PARTLY PERSONAL...

[I'm going to selfishly exercise some 'publisher's prerogative' by posting this up top today in the hope more of you will read it.

It's a topic I've attempted to convey myself {though not as well} a time or ten, and an aspect to our vastly expanded new-media 'information age' I've described as its Achilles heel - and which played no small part in my decision to destroy my private life by devoting an ever-increasing amount of it to the modest effort you're reading now.

I hope you'll give it a read and give it serious thought...]


Beware of Ideological Teamism

Many people don't realize it, but they are being exploited by a psychosocial phenomenon that is encouraging them to think irrationally. Everyone is susceptible, and it can lure you to betray your principles in order to support ideological causes.

"Ideological teamism" refers to people's desire to belong to a team representing that they want to believe, which corrupts their judgment in determining what to believe... "

[snip]

First, consider a sporting event where a referee makes an incredibly close call in the final championship game. The referee's call is made within a cloud of dust, and he is the only one with a clear view of the critical event. The fans from the losing team instantly become furious and hostile. Rumors of a bad call are believed without any factual basis. Fans from the winning team instantly accept the referee's call. Neither side has any objective basis for having a strong opinion, and any chance for reviewing available evidence is obliterated by the subsequent focus on name calling, ad-hominem attacks and 'demonization' of all contrary opinion - usually by linking to any distasteful aspect that can be found, no matter how irrelevant... [snip]

[OR; your typical TV news 'discussion' between political/ideological 'pundits' (if not "experts" {if not actors})]

While many manifestations of teamism can lead to a harmless, exciting, and productive competition in sports and business, its corrupting influence on our judgment can have a detrimental effect on society when it affects other areas, such as science, economics, politics, and history. Our tendency to become emotionally attached to issues and ideologies encourages a loss of rationality by making us want to believe conclusions which support our ideology.

People tend to rationalize what they want to believe by seeking out information that confirms what they want to believe and by ignoring contradictory information... [snip]

[Hence my oft-repeated mantra to read that which you're unlikely to agree with {most titles suffice to identify} and my as frequent admission, being a point of discipline to do so myself, of how much harder that is than reading that which I agree with.

The payoff for this 'pain', however, is that's where the majority of new learning for any of us lies {even if the chaff vastly outweighs the wheat - see prior 'pain' reference}.]

As with many hazards in life, recognizing the hazard is often the key to prevention. This can be useful in identifying ideological teamism in you, as well as in other people.

[Probably the most flattering complement I've received re: this blog is the number of times I've been told that reading it, regardless of their political leanings, taught/showed/exposed - the verbiage varied - TV news consumers to spot biases (and frequently glaring omissions) they previously weren't noticing.

Exactly my mission (and proof of point re: if TV's your only source and was lying, how would you know?) - now they've the opinion options with which to make up their own minds (and it's generally none to flattering to the MSM).

What to watch for:

1. Emotional Attachment: ...

2. Emphasis on beating the other side: ... [Listening TS?]

3. Ridicule and Insults: ... [Yeah yeah, but it would be good for you to avoid...]

4. Vilification: There is a moral superiority in being [or defending] a victim...

What's in it for me?

By recognizing and preventing an emotional attachment to your ideologies, you may be less defensive and more rational in your thought processes. You'll be better able to test your beliefs and be less defensive about them. For the issues which you are right about, you will be better able to test them and discuss them calmly. For issues which you are wrong about, you'll be better able to see and accept a correction.

There's nothing illogical [or {inherently} 'extremists'] about having strong opinions, but if our intent is to truly 'do good' we need avoid the comfortable auto-defense of what we [currently!] believe and instead brave the uncomfortable [possibility of abandoning that we've come to associate ourselves with] by constantly reevaluating the rationale that led us to why we hold them.

You'll find that, with new knowledge, they frequently change..

[Leading one to wisdom... {OK a little Zen - but it sounded like a proper ending.}

And for those of you thinking otherwise, I do indeed read and post pieces from the full spectrum available based on {my grading of} their merit - as my past postings from Kos, Huffington's and Media Matters {among others} attest. Their infrequency is a function of blind squirrels finding nuts rarely - not my lack of subjecting myself, excuse: referencing such sites regularly. {and besides, a blog's got to have its standards...}

Lastly, if you recall the charter of this blog {left side-bar}, I'm attempting to provide a sample of (mostly, but not only) center-right opinion to counter-balance the (mostly, to the point of damn-near-only) left-left opinion force fed watchers of TV news by virtue of their offering no consumer control of story-selection (the most pervasive spin tactic), which the internet thankfully rectifies - but...

with that power comes the responsibility
to avoid selection-spinning ourselves

- which brings us back to my promotion of this piece... not surprisingly, Highly Recommended > ]

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[And if this blog services as your primary news source {I've my suspicions}, it shouldn't - go watch a little {small, minuscule} amount of TV - or pick up a paper {from wood - really}.]

can't believe I just wrote that

We now resume our regularly scheduled programming...

