Day: March 27, 2007

Poll: Fred Thompson Surge Cuts Rudy Support; Romney at 3%

Jon Ponder

I complain about obsessing on the horse race so early, and yet somehow it is… irresistible.

According to the USA Today-Gallup poll,the GOP’s putative frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani lost 13 percentage points over the last three weeks, from 44 percent on March 4 to 31 percent now. His support was drained by “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson, who is not in the race. Thompson has support from 12 percent of voters now, and was not listed in the poll last time.

Sen. John McCain is up two points at 22 percent. Newt Gingrich is down one point to 8 percent. But my favorite is Mitt Romney, who is at 3 percent, down from 8 percent in the last poll. Looks like Republicans aren’t buying his filp-flops.

On the Democratic side, the top three are virtually unchanged: Hillary Clinton at 35 percent, Barack Obama at 22 percent and Al Gore — also not running — at 17 percent.

John Edwards is fourth with 14 percent, gaining 5 points after the announcement he would stay in the race despite the reocurrence of his wife’s cancer.

Bill Richardson and Joe Biden have flipped for bottom of the heap. Richardson has 3 percent, up from 1 percent; Biden has 1 percent, down from 3 percent.

For what it is worth.

Study: If God’s On Our Side, We Kick Ass

Buck Banks

Ever felt like going Old Testament on somebody? You know, maybe exact some divinely sanctioned retribution on a neighbor or the guy who cut you off on the expressway this morning, secure in the faith that you’re backed up by your crew — Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Well, according to a recent study, that apparently is perfectly natural for us hyper-aggressive over-zealous human types.

‘We hypothesized that exposure to a biblical description of violence would increase aggression more than a secular description of the same violence. We also predicted that aggression would be greater when the violence was sanctioned by God than when it was not sanctioned by God.’

Apparently, if we believe that “God is on our side,” we find it easier to inflict pain and suffering on perceived enemies. And if we think God sanctions violence, we are way more likely to “bring it on.” Those are the findings of social psychologist Brad Bushman of the University of Michigan, who said he is very “disturbed” by the results, though he wasn’t surprised by them.

“I think many people use God as their justification for violent and aggressive actions,” Bushman said. “Take the current conflict in Iraq as an example. Bush claims that God is on his side. Osama bin Laden claims that God, or Allah, is on his side.”

Name a religion, any religion, and it’s a good chance that at some time its adherents attacked, killed, enslaved or burned at the stake other humans who held a different set of beliefs. How Bushman sussed that out in a laboratory setting is fascinating:

Bushman assembled teams of researchers at two very different universities, Vrije University in Amsterdam, Holland, and Brigham Young University in Utah.

Only half of the students who participated in the study at Vrije reported that they believe in God, and only 27 percent believe in the Bible. At Brigham Young, 99 percent said they believe in God and the Bible.

“We hypothesized that exposure to a biblical description of violence would increase aggression more than a secular description of the same violence. We also predicted that aggression would be greater when the violence was sanctioned by God than when it was not sanctioned by God.”
[…]

Will Limbaugh Criticize Tony Snow’s Reaction to His Cancer Diagnosis?

Jon Ponder

After Elizabeth Edwards announced her cancer had returned last week, comedian Rush Limbaugh criticized her and her husband, the presidential candidate John Edwards, for staying in the race:

The likelihood Limbaugh will suggest that Snow’s announcement is a political ploy to gain sympathy for the White House — despite abounding evidence they could use it — is slim and none.

Now, let me say something else that might be accused of cynicism: What is their religion? I don’t doubt they’re religious people, but, we talked about this. Political people are different than you and I. And, you know, most people when told a family member’s been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign.

Their religion is politics and the quest for the White House. And that’s — it’s not just with them, I mean, it’s part and parcel of political people — undergo all this stuff, the media anal all over their private life being made public even by the candidates themselves — it’s all part of the drill.

After slamming the Edwards over their reaction to Elizabeth’s cancer diagnosis, Limbaugh went on — with typical blindness to his own rank hypocrisy — and slammed Sen. Hillary Clinton by harshly suggesting that she would “find a way” to criticize the Edwardses. (She could just read his statement out loud, of course.)

Now that White House spokesman Tony Snow has announced that his colon cancer has returned, it is fair to wonder what Limbaugh will say about it. Of course, the likelihood he’ll suggest that Snow’s announcement is a political ploy to gain sympathy for the White House — despite abounding evidence they could use it — ranges between slim and none.

Instead, Limbaugh will treat Snow’s diagnosis, and his choice in how to handle it, with the sort of sympathy and deference that he should have given Elizabeth Edwards.

Ryan Skipper: Media Statements Disputed in Murder of Gay Man

Jon Ponder

As the two rural Florida men who allegedly stabbed Ryan Skipper to death two weeks ago await trial in a local jail, questions are being asked about how the events leading up to the murder were described in the press.

