Tea Party Brain

A scientific study at Britain’s University College London finds that conservative brains have a larger “fear center” and smaller center of courage and optimism. No wonder the Tea Party hates science and foreigners.

Brain scans found that political conservatives tend to have a larger amygdala,  often called  the “primitive brain,”  the structure responsible for emotions like fear. Conservatives also seem to have a smaller anterior cingulate,  the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism.

If this news makes you want to check your own amygdala, you can’t miss it. It’s that almond-shaped mass in the temporal lobes adjacent to the hippocampus.

  

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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(un)Employment News

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the jobless numbers for December 2010. This is a regular monthly exercise in statistical flim-flam, and the BLS knows it.

The meaningless unemployment rate in the headlines: 9.4%. The real unemployment rate: 16.7% (includes people who no longer get unemployment benefits, need work but have stopped looking because it’s futile, or have only found part-time work). Learn more here.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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GOP Reads Constitution, Promptly Violates It

On their first day as a majority party, Republican congressmen read the United States Constitution out loud, mostly to give the impression that they understand it.  That symbolic pretense was seriously undermined by Representatives Pete Sessions  (R, TX-32) and Mike Fitzpatrick  (R, PA-8). They didn’t bother getting themselves sworn in but voted on the House floor anyway.

Why didn’t Congressmen Sessions and Fitzpatrick get sworn in? They were busy attending a fundraiser. Republicans have their priorities; swearing to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” apparently isn’t one of them. Sessions says he raised his hand and took the oath while watching the swearing-in ceremony on TV.

Who says that congressmen have to be sworn in, anyway? Just Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

Oil Spill Commission Blames Everyone

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a sneak preview of its report Wednesday. Verdict: “systemic failure” by all parties involved, including government regulators. The Commission says this kind of thing could happen again.

Goldman Gambles on — and With — Facebook

Goldman Sachs once gambled with other people’s money in an unregulated market in mortgage-backed securities of dubious value. Bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars, the company seems to have learned its lesson. Goldman Sachs is now gambling with other people’s money in an unregulated market in shares of social media company Facebook.

Since Facebook is privately held, isn’t openly traded, and really doesn’t make cash profits, there is no way to value shares of … whatever it is that is thought to comprise the firm’s assets. If shares are sold to no more than 499 parties, the transactions are not subject to regulation, and may be legally traded in yet another shadow market.

Face it: the only thing this country can manufacture these days is bad business deals.

What the NFL Stands For in DC

“It’s time once again to tell Washington’s football team to ditch the ‘Redskins’ racist moniker,” Courtland Milloy, Washington Post.

Can Our Food Be Made Safe From Republicans?

President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law yesterday. The legislation improves the security and safety of America’s food supply, allowing the Food and Drug Administration to protect us from foodborne illness and contaminated comestibles, both foreign and domestic. That’s something to everyone’s taste.

Unless they’re Republican. The GOP is defending the rights of toxic bacteria to have access to your digestive tract.  To do that, Republican lawmakers will try to starve the FDA of the funds needed to enforce effective food safety regulation.

The Congressional Budget Office puts the expense of enforcing the law at $1.4 billion over five years, with most costs offset by fees, but spending must still be approved by the majority-Republican House. The cost of treating foodborne illness instead of preventing it: $152 billion a year.  Costs over five years: $1.4 billion if we enforce the law, $760 billion if we don’t.

Each year 48 million Americans get sick from eating something; 128,000 of them are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Every year. Apparently, that’s OK with the GOP.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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White House Soup

 

The White House Soup of the Day for January 4, 2011, via  MSNBC and FishbowlDC:

Ribollita.
 

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Rocket to Nowhere

Forget about the Bridge to Nowhere. Congress just funded a dud NASA rocket for half a billion dollars.

That’s the Ares I rocket. It was supposed to launch humans into space. Many of those scarce taxpayer dollars will go to Alliant Techsystems for a solid fuel rocket engine. But NASA cancelled the Ares I, and future manned missions will probably use liquid-fueled vehicles.

Congress just passed a Continuing Resolution with specific language funding the cancelled rocket. Why?The Aries I project is run out of Huntsville Alabama, and Senator Richard Shelby of that state is on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Brenda Starr Turns in Her Press Card

Brenda Star, Reporter, filed her last story today. Like many print journalists in these days of downsizing, she was let go. Her 70 years of seniority didn’t protect her. Ms. Starr emptied her desk into a copy paper box and a security guard escorted her from the newsroom.

Frankly, after all this time, most of the names in Ms. Starr’s Rolodex were pretty stale.  If you’re the under-paid young whippersnapper who replaced Brenda, a Rolodex is an analog contact manager.