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My Insurance Pays Transportation
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Mar 5, 2012 7:33 am
272 Views
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I am supposed to be presented my treatment plan today at 3:00 O’clock P.M. (I’m feeling rather formal just now.)
My insurance will pay for transportation to and from medical appointments. In my case it is basically a taxi cab. I always get to my appointments on time as the taxi travels via the main arteries.
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16
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Rye Comment
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Mar 3, 2012 10:04 pm
272 Views
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One of the doctors referred me to the Mayo Clinic. The whole think was very efficient. Before my doctor had time to call me, the Mayo Clinic called. Just then my doctor called so I had to hold the Mayo.
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12
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How Things Around Me Change
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Mar 2, 2012 5:09 am
285 Views
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Because I now have a lot of free time I have been noticing how much things have changed around me over the years. People don’t like their jobs so they hire a “job coach.” People don’t like where they live so they hire a “life coach.” Lately I have been farting in public a lot so I hired a tutor.
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8
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Will to Live
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Feb 29, 2012 11:44 am
384 Views
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Thank you everybody for all of your loving words, thoughts and actions. Shasha I know you are their even if SFF has put you into the digital Phantom Zone. Katielovesjazz, I am sorry SFF has you in the Phantom Zone also. Hello to anybody else in the Phantom Zone.
If I have ever hurt or insulted anybody I sincerely and deeply apologize.
Morgana I hope you are all right and I when you see me do bananas foster, enflambe with dazzling fireworks we shall giggle our approvals.
Personal euphonies come in many ways. So this is sort of a bad news good news thing.
The Really Ugly
The bad stuff is I have a cancer of the gall bladder. Assuming I understand the information I have gathered so far 60% of the people with the same diagnosis as I; have it listed as the cause of death following the collapse and autopsy. From the date of diagnosis the six month survival rate is under 50%.
I will be getting all of the Greek names and chemical names later and I can hardly wait to see what puns I can make from them.
I drove my self to the hospital February 6th about 3:00 AM. When I arrived at the hospital the security guard saw me at the door and quite literally grabbed me to carry me inside.
I had some real high dollar deliveries scheduled; I felt much better and checked myself out AMA about eight that morning.
A bit of the back story
One time I cracked my left knee cap in the Rockies and had to walk two days to get off the mountain. I saw a doctor about a week later and he offered to rebreak my leg to set it, I passed on his offer.
The next day February 7th about 9 PM I felt the pain like the Alien had planted a seed and it was ripping me open. I put the days pro tickets in an envelope, stopped by the post office and I drove myself back to the hospital. There was a different security guard on duty and he was essentially an animated sphincter.
I Display an Organic Psychosis
I asked him for some help and he refused. He was fat and looked gross too. He kept making the automatic door open and close like a baby playing with the door in a grocery store. I asked him several times to not play with the door, I felt very sick and really liked the heat. There was a man and a woman with a sick child there also.
They looked just like my Mom and Dad the time my bother had a mastoid infection. Penicillin was so rare then the doctor came to the house every four hours for three days to give my brother the shots that saved his hearing, maybe saved his life.
I suddenly became an automaton. I went into high bear position. I began the attack march, backed him out the door, and told him that if he didn’t leave the doors alone I will call his supervisor and tell the supervisor a sick old man just kicked his ass for being a fat yutz playing with the door.
I went back inside and I knocked on the security door. When I went into the office I handed the woamn behind the counter the wrist band I had cut off that morning and said. “You were right, I was wrong I should have stayed, there is something wrong”. As penance I was made to do the admissions process over before I could get any meds.
A Small Sick Child
While I was being stabilized inside of an emergency room the little boy and his parents were in the room next to mine. Both doors were open as is SOP in emergency wards.
The little boy in the waiting room was very, very sick with something. I heard the Mother praying to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Virgin Mary in Spanish. I heard the father speaking only English with, an East European accent to his little son. My Grandfather, who was born in Russia, had made a pledge that he would only speak English to his sons, my Father and Uncle.
The boy needed a painful procedure and was being told he was brave and smart by his father. I told the medical people in attendance I am very experienced with such sick children and asked them to please let me make that baby happy. All I could think of as I spoke was when I was six years old and given the first of many painful tests as part of the diagnosis of Sydenham’s.
My father, burnt brown from the sun, as his massive strong hands gently held me down for the first of many painful experiences. I heard the voice of my father that roared over machinery and gave 1,000 men at a time orders to boot up and pour concrete; cooing at me because I was brave and smart. Just like I heard the Father in the next emergency room telling his son he was brave and smart. Only 55 years apart with the same words and different voices.
Another security guard came by. He was in much better shape, armed and on the hunt. He asked me if there was a problem. I asked him, “Now just how much of a problem could a 61 year old sick man like me cause just because he wanted the doors closed because I was shivering from the cold?”
The second security gave me some serrious guff. I was in no mood for anything. I figured the odds at 1 in 3 his favor, saw he had rust on his hammer strap, his stance made me think the local drunks had made him overcdonfidant and he was used to somebody he could back up. I called the nurse to take out my IV so we could take it outside. A third security guard arrived almost immediately. The two security guards left.
I was stabilized. An ambulance was called as I was at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and my Insusnce covers emergency room but not inpatient care. There were some young guys driving me about three miles and I did some senior sex jokes, then I did the naked lady shuttle joke. They busted a gut. Called on the radio, held a microphone over me and I did a little broadcast of the heart monitor routine as they drove me, very slowly, to Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center where I stayed until February 25th.
I had a variety of tests and experiences. It took me a few days to learn how to communicate with the kitchen and had some excellent meals. I have had a number of injuries and illnesses over the years (haven’t we all?”) so I have a very set and specific life style that has kept me going.
