Whatever the scenario, in three weeks we will change.
We will Change. But How?
Enter :The Change of Days
Post Script: Which ever way it goes, I will stop these rants here at this blog and return to my mild madness of pictures and inanities. That is if I'm not out on the barricades.
The Rapture is upon us.
The End Is Near.
The Millenium of Christ is here.
These are the End Times.
George W. Bush thought so when God told him to become President.
Sarah Palin belongs to a sect outside the regular Pentecostal Church that believes that the End of Days means Joel's Army will fight the Anti-Christ of the World Government from the Alaskan fortress. She believes that she and Todd are God's instrument in all of that.
About this time in his run for the President John McCain probably thinks maybe his end is near.
Well they are correct to a degree.
The end is near, but not the one they think.
We have spent 30 years in the era of corporate business controlling and manipulating governments and workers. That is over. Americans have not seen any real increase in wages in two decades. The Rich get richer and the rest of us hover on the chasm.
That is over.
Within three weeks we will change.
Americans crave Change today. But not all crave the same change.
We have already taken the giant stride towards socialism by having governments across the world save their corporate economic structures by buying stock in them. Governments are becoming the corporations. America is becoming a economic stockholder of the world. Surely that is a harbinger of the "World Government".
We are faced in America with the most important choice since the Civil War. Which way shall we go. Shall we elect Obama and turn to our socialist natures that Roosevelt and Johnson inspired or elect McCain and chase ideologies that have already failed. Or shall we indulge in a new Civil War? Electing McCain or Obama could trigger that? Or if some nut takes out McCain or Obama that could most likely start such a conflict. William Ayers and the madness of 1968 are only a small taste of what we have become capable. 1968 compared to 2008 could easily be compared to the Weather Underground's 2lb bombs and McVeigh's 5000lb bomb in their difference. Maybe we will come to our senses. Maybe we will lose our senses.
Whatever the scenario, in three weeks we will change.
We will Change. But How?
Enter :The Change of Days
Post Script: Which ever way it goes, I will stop these rants here at this blog and return to my mild madness of pictures and inanities. That is if I'm not out on the barricades.
Friday, October 10, 2008
After The Cat Is Out Of Bag
McCain: Obama is not ‘an Arab’
October 10th, 2008 – 5:46 PM
by Pat Doyle
"Gayle Quinnell, 75, of Shakopee, approached McCain near the end of his hour long give and take with the crowd and told him she didn’t trust his opponent Barack Obama because “he’s an Arab.”
McCain shook his head and, taking the microphone from her, said “no, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”
After the town hall meeting, Quinnell elaborated on her position in talking to reporters.
“I don’t trust Barack Obama because he’s an Arab,” she said. “He’s a Muslim. I’m afraid if he ever got to be president what would happen to this country.”.....
----Minneapolis Star Tribune
So McCain tried to catch the Cat that he let out of the bag. Can't do it John. You're too old and Sarah wants to let it run free anyway.
But say, my friend, why did you have to go and alienate the entire Arab World, and a chunk of America while you did it?
I note, "...he's an Arab." "No ma'am, He's a decent family man, citizen...."
Translation: Arabs are not decent family men and citizens.
Of course he didn't mean to say that. But he did. But that is not what he meant! But that is the way it will be heard.
And by the way John, your own crowd boo'd you. Even after correcting Ms. Quinnell she went outside and repeated it again to the media. John, you're going to get mighty tired trying to catch this cat.
By the way John on CNN I just heard one of your supporters compare William Ayers to Tim McVeigh. Are you insane? Have your people lost their minds? Do you not know what you are releasing? On second thought, John you better get out there and catch that cat no matter what it cost you.
For any of you out there that didn't live through both the Ayers time and the McVeigh time read up on it below. Compared to McVeigh, Ayers was a country gentleman.
Tim McVeigh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh
Bill Ayers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers
Mean people suck! Ignorant people kill.
