Saturday, December 29, 2007

Why some people are conservatives?

Link Economist article reports on a Thornhill and Fincher study which showed that kids with difficult childhoods end up as liberals. Those with sheltered ones end up conservatives. It's clear this matches with the stereotype. The kids of wealthy parents who have been to the country clubs, have the fancy BMW and trust fund are probably conservatives.

It has been hypothesized in a recent New York Times article (link) that wisdom comes from setbacks early in life. Perhaps the type of setbacks which go along with 'difficult childhood' mentioned above. So,

liberal = difficult childhood
difficult childhood = wisdom

by associativity

liberal = wisdom

And since its literally true that liberals are wiser than conservatives, it all makes sense. Notice wisdom != intelligence, but I'd say it's on a similar axis.

# # #

(12/29/07) A recent NYTimes piece says that binge drinkers -- even if they haven't done so in years -- tend "to poor decision-making. [As a binge drinker] one can easily fail to recognize the ultimate consequences of one’s actions." In a study done on rats made to binge drink and later kept sober for equivalent rat years, there was "a tendency to stay the course, a diminished capacity for relearning and maladaptive decision-making." Doesn't that sound like George W. Bush?

So is that possibly the correct explanation for it all: that ex-frat boy binge drinkers are conservatives because of the science of their self-inflicted brain damage? And this is the cause of our country's last 7 years of pain and suffering. We should think twice about hiring one of those assholes for the job next time.

# # #

(05/20/07) NYTimes runs a piece on how two conservatives fell this week. Falwell and Wolfowitz. The author goes on to say that the conservatives seem so far undeterred by the recent Wolfowitz setback. He makes a comparison between McNamara and Wolfowitz, but says history somewhat forgives McNamara because wasn't an ideologue.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Bill Clinton negative on Obama on Charlie Rose

Towleroad Boy does Bill know how to walk that fine line. Just seeing that he had spoken negatively about Obama sort of turned me off. Still, after listening to the talk, I was slightly swayed, but still skeptical. Interesting thing is that I read Obama's statement on repeal of don't ask, don't tell and it seems much stronger than Hillary's. Time to switch horses?

Someone mention stagflation?

Reuters It was reported that Greenspan mentioned the word. While I didn't say stagflation in September, I mentioned something else in a post which was housing and credit collapse causing significant reversal in economy.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Queerty: Straight acting gays

Queerty The guys at Queerty are naturally annoyed at the common gay personals attribute of either the postee liking and/or being "straight-acting". Their post is a little confusing, but the first comment clears up the confusion nicely. I.e. there is a good dose of self-hatred implied if one truly believes this is the right sort of attribute to look for. Sure, discretion might be the better part of valor in a gay-bashing world, but most self-accepting gays know the value of honesty in this regard. It just simplies life so much more not having a boyfriend be still in the closet.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Riff off of Brangolina: Churches refuse marriage licenses for straights

Advocate It's not quite as dramatic as it originally sounds, but some liberal metropolitan churches are now not providing the marriage license to any couples straight or gay. Of course, the straight couples are later free to go to a justice of the peace to get a civil marriage license whereas the gay couples generally cannot. Still it is a fine demonstration of solidarity, and on the side a booster to the idea of separation of church and state.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Movies stumble at end of Republican administrations (but music does okay)

Something that comes to mind is that artists tend to be overwhelmingly liberal. I was looking today at the list of Golden Globe nominees, and while actually I haven't seen any of the movies, I was wondering why it seems to be such a bad year for movies of substance that I am interested in seeing.

I also know that I hardly know of any good movies from the Reagan years.

Putting these random pieces of data together: poof, my new theorem is that the movies tend to suck in Republican administrations especially towards the end.

The reason is that the liberal artists are so frustrated and angry with the government that they get distracted and go to protests and spend time helping the Dems get elected that the movies suffer.

On the other hand, I think music tends to still be pretty good in Republican years. I think it's because music is a better medium for protest, and doesn't require such a huge undertaking as a movie does.