I had a number of contamination indicants. The charge nurses were just totally wonderful once I explained my problems and needs. I am not sure about the verdampten schlimazel who spilled hot soup on my schmuck.
The duty nurses were mostly overworked but quite impressive in their competence and knowledge
I met a doctor who I instantly did not like He made one of the more ignorance based misdiagnosis of the infection of my left eye and was in general setting off my alarms. I fired him which is another most interesting story.
In summation I have outlived 60% of the people with my diagnosis. Those still alive at this point have less that a 50% chance of seeing the Fourth of July. (assuming I know what I am talking about.)
Some Good Stuff
I did some sort of new PET scan I am learning about yesterday. Before I got home I got a call for another test today.
It seams while I was in the hospital the doctor I insisted be assigned to my case notified an Oncologist who is currently leading a well funded International research team sponsored by the Incurable Diseases of the Newport Beach Yachting Set Foundation that is attempting to find more effective treatments for this deadliest form of Cancer.
Most of their patients are dead by now and the living ones appear to want to spend the remainder of their days enjoying pastel colors. This is most understandable to me as it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.
Some Odd Endorsements
I have had the procedure explained to me in general terms so I understand it. It seams the Oncologist who called to make the arrangements stated that she has never met anyone quite like me before and was most impressed with my intelligence and general good health. But she is also quite sure that has never met anybody with such a strong will to live and made arrangement to have the charges at Fountain Valley Hospital Dropped.
It seams that when I pulled the IV and morphine pumps along with me to the nurses station, stood toe to toe, to the doctor I did not trust to touch me, starred him in the eyes and told hid I did not want him to touch me; she was impressed. (I think there is a reason he is a grave yard shift physician.) She has also put into my chart that she has never met an individual with such an overtly aggressive strong will to live before.
The Good News
Because of my powerful will to live (I just always though I was too stubborn to know when to give up) I have been moved forward to number two on the treatment list; past several people with serious amounts of money they are willing to pay her in cash for the opportunity to live a week or two more. I am scheduled for another test today at 2:00 PM to determine the treatment plan. I am currently not allowed any foods or meds until about 4:00 PM this afternoon (I think) so I have several hours of new levels of reality to experience.
I have been instructed to make doctors appointments for results and consultations in three business days.
PS: I could use some set up and punch lines for all this stuff.
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14
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Please Forgive my Failed Attempt at Humor
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Feb 27, 2012 7:31 am
385 Views
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I am sorry and sincerely apologize if my attempt at humor failed. I have died from other things before and it is not so bad a thing, but, I have never died of cancer before so please forgive me if the jokes are a bit rough around the edges as this is a new learning curve for me.
I was not told in such a heartless manner. I spent 19 days confined to an isolation ward in Orange Memorial Hospital in Fountain Valley, California for diagnosis and treatment. The final diagnosis will be determined Monday by the series of tests.
The worst part of the entire month of February was I missed Valentines Day inside of an everything dipped in almond bisque paint hospital room that just begged for a splash of color and I was hobbled by such a limited palette.
I hear Segundo calling out to hostel the remunda. Coffee is making and the hot cakes are bakin’. Chuck bell don’t ring till saddles up.
Hoppy, Gene and Roy are waiting for me.
To chase bad guys
Around the moon.
When I rode line in the Rockies we used to sing the cattle to sleep.
Underneath the skies of the lone prairie.
Where the coyote howls and the wind blows free.
Want to spread my blanket by the quiet stream.
Want to hear the cowboys, by the fire sing.
Give me back my saddle.
Give me back my gun.
Give me back the mustang I used to run
And when I die you can bury me.
Underneath the skies of the lone prairie.
Where the coyote howls and the wind blows free.
Underneath the skies of the lone prairie.
I hope I get to see my brother again. Being with Plato and Gort would be nice too. Maybe I can build some houses with my Dad again Mrs. Olivera will bring us lunch again.
If I hear any new jokes on the other side I’ll send them over.
Happy Trails until we meet again.
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11
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A Tale of Pussies Galore
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Feb 25, 2012 6:13 pm
440 Views
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On February 6th I felt extremely nauseous and I was having an inordinate amount of pain. I drove myself to an emergency room. Blood samples were taken, tests were performed. I was wheeled on a gurney to radiology and an X-Ray was taken. While the X-ray was being taken I felt very scientific and pretended I was on Star Trek with the whirling, whining magnets.
The helium compression pumps on the MRI machine sound like Phazar Banks charging. I want to tape them, but never get it done.
One thing kept bothering me though. They kept putting kittens on me. I had kittens on my face, playing with the ends of my mustache. Do you know how hard it is to “take a deep breath and hold it,” while little kitty cats are playing catch their tail on your chest and stomach inside of a plastic tunnel?
Three weeks later I got the bill and I about plotzed. I was there for eight and a half hours and the bill was over sixty thousand dollars. I called the hospital and told them they should send some diazepam flavored return envelopes with a bill like that.
They told me “let’s review the bill together.”
Because I was in the emergency room for over 12 hours I paid a full 24 hour day of $2,400 for room with full staff and monitoring.
“OK,” I said.
Because the medical staff was concerned about a heart attack I had an EKG, a chest X-ray while in a gurney (one that I thought would be wicked downhill on Whitley Heights) and an EGG (poached). There was blood work and lab samples for another 18 large.
I told the accounting office that still leaves 26 thousand not accounted for.
The lady from accounting said “the Twenty-six thousand was for the multiple CAT scans.”
I asked the results of the CAT scans and she said I have an aggressive malignant tumor blocking my digestive tract. There is a new treatment available. The treatment requires a “Full Body PET SCAN to determine