Vote for Fear

Below, a repost of a great article Julia Whitty wrote for Mother Jones Magazine online. I find this relevant because the primary difference between McCain/Palin supporters and Obama /Biden supporters right now seems to be fear. It is fear of "the other," fear of gays, fear of Muslims, fear of the Middle East, and so on that fuels the McCain/Palin devotees. While Obama/Biden inspire and encourage hope. Read on.

Vote Your Fears

People who react strongly to bumps in the night, spiders, or the sight of a victims are more likely to support more defense spending, more government resources for fighting terrorism, and tighter immigration controls. This according to a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln published in the current issue of Science.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and tested 46 people who identified themselves as having strong political opinions. The subjects were shown threatening visual images—pictures of a spider on a person's eyeball, a dazed person with a bloody face, an open wound with maggots in it. The subjects' skin was monitored for electrical conductivity—an indicator of emotion, arousal, and attention. As a separate physiological measure, the subjects were surprised by a sudden, jarring noise, while measurements were taken of their blink reflex.

Those with the strongest eye or skin reactions to unexpected noises or threatening pictures tended to endorse political positions emphasizing protecting society over preserving individual privacy. These people were found to be more willing to sacrifice their privacy in return for what they perceived as government protection. Conversely, the subjects who reacted less strongly were more likely to favor policies that protect privacy and encourage gun control. . . It's all in the biology. Even for disbelievers of biology.

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal Award.

Racism and the Election

My friend Anna sent this to me and I find it wholly brilliant.


From Letters to the Editor, Fort Worth Star-Telegram 9.17.08


How Racism Works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the 'Keating 5'? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

-Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth

God Bless Dan Savage

Sarah Palin has deflected criticism of her anti-gay politics by saying she has gay friends. Who hasn't heard a bigot say "It's alright, I can say that, I have a {Gay/Black/Latino/Latina/Asian} friend." Unfortunately though, there's no evidence that Mz. Pale Lies indeed possesses any such homos in her friend repertoire. For more discussion on this, see The Right Hook from The Advocate online.

I mean, Sarah Pale Eyes is kind of glam, but I think it just might be her deep-rooted Creationism that keeps the party from ever getting fun enough to attract the gay love.

Fortunately, there are plenty of gays auditioning right now (yes right now!) to become Bible Spice's token gay friend. Monsieur Dan Savage, witty and talented sex columnist of Savage Love fame, started this video lineage; his video is below.

(You may also remember Dan Savage's 2003, reader invoked, contest to name a sex act "the Santorum" after Rick Santorum's famous comments equating gay sex to "man on dog" after the Texas Sodomy Laws were revoked. Dan's apparent intention with the contest was to, "...memorialize the Santorum scandal...by attaching his name to a sex act that would make his big, white teeth fall out of his big, empty head.")

McSame, Business as Usual