On Christmas Eve Salon published a list of Wingnutopia’s most crazy made-up Obama scandals for 2010.
It was a pretty comprehensive list although some big wingnut freakouts like the so-called ‘Climate-Gate’ didn’t make the list–I guess because it didn’t have an “Obama-did-it” angle to sell. Still, it looks like the list was published a week too early as today two new new freakouts entered the mighty Wurlitzer playlist.
One, as Tom Levenson pointed out, is the batshit crazy idea that President Obama is getting ready to give New York back to Native Americans just because his Administration will reverse a Bush Jr. decision and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
That fact that the Right is launching this freakout on the eve of the 120th Anniversary of the Massacre at Wounded Knee is just par for the course–especially when the latest freakout comes with an anti-Native American point of view that could have been shared by the US soldiers who gunned down the sick and cold back in 1890. The wingnuts are also outraged that one year ago today President Obama signed an Apology to Native Americans passed by the 111th Congress.
The other mini-freakout of the day is that in a call to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie about plans for the football stadium to convert to Green Energy the President also praise the team for giving a convict like Michael Vick a second chance:
Lurie said Mr. Obama was “passionate about it,” adding that the president said “it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”
I think Vick is an ass and I couldn’t care less about him, but the USA is number one when it comes to people behind bars, whether you measure by number (2.3 million) or per capita (715 per 100,000 people). Most of these people will get out one day and the possibility of a second chance needs to be there. That part of the Vick story is OK with me, but for wingnutopia it is all just another opportunity for a freakout.
In the coming year the list of freakouts and nonsense will be even longer. I expect that we should be hearing new ones at a rate of about 3-4 per week. I can’t wait for the one about Michelle Obama feeding her family a dead chicken and then using the bones for soup. I imagine Issa will hold hearings on that scandal when Fox breaks the news.
Cheers
dengre
Capt
How many businessmen have had a DUI or been busted for something – paid their debt to society and went on their merry way.
Vick seems to have made or tried to make amends.
Cacti
Vick is fortunate to have world class athletic ability. If you’re a blue collar ex-con, you’re screwed for life.
The system is set up to make it as difficult as possible for you to have anything resembling a normal life after you’ve “paid your debt to society”.
General Stuck
The wingnuts are worried Obama is going to give NY back to the Indians, the leftists are worried Obama is going to give Social Security to the wingnuts, and we are worried about Andrew Sullivan having false equivalence.
As far as Vick goes, being a dog lover to the cellular level, what he did makes me both enraged, as well as being more enraged. But he has paid for his crimes, and second chances are as American as any apple pie.
Bob In Pacifica
In the LA Times there is an article where someone from PETA uses the Vick furor to complain that the Obamas didn’t adopt their dog from a shelter, thus making him an equal to a dog-killer.
Little Boots
How dare he hand over Wall Street to a bunch of casino operators!
Oh, wait.
MTiffany
Because without a second chance, of most of those who do get out, most of them will go right back to prison because they have no alternatives. Which is the case right now.
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/reentry/recidivism.cfm
gwangung
Giving the sinner a second chance is the Christian thing to do.
What? Isn’t the US a Christian nation?
Quiddity
Re “I could care less about him”:
It’s “I couldn’t care less about him”
Slang and casual expressions are fine, but not when they are illogical.
As far as Obama & Vick are concerned, it’s not a smart political move. I’m indifferent, but there are thousands of pet lovers that will take offense. Obama could have chosen a better representative for felon rehab.
Mike in NC
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING — short of the “stabbed in the back by the hippies and protesters about Vietnam” — gets the Republicans I know have a meltdown shit-fit like mentioning Wounded Knee. It’s really quite bizarre.
hamletta
I wouldn’t put the Vick business in quite the same category. Reasonable people can disagree on whether he deserves admittance to polite society ever again. I’m not one of ’em, but his crime was cruel enough to give people pause.
But the Native American thing is gloriously wacked-out, even beyond the level of the Krazy Klintoon Haters. I thought I’d never see their like again. Hoo, boy! Was I naive!
P.S. — It’s Salon; specifically the brilliant Alex Pareene.
Dennis G.
@Quiddity:
typo fixed. thanks
Dennis G.
@hamletta:
Thanks for catching the stupid mistake. fixed
mk3872
How about a top 10 list of the batshit crazy things left wingers say is Obama’s fault?
