The finding isn't screamingly biased, at least not to me, because here, I don't see that denialism is the "better" response when seeing something terrible.

But that seems to be the liberal psychology. Conservatives, if we have a flaw, and we don't, tend to dwell on the negative.

Winter's coming, you say? Bah.
Just more of your Jesus-talk.

Conducted by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and published in the February 16 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, the study monitored the eye movements and skin conductance of participants from both sides of the political spectrum when shown the same series of images. Some of the images were benign, others less so. According to a press release from the university:

While liberals’ gazes tended to fall upon the pleasant images, such as a beach ball or a bunny rabbit, conservatives clearly focused on the negative images—of an open wound, a crashed car or a dirty toilet, for example.

This does seem to explain a large swath of conservative and liberal behavior. If a liberal proposes something dumb, like a guaranteed minimum income, conservatives immediately see that not only is that money being forcibly extracted from someone else (negative implication one), but that removing someone's motivation to be industrious at all will have pernicious effects down the line and lead to increased sloth, increased numbers of people getting handouts, increased need for wealth-extraction from the productive class, and ultimately a collapse of the whole system as the producers decide they'll stop producing, too, and just take their Government Check for Breathing (negative implication two).

Liberals seem to only get that one part about people having free money. You literally cannot get them to focus on the other things. They just glibly dismiss inevitable secondary effects ("You don't know that! You're not psychic!") and appeal to emotion ("I don't want to live in a world where a poor child doesn't have Starz On Demand").

This does reinforce some stereotypes, that conservatives tend to be worriers and planners and vigilance committee patrol people, whereas liberals tend to be Good Time Charlies. The old, "Who's gonna man that wall? You, Lieutenant Weinstein?"

Posted by: Ace at 09:36 AM | Comments (313)
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Hey, let's just put everyone on the government payroll and our unemployment problem is solved!

He's leaning so far forward his head is up his ass.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:31 AM | Comments (408)
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There are some interesting numbers in the exit polls out of Michigan, where Mitt Romney narrowly beat Rick Santorum yesterday. (Here are Fox's and CBS').

Nine percent of GOP primary voters were Democrats and they went for Santorum by 51%. So the robocalls had some effect. Romney and Paul each picked up 17% of that group. But the presence of that many Democrats makes it hard to draw conclusions from some of the poll data. Twelve percent of GOP primary voters said they "Strongly Oppose" the Tea Party and that group also went for Santorum (45%) over Romney (29%). That's gotta be those Democratic voters in large part, right? Santorum also got 45% of those who "Strongly Support" the Tea Party. Same problem with the union membership question.

On the other hand, some of the results are noteworthy. Of the voters who decided which candidate they would vote for on the day of the primary, Romney beat Santorum 38%-31%. That's a reversal from what polling before the vote was saying and is probably due to backlash over the robocalls and Santorum's JFK gaffe, which he said he regretted yesterday.

Other notable numbers: of self-identified conservative voters, Romney beats Santorum 43%-41%. Romney also beat Santorum among those who self-identify as Republican 48%-37%. But when those who say they're "Very Conservative" (about a third of the voters) are separated out, they went for Santorum (50%) over Romney (36%).

Fifty-three percent of voters believed Romney is the most likely candidate to beat President Obama. Only 73% of that group actually voted for Romney, though.

Thirty-one percent of voters believed working in government is the best experience for a president. That group went for Santorum (52%) over Romney (20%). The reverse was true for those who believed working is business is the best experience for a president.

Romney voters were indeed the most resolute: of the 62% of GOP primary voters who said they will definitely vote for the GOP candidate in November, 50% went for Romney; only 36% picked Santorum. The Ronulans, of course, carried away the category "Only If My Candidate Wins the Nomination."

One last surprise in the CBS exits: Romney beat Santorum among Catholics 44%-37%.

In short, in Michigan, Romney carried conservatives, Republicans, Catholics, those who believe working in business is better prep for the presidency than working in government, and those who are most dedicated to voting against President Obama.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:32 AM | Comments (416)
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Happy Wednesday.

Salt Lake Trib: Sen. Snowe's retirement is a blow to Sen. Hatch's reelection strategy.

