Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice. 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. Controversy ahead The findings combine three hot-button topics. Brains and bias As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. A study of averages. Human Rights Petition: Stop the internet control bill NOW. Nintendo, EA, Sony sponsor Internet censorship bill. Sopa.google.facebook.twitter.letter.111511.pdf (application/pdf Object) The Saving American Democracy Amendment. Saving-American-Democracy.pdf (application/pdf Object) US DEATH PENALTY. Troy Davis. Texas, and the death penalty. Willingham was charged with murder. Because there were multiple victims, he was eligible for the death penalty, under Texas law. Unlike many other prosecutors in the state, Jackson, who had ambitions of becoming a judge, was personally opposed to capital punishment.
“I don’t think it’s effective in deterring criminals,” he told me. “I just don’t think it works.” He also considered it wasteful: because of the expense of litigation and the appeals process, it costs, on average, $2.3 million to execute a prisoner in Texas—about three times the cost of incarcerating someone for forty years. Plus, Jackson said, “What’s the recourse if you make a mistake?” Willingham couldn’t afford to hire lawyers, and was assigned two by the state: David Martin, a former state trooper, and Robert Dunn, a local defense attorney who represented everyone from alleged murderers to spouses in divorce cases—a “Jack-of-all-trades,” as he calls himself.
Willingham’s lawyers were equally pleased. Obama Health Care Law Reaches Supreme Court, With Over Five Hours Of Oral Argument Planned. WASHINGTON -- In an order released on Monday morning, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear more than five hours of oral argument in the challenges to the Affordable Care Act brought by 26 states and several private parties. The order indicates the gravity with which the justices view the health care cases, as the Court rarely allots more than an hour to for argument in each case it hears.
Within those five-plus hours, the justices divided the time into four separate arguments to address the various questions raised in petitions from the Department of Justice, the 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. The longest argument, set for two hours, will consider whether Congress had the power under Article 1 of the Constitution to enact the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Article 1 outlines the types of laws Congress may pass, such as those that regulate interstate commerce. The cases granted Monday come up from the U.S. Loading Slideshow. A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe - Chris Hedges' Columns. A Decade After 9/11: We Are What We Loathe Posted on Sep 10, 2011 By Chris Hedges I arrived in Times Square around 9:30 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
A large crowd was transfixed by the huge Jumbotron screens. Billows of smoke could be seen on the screens above us, pouring out of the two World Trade towers. The south tower went down around 10 a.m. with a guttural roar. I headed toward the spot where the towers once stood, passing dazed, ashen and speechless groups of police officers and firefighters. Scores of people, perhaps more than 200, pushed through the smoke and heat to jump to their deaths from windows that had broken or they had smashed. The images of the “jumpers” proved too gruesome for the TV networks. The “jumpers” did not fit into the myth the nation demanded. The shock of 9/11, however, demanded images and stories of resilience, redemption, heroism, courage, self-sacrifice and generosity, not collective suicide in the face of overwhelming hopelessness and despair. Aid to Israel no longer a sacred cow. 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. Members of the respective appropriations committees sent "wish lists" to the chair of their committee detailing which programmes they each wanted funded and by what amounts. Exceptionalism Lobby as a 'night flower' US police smash camera for recording killing - Features. 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. Herisse died in the hail of lead, and four bystanders also suffered gunshot wounds, the Miami Herald newspaper reported. Police noticed the man filming the shooting and an officer jumped into his truck, and put a pistol to his head, Benoit said.
The video shows officers crowding around Herisse's vehicle before opening fire, followed by indistinguishable yelling at onlookers, including Benoit, to stop filming. The cop yelled: "Wanna be a [expletive] paparazzi? " "My phone was smashed, he stepped on it, handcuffed me," the 35-year-old car stereo technician told CNN. Legal issues Technology 'outpacing' laws. Woman who recorded Massachusetts police beating charged with illegal wiretapping. 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. This article has a link to the original video, where the woman doing the taping pretty much said everything I would have said-- "strong language. " The woman will be in court on Wednesday and some members of my group, Arise for Social Justice, will be there to support her. " Police Sgt. Videographer of alleged Melvin Jones beating could be charged with illegal wiretapping (Thanks, Michaelann!) Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine | Danger Room. 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. SMISC has two goals. This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. Not all memes, of course. More specifically, SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere.
Of course, SMISC won’t be content to just to hang back and monitor social media trends in strategic locations. What exactly SMISC will look like it its final form is hard to say. Photo: USAF See Also: Black Box Voting - America's Elections Watchdog Group. War Costs.