Nellcote
The way the Vick call’s been reported today you’d think Prez Obama called the coach out of the blue to talk about Vick’s rehab. Turns out that was just a small part of the conversation. I’d like to know more about plans for an alt-energy sports stadium. Seems like that story might tie into all the recent noise about climate change. Another missed opportunity by the msm.
DougJ
@mk3872:
That would be damned entertaining.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@DougJ: I was just thinking the same thing.
Also, too, it’s worth noting, for the record, that “gets up in the morning and eats breakfast” will be fodder for the wingnut Wurlitzer, if nothing else is forthcoming. “Kissed wife” “Brushed teeth” “Wore shoes” — all good options!
Lysana
I’m another who’s fine with Vick getting a second chance, and it’s true many convicted felons can’t find work and that contributes to recidivism. I just can’t imagine being OK with him owning a dog.
@Bob In Pacifica:
And if anyone knows about dog killers, it’s PETA. I think they’ve probably offed more animals who didn’t have to be killed in a few months than Vick ever did.
Between Vick and a PETA supporter, I’d let Vick run a fucking kennel.
kdaug
@Mike in NC: Realllly? No idea – figured that the standard response would be in line with “Wounded wha…?”
I will have to try that.
General Stuck
And more evidence of the irrelevance of the blogosphere, and it’s exaggerated rumors of Obama demise.
Bring it on wingnuts left and right. America doesn’t get your newsletters of self important navel gazing.
Mark S.
I missed this one:
Instadouche is undoubtedly the most racist big name blogger out there. His wife runs the most ridiculously misogynistic MRA site on the Internets. If those two died the world would be a better place.
(I’m gunning for a Moore Award here)
srv
@Mike in NC:
I presume they’re upset about the 1973 Wounded Knee. The natives got it wrong – if they had just called themselves a militia, they might all be Republican heroes.
Ash Can
I guess I picked the right night to get tanked with my neighbors.
Ash Can +4 good Belgians
kdaug
@Mark S.: (Psst – FIRE. Die in a FIRE.) Just trying to help.
policomic
@Nellcote:
I agree that it’s stupid the way the Vick thing has been reported, and I’m okay with second chances, generally.
However: while as a Minnesotan, I’m happy about tonight’s football upset, as a dog lover, I’m disappointed that Vick didn’t suffer a career-ending injury.
Personally, I think this would be a better world without Vick OR Bill Kristol.
Loneoak
I still insist there is a big fucking moral distinction between “second chance” and “millionaire quarterback in a private organization that has no obligation to hire someone who electrocuted puppies in a pool.”
Every person deserves the chance to become whole again and re-enter society. No one deserves the right to adulation and wealth. When Vick goes on a Monday Night Football halftime, sits down for an interview with Jim Gorant, recounts in gruesome details the monstrous crimes he committed against defenseless creatures, cries his eyes out, and gives a year’s salary to BAD RAP, then I will consider him worthy of respect and re-entry into decent society. Until then, he should be ostracized and flipping burgers.
Mark S.
@kdaug:
Oh shit. This is why I’ll never make it to the big leagues.
kdaug
@Loneoak: 20% of his salary to the Humane Society for 10 years, he’s good in my book.
ETA: Good-ish. Don’t watch sports, don’t give a fuck about Vick (or any other players – of anything), and love my two dogs nearly as much as my wife. But either kill the man, or give him a chance to re-enter life after completing his sentence.
General Stuck
Something I’ve believed for quite some time, that there is a population of wingnuts with subsequent wingnuttery, that has a biological, or hereditary aspect. Now we have some evidence of this.
AKA – Lizard Brain
General Stuck
@kdaug:
Doesn’t he also give public service talks, maybe court ordered, about what he did, to certain groups?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Quiddity: Gotta go with Quiddity here.
Do I believe those who have “paid their debt to society” should be given a second chance? Yes.
Do I believe any of the anonymous, well-nigh-unto-toothless redneck dogfighters down here in rump-land would have gotten anything NEAR 18 months, if anything, for doing the same damn thing? No.
Did I realize, before this post, that Obama was just mentioning Vick to this team owner as an aside on a call that didn’t have that as its main purpose? No. (That will teach me to read past the headlines in the future. I feel like a gullible fuck now.)
Having said all that, were the – and I hate this term, but I’ll use it – “optics” on this favorable for Obama?
No.
Bless the beasts and the children.
