State of current politics

[Pete Nice]

I do not agree completely here by any means, but as far as the politicians and business part, I couldn't agree more.

[youtube]JwYvFZdM_UM[/youtube]

[Beckster]

I have no faith in or trust for politicians. Any of them.

[negadave]

i thought it was a weird coincidence that they just anounced the end of the iraq war/ pull out of US troops. in other words, mission accomplished, just now while the de bates are just getting going.... seems like a nice focus point to say "look at what i can do mom!" show off thing. I don't think it's 100% done
I'm just a guy that bangs nails though, so wtf do i know

[negadave]

I saw a quote from the older prez bush backing Perry that i thought was pretty ironic, givin what he and his son have done with their time in office.

I think Romney is the best choice for us,” he told the paper. “I like [Rick] Perry, but he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere; he’s not surging forward.”

He trumpeted Romney’s "stability, experience, [and] principal," adding: "I just think he’s mature and reasonable – not a bomb-thrower."

weren't we bombing the shit out of other countrys during both bush's presidency's?

[Rydrum]

I didn't know where else to post this- but an article just came out that examined the relationship among prejudice, conservatism & intelligence.

I have pasted the abstract in here (I have downloaded the full document, but can not post it because 1) I wouldn't know how and 2) pretty sure thats copy right infringement. I will email it to anyone who wants to see it for themselves though.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/01/04/0956797611421206.abstract">http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/20 ... 6.abstract</a><!-- m -->

"Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models."

I will try to conceptually answer any questions anyone has on the methodology part. I should also comment, that I haven't fully digested the article (just a breeze through) & I am not sure I agree with the authors' take home message yet.

[Hondo]

Sounds like an agenda at play to me on the part of the authors of that "study"

[Rydrum]

Sounds like an agenda at play to me on the part of the authors of that "study"

What do you mean?

[Hondo]

Boiled down....if you are racist or anti-gay you must be stupid and conservative. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

[Rydrum]

Boiled down....if you are racist or anti-gay you must be stupid and conservative. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.

That is not quite what they are concluding. They are specifically not concluding its either or, and secondly they are using right-wing ideology not "conservativism" per se. They define right-wing ideology as social conservativism & authoritarianism.

What the data show (in the racism part) is that there is a negative correlation between racism [prejudicial attitudes] and intelligence[cognitive ability]. There is a negative correlation between intelligence and right-wing ideology. Lastly, there is a positive correlation between right wing ideology and prejudice.

But the link between intelligence and racism is eliminated/weakened when you know the persons standing on right-wing ideology (it mediates the relationship). Meaning there is no, or a very weak relationship between intelligence and prejudice, after accounting for people's views on right-wing ideology.

[MattInMinnesota]

Your thoughts?

[Hondo]

Your thoughts?

He fucked us. No surprise there.

[negadave]

Your thoughts?

I guess you could call that change. Don't know if it's what everybody had in mind, but....

[Joe]

Your thoughts?

False info

[Chip]

Your thoughts?

False info

Nope.
It's on the internet.
It's fact now.

[JDubb]

Your thoughts?

He fucked us. No surprise there.

I would say he Inherited a fucked up situation that he has done little to fix.