Stephen Pizzo

After six and half decades on this planet I’ve come to some conclusions. One of them is that roughly 15% to 20% of Americans are genuinely, provably and incurably, stupid. And, while beauty may only be skin deep, stupid goes all the way to the bone. After a decade of failed governance -- two unnecessary wars and a ruined economy, Republicans had all but run out of enough moderately-sane voters willing to take any further chances with them. That’s when they glommed onto the idea of corralling America’s moron-demographic to plug the gap.

But the ignorant are hard to sway with fact-based policy discussions or green-eyeshade budget details. They need to be “energized” with drama, and plenty of it. Maury Povich and Jerry Springer knew that and built their fame and fortunes on knowing how to “energize” the dumb and dumber among us. It’s all about the drama baby... tabloid quality drama is what gets their blood boiling. Allegations, the wilder the better, and the fewer contradicting facts the better.

For example, you don’t use benign terms like, “End of life counseling” with the moron-demographic. (Too many of them might just stare back blankly and ask, “Ah, why would you want to counsel a dead person?”) Maury would advise, "Death panels,” instead. Death is, of course, the “end of life,”and we’re all going there someday, and as we approach that point of departure I’m sure we and/or our loved ones might appreciate and benefit from some counseling -- including morons. But by calling them “Death panels,” counseling becomes even scarier than death itself. That’s how one gets the moron-blood a-boilin.'

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Iowa State University

ISU study proves conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids

Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson has made much of his life’s work studying how violent video game play affects youth behavior. And he says a new study he led, analyzing 130 research reports on more than 130 000 subjects worldwide, proves conclusively that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids – regardless of their age, sex or culture.

The study was published in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal. It reports that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive thoughts and behavior, and decreased empathy and prosocial behavior in youths.

“We can now say with utmost confidence that regardless of research method – that is experimental, correlational, or longitudinal - and regardless of the cultures tested in this study [East and West], you get the same effects,” said Anderson, who is also director of Iowa State‘s Center for the Study of Violence. “And the effects are that exposure to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior in both short-term and long-term contexts. Such exposure also increases aggressive thinking and aggressive affect, and decreases prosocial behavior.”

The study was conducted by a team of eight researchers, including ISU psychology graduate students Edward Swing and Muniba Saleem; and Brad Bushman, a former Iowa State psychology professor who now is on the faculty at the University of Michigan. Also on the team were the top video game researchers from Japan – Akiko Shibuya from Keio University and Nobuko Ihori from Ochanomizu University – and Hannah Rothstein, a noted scholar on meta-analytic review from the City University of New York.

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Stephen Lendman

The numbers vary but range at any time from over 7,000 to 12,000 or more. In April 2008, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel cited 11,000, including 345 children and 98 women. Over 1,000 suffered from chronic or other diseases. Around 150 were seriously ill from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, and 195 or more Palestinians died or were killed in prison since 1967.

As of January 2009, Adalah said about "22,500 individuals were imprisoned or detained in Israeli prisons; around 70% (or 15,750 are) Arabs." Included are 9,735 Palestinians, nearly 80% classified as "security." Of these, 570 were administrative detainees, uncharged by order of an administrative official, not a judge.

Another 20 were so-called "unlawful combatants" under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law (UCL), saying they're not entitled to POW status under international law because they either took part in hostilities against Israel (directly or indirectly) or belong to a force carrying them out. No proof is needed, only "a reasonable basis for believing" the designation is accurate, and under UCL, detentions can be permanent, without trial or judicial fairness.

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