October 10th, 2008 – 5:46 PM
by Pat Doyle
"Gayle Quinnell, 75, of Shakopee, approached McCain near the end of his hour long give and take with the crowd and told him she didn’t trust his opponent Barack Obama because “he’s an Arab.”
McCain shook his head and, taking the microphone from her, said “no, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”
After the town hall meeting, Quinnell elaborated on her position in talking to reporters.
“I don’t trust Barack Obama because he’s an Arab,” she said. “He’s a Muslim. I’m afraid if he ever got to be president what would happen to this country.”.....
----Minneapolis Star Tribune
So McCain tried to catch the Cat that he let out of the bag. Can't do it John. You're too old and Sarah wants to let it run free anyway.
But say, my friend, why did you have to go and alienate the entire Arab World, and a chunk of America while you did it?
I note, "...he's an Arab." "No ma'am, He's a decent family man, citizen...."
Translation: Arabs are not decent family men and citizens.
Of course he didn't mean to say that. But he did. But that is not what he meant! But that is the way it will be heard.
And by the way John, your own crowd boo'd you. Even after correcting Ms. Quinnell she went outside and repeated it again to the media. John, you're going to get mighty tired trying to catch this cat.
By the way John on CNN I just heard one of your supporters compare William Ayers to Tim McVeigh. Are you insane? Have your people lost their minds? Do you not know what you are releasing? On second thought, John you better get out there and catch that cat no matter what it cost you.
For any of you out there that didn't live through both the Ayers time and the McVeigh time read up on it below. Compared to McVeigh, Ayers was a country gentleman.
Tim McVeigh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh
Bill Ayers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers
Mean people suck! Ignorant people kill.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
No Cold Sweats, But What About PTSD?
It was 1984, I had been back from Vietnam for 16 years when my PTSD kicked in BIG TIME. I was an ex college student age 22 when I hit the deck in Nam. I was Regular Army, four year volunteer, with several months of special training for Nam, including escape and evasion. I had some serious bouts with PTSD right after I came back but because I was still in the military I didn't see anyone about it. In 1984 I did(my wife made me). I am still taking meds for it.
So Imagine my surprised when I discovered that John McCain had been given training which prevented his getting PTSD even though he was a prisoner of war.
Cindy McCain in an interview with the fashion source Marie Claire says it is so.
Source:
http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/cindy-mccain-interview-election?src=rss
"Cindy McCain Rolls Up Her Sleeves"
By Sam Dealey
Excerpts:
MC: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you — or is it a part of history?
CM: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.
MC: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?
CM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.
Gee, Cindy, why didn't I get that training? Say, was it secret? You know I had a really high security clearance and I don't ever remember hearing about such training. Maybe the Navy kept it to themselves, or maybe it was just for officers and gentlemen, or academy types.
It is obvious the John McCain doesn't suffer from flashbacks. It has never shown itself publicly. Has it? Because it not part of his daily experience. Really?
"October 8, 2008, 6:53 pm
McCain Addresses ‘My Fellow Prisoners’
Elizabeth Holmes reports from Strongsville, Ohio, on the presidential race.
In a campaign with plenty of gaffes to go around, John McCain added one to the mix Wednesday. The Republican presidential candidate addressed a crowd in Pennsylvania as “my fellow prisoners.”
McCain made the slip while discussing his plans for the economy, including health care and energy policies. “Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners,” he said. The prepared remarks, which the campaign distributed during the speech, showed he meant to say “citizens.” The Arizona senator was a prisoner of war, spending nearly six years in Vietnam. He often talks about his experiences on the campaign trail, albeit briefly."
(http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/08/mccain-addresses-my-fellow-prisoners/ )
No night sweats, no temper fits, no physical abuse, no PTSD, John is a true superman.
Me, well I'm just a stupid shelp who couldn't control his psychological health like John did.
Well I guess I'm put in my true place now. Thanks Cindy for the insight!
(Me, Mine own self at Lai Khe, RVN 1967)
So Imagine my surprised when I discovered that John McCain had been given training which prevented his getting PTSD even though he was a prisoner of war.
Cindy McCain in an interview with the fashion source Marie Claire says it is so.
