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New American Dark Ages

Are liberals crazy? Keep reading by Leslie Linthicum

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May 022013

I could kiss Leslie. That said, I’m leery of “biology is destiny.” I don’t want to believe that our views are hard-wired. However, we clearly have difficulty changing our views. Of course, we don’t know if brain differences are the result of attitude-views or vice versa.

» Are liberals crazy? Keep reading | ABQ Journal By Leslie Linthicum / Of the Journal on Thu, May 2, 2013

From a study published in “Biology,” MRIs of self-reported liberals found more volume in the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain, which provides tolerance to uncertainty, whereas self-reported conservatives had more volume in the right amygdala, where fear is processed.

From another study published in “Current Biology”: “In general, liberals are more open-minded, creative, curious, and novelty seeking, whereas conservatives are more orderly, conventional, and better organized.” And another study in the journal “Dreaming” that is even less responsive to your question but still interesting found conservatives slept more soundly and had mundane dreams while liberals were more restless sleepers with bizarre dreams.

» Are liberals crazy? Keep reading | ABQ Journal

I resisted linking to a study that showed that when packaging compared energy efficient bulbs to wasteful bulbs without comment, conservatives and liberals both bought energy efficiency. But when packaging added environmental messages, conservatives shunned those bulbs. peace, mjh

On hate mail and the state of the Union – Leonard Pitts Jr.

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Apr 242013

United we were.

On hate mail and the state of the Union – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

“We stand together,” I had written. “We stand defiant. And we stand with Boston.”

You disagreed.

“Your wrong pal we do not STAND TOGETHER. OH MY GOD we need a CIVIL WAR. The American people against the LIBERAL DEMACRAT SCUM that we have let allow SCUMBAGS like those that would BLOW UP people in BROAD DAYLIGHT to be here . . . WE NEED A CIVIL WAR. Those demacrats that happen to still be breathing after that CIVIL WAR will have a choice. BECOME NORMAL or you are LEAVING with the 11 million illegals that ARE GOING HOME . . . THIS IS SO CLOSE TO HAPPENING THAT EVERY LIBERAL IN THIS COUNTRY SHOULD START LOSING SLEEP . . . THERE IS A CLEAR REASON WHY WE ARE ARMED TO THE TEETH . . . ”

And you know, there was a time, not so long ago, I’d have laughed off your semi-coherent, misspellings-riddled rant. But I don’t laugh so much anymore, because you concretize a question I have been struggling with: Is America sustainable? Can a nation pulling so energetically in opposite directions survive? …

[Liberals] have nothing on the army of Hannitys, Coulters, Savages, Santorums, Limbaughs, Palins, Bachmanns, Malkins, Nugents, Trumps and Becks trolling the sewers of American disunion.

Now, to them, we add you, my nameless countryman, advocating for war. War. …

[i}f it is really beyond us now even to stand shoulder to shoulder with stricken fellow citizens, then we have lost more than bombs could ever destroy. And secession has already occurred.

On hate mail and the state of the Union – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

“Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.” — Woody Guthrie

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Feb 272013

hat tip to Pat Lyford

RIDERS OF THE WHEEL: A New Look At Wheat…And Our Plans

“I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I ain’t a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns." ~ Woody Guthrie

RIDERS OF THE WHEEL: A New Look At Wheat…And Our Plans

Of course, rich folks got the guns, and the soldiers and police to shoot them.

“Suddenly, Americans … started noticing how extreme, even wacky, the rhetoric of the gun manufacturers’ lobby has become.”

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Feb 252013

E.J. Dionne Jr.: The miracle on guns – The Washington Post

Suddenly, Americans in large numbers (and the media, too) started noticing how extreme, even wacky, the rhetoric of the gun manufacturers’ lobby has become. Its talk about representing the “real America” was exposed as a fraud: “Real” Americans don’t resist pragmatic solutions to the problems of mass violence.

Oh, yes, and it was also finally noticed that a majority of Americans doesn’t own guns, that gun ownership has dropped over time and that this real majority does not want to be forced to live in a world in which everyone is terrorized into buying a weapon.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: The miracle on guns – The Washington Post

Universal background checks are supported by 91 percent of Americans.

