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There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson , a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies , the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience . "Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice - Yahoo! News
We’re Launching the New YouSayToo in Open Beta! We are very excited to finally release the brand new YouSayToo in open Beta! A lot of changes has been made and, since this only a Beta, there’s still much more to come. We really hope you like what we have done. New features, new possibilities, a new start to YouSayToo await!
Congressional SOPA hearings: no opponents of the bill allowed
Nintendo, EA, Sony sponsor Internet censorship bill - Joystiq
SOPA ( Stop Online Piracy Act ) is a bill currently in the US Congress, with the stated goal of curtailing copyright infringement, but with the actual effects of setting up a government firewall to block out unwanted sites, and giving the US jurisdiction over foreign sites that have anything to do with infringement of US copyright. It is repellent . A Reddit user discovered a document [PDF] hosted by the Global Intellectual IP Center ("Global"), from before the introduction of SOPA, urging Congress to enact such a measure.
Petition - A Petition to Support the Saving American Democracy Amendment : Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator for Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court decision in a case called Citizens United vs. FEC. See what states and towns across the country are doing to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Have your local effort added to this map by calling 202-224-5141 or emailing: press@sanders.senate.gov "With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections."
US DEATH PENALTY
Troy Davis
The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in a working-class neighborhood of Corsicana, in northeast Texas. Flames spread along the walls, bursting through doorways, blistering paint and tiles and furniture. Smoke pressed against the ceiling, then banked downward, seeping into each room and through crevices in the windows, staining the morning sky.
Texas, and the death penalty
Obama Health Care Law Reaches Supreme Court, With Over Five Hours Of Oral Argument Planned
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide the fate of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, with an election-year ruling due by July on the U.S. healthcare system's biggest overhaul in nearly 50 years. The decision had been widely expected since late September, when the Obama administration asked the nation's highest court to uphold the centerpiece insurance provision and 26 states and a business group separately asked that the entire law be struck down. The justices in a brief order agreed to hear the appeals. At the heart of the legal battle is whether Congressoverstepped its powers by requiring that all Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a provision known as the individual mandate. (Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Eric Beech) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.
AP / Richard Drew A person falls from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center after terrorists crashed two hijacked airliners into the 110-story twin buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. By Chris Hedges I arrived in Times Square around 9:30 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Chris Hedges: A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
For the first time in memory, if not ever, a highly respected mainstream columnist is calling on the United States to cut aid to Israel. Writing in the Washington Post , Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist Walter Pincus, says, "it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel". Aid to Israel is virtually the only programme - domestic or foreign - that is exempt from every budget-cutting proposal pending in Congress. No matter that our own military is facing major cuts along with Medicare, cancer research and hundreds of other programmes, Israel's friends in Congress in both parties make sure that aid to Israel is protected at current levels. Back when I was a congressional staffer, I was part of the process by which aid to Israel was secured.
Aid to Israel no longer a sacred cow - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Narces Benoit, the Florida man who shot this video, hired a lawyer after police smashed his phone A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but Narces Benoit's decision to videotape a shooting by Miami police landed him in jail after officers smashed his cell-phone camera. It was 4am on May 30 when Benoit and his girlfriend Erika Davis saw officers firing dozens of bullets into a car driven by Raymond Herisse, a suspect who hit a police officer and other vehicles while driving recklessly.
US police smash camera for recording killing - Features - Al Jazeera English
Woman who recorded Massachusetts police beating charged with illegal wiretapping – Boing Boing
By Cory Doctorow at 2:33 pm Tuesday, Aug 16 Michaelann sez, "Four Springfield Mass police officers beat Melvin Jones in 2009 and the incident was captured on videotape by a resident. Now, one of the four officers involved, who was suspended for 45 days, is seeking a criminal complaint against the woman for illegal wiretapping.
You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media.
Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine | Danger Room | Wired.com
Black Box Voting - America's Elections Watchdog Group
(WA) 2/12 - REBUTTALS TO CANNED TALKING POINTS ABOUT VOTING MACHINES - An outstanding public citizen requested some answers from the Washington Secretary of State about the concealed counting going on inside our computerized vote-counting system. Predictably, she received a set of canned talking points. Below the talking points is a point-by-point rebuttal from Black Box Voting.War Costs will create a series of in-depth video exposes unmasking the military contractor money corrupting our politics. We will focus on issues including excessive CEO pay funded by taxpayers, war profiteering and weapons systems we don’t need that are bankrupting the country. Sign up for email updates today to... From influencing policymakers to reshaping the national debate in the media, our activists are making a difference.