Monday, March 10, 2008

An interesting piece of research

The academic authors of the research managed to twist something derogatory to conservatives out of it but see what you think:

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm restricted their study to white, Protestant teenagers, in order to eliminate confounding variables. However, their volunteers came from two different traditions-Pentecostal, which tends to the conservative, and Episcopalian, which tends to the liberal. The researchers conducted the study by giving each volunteer a beeper that went off every two hours or so. When it beeped, the volunteer answered a questionnaire about what he was doing at that moment, and how he felt about it.

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm found several unexpected differences between the groups. Liberal teenagers always felt more stress than conservatives, but were particularly stressed if they could not decide for themselves whom they spent time with. Such choice, or the lack of it, did not change conservative stress levels. Liberals were also loners, spending a quarter of their time on their own. Conservatives were alone for a sixth of the time. That may have been related to the fact that liberals were equally bored by their own company and that of others. Conservatives were far less bored when with other people. They also preferred the company of relatives to non-relatives. Liberals were indifferent. Perhaps most intriguingly, the more religious a liberal teenager claimed to be, the more he was willing to confront his parents with dissenting beliefs. The opposite was true for conservatives.

More here

Conservatives are happier: Check. Conservatives like people more: Check. Leftists are misfits: Check. Conservatives are more family-oriented: Check. Leftists are more disagreeable: Check

As Marginal Revolution notes, one of the authors above blogs on the Puffington Host. And does he huff and puff! It's marvellous what you can see in your data when you want to.

As far as I can ascertain, the research concerned has not been published in the academic journals and is based on an M.A. dissertation only. Quality stuff!



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Transfer: Send the Palestinians to other Arab lands

Jordan is just East Palestine anyway. Excerpt:

The Palestinians are the most sickening, revolting group of people on earth. They're actually more loathsome than even the Nazis were because the Palestinian people have all their evil impulses, but they're considerably less industrious and less civilized.



We Americans like to believe the best about people. You know, "The leaders are the bad guys, but the regular people aren't any different than us." The reality is that the Palestinians in the disputed territories are different from us, because the majority of them are evil. By that, I mean that the problem isn't just their leaders and the terrorist thugs, the problem is the average person on the street. The butcher, the school teacher, the traffic cop -- the majority of them are vile, sick, twisted, evil excuses for human beings and that's why there is no peace in the region. Israel can no more live next to these people in peace than New Yorkers could live in peace with New Jersey if it were taken over by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

...Which leads to a very basic question: if this was happening to Americans, how far would we be willing to go to stop it? The truth is, we already know the answer to that question because our ancestors have had to deal with this sort of savagery when Indians tortured and murdered American settlers. Our response was, depending on the situation, to slaughter them and/or force them to move.

Today, in our very civilized world, we look back with shock and horror at what we did to the Indians -- and indeed, some of them didn't deserve what they got. All too often, our ancestors didn't make much of an effort to distinguish between friendly, peaceful Indian tribes and murderous, cannibalistic savages. On the other hand, their strategy of massacring our enemies was one that has been used throughout the ages and it has been proven, time and time again, to work -- and it certainly worked for us.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Hillary's "experience": ""I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the gruelling political talks over the years."

Society is a blessing, but government is evil: "A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It had its origin in the principles of society, and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has in man and all the parts of a civilized community upon each other create that great chain of connection which holds it together."

Good God! Could Buckley really have believed in the crank ideas of Henry George?: "Few of the news articles on William F. Buckley's life and death mentioned that he was a Georgist, an adherent of the policies espoused by the American economist and social reformer, Henry George. Buckley's intellectual development was influenced strongly by the Georgist libertarians Albert Nock and Frank Chodorov. Buckley's father, William Buckley, Sr., brought scholars to his Connecticut home to privately tutor his children. One of these tutors was Frank Chodorov, who became Buckley's mentor. The father was also a friend of Albert Jay Nock, and encouraged his son to read Nock's works."

Abe in his own hand: "Barely a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a 'gradual emancipation' plan that would bring peace at less cost than several months of hostilities. The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions. Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders."

Another stupid and useless ban: "Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee. Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park. Lt. Kevin Navarro, commanding officer of the Chicago Police Department's Narcotics and Gang Unit, said the ordinance will be an "important tool" to go after grocery stores, health food stores and other businesses. The bags are used by the thousand to sell small quantities of drugs at $10 or $20 a bag."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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2 comments:

Aspergers.life said...

