Recent comments

  • Reply to: Comment Queue Update   14 years 5 months ago

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/feb/23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing

    Next for Supreme Court: personhood for robo-trolls? :-)

  • Reply to: Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools   14 years 5 months ago
    I don't know what your experiences in public education are, but I have been an educator for 23 years in a poor rural school in the middle of nowhere. In my experience, we have not been failing our students. Our teachers work tirelessly to raise money for Christmas baskets, work overtime planning experiential trips for our students to discover the cultural world outside our little slice of barren wasteland (and spend hours sitting on hard bus seats as we travel three or more hours to take kids to the closest art gallery or museum), we fight for smaller class sizes and healthy student/teacher ratios so we can overcome the effects of poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, and downright neglect...and despite making far below the national average we spend our own money to buy materials and resources for our classrooms. We are on the side of the working man because we too are working men and women. We just happen to also have Bachelor and Masters degrees and cart home hundreds of papers that need to be read, evaluated and responded to sometime after the dinner dishes are done and we turn out our beside lamp. Teachers believe in "buying American" and we believe in the American worker. We operate in a culture that on the one hand constantly demonizes people who love learning as "egg heads" and "nerds" and on the other hand accuses us of failing to educate their children. We operate with new rules that say we can't assign homework because parents don't want to be the "bad guy" and turn off the X-box or take away the cell phone...yet we are expected to cram more instruction into the heads of young people who are constantly wired into a society that tells them it isn't "cool" to be smart. Parents today refuse to allow their children to know frustration, self-discipline, or delayed gratification...we are to entertain with bigger smart boards, computer review games, and grades that are inflated to safeguard their fragile self-esteem. However frustrating our jobs may now be, however, teachers realize that our fellow union brothers and sisters have it tough as well. Whether working in a mine or toiling over a sewing machine, putting their lives on the line as police or fire fighters, or cashing us out at the local grocery store -- we are all workers. We all deserve fair wages, a decent job, health care and a vigorous and engaging education. We are doing our part to wage that fight, not just for our own members, but for all workers in all occupations across this country. You can join us or you can be manipulated in the current attempts to "divide and conquer." Whatever you choose to do, we will continue our fight for the right to unionize and collectively bargain equally for those who agree and those who disagree. I don't know about you, but I don't want to ever have to depend on the charity of a few wealthy Americans to preserve the rights and freedoms already granted to us.
  • Reply to: The Kochs' Climate Change Denial Media Machine   14 years 5 months ago

    How so many conservatives are able to not only repeat blatant garbage but actually believe so much of it is related to the high correlation between conservatism and authoritarian leader/follower personalities. These people appear to have cognitive level filters that disallow info that conflicts with their prior beliefs and emotional attachments to the status quo. Their leaders tell them what they believe and they repeat it without analyzing it's coherence or veracity in the way other people, whatever their ideology, all do (even the left extreme).
    Some quotes from a criminology paper at Okla. government website are instructive regarding the extent of the folly involved by our own projection, hence assumption, that these are also people who use reason and intellect to make important decisions. Most, the RWA-SDOs (see Dr. R. Altemeyer - The Authoritarians) do not. Being, or following power and authority - does.

    "It appears that conservatism has pathological dimensions manifested in violence and distorted psycho-sexual development" (Boshier, 1983, p. 159). This is supported by a study conducted by Walker, Rowe, and Quincey (1993) in which there was a direct correlation between authoritarianism and sexually aggressive behavior. An investigation done by Muehlenhard (1988) revealed that rape justification and aggression toward subordinate individuals was much higher in traditional (conservative personality) than non-traditional personalities."

    "neither conceptually nor empirically does there appear to be any grounds for distinguishing authoritarianism and conservative personality-except that the former may be regarded as a somewhat more particular case of the latter" (Wilson, 1973, p. 33). Dogmatic attitudes tend to be related to close-mindedness. The individuals who adhere to dogmatic attitudes have behaviors including: authoritarianism, tough-mindedness, conservatism, and alienated behavior (Rajnarain, 1986)."

    "Conservatism is not the doctrine of the intellectual elite or of the more intelligent segments of the population, but the reverse. By every measure available to us, conservative beliefs are found most frequently among the uniformed, the poorly educated, and the less intelligent" (p. 38). McClosky, H. Conservatism and personality. American Political Science Review, 52, 27-45. http://www.doc.state.ok.us/offenders/ocjrc/95/950725c.htm

    For much, much more simply use Google Scholar to search the terms "authoritarianism, conservatism".

