Not So Deep Thoughts

¡¡¡Bienvenido a España!!!

WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?
By Jonathan Haidt

“What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany’s best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer “moral clarity”—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.”

Thinking is so overated.  I would feel much more comfortable if they acted and spoke to me as if I were a two-year-old.

Hopefully some people still have yet to see this…

I have a confession.   I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been spending my free time obsessively sifting through any and all available political blogs to keep up with the spectacle taking place on the political stage back over in the US.

It’s like watching a car crash; the more awful it is, the longer you stand around to see what carnage is delivered.

And this election is delivering.

McCain’s camp said that this election will not be about the issues.  And as much as I wish that weren’t true, I’m convinced it is.

Any mention of an issue, regardless of if it is of little or no practical relevance to the American people or economy, is used to wedge you in deeper into one camp or the other.  Calling the other one out on any given issue is fair game as long as you get to knock them down a peg in front of your faithful followers.

In attempts to understand both groups I’ve tried to cross the non-existent middle ground from one side to the other only to find steadfast loyalists who’ll bend anything said, done, promised or implied into fuel for their fire or venom to spit in the faces of their opponents, regardless of its validity.

Rational thought has been replaced by talking points. Say it loud enough and repeatedly and people will just assume it’s true.

Investigative journalism, fact checking and calling for accountability within the media is sparse or rarely followed up.

90% of the nation is neatly divided in two and separated, outside hearing distance of each other. Walls take representative’s stead, to which the other side talks when engaging in debate.

90% of the nation who’ll sit back and watch how the other 10% decide the winner. And when it all over, the losing half will likely sooner scream out resentful moans of disillusionment before joining together and embracing the winner.

I’m thinking about the aftermath. Be he Obama or McCain the President, the nation is going to need a huge band-aid to heal the gash that has and continues to rip the nation in two; and the President will have to be the one to kiss it to make it all better.

I’m not so naïve as to believe that either candidate is as goodly as they paint themselves to be, but I’ve noticed an awful tendency in the McCain camp. Both engage in muddy politics but the republicans are masterful at it. Both sides have halve-truthed and misquoted, but the only republicans have managed to regularly turn my stomach with it.

The extent to which the republicans are willing to go to win this election by slander and not by stance says A LOT about the people they are and how they get things done. These are not the people I want bringing the people of the US together after this election. Obama, if anything, has not stooped nearly as low as McCain in this dirty game we call politics and has proved time and again that he can move the human spirit to join together.

The last thing I want to see my country become is a perpetual breeding ground of intolerance and bigotry.

Hold on one second…

I’ve just made my first ever political contribution – and it went to Barack Obama.

Let’s hope it does some good.

Here we go!!

CERN starts up Hadron Collider

**UPDATE** - Looks like we’re gonna have to wait a while before D-Day.  Hope you didn’t quit your job and blow all your dough on pints of bitter at the local bar.

It planned to circulate the first beams 10th September 2008. First collisions at high energy are expected about a month later with the first results from the experiments soon after.

And I’ve already beaten Minesweeper at its hardest level!

What do I do now? Solitaire?? So 1990s.

Well folks, I’m a certifiable adult now!

In about 5 minutes, I’ll be walking out the door with my button down shirt and tie, bagged lunch in hand, making my way to my first real OFFICE job!

I can’t wait to jump right and and get to work, be productive, get things done. Other Directors of Studies, LOOK OUT!

Alrighty, I should probably get going.  I’m already 25 minutes late, and that’s not counting the walk over.  Wouldn’t want to make a bad impression.

Updates to come.