Cynical Nation

I think questioning the patriotism of people who do stupid things can be dangerous. Sheehan has said and done several things I disagree with and I would call them very stupid. However, calling her unpatriotic because she has different views (even radical and out of the mainstream) is not really good.

Using such criteria, there are several people on the far right whose patriotism I can question. Lack of respect for human rights and democratic freedoms is certainly antidemocratic and anti-American. There is a whole long list of radical right wingers who fit that description. Many of them happen to be strong supporters of the Bush administration. Why would n't you question their patriotism?

Emory study reveals the political brain

ATLANTA, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Emory University scientists say political partisans of both parties apparently don't let facts interfere with their judgments on political issues.

The researchers wanted to discover why Democrats and Republicans can hear the same information, but reach opposite conclusions.

The investigators used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study a sample of committed Democrats and Republicans immediately prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

The participants were asked to evaluate threatening information about their own candidate while undergoing fMRI. The scientists say what they found was striking.

"We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory who led the study. "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up."

Once partisans reached completely biased conclusions -- essentially ignoring information that couldn't be rationally discounted -- they then got a blast of activation in circuits involved in reward.

"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged," he said.

The findings are to be presented during this week's annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Palm Springs, Calif.

Well, Barry, if you're very, very lucky (and it looks like you will be), people like Cindy Sheehan and yes, like me, will be rounded up and either put in "retraining camps" or executed before January 20, 2009.

I'm so happy for you that you're going to get what you want.

> ...put in "retraining camps"...

Will there be canoeing? Cuz it might not be so bad if there's canoeing.

Hey Jill,
How about me? Will I have to join you or will they let me go? I hope that Barry will put a good word for me, so they will not go after me at the end.

I think Bailey's in line ahead of both you guys.

Can an anti-American person also be "patriotic?"

That's like asking, "Can an America-hater also love America, in their own way?"

The obvious answer is NO.

It's not just Cindy Sheehan - Michael Moore, Harry Belafonte and half the crew on AAR spew anti-American venom on a daily basis.

How can you hate America, or despise Capitalism (private property & the market based economy) and be called "a patriot?"

You can't.

America engaged in war in the Balkans to further our own economic interests...I'm proud of that.

America (and now Germany, France and most of the earlier holdouts) have dedcided that the West is now at war with Islamo-cultism/Islamo-nazism and those rogue states that have sponsored, harbored, supported and otherwise assisted international terrorism...I'm very proud of that.

America (at least this current administration) has deported tens of thousands of Arabic & Muslim illegal aliens with suspected ties to terorrism and have locked up hundreds of "American citizens" with ties to terrorism post-9/11...I'm really proud of that too.

Those who laud Socialist dictators whose every ideal stands against those of America's Founders, and see America as "the world's biggest terrorist" and refer to the U.S. as "The Fourth Reich" are virulently anti-American.

In peacetime, anti-Americanism is merely kooky.

During wartime it is sedition...tantamount to treason.

"Well, Barry, if you're very, very lucky (and it looks like you will be), people like Cindy Sheehan and yes, like me, will be rounded up and either put in "retraining camps" or executed before January 20, 2009.

I'm so happy for you that you're going to get what you want."

Damn, I just about split a gut! I started reading this reply and my first thought was that this sounds just like vintage 'Hackwriter' aka Jill.

And guess what?

Wow, Jill! Haven't lost the paranoia have you?

Problem is, the last time you said this it was because you were attending hot cocoa meetings for Howard Dean and you were certain that you and your fellow attendees would all be monitored and subsequently arrested.

Let me know how your investigation of Bush's murder of Wellstone is coming, will you?