NASA is cannibalizing its budget to fund a Mars mission.

INTERPOL arrested 25 Anonymous hackers in Europe and South America yesterday. Anonymous responded by knocking out the Interpol and Spanish police websites for an hour or so. That'll show 'em.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:53 AM | Comments (109)
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The Changing Face of Plastic Surgery

Well nose jobs and eyelid surgeries are down over the last ten years but the good news is that tummy tucks and boob jobs are way up.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:34 PM | Comments (858)
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I think the "Listen" button at upper right will bring you the show when it starts.

Allen has kids now, so not everything is Karate Monkeys and h-jays from Mrs. Partridge. He's putting out a line of patriotically-, traditionalist-themed children's books, available for digital download on to iPhones, iPads, and Kindle Fires. (Pretty much any color media platform. Computer, too.)

Some people haven't seen Grandma's Boy. It's seriously funny, as a cult-comedy thing. Gonzo type stuff. Nothing off-limits.

Posted by: Ace at 06:24 PM | Comments (74)
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Have you guys seen this show? It's a paranormal thriller from Oren Peli, the guy behind Paranormal Activity. It's also a Steven Spielberg project. Good show. I saw the premiere. Bruce Greenwood--Captain Pike from the last Trek movie--plays a wildlife show host and father, Dr. Emmet Cole, who has disappeared in the jungle while filming his show. His family and some videographers set out to find him. The thing is, while searching for Dr. Cole, they're also filming a new show.

Dr. Cole left behind clues in the form of raw video that his family found on his boat after a long search in the premiere.

It's cool. Paranormal stuff. Monsters. Ghosts. Lots of tension and scary moments. Cool characters. Smart writing. Can't ask for much more than that.

Follow me on Twitter.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 04:47 PM | Comments (131)
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Polls close at 9pm Eastern in both primaries.

Fox News coverage starts at 8:45. As a reminder, Michigan's delegates are awarded by congressional district, while Arizona is winner-take-all.

Michigan results

Arizona results

SMOD isn't on the ballot, but last time he ran in Arizona, he crushed it.

Posted by: andy at 04:27 PM | Comments (638)
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Hell no - not by a long shot.

CDR M covered this last week but in case you missed it last Thursday was the 70th anniversary of the first Japanese attack on the US mainland.

On February 23rd, 1942 a Japanese submarine shelled the Ellwood oil refinery, just north of Santa Barbara, for 20 minutes from off-shore. Despite firing 25 shells it only did minimal damage to the refinery and the nearby pier. However panic ensued and the reports of another sub off the coast the next night resulted in the infamous battle of Los Angeles which was the basis of the movie, 1941.

There were other submarine-based attacks on the American mainland during the war but luckily they had little impact.

The Japanese submarines assigned to duty off North America continued to operate against allied shipping; in addition, they bombarded Fort Stevens along the Columbia River and attacked a Canadian lighthouse on Vancouver Island. Despite being ordered to attack capital ships whenever possible, the submarines ultimately engaged only in attacks against merchant vessels and minor bombardments of targets ashore. Also, two air raids were launched via submarine, in a failed attempt to start a forest fire in southwest Oregon.

It's always interesting to go back and read contemporary accounts of a historical event since there are often nuances and details to the story that have been lost in the intervening years. Plus we have the luxury of knowing how things turned out.

So here is the story as it appeared in a Los Angeles paper a day after the attack. Bonus points if you can name FDR's 'surprise' for the Japanese off the top of your head.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 03:57 PM | Comments (97)
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Can't blame them, they are all in on algae.

“But is the overall goal to get our price” of gasoline down, asked [Mississippi Republican Congressman Alan] Nunnelee.

“No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy,” [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and we’ll help the American economy and the American consumers.”

Welcome to every GOP ad from now until November Mr. Secretary.

But they are working hard on improving battery power for cars. So, if you can just put up with$5-10/gallon gas for a couple of decades Obama will have it all worked out soon.

Fun bit, notice the headline on the Politico piece at the link, "Chu: DOE works to wean U.S. off oil". Yeah, that's the big news in the story.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:09 PM | Comments (197)
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