Now that Bill Buckley is desceased and no longer able to refute the pundits, both friend and foe are telling us what he really believed.

Anonymous said...

[I'll post this here too, since the link mentions a comment by "John Jay" but not "John Ray." I post it here, since despite its political uncorrectness, I'm still on a slight mission as a reporter-on-the-ground to give you, Dr. Ray, an impression of America and NYC that is not as worrying as it might look by merely reading the media and anti-media blogs about the USA.]

His statement: "Israel can no more live next to these people in peace than New Yorkers could live in peace with New Jersey if it were taken over by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban."

New Yorkers, despite our large Jewish and Upper West Side (both usually pacifist) population, would "TAKE CARE OF THIS SITUATION" not just fail to "live in peace with it," if you known what I mean.
Remember when graffiti covered subways, muggings were very common, and public housing blocks (1960s x-shaped "Towers in the Park" utopian design) literally blocked Harlem and parts of Chinatown and Long Island from experiencing the gentrification it needed to rejuvenate itself? "Squeegee Men" would splash filthy gray water on your car windshield and smear it around with no skill, then demand a tip, the scam being that if you didn't tip they would grab your wiper and mime breaking it off (!). So we voted for Guiliani. Within a year, and continuing to this day because of the systems he put in place, there is no more spray-painted graffiti on *any* subway station or car, and the Squeegee Men are still in jail.

Bloomberg has not reversed Guiliani's computerized police methodology, nor his welfare reforms, nor allowed the Mob back into the meat packing district, which still exists and still stinks to high heaven, since NYC is one of the largest consumers of the highest quality beef and fish in the USA. In the "cowboy country" of Salt Lake City, Utah, I was *shocked* when the local diner refused (pleading it was against local law!!!) to give me a "medium rare" hamburger! Bloomberg *did* outlaw smoking within restaurants and bars, which was a real quality-of-life improvement for those of us in NYC who do not smoke. But I can get a fully RARE hamburger anywhere on the Island except McDonalds, and our island is one that does *not* share the sudden "obesity epidemic" that Middle America has suffered ever since the Democratic senator McGovern created the "food pyramid" that told everybody to eat mostly "fat-free" bread, pasta, crackers, fries, chips, and crackers instead of meat and eggs.
Because most New Yorker's dine out or order in, we never relied on grocery store junk food. Bloomberg also just banned very unhealthy trans fats from use in restaurants. That did not effect my neighborhood much, or most others, since that was mainly used by fast food chains to deep fat fry things. But only poor people and "hipster" kids who are too young to get fat yet frequent such places. So sure, most middle aged blacks here are obese, except that many of the younger black females are not of the unhealthy "apple" shape since they are genetically blessed with big butts, and the unabashed cat call whistles they get from healthy young black guys indicates that this feature is still being selected for, biologically.

But one thing has not changed, and I finally come full circle, is that even though the law-abiding, disarmed, college-educated crowd in NYC have no self-defense, that both legal box cutters and illegal guns are owned by very many minority groups (black, Hispanic, Chinese) in NYC. Muslims in Jersey? Bring 'em on. Ever heard of a race riot in NYC? Looting en masse, like in Los Angeles? What does our "polite society" character indicate? First, people don't get into fights since they know legal weapons like pocket knives will appear, but second, that we are patriotic, as in *proud* New Yorker's first, and pissed-off sissies second, unlike Boston, where people fight about their place in line at the "health food" store, or at a parking meter. None of that happens here between average citizens, the exception being the one legally insane person in every line or subway car, who we tolerate as best as possible, up to a certain threshold.

I think what many people fail to realize is that people who live in NYC *love* it here, and that at crucial times this bonds us city folk together more than our differences in wealth, race or political persuasion divide us. In other words, I do not accept an analogy between Manhattan and Israel.

Remember, the mob were successfully recruited during WWII to help with the war effort. Historically we even put up with literal piracy. In other words, we have a *threshold* level of what we are willing to accept, one beyond which nobody should tread upon. Also, unlike most of Middle America, our lack of available handgun permits is not as important, since on such a small island, calling 911 on your cell phone *will* produce a police car within mere seconds instead of twenty minutes.