Source:
http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/cindy-mccain-interview-election?src=rss
"Cindy McCain Rolls Up Her Sleeves"
By Sam Dealey
Excerpts:
MC: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you — or is it a part of history?
CM: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.
MC: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?
CM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.
Gee, Cindy, why didn't I get that training? Say, was it secret? You know I had a really high security clearance and I don't ever remember hearing about such training. Maybe the Navy kept it to themselves, or maybe it was just for officers and gentlemen, or academy types.
It is obvious the John McCain doesn't suffer from flashbacks. It has never shown itself publicly. Has it? Because it not part of his daily experience. Really?
"October 8, 2008, 6:53 pm
McCain Addresses ‘My Fellow Prisoners’
Elizabeth Holmes reports from Strongsville, Ohio, on the presidential race.
In a campaign with plenty of gaffes to go around, John McCain added one to the mix Wednesday. The Republican presidential candidate addressed a crowd in Pennsylvania as “my fellow prisoners.”
McCain made the slip while discussing his plans for the economy, including health care and energy policies. “Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners,” he said. The prepared remarks, which the campaign distributed during the speech, showed he meant to say “citizens.” The Arizona senator was a prisoner of war, spending nearly six years in Vietnam. He often talks about his experiences on the campaign trail, albeit briefly."
(http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/08/mccain-addresses-my-fellow-prisoners/ )
No night sweats, no temper fits, no physical abuse, no PTSD, John is a true superman.
Me, well I'm just a stupid shelp who couldn't control his psychological health like John did.
Well I guess I'm put in my true place now. Thanks Cindy for the insight!
Political Parties, Childhood Temperament,Education and The Fear of Death
I was born a Democrat.
I was raised a Democrat.
I will die a Democrat.
Dang it an now I find out that I actually was all those things.
We all want to know why we are what we are? Did God make me this way for a purpose. Was it my potty training? Did a random cosmic ray strike my DNA in my mama's womb?
We are also fascinated about the other guy. Especially the real dorks that are so different than we are. How'd they get so dumb anyway?
Well maybe we are "hardwired", "predisposed", and "trained up in the way we should go."
By: Jay Dixit
"The Ideological Animal:
We think our political stance is the product of reason, but we're easily manipulated and surprisingly malleable. Our essential political self is more a stew of childhood temperament, education, and fear of death. Call it the 9/11 effect. "
Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20061222-000001.xml
Excerpts:
"We tend to believe our political views have evolved by a process of rational thought, as we consider arguments, weigh evidence, and draw conclusions. But the truth is more complicated. Our political preferences are equally the result of factors we're not aware of—such as how educated we are, how scary the world seems at a given moment, and personality traits that are first apparent in early childhood. Among the most potent motivators, it turns out, is fear. How the United States should confront the threat of terrorism remains a subject of endless political debate. But Americans' response to threats of attack is now more clear-cut than ever. The fear of death alone is surprisingly effective in shaping our political decisions—more powerful, often, than thought itself."
A brilliant sociopathic political strategist named Lee Atwater knew these thing instinctively and start a process that is yet to culminate. Pitting the different temperaments of people against one another. Think about the ways the Republicans and Democrats are behaving even today, right now as you read this. I see myself here, do you?
"Most people are surprised to learn that there are real, stable differences in personality between conservatives and liberals—not just different views or values, but underlying differences in temperament. Psychologists John Jost of New York University, Dana Carney of Harvard, and Sam Gosling of the University of Texas have demonstrated that conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world. Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start. Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. Liberals are more likely to like classical music and jazz, conservatives, country music. Liberals are more likely to enjoy abstract art. Conservative men are more likely than liberal men to prefer conventional forms of entertainment like TV and talk radio. Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men. Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting, and playing musical instruments. "
........
"All people are born alike—except Republicans and Democrats," quipped Groucho Marx, and in fact it turns out that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are evident in early childhood. "
........