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Feb 062013

WATCH: A Republican Whose Nephew Was Killed In Aurora Explains In 80 Seconds Why We Need Stronger Gun Laws | ThinkProgress

It’s hard to think of a position that’s more mainstream than Hoover’s. Universal background checks are supported by 91 percent of Americans and 92 percent of Republicans. One of the only groups that publicly opposes universal background checks are the NRA’s lobbyists.

If Congress succeeds in passing universal background checks and other commonsense gun laws, it will be because it’s not a polarizing issue, but one that’s nearly universally supported.

Transcript below the fold:

HOOVER: We’ve had so many issues over the years, so many killings, and for us just to say we’re not going to do anything is unacceptable, because we’ve been doing nothing up to this point. We’ve been given the right to own and bear arms, but we also need to show that we are responsible in how we deal with the gun issue. We need a framework to say that we need background checks on every individual that buys a gun. If you are a reasonable and responsible gun owner—as I am, and I’ve grown up hunting, shooting, my daughter, I take her out shooting—she’s been taught that with the right comes responsibility. Nobody wants somebody to purchase a firearm that shouldn’t have a firearm. And that includes sales that happen currently on the Internet, and private sales. It’s just responsible. This is not something about [Republican and Democrat], this is about doing what’s responsible and right for our communities and our country. If anybody can be prevented from getting that phone call that I got at 2:37am from my sister, it’s worth it. You gotta stop this.

WATCH: A Republican Whose Nephew Was Killed In Aurora Explains In 80 Seconds Why We Need Stronger Gun Laws | ThinkProgress

As the late Molly Ivins said of her native Texas, "… unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don’t." [ht @edbott]

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Feb 062013

“It’s more than a fart. It’s a cry for help.” [zing] I’ve never seen the word fart used in an editorial — more than once. peace, mjh

Editorial: Pity Rick Perry; his big state has big needs – Editorials – The Sacramento Bee

Check out a state [Texas] that ranks dead last in the percent of its population with high school diplomas. Come check out a state that is last in mental health expenditures and workers’ compensation coverage. Come check out a state that ranks first in the number of executions, first in the number of uninsured, first in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water. …

Gov. Jerry Brown, visiting a UPS distribution center Tuesday to celebrate a new fleet of all-electric vehicles, suggested that media hounds find something else to cover than the Perry ads. "It’s not a serious story, guys," the governor told reporters. "It’s not a burp. It’s barely a fart."

Actually, we think it’s more than a fart. It’s a cry for help. Perry can’t create jobs, he can only steal them from other states. …

As the late Molly Ivins said of her native Texas, "It’s a low-tax, low-service state – so shoot us. The only depressing part is that, unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don’t."

Editorial: Pity Rick Perry; his big state has big needs – Editorials – The Sacramento Bee

Gun debate should be about facts, not fantasy – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

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Feb 062013

Oh, but we don’t know how many thousands of crimes were stopped by people armed with automatic weapons in just the past two months. And England hasn’t dared invade! peace, mjh

Gun debate should be about facts, not fantasy – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

This “serious conversation,” remember, got started on December 14, with a massacre in a quiet little New England town. Since that day, the shooting has not stopped, nor even slowed.

In Miami Gardens on Jan. 17, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed.

In Albuquerque on Jan. 19, a 15-year-old boy allegedly shot his parents and three of his siblings to death.

In Houston on Jan. 22, three people were shot on a community college campus.

In Chicago on Jan. 29, a 15-year-old girl who’d performed at President Obama’s inauguration was shot to death.

And in that same city, six days later, Shirley Chambers buried her last child. Ronnie Chambers, like all three of his siblings before him, was killed by gunfire. How must it feel to have lost all your children to guns? That is not hypothetical. It is one woman’s tragic reality.

Too many deranged or criminal people have access to too much firepower and we are paying the price in carnage and blood. This is the ordinary everyday of American life — and death. That’s what we should be talking about. Not LaPierre’s doomsday scenarios or Trotter’s old movie plots.

They ask us to consider what could happen. Better we consider what does.

Gun debate should be about facts, not fantasy – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

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