Month: April 2012

Science Proves It’s Not Your Imagination. The Rich Really are A**holes

Trish

MittMoneyLG

The relative assholeyness of rich folks has been proven in not one, not two, but SEVEN recent experiments. Why there is such interest in proving this topic as the world struggles with economic lassitude and the rise of the 1% might be worth a scientific experiment of its own, but the fact is, we do want to know and social scientists have confirmed our suspicions.

The National Academy of Sciences grouped the studies under the collective heading, “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” Among the key findings:

  • “Upper-class drivers were the most likely to cut off other vehicles at the intersection, even when controlling for time of day, driver’s perceived sex and age, and amount of traffic.” Drivers of “high status” cars cut off other vehicles nearly 30% of the time; “low-status” cars cut off other vehicles 7.7% of the time.
  • Drivers of “low status” vehicles failed to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk up to 30% of the time, while 46% of “high status” vehicle drivers failed to yield, an increase of more than 50%.

    • […]

Wrong Again, Issa – the Bush and Reagan Administrations Were ‘Most Corrupt,’ And TARP Was Bush’s Bill, Not Obama’s

Jon Ponder

History will likely record that one of House Speaker John Boehner’s worst mistakes was his decision to allow California Rep. Darrell Issa to head the government oversight committee. It was Chairman Issa, after all, who called an all-male panel to discuss contraceptives earlier this year. The optics of this stupid move instantly became an undeniable symbol that Republicans were engaging in a war on women.

Issa, a one-time accused car thief and arsonist, is best-known in California as the guy who funded the initial effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, in 2003, so that Issa himself could become governor, only to break down into sobs, with local news cameras rolling, when action star Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped in and bigfooted him out of the way.

More recently, in the weeks after Boehner appointed Issa to the chairmanship, Issa created a stir by predicting that the Obama administration would become the most corrupt government in history. This week, in an interview with Bloomberg news, Issa doubled down on his prediction:

[…]

Anybody Got a Teleprompter? Rubio Can’t Finish Speech Without His Crib Notes

Trish

Like all loyal Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has noted that Pres. Obama uses a teleprompter when he delivers a speech. The racist implication is that Obama, a black man, could never be so ARTICULATE on his own, and only comes off looking smart because he’s reading his lines. In fact in 2010, Jr. Sen. Full-of-Himself was quoted in the New York Times ridiculing the president as, “the most articulate and talented teleprompter reader in America.”

Is it any wonder that PoliticalWire.com noted the contrast between Rubio then — all smart-ass know-it-all less-than-original-thinker — and now. Now he is staring straight down as reads his notes, which any Toastmaster participant would recognize as a huge no-no, even for amateurs, and then totally loses it when he can’t find the last page of his speech.

Next time, Wonder Boy, do us all a favor and do as modern speakers the world over — use a frickin’ teleprompter.

Osteen Says Mormonism is “a Little Different”

Trish

Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ.

Pastor Joel Osteen, declaring Mormonism a Christian sect. Mormonism began in the 1820s as an end-times cult when Joseph Smith claimed to have visions in which an angel led him to gold plates, which were never produced to anyone else, that told a strange history of the Americas, including how Indians were descended from Jews. This is the Book of Mormon. Smith, a polygamist with 34 wives of whom two were age 14, also claimed Jesus would return to earth within 56 years.

Santorum’s Unenthusiastic Non-Endorsement of Romney

Buck Banks

MORGAN: You believe that Mitt Romney’s the right guy?

SANTORUM: I believe he’s the better — obviously I believed I was the better choice. But I’m not in the race anymore.

MORGAN: He has won the race. Is he therefor the right guy?

SANTORUM: Absolutely. He is the person that is going to go up against Barack Obama. It’s pretty clear. We need to win this race.

MORGAN: Unless I’m mishearing things, you just endorsed Mitt Romney.

SANTORUM: If that’s what you want to call it, you can call it whatever you want.

— Piers Morgan, putting Rick Santorum on the spot last night and squeezing out an unenthusiastic endorsement of Mitt Romney.