That “giving Manhattan back to the Indians” thing, on the other hand?
Oh, fuck, that’s funny as hell.
eemom
@Loneoak:
I have to agree. I absolutely fail to understand how the fuck Obama or anybody in their right mind could regard a fucking football team hiring a fucking star quarterback as emblematic of the “second chance” that should be given to all convicted criminals who have served their time.
Especially considering what a sick joke it is to suppose that your average Joe Drug Dealer — whose crime was not, you should pardon the expression, “in the same ballpark, not even in the same motherfucking game” as the horror of what Vick did — will ever be given a “second chance” anywhere approaching the magnitude of what Vick got — just because he’s a fucking star quarterback who can make lotsa money for lotsa rich assholes who own football teams, and their rich asshole advertisers.
Whatever happened to our collective suspicion of corporate America here on this fine upstanding leftwing blog?
If the reports are accurate, this may well be the stupidest thing Obama has ever said.
kdaug
@General Stuck: Could be, dunno. Haven’t really been following it closely – just don’t give a shit.
But a few “blah-blah, boo-hoo”s wouldn’t stack up against 20% of a NFL MVP’s salary over 10 years.
18 months just feels weak to me, and I don’t think anyone believes it was “hard time”. Make him pay, and pay to the folks working against what he was doing.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
So why aren’t they OK with giving NY back to the Indians? Wouldn’t that reduce the number of Democrats in Congress?
de stijl
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
Pennsylvania is a swing state.
As for the dog owners, well, to paraphrase Kevin K.’s Rumproast manic progressive XN video:
Obama took my Pekingese.
Obama took my Pekingese.
etc.
kdaug
@eemom:
Ahem. Without further comment.
jrg
@General Stuck: I have a hard time fully buying into that. I certainly believe that “conservatives” are more beholden to fear (especially irrational fears, like of gay marriage), but if being a “conservative” is a nature thing, rather than a nurture thing, why is it that people in rural locations are more likely to be “conservative”?
Mark S.
re: Barack Obama yelled at the Supreme Court!
I remember reading a book years ago that was one of those top ten lists type books about the Supreme Court. One of the topics was Ten Worst Supreme Court decisions, with usual suspects Dred Scot, Plessy, and Lochner taking the top three spots. If that book were written today, Bush v Gore would have to be up there. Shit, I was a gooper back then and even I knew that decision was bullshit.
I also think Citizens United belongs on that list, a couple notches down.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@jrg: Um, because when the valedictorians graduate from a rural high school, they run like hell, but the dropouts stay there forever?
General Stuck
@kdaug:
i think we can agree on that. And i also agree with those saying this likely wasn’t the best cause for obama to take up on ex cons getting second chances.
General Stuck
@jrg:
I don’t think, based on my own observations, that every, or even most conservatives fall into the brain biology theory. But a fair number do, and I have said this for a long time. This study, I think was the first for this sort of thing, and far from proven science, but interesting, at least to me.
BobS
@mk3872: Making it clear from the start that there was little interest in holding the Bush administration accountable for their more egregious acts such as torture and illegal spying on American citizens, selecting his economic advisers from among the usual cast of neoliberal free-trade advocates from Wall Street and the Clinton administration, expanding the southwest Asian war to Pakistan, giving tacit American approval to the Honduran coup, appointing Ken Salazar Interior Secretary and opening up millions of offshore acres to drilling, delivering millions of new customers to insurance companies via health care reform, extending Bush era tax cuts to the wealthy, continuing the government secrecy obsession that was ramped up during the Bush era (which is manifested currently by the Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks), appointing enemies of Social Security to head his catfood commission, failing to admonish Israel for the murder of a US citizen in international waters, continuing to hold Iran and it’s nuclear aspirations to a higher standard than India, Pakistan, or Israel.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@General Stuck at #38: True that. By this thread’s logic, no job that doesn’t require a hairnet is ex-con worthy, no matter what they’ve done or what they’re capable of doing.
mk3872
@BobS: Did rattling off your laundry list of Obama complaints make you feel better?
I was thinking more like:
1. Not closing Gitmo is Obama’s fault
2. Not extending tax cuts to the middle class only BEFORE the election was somehow not Congress’ fault
3. Taking so long on DADT was because Obama doesn’t care about progressive policies
4. Wall Street reform is just a big bank give-away
5. Obama is a “corporatist” because he sometimes says nice things about millionaires
.