"... conservatives have a greater desire to reach a decision quickly and stick to it, and are higher on conscientiousness, which includes neatness, orderliness, duty, and rule-following. Liberals are higher on openness, which includes intellectual curiosity, excitement-seeking, novelty, creativity for its own sake, and a craving for stimulation like travel, color, art, music, and literature.
The study's authors also concluded that conservatives have less tolerance for ambiguity, a trait they say is exemplified when George Bush says things like, "Look, my job isn't to try to nuance. My job is to tell people what I think," and "I'm the decider." Those who think the world is highly dangerous and those with the greatest fear of death are the most likely to be conservative. "
.....
"Liberals, on the other hand, are "more likely to see gray areas and reconcile seemingly conflicting information," says Jost. As a result, liberals like John Kerry, who see many sides to every issue, are portrayed as flip-floppers. "Whatever the cause, Bush and Kerry exemplify the cognitive styles we see in the research," says Jack Glaser, one of the study's authors, "Bush in appearing more rigid in his thinking and intolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity, and Kerry in appearing more open to ambiguity and to considering alternative positions."
......
As you may imagine these studies did not set to well with conservatives:
"The House Republican Study Committee complained that the study's authors had received federal funds. George Will satirized it in his Washington Post column, and The National Review called it the "Conservatives Are Crazy" study." and "...Yet critics retort that the research draws negative conclusions about conservatives while the researchers themselves are liberal. And it's true that over the decades, a disproportionate amount of the research has focused on figuring out what's behind conservative behavior. Right shift is likewise more studied than left shift, largely because most of that research has been since 9/11, and aimed at trying to explain the conservative conversions of people..."
......
"There are differences between liberals and conservatives, and people can value them however they like," Jost points out. "There is nothing inherently good or bad about being high or low on the need for closure or structure. Some may see religiosity as a positive, whereas others may see it more neutrally, and so on."
......
"As a follow-up, Solomon primed one group of subjects to think about death, a state of mind called "mortality salience." A second group was primed to think about 9/11. And a third was induced to think about pain—something unpleasant but non-deadly. When people were in a benign state of mind, they tended to oppose Bush and his policies in Iraq. But after thinking about either death or 9/11, they tended to favor him. Such findings were further corroborated by Cornell sociologist Robert Willer, who found that whenever the color-coded terror alert level was raised, support for Bush increased significantly, not only on domestic security but also in unrelated domains, such as the economy. "
Remember this was written and the studie done before the economic meltdown.
..........
"
The reason thoughts of death make people more conservative, Jost says, is that they awaken a deep desire to see the world as fair and just, to believe that people get what they deserve, and to accept the existing social order as valid, rather than in need of change. When these natural desires are primed by thoughts of death and a barrage of mortal fear, people gravitate toward conservatism because it's more certain about the answers it provides—right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, us vs. them—and because conservative leaders are more likely to advocate a return to traditional values, allowing people to stick with what's familiar and known. "Conservatism is a more black and white ideology than liberalism," explains Jost. "It emphasizes tradition and authority, which are reassuring during periods of threat."
............
"Campaign strategists in both parties have never hesitated to use scare tactics. In 1964, a Lyndon Johnson commercial called "Daisy" juxtaposed footage of a little girl plucking a flower with footage of an atomic blast. In 1984, Ronald Reagan ran a spot that played on Cold War panic, in which the Soviet threat was symbolized by a grizzly lumbering across a stark landscape as a human heart pounds faster and faster and an off-screen voice warns, "There is a bear in the woods!" In 2004, Bush sparked furor for running a fear-mongering ad that used wolves gathering in the woods as symbols for terrorists plotting against America. And last fall, Congressional Republicans drew fire with an ad that featured bin Laden and other terrorists threatening Americans; over the sound of a ticking clock, a voice warned, "These are the stakes.""
.........
"... the more educated people are, the more liberal they become—but only to a point. Once people begin pursuing certain types of graduate degrees, the curve flattens. Business students, for instance, become more conservative in their views toward minorities. As they become more established, doctors and lawyers tend to protect their economic interests by moving to the right. The findings demonstrate that conservative conversions are fueled not only by fear, but by other factors as well."