  • Reply to: The Kochs' Climate Change Denial Media Machine   14 years 5 months ago

    How so many conservatives are able to not only repeat blatant garbage but actually believe so much of it is related to the high correlation between conservatism and authoritarian leader/follower personalities. These people appear to have cognitive level filters that disallow info that conflicts with their prior beliefs and emotional attachments to the status quo. Their leaders tell them what they believe and they repeat it without analyzing it's coherence or veracity in the way other people, whatever their ideology, all do (even the left extreme).
    Some quotes from a criminology paper at Okla. government website are instructive regarding the extent of the folly involved by our own projection, hence assumption, that these are also people who use reason and intellect to make important decisions. Most, the RWA-SDOs (see Dr. R. Altemeyer - The Authoritarians) do not. Being, or following power and authority - does.

    "It appears that conservatism has pathological dimensions manifested in violence and distorted psycho-sexual development" (Boshier, 1983, p. 159). This is supported by a study conducted by Walker, Rowe, and Quincey (1993) in which there was a direct correlation between authoritarianism and sexually aggressive behavior. An investigation done by Muehlenhard (1988) revealed that rape justification and aggression toward subordinate individuals was much higher in traditional (conservative personality) than non-traditional personalities."

    "neither conceptually nor empirically does there appear to be any grounds for distinguishing authoritarianism and conservative personality-except that the former may be regarded as a somewhat more particular case of the latter" (Wilson, 1973, p. 33). Dogmatic attitudes tend to be related to close-mindedness. The individuals who adhere to dogmatic attitudes have behaviors including: authoritarianism, tough-mindedness, conservatism, and alienated behavior (Rajnarain, 1986)."

    "Conservatism is not the doctrine of the intellectual elite or of the more intelligent segments of the population, but the reverse. By every measure available to us, conservative beliefs are found most frequently among the uniformed, the poorly educated, and the less intelligent" (p. 38). McClosky, H. Conservatism and personality. American Political Science Review, 52, 27-45.

    For much, much more simply use Google Scholar to search the terms "authoritarianism, conservatism".

  • Reply to: Live Reporting from the Wisconsin Protests   14 years 5 months ago
    There was a great turn out Tuesday, in NM, in solidarity with Wisconsin. Petitions signed to impeach new NM Governor.. Dare To Dream network discussed the importance of getting a petition moving to change laws, more teeth, to hold corporate gr$$d accountable..Over 1000 attended Tuesday. Saturday there will be an even larger turnout also addressing the Union busting tactics that Wisconsin's own face..as well as the nation on the whole.. http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=238 American's are waking up..Now to keep the torch lit... This flyer below was handed out on Tuesday and will be handed out on Saturday.. Photos of the rally here.. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=100000542183622&aid=52476#!/photo.php?fbid=196252417069496&set=a.196252360402835.52476.100000542183622&theater JOIN SATURDAYS RALLY......http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=238 Freedom means "We" discover truth for ourselves. If "We" relinquish that responsibility, "We" relinquish freedom. Corporations have become MERCENARIES under the guise of being Business people. Their pernicious actions devastated, under the Reagan administration and a Republican led congress, several countries south of America's borders. This abuse of power must be brought to a halt. Big business should never have been allowed to move in the direction of EMPIRE building. Hello! Sound familiar? Fascism anyone? Legislation must be enacted, and demanded by American voters, to put big biz Corporations, especially those mega corporations operating outside of America, ON NOTICE! American's told GWB, when he said he was going into Iraq, "Not In Our Name". Well, "We" are still here, and "We" are saying to the big biz tyrants, "NOT IN OUR NAME"!!! I sometimes wonder what it is "We" American's won after defeating Fascism/Nazism. It's plain as day that this ideology, supposedly conquered, is alive and well and biting "US", and the WORLD, were we live. Corporations were never to be allowed to create monopolies because of the ramifications that would arise, LIMITING COMPETITION. Well, that is not the way, especially since the Reagan years, it's been coming down. America's Shame is showing because there are still American's who don't get it. Corporations are taking this nation's freedoms, rights, jobs, clean air and water, and her Dreams, into the abyss. Legislation to control this abuse must be enacted! But, the question is, how do "We" go about these changes that all can believe in? Our legislators are controlled, not by the people as was the design of the Constitution, but via a gift from 5 treasonous Supreme Court Justices who crowned Corporate gr$$d, with Personhood. The Dare To Dream Network is hoping to draw up a petition addressing this issue.. Others should consider this as well. The more the merrier. We are also about to debut our latest activist website, aptly called, "RUMBLE OF THE PEOPLE" Stay tuned since we are working on a plan to do radio from this site as well. This Democracy/Republic cannot survive without the US in jUStice. Barbara/founder/dtdn.net www.TheBridgeToNowhere.org www.DareToDreamNetwork.net http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=238

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