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image toon - libs crpt mny fnn = Why aren't More's movie tickets free

The Nobel Prize: Europe's Bid to Re-Colonize America

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Whether it was rewarding Jimmy Carter for criticizing the Iraq War or supporting Al Gore in his crusade against global warming, the Norwegian Parliament -- which chooses the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize -- has sought to use the award as a political tool to influence American politics.

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[This organization is nothing more than a one-world-government political advocacy cabal - it's credibility died in with it's 'award' of the 'peace prize' to the man who invented airline hijacking techniques and founded a terrorist organization, Yasser Arafat. Other notables recognized for their 'peace' accomplishments...

a few past 'peace' prize winners...

Woodrow Wilson ['progressive' tyrant and OWG hawk - the organization loved him]
United Nations [Children's Fund]
International Labour Organization
Amnesty International
United Nations [Commissioner for Refugees]
International Physicians for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
United Nations [Peacekeeping Forces]
Mikhail Gorbachev**
Yasser Arafat
International Campaign to Ban Landmines [with no regard to the violence they prevent]
United Nations [Kofi Annan]
Jimmy Carter
International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei [Iran's perennial enabler]
United Nations [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore]
United Nations [ Special Envoy at the Kosovo status, Kalevi Ahtisaari]
Barack Obama

** Note Gorbachev's 'award' was in 1990 - But Ronald Reagan, generally credited with (at the time we believed - liberal democrats were sure quick to spend the 'peace dividends') ending the Cold War, which frightened generations and took billions to conclude -- never mentioned.

And with Obama, even the attempt at tenuous claims of 'accomplishments' has been replaced with reward for proper adherence to ideology .

Worse than worthless, it adds claimed (by liberal news orgs. quick to do so) legitimacy to an ultra-liberal organization who's primary target has become America's independent sovereignty form the global socialism they want ruled from the United Nations.]
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The Politicization of Peace

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Few spectacles so clearly show the politicization of life than the surreally silly award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama.

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AP: 'Public Seems Skeptical of Obama's Nobel Win'

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The Associated Press took to the streets of Washington, D.C. and Chicago this morning for reaction from everyday citizens about President Obama's Nobel Prize win. All but one of the featured interviewees expressed at least some skepticism about the president's worthiness to receive the award. And no, it seems none of these men (and woman) on the street are rabid right-wingers [on DC streets?]

"Video: Public Seems Skeptical of Obama's Nobel Win."

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Shock at Obama's Nobel Angers Daily Kos: 'America Oblivious To Its Reign of Terror'

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If you must


[Meanwhile, in our professional media...]
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Newsweek: President Obama Deserves The Nobel Peace Prize

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ABC: Obama Nobel Win Is ‘Olympic Gold of International Diplomacy'

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[I agree; it says volumes about 'international diplomacy']

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CNN: Nobel Prize an 'A' for Effort, Could Help Pres. With Health Care

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ABC’: ‘Humble’ Obama Won Nobel Prize Because He ‘Inspires’

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[And then there's our governments classy reaction...

{President Obama exempted, as his statements we ok if it was truly a surprise to him}...]
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White House: Scarborough 'A-Hole' For Mocking Nobel

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[But they're not attacking dissenting opinion - that's the other guys who do that...]

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State Department; classless

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This really is boorish and quite revealing of the bureaucratic mind. Our State Department's response to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize showed some shocking disrespect for the office of the presidency - which shows you the contempt the permanent bureaucracy views elected officials:

In a clear dig at former President George W. Bush, a State Department spokesman compared President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize to the flying footwear his predecessor faced in Iraq.

"From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum ... when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday.

Technically speaking, that shoe was also thrown at the State Department since George Bush was the head of government and State a part of his administration.

But it is typical that lifer-bureaucrats see themselves an a separate power center in Washington and not part of any administration - at least when they disagree with the president.

Then, they're doing all they can to obstruct the elected leader of the nation in carrying out his wishes; never mind that's what they're supposedly there for.

You State Department guys; stay classy.

