With all the busy times of the holidays I have not been posting. Here is a poignant video for the holidays. Enjoy. My best and I really mean this, best wishes for a happy new year for us one and all.
OK, now that we have gotten holiday cheer out of the way...ahem...back to the purpose of this site. Here is a doosey for you to start of the new year with: Laura's Psychology Blog. I found this post when I was searching on the phrase "internal locus of happiness." I have never read this blog before and I don't know anything about Laura except that if you think Republicans are the happiest people on earth you just might be radically right ugly. She is reporting on a study done by the Pew Research Center which has found after surveying 2,260 people that reportedly Republicans are much happier than Democrats.
So is Laura Republican or Democrat? I have no idea. Does she uphold the survey? Not sure. Were the 2,260 people surveyed actually a fair representation of the American public? I just don't know and I have my doubts. What I do know without a doubt is that I am much happier today as a Democrat than I was prior to 1996 when I was a Republican. I am also more prosperous. The Pew study found Republicans were more wealthy. My income has quadrupled since I became a Democrat. Does one have a tie to the other? I think it has more to do with the fact that I completed a college degree in computer information systems and am working in my field of study. Maybe I am just not a typical Democrat. I am a happily married heterosexual with children and our combined household income is in the top level for my county. I am a person of faith albeit a Methodist which means that social justice is important to me as opposed to what I perceive of the religious right's belief that God helps those that help themselves.
I recall my college statistics professor telling us that statistics never lie but that statisticians do. The point is that you can make a poll provide support for whatever view you prefer. The fact that this poll would have any authority when the respondents represent 1/10000 of the population is something I cannot take stock in. That is like taking 2 people out of a crowd of 20,000, one being a democrat and one being a republican and judging from their responses to a set of questions who was happiest then extrapolating that to the rest of the US citizenry.
"A man is called a traitor...or liberator,
A rich man is a thief...or philanthropist,
Is one a crusader...or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label is able to persist.
There are precious few at ease,
with moral ambiguities,
So we act as though they don't exist."
-Wizard form Stephen Schwartz's Wicked
Brash, viral, and poisonous as a mad viper the Radical Right is spewing a twisted bile of misinformation into the forum of public debate. This LIBERALLY BEAUTIFUL BLOG addresses the topics that liberals don't want to see. However look we must for the best defense is to know well the ones that make themselves an enemy. Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil and one day they will come for us in a McCarthy-esque manner.
****************************************** What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents. - Robert Kennedy
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