.........
"Political conversions that are emotionally induced can be very subtle: A shift in support for a given issue or politician is not the same as a radical conversion or deep philosophical change. While views may be manipulated, the impact may or may not translate in the voting booth. Following 9/11, most lifelong liberals did not go through outright conversion or shift their preferred candidate. Yet many liberals who didn't become all-out conservatives found themselves nonetheless sympathizing more with conservative positions, craving the comfort of a strong leader, or feeling the need to punish or avenge. Many in the political center moved to the right, too. "
.........
Psychology Today Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007Last Reviewed 5 Jan 2007Article ID: 4232
..........
So the question for this election is, does Barrack Hussein Obama the "terrorist" scare you more than losing your 401 K and having to work all through your retirement while living in a shack and walking to work in the heat of global warming? And how did your mommy potty train you anyway?
I was raised a Democrat.
I will die a Democrat.
Dang it an now I find out that I actually was all those things.
We all want to know why we are what we are? Did God make me this way for a purpose. Was it my potty training? Did a random cosmic ray strike my DNA in my mama's womb?
We are also fascinated about the other guy. Especially the real dorks that are so different than we are. How'd they get so dumb anyway?
Well maybe we are "hardwired", "predisposed", and "trained up in the way we should go."
By: Jay Dixit
"The Ideological Animal:
We think our political stance is the product of reason, but we're easily manipulated and surprisingly malleable. Our essential political self is more a stew of childhood temperament, education, and fear of death. Call it the 9/11 effect. "
Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20061222-000001.xml
Excerpts:
"We tend to believe our political views have evolved by a process of rational thought, as we consider arguments, weigh evidence, and draw conclusions. But the truth is more complicated. Our political preferences are equally the result of factors we're not aware of—such as how educated we are, how scary the world seems at a given moment, and personality traits that are first apparent in early childhood. Among the most potent motivators, it turns out, is fear. How the United States should confront the threat of terrorism remains a subject of endless political debate. But Americans' response to threats of attack is now more clear-cut than ever. The fear of death alone is surprisingly effective in shaping our political decisions—more powerful, often, than thought itself."
A brilliant sociopathic political strategist named Lee Atwater knew these thing instinctively and start a process that is yet to culminate. Pitting the different temperaments of people against one another. Think about the ways the Republicans and Democrats are behaving even today, right now as you read this. I see myself here, do you?
"Most people are surprised to learn that there are real, stable differences in personality between conservatives and liberals—not just different views or values, but underlying differences in temperament. Psychologists John Jost of New York University, Dana Carney of Harvard, and Sam Gosling of the University of Texas have demonstrated that conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world. Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start. Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. Liberals are more likely to like classical music and jazz, conservatives, country music. Liberals are more likely to enjoy abstract art. Conservative men are more likely than liberal men to prefer conventional forms of entertainment like TV and talk radio. Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men. Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting, and playing musical instruments. "
........
"All people are born alike—except Republicans and Democrats," quipped Groucho Marx, and in fact it turns out that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are evident in early childhood. "
........
"... conservatives have a greater desire to reach a decision quickly and stick to it, and are higher on conscientiousness, which includes neatness, orderliness, duty, and rule-following. Liberals are higher on openness, which includes intellectual curiosity, excitement-seeking, novelty, creativity for its own sake, and a craving for stimulation like travel, color, art, music, and literature.
The study's authors also concluded that conservatives have less tolerance for ambiguity, a trait they say is exemplified when George Bush says things like, "Look, my job isn't to try to nuance. My job is to tell people what I think," and "I'm the decider." Those who think the world is highly dangerous and those with the greatest fear of death are the most likely to be conservative. "
.....
"Liberals, on the other hand, are "more likely to see gray areas and reconcile seemingly conflicting information," says Jost. As a result, liberals like John Kerry, who see many sides to every issue, are portrayed as flip-floppers. "Whatever the cause, Bush and Kerry exemplify the cognitive styles we see in the research," says Jack Glaser, one of the study's authors, "Bush in appearing more rigid in his thinking and intolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity, and Kerry in appearing more open to ambiguity and to considering alternative positions."