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['MSM' was already off the chart.]
image toon - 1st intl owg = Dollar and Nobel prize values plummet

Terror and the theatrical paradigm

A sea change has occurred in the conduct of the War on Terror

The War on Terror is even now being engulfed by the theatrical paradigm. On the surface, the anti-terrorism campaign seems to be going well, maintaining the same momentum it possessed during the Bush years. This September witnessed two serious busts and the long overdue termination of a leading Jihadi commander.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Denver-based Naijbullah Zazi and several others plotting to duplicate the July 2007 London transit bombings in New York City this past September 11 and a similar arrest in Dallas, in which recent immigrant Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was bagged after trying to detonate a fake bomb provided by FBI agents inside the underground garage of the Fountain Place office tower.

Not at all bad, on the face of it. On appearances alone, it seems that the terror war is going great guns, with networks being rolled up one after the other. But there exist a number of disturbing developments... [snip]

In August a U.S. court directed the release of Mohammed Jawad, captured after throwing a grenade at American soldiers in Kabul in 2002. The reason? His confession had been "coerced". (Evidently being caught throwing a grenade isn't enough anymore.) Late September saw a "new policy" in place in Afghanistan in which prisoners held at Bagram will be allowed to "challenge" their detentions before a Detainee Review Board. (They're covered by the Bill of Rights, we're told.) This summer the Justice Department, after consultations with nobody, decided to "ease restrictions" on Richard Reid, the "shoe-bomber", allowing him to spend time with other imprisoned terrorists and establish contact with people outside prison.

And now that very same Justice Department has now turned its attention to more worthy targets with Eric Holder's appointment of Connecticut prosecutor John Durham to "investigate" Bush administration anti-terror policies... [snip]

It would be bad enough if these were unrelated errors. But they are no such thing. They are the results of policy.

There has been a conscious decision, by Obama and his advisors, to abandon the firm and decisive strategy that kept this country safe for eight years. It has been replaced by an extension of Obama's foreign policy in general. And that can be expressed in a single word: appeasement...

Less than a year into his term, he's appeased the Russians, the EU, the Palestinians, the Saudis, and the Muslim world in general, taking his Cairo speech into account. (I had a line here wondering who he appeased in Denmark, but now we know. In Copenhagen Obama snuggled up to the slimiest members of the committee by stomping all over the reputation of his own country... [snip]

Despite all the wailing over excessive secrecy, this was not an issue with Bush. No president since Lincoln was more straightforward about what he was up to. We might not have known the route or the schedule (who could), but during the Bush years we damn well knew exactly where we were headed - victory. With Obama, we can't even be certain we're moving.

One thing is clear: A sea change has occurred in the conduct of the War on Terror. It's no longer a matter of combat, no longer a life and death issue, no longer even a war. It is now a Hope and Change shadow play, arranged to display the Messiah's magnanimity and saintliness.

We are at the low point now, walking though a dream world, told that we can make friends with monsters.

We have, in a real sense, failed to learn the lessons of this war, the way we learned the lessons of WW II, lessons that were later applied to the Cold War. But the Jihadis are patient teachers, and we will be given plenty of opportunities to get it right...

[Long but informative - Recommended > ]

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US Military provides disaster relief to Philippines

[Heroes, as usual]

The U.S. military is rapidly responding to provide critically needed supplies in support of disaster relief to help mitigate human suffering and prevent further loss of life as a result of Tropical Storm Ketsana that struck the Philippines Sept. 25.

"Marines and sailors are working with the Philippine Government to rapidly deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the areas the Philippine Government deems most in need,"

said Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, III Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman.

Medical personnel attached to the MEU set up a medical civil affairs program (MEDCAP) at an elementary school in Marikina City Oct. 1 that provided care for more than 760 medical and dental patients. In Quezon City Oct 1, a food distribution mission provided more than 2,400 meals for residents who were without meals...

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The Goldstone Report Justifies Israel's Destruction

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In a powerful piece published in the October 6 edition of The new Republic, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren details why the UN's Goldstone Report is a justification for the annihilation of a UN member state, Israel, It is to these depths that organization has sunk:

Where Ahmadinejad leaves off, the Goldstone Report, or, as it is officially called, the "United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict," persists. The U.N. mission purports to have investigated Israel's military action in Gaza last winter, an operation launched in response to the firing of more than 7,000 Hamas missiles at Israeli towns since Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Strip.

But instead of probing Hamas's deliberate effort to maximize Israeli civilian casualties and its doctrine of hiding behind Palestinian human shields, the judges interviewed handpicked Hamas witnesses, several of them senior commanders disguised as civilians, and uncritically accepted their testimony. Inexorably, the report, which presumed Israel's guilt, condemned the Jewish state for crimes against humanity and for mounting a premeditated campaign against Gaza civilians.