At one point, Matthew Shephard’s killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

The sequence of events that night as reported seemed not to add up from the start, when a Polk County Sheriff’s Dept. spokesman was quoted as saying:

Skipper was driving around Wahneta on Tuesday night when he found [21-year-old Joseph] Bearden walking along Sixth Street in Eloise about 11 p.m. Tuesday, and offered him a ride. The two went back to Skipper’s house, where they smoked marijuana and discussed using Skipper’s computer to copy checks, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The problem with this statement is that it appears to come from a single source: Joseph Bearden, the alleged murderer.

However, there was at least one other witness who was apparently not consulted by investigators. Ryan had two roommates, one of whom, Kelly Evans, disputes Joe Bearden’s story:

Evans was home the night of the murder and disputes what has been reported in the news. “Ryan went out and never came back,” Evans said. “They keep saying he was here with those two guys, smoking marijuana and taking his computer when they left. I was here. That never happened. He wouldn’t do that.”

Did early reporting get this wrong or did investigators base their timeline solely on the word of a young man whom they suspected of murder?

One investigator also made this odd declaration: “What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening.” How could the police “know” this? They might suspect it, especially if that’s how the young alleged murderer characterized Ryan’s motives. Similarly, investigators appear to have accepted without scrutiny the alleged murder’s claim that Skipper was conspiring with him in a forgery scheme.

The reality is, only one person could have actually “known” for certain what Skipper’s intentions were that night, or whether he conspired to forge checks with someone he’d only just met. That would be Ryan Skipper himself, and the fact that he can’t defend himself against these slurs compounds the tragedy of his death.

Bearden and William Brown, 20, whom Kelly Evans describes as a relative of her landlord, are accused of stabbing Skipper 20 times and dumping his body on the shoulder of a road. Brown later told someone that Ryan Skipper was “messing with him,” that Ryan Skipper was a homosexual, so [he] killed him.

All of this brings to mind memories of the murder of college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming a decade ago. Like Ryan Skipper, who was 25 years old, Shephard was killed violently by two young men and left to die on the side of a rural road.

As the Shephard case advanced, the killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

Reports say Skipper’s murder is being treated as a hate crime. But what remains to be seen is whether entrenched homophobia will prevent this heinous crime from being investigated and tried objectively.

Ryan Skipper: Cops’ Statements Disputed in Murder of Gay Man

Jon Ponder

As the two rural Florida men who allegedly stabbed Ryan Skipper to death two weeks ago await trial in a local jail, questions are being asked about how the events leading up to the murder were described in the press by investigators.

At one point, Matthew Shepherd’s killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

The sequence of events that night as reported seemed not to add up from the start, when a Polk County Sheriff’s Dept. spokesman was quoted as saying:

Skipper was driving around Wahneta on Tuesday night when he found [21-year-old Joseph] Bearden walking along Sixth Street in Eloise about 11 p.m. Tuesday, and offered him a ride. The two went back to Skipper’s house, where they smoked marijuana and discussed using Skipper’s computer to copy checks, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The problem with this statement is that it appears to come from a single source: Joseph Bearden, the alleged murderer and apparent homophobe.

However, there was at least one other witness who was apparently not consulted by investigators. Ryan had two roommates, including one, Kelly Evans, who says she was home all night on the evening in question:

Evans was home the night of the murder and disputes what has been reported in the news. “Ryan went out and never came back,” Evans said. “They keep saying he was here with those two guys, smoking marijuana and taking his computer when they left. I was here. That never happened. He wouldn’t do that.”

Did investigators interview Kelly Evans — or did they base their timeline solely on the word of a young man whom they suspected of murder? One investigator also made this odd declaration: “What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening.” How could the police “know” this? They might suspect it, especially if that’s how the young alleged murderer characterized Ryan’s motives. Similarly, investigators appear to have accepted without scrutiny the alleged murder’s claim that Skipper was conspiring with him in a forgery scheme.

The reality is, only one person could have actually “known” for certain what Skipper’s intentions were that night, or whether he conspired to forge checks with someone he’d only just met. That would be Ryan Skipper himself, and the fact that he can’t defend himself against these slurs compounds the tragedy of his death.

All of these questions lead to the conclusion that the police were ready to believe the worst about Skipper because he was gay.

Joseph Bearden and William Brown, 20, whom Kelly Evans describes as a relative of her landlord, are accused of stabbing Skipper 20 times and dumping his body on the shoulder of a road. Brown later told someone that “Ryan Skipper was messing with him, that Ryan Skipper was a homosexual, so [he] killed him.”

All of this brings to mind memories of the murder of college student Matthew Shepherd in Wyoming a decade ago. Like Ryan Skipper, who was 25 years old, Shepherd was killed violently by two young men and left to die on the side of a rural road.

As the Shepherd case advanced, the killers tried to assert the “gay panic defense,” saying they were driven to temporary insanity by their victim’s alleged sexual advances. Later, they said they only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him when they lashed him to a fence and bashed his head in.

What remains to be seen is whether local police are so blinded by their own homophobia that they are unable to investigate this heinous crime objectively.