.
.
jrg
@Evolved Deep Southerner: That’s not always true. Look at places like Afghanistan, where there are no valedictorians (because there is very little education). They’re culturally conservative. I don’t think that self-selection can explain it fully. I think a person’s environment plays a big role in their politics.
I’m not saying there is no genetic element to it, too, but it’s probably more like Cancer… Some people are pre-disposed to it, others are not. Some people smoke and die of cancer at 40, others smoke, make it to 95, and die when they get hit with a bus.
Mark S.
Shit, at least Vick paid his debt to society unlike certain Rapistburgers I could mention.
Loneoak
@General Stuck:
This study does nothing to demonstrate that the amygdala of conservatives causes conservatism. It may well be, and I think far more likely, that conservative politics overstimulates the amygdala. This creates a cycle where one is more likely to react with fear to political situations. Our environments train our brains—the single most distinctive aspect of the human brain is its plasticity.
Besides, I’m practically a pinko and if I listened to Glenn Beck all day my amygdala would light up one of those scanners like a mushroom cloud.
cmorenc
Query: If Tom DeLay gets jail time for his recent conviction, what kind of second chance does he deserve?
He should at least have the chance to get his exterminator’s license back and help people rid their houses of roaches, a subject on which he has intimate expertise.
jl
Obama is secretly shifting the trillions of new federal regulators and bureaucrats he has hired to alter the center of gravity of the earth and throw the planet out of its orbit and send it hurtling into the sun.
This is true. I just checked google earth and you can see the subtle signs of the shift already, and there is a huge black hole where Washington DC should be!
Listen to Glen Beck tomorrow for the details.
That was snark, but I expect it to show up on wingnut radar.
I will have to read about it here, since I am on a Teevee talkie news show strike until the end of the year round ups are over.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@jrg: Well, I guess that if you discount entirely the “Somewhat intelligent people run the fuck away from the place” theory, we’re reduced to the “There must be something in the water turning our brains lizardish” theory.
I’m down with that.
Seriously. Wasn’t the nature/nurture debate called a draw some several years back?
BobS
@mk3872: If you knew the answers already, you should have made your own fucking list.
jrg
@Evolved Deep Southerner: I think it’s probably not something in the water, it’s more like lack of exposure to diverse people and ideas… But I doubt anyone can prove that.
Depends on who you talk to. Some people (Steven Pinker comes to mind) never got word of a cease fire.
Cassidy
He killed dogs; not people. In the big picture, it wasn’t that heinous of a crime. I mean dogs ffs. If the electrical grid goes down long enough, beloved Poochy becomes food.
Mark S.
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
Was it? Because I know everyone’s dying to know my opinion on this, indulge me a bit (I’ll try not to call anyone cudlip).
I think diseases and stuff like that are overwhelmingly genetic. I think sexuality is genetic. I think most other behaviors are socially conditioned. I think 90% of evolutionary psychology is a crock of shit because it thinks there is some gene that explains some complicated behavior.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Cassidy: (ducking)
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Mark S.: Sexuality isn’t complicated?
Mark S.
@jrg:
Ugh. That’s who I think of when I think about how stupid evo psych is. Whoever recommended me a book by him can DIAF.
(Gimme that Moore Award)
Mark S.
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
Did I say it wasn’t? I just meant I didn’t think it is socially conditioned.
Villago Delenda Est
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
I thought it was resolved, for all time, in the men’s room at Duke and Duke, and money changed hands as a result of that resolution.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Mark S. @ 55: What is it about linguists? I mean, I know this guy is allegedly Chomsky’s arch-nemesis, but …
jrg
@Mark S.:
If you find overarching patterns across most (if not all) cultures, there’s a good chance that the element of human behavior you’re examining is an instinct, not a learned behavior.
I find him fascinating. He’s a linguist and cognitive scientist, BTW.
Yutsano
@Evolved Deep Southerner: He’s a cunning linguist?
(c’mon, ya hung that RIGHT over the plate…)
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Yutsano: LOL. Better than a cunning runt, I guess.
Yutsano
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Yes. Yes indeed.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Yutsano: Or in this case, Peevin’ Stinker, maybe.
Yutsano
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Peevin’ Stinker is how my kitten is behaving right now. Ever since I got back she’s been a little cuddlebug. When she’s not attacking my hand.
Otherwise I don’t have much opinion on Pinker or evolutionary psychology.