......
As you may imagine these studies did not set to well with conservatives:
"The House Republican Study Committee complained that the study's authors had received federal funds. George Will satirized it in his Washington Post column, and The National Review called it the "Conservatives Are Crazy" study." and "...Yet critics retort that the research draws negative conclusions about conservatives while the researchers themselves are liberal. And it's true that over the decades, a disproportionate amount of the research has focused on figuring out what's behind conservative behavior. Right shift is likewise more studied than left shift, largely because most of that research has been since 9/11, and aimed at trying to explain the conservative conversions of people..."
......
"There are differences between liberals and conservatives, and people can value them however they like," Jost points out. "There is nothing inherently good or bad about being high or low on the need for closure or structure. Some may see religiosity as a positive, whereas others may see it more neutrally, and so on."
......
"As a follow-up, Solomon primed one group of subjects to think about death, a state of mind called "mortality salience." A second group was primed to think about 9/11. And a third was induced to think about pain—something unpleasant but non-deadly. When people were in a benign state of mind, they tended to oppose Bush and his policies in Iraq. But after thinking about either death or 9/11, they tended to favor him. Such findings were further corroborated by Cornell sociologist Robert Willer, who found that whenever the color-coded terror alert level was raised, support for Bush increased significantly, not only on domestic security but also in unrelated domains, such as the economy. "
Remember this was written and the studie done before the economic meltdown.
..........
"
The reason thoughts of death make people more conservative, Jost says, is that they awaken a deep desire to see the world as fair and just, to believe that people get what they deserve, and to accept the existing social order as valid, rather than in need of change. When these natural desires are primed by thoughts of death and a barrage of mortal fear, people gravitate toward conservatism because it's more certain about the answers it provides—right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, us vs. them—and because conservative leaders are more likely to advocate a return to traditional values, allowing people to stick with what's familiar and known. "Conservatism is a more black and white ideology than liberalism," explains Jost. "It emphasizes tradition and authority, which are reassuring during periods of threat."
............
"Campaign strategists in both parties have never hesitated to use scare tactics. In 1964, a Lyndon Johnson commercial called "Daisy" juxtaposed footage of a little girl plucking a flower with footage of an atomic blast. In 1984, Ronald Reagan ran a spot that played on Cold War panic, in which the Soviet threat was symbolized by a grizzly lumbering across a stark landscape as a human heart pounds faster and faster and an off-screen voice warns, "There is a bear in the woods!" In 2004, Bush sparked furor for running a fear-mongering ad that used wolves gathering in the woods as symbols for terrorists plotting against America. And last fall, Congressional Republicans drew fire with an ad that featured bin Laden and other terrorists threatening Americans; over the sound of a ticking clock, a voice warned, "These are the stakes.""
.........
"... the more educated people are, the more liberal they become—but only to a point. Once people begin pursuing certain types of graduate degrees, the curve flattens. Business students, for instance, become more conservative in their views toward minorities. As they become more established, doctors and lawyers tend to protect their economic interests by moving to the right. The findings demonstrate that conservative conversions are fueled not only by fear, but by other factors as well."
.........
"Political conversions that are emotionally induced can be very subtle: A shift in support for a given issue or politician is not the same as a radical conversion or deep philosophical change. While views may be manipulated, the impact may or may not translate in the voting booth. Following 9/11, most lifelong liberals did not go through outright conversion or shift their preferred candidate. Yet many liberals who didn't become all-out conservatives found themselves nonetheless sympathizing more with conservative positions, craving the comfort of a strong leader, or feeling the need to punish or avenge. Many in the political center moved to the right, too. "
.........
Psychology Today Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007Last Reviewed 5 Jan 2007Article ID: 4232
..........
So the question for this election is, does Barrack Hussein Obama the "terrorist" scare you more than losing your 401 K and having to work all through your retirement while living in a shack and walking to work in the heat of global warming? And how did your mommy potty train you anyway?
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