The Goldstone Report goes further than Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust deniers by stripping the Jews not only of the ability and the need but of the right to defend themselves. If a country can be pummeled by thousands of rockets and still not be justified in protecting its inhabitants, then at issue is not the methods by which that country survives but whether it can survive at all.

But more insidiously, the report does not only hamstring Israel; it portrays the Jews as the deliberate murderers of innocents--as Nazis. And a Nazi state not only lacks the need and right to defend itself; it must rather be destroyed.

Ahmadinejad's genocidal rhetoric and the iniquity of the Goldstone Report notwithstanding, Israel will, of course, continue to defend its citizens. No amount of vitriol will compel Israel onto a course of self-destruction. But what will be destroyed is any chance for peace.

Having twice withdrawn unilaterally to recognized borders and received only onslaughts in return, and having suffered censure for protecting themselves from that aggression, Israelis will understandably recoil from additional retreats that will leave them vulnerable.

Israelis, moreover, will not withdraw from any territory liable to become staging grounds for terrorist groups empowered by international agencies and convinced of their ability to murder Israelis with impunity.

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Enter UDN Site

Did YOU Know...

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The following thumbnails describe a very small sampling of the 'brain trust' President Obama has deliberately chosen to help him guide America's ship of state.

A sampling of the White House "Brain Trust" [I.e., the current make up or your government...]


1. Valerie Jarrett -- Born in Iran, speaks Persian, a product of an elite, private, New England boarding school...

2. Patrick Gaspard -- a registered federal lobbyist for SEIU union members and prior employee of ACORN...

3. Eric Holder -- responsible for these widely-reported miscarriages of justice: Marc Rich pardon, FALN terrorists pardons, Weather Underground terrorists pardons, dismissed pending conviction of New Black Panthers... [much more...]

4. Cecelia Muñoz -- previously Senior Vice President of The National Council of La Raza...

5. Samantha Power -- "fierce critic of Israel", stridently criticized Iraq as an "occupation" but advocates that America send armed military forces to impose a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians - married to fringe academic Cass Sunstein...

6. Charles Freeman -- financial ties to king of Saudi Arabia, chairman American Arab Affairs Council, publicly praises Hamas, sides with Chinese re: Tiananmen Square, charged with "promoting public schools textbooks with the principal purpose of inducing teachers to embrace Islamic religious beliefs" [position? nominated to chair National Intelligence Council...]

7. Scott Gration -- [Special Envoy to Sudan]. "We've got to think about giving out cookies; kids, countries -- they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement."

8. Rahm Emanuel -- sent a 2½ foot-long dead and decomposing fish to lobbyist Allen Secrest with whom he was angry, threatened then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "This is important. Don't f--- it up."

9. Ezekiel Emanuel -- stated idea of 'workable' healthcare is to greatly restrict many treatments, particularly those over 40 as past their prime contribution years, "In numerous writings, Dr. Emanuel chastises physicians for thinking only about their own patient's needs."...

10. Cass Sunstein -- ["Regulatory Affairs"] "Animals should be permitted to bring [law] suit, with human beings as their representatives....", "the Internet is anti-democratic because of the way users can filter out information of their own choosing."...

11. Van Jones -- [removed, but he was appointed...] remains a self-defined Communist, excessively documented Whites-hating racist with a criminal arrest record, a "9/11 Truther" believer chosen for Green Czar by Valerie Jarrett [#1]...

12. Carol M. Browner -- Former EPA director, remains an ardent Socialist activist, Leader of Socialist International's, "Commission for a Sustainable World Society," which calls for "global governance.",

13. John Holdren -- advocates compulsory abortion, "All the children who are born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population to a desired level, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them by the death of grown persons.",

14. Kevin Jennings -- [Safe Schools Czar] founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide, - "It should be impossible to graduate from NYU or any other school of education without coursework - required coursework - that address issues of [LGBT]. [It] should be a graduation requirement."

15. Chai Feldblum -- signed a manifest seeking to legalize polygamy, outspoken homosexual rights activist, aims to "change the American workplace and revolutionize social mores. This is a war that needs to be fought,' and it's not a war overseas where we are killing people in the name of liberating them." [position? Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]


Make no mistake. These people are about radical social engineering, forced or indoctrinated, and they are about power. Their power. And they're currently making thousands of federal bureaucratic appointments...

[Above are very condensed excerpts of the background provided with substantively verified references - and alarmingly clear proof of the pattern of extremely-extreme appointments being made with no congressional oversight (except Freeman, who was rejected). These are folks have the power to radically change our lives and more so that or our children - and their only oversight will come from us - MUST READ > ]

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