MattR
@Evolved Deep Southerner: @Yutsano: Dickheads.
(Apologies if this is a dup. WP ate the first attempt)
Hob
@Cassidy:
DNFDTTT [do not feed dogs to the troll]
Uncle Clarence Thomas
@mk3872:
.
.
It made me feel better, because I prefer to associate with reality and truth, both here and at liberal venues.
1. Partially his fault. Fully his fault that the innocent have not been freed, especially those ordered by the court to be freed already. If he gets positive credit for repeal of DADT, should he not get negative credit for closing Gitmo, the American Gulag? And why can’t he at least change the conditions there, on his own authority as Commander in Chief?
2. He is also the leader of the Democratic Party.
3. President Obama doesn’t care about the vast majority of progressive policies, that is a demonstrated fact; but that doesn’t seem to be the reason for this delay.
4. Wall Street “reform” was completely inadequate and toothless. Get back to us when Glass-Steagall is reimplemented and the 100s or 1,000s of fraudsters are prosecuted and sent to prison when found guilty.
5. It shows a lack of character, courage, intellect, and political savvy to praise the greedy fucks who are ruining his own country. His “corporatist” credentials are being earned entirely separately from the craven crony comments.
And be forewarned – any criticism of me will prove that you are a racist.
.
.
JMY
Don’t know if this was posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-court-arguments-20101226,0,2485878,full.story
“But, but, they aren’t liberal enough…”
Suck It Up!
@Quiddity:
it was not a political move, period.
xian
a big amygdala is also associated with empathy, no?
but it’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the emotion, or something like that, right?
Suck It Up!
@mk3872:
Actually, it was that he doesn’t care about progressive policies, he’s homophobic and loves to thumb his nose at gay people for sport.
Suck It Up!
What’s sad about that list is that it made the news at all. You’d never know that women and children were living a daily nightmare in the Congo.
Angry Black Lady
@Evolved Deep Southerner: this.
Also, I’ve been thinking all day, “Why the hell would he call him to talk about Vick?”. Oh right… He didn’t.
amk
@mk3872: That list whine list will be pretty long one indeed. Nutters all.
Yutsano
@amk: PWB pretty much covers it all. The rest is just variation on that theme.
Tattoosydney
@MattR:
Yay!
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: U haz ur own Internet meme. I haz a jelus.
Hi hon. Having fun doing a whole lotta nothing?
Anne Laurie
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): __
Because Wall Street is where the Masters of the Galtian Universe rule. There are only a handful of “Money Cities” on the planet, and New York is the only one in America. Even Rush Limbaugh had to own an apartment there, to establish his credentials as a MotGU.
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: I was going to try to come up with some pithy comment regarding Dubai and Muslims and such, but the fact that there even IS a financial center in the Middle East is pretty amazing. It will get even more entertaining when the oil runs out.
NobodySpecial
@Yutsano: Nah, Dubai fills a very important role in the Middle East that used to be filled by Lebanon, it’s the place where Muslims go to not act like Muslims and not have it reported on. Granted, it’s mostly a bunch of stupid acts of hubris and a lot of wasted money, but it will still always be useful as a playground for the overlords.
Yutsano
@NobodySpecial: The emirs seem pretty decent at wasting their own money, so I can’t fault them for being good capitalists and taking advantage of Middle East largesse. Even funnier when you realize Muhammad was more or less a pure capitalist trader until he went full on prophet.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@jrg: My personal experience is that my family members who have stayed behind in small towns are generally scared of freeways, cities, public transportation, immigrants, black people, and education. Not that anecdotes mean anything. But I actually think it is more generous to assume they are scared of all the things they seem to hate with such fiery intensity.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Anne Laurie: Also, the conservatives would suddenly lack the prime target in this country for terrorists. How the heck do you get the white working class to hate Muslims if they are bombing Indians? Where’s the margin in that?
Waldo
What they were thinking when the subject turned to Mr. Vick …
Obama: (Oh, shit — why’d he have to go there? Well, I’ll just bust out some platitudes about second chances and get this convo back on track …)
Lurie: (Vindication!! Wait till I tell the media! Thank you, Mr. Obama! And you too, Jesus! Oh, and one more thing: In your face, PETA!!)
Obama: (whew — thank god that’s over with.)
benintn
You forgot about the one where Marsha Blackburn is raising money to stop “Obama’s government takeover of the internet”. votemarsha.com for that load of hooey.
Chyron HR
@benintn:
Keep DARPA’s hands off my Internets!
WereBear
And the wingnuts make me clench my jaw so much my teeth hurt… this makes them the same as the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man.
And Bo the dog had bounced from his first home; making him a rescue. I tell wingnuts this and they get all red in the face. Literally.
The only thing that keeps me hanging on is that they lead miserable beady-eyed little lives.
And don’t even get me started on Michael Vick. There’s been no remorse. None. And none of his money to the people rehabbing those dogs.
kay
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
That’s where the rubber meets the road, though, on both “forgiveness” and second chances for felons, isn’t it?
It’s easy to say “I support second chances for felons” in a generic, abstract way. It gets harder to stick with that when faced with a particular felon who did something you, personally find reprehensible.
A lot of them are not nice people.
Given that reality, should they get a second chance after penalty or not? I think they should, if for no other reason than it doesn’t make any sense to have a huge group of unemployable people.
In other words, it’s easy with victimless crimes or a “blameless” felon. It’s harder with an actual flesh and blood person, a victim (here, the animals) and a specific crime. Most of them aren’t sympathetic characters with a “good” story. Should they be able to work or not?
WereBear
I think it’s waaaaaaaaaaay past time for us to consider just what they did as a part of this conversation.
Was it a victimless crime? I think a lot of drug taking behavior is self-medicating, especially when someone is struggling with poverty and crappy living conditions.
People who torture and murder for kicks? That indicates something seriously wrong with them. That we don’t know how to fix.
Treating two such cases the same is ridiculous.
AxelFoley
Why do people, when speaking of Vick, have to preface their words with “I think Vick is an (insert expletive here)”?
I don’t have to condemn or condone the man when speaking about his getting a second chance. I don’t know him personally, so I can’t say whether he’s an ass or not.
AxelFoley
@Bob In Pacifica:
Shit like that is why I can’t stand the far left as much as I can’t the far right.
AxelFoley
@eemom:
Child, please.
You’ve got people who’ve FUCKING MURDERED HUMAN BEINGS given second chances, and you’re getting your damn panties in a bunch over dogs.
Yeah, I know many here love their pets. I love dogs and have owned a few in my life, but in NO WAY do I put animals over people.
What Vick did was cruel, but he’s paid his debt to society and was given a second chance to resume his career. If Vick worked at McDonald’s and was given a second chance to resume work there, you WATBs wouldn’t give a damn.
And no matter what Obama said on this matter, you’d have complained.
Please just STFU.
kdaug
@Chyron HR: FT – fucking – W.
Hogan
@cmorenc: I thought DeLay’s experience was more in the field of getting roaches *into* the House.
Elisabeth
Re: Michael Vick ~ it makes me feel better to know that, with that o-line, he’s getting smacked around pretty good every Sunday (or Tuesday). Seems like a bit of righteous payback to me.
eemom
@AxelFoley:
GFY, asshole. Or better yet, go jerk off to your moronic fantasies about fucking Sarah Palin.
Animals are innocent. They all deserve to live, which is more than I can say for some people.
Regardless, there is no greater crime in my book than harming an innocent creature, be it an animal or a child. Those are my values, and you have no right to judge them.
Too bad your puerile fantasies can’t come true. You and Palin would get along just great. Except that you may be too stupid even for her.
lllphd
@General Stuck:
i’m with you on the sentiment. however, there is no way to tell from this study if the conservative brains started out that way, or if they became that way through training. that ol’ nature/nurture thang.
i’m of the opinion, given the abundance of recent studies showing cortical plasticity (i.e., the brain can and does continue to grow and even recovers new cells well into adulthood), that the increase in the amygdala size is acquired, what with all the fear-mongering those adults do.
that would actually be a much better result than “i can’t help it i’m born this way, now outa my path or i’ll gun ya down.” in my opinion. the nurture result – should anyone ever determine that – would also help make the case for limiting the fear mongering due to its obvious social implications.
however, there is also this sticky wicket: the amygdala plays a strong role in social interactions of all kinds, including the threatening ones. there is a reported case of a woman who was unable to experience fear in threatening situations because her amygdala did not function. if the amygdala is so important in socializing, how does that play in the rightwingnut world? mob mentality? none of this is at all clear from the results.
bottom line, tho; the whole matter is far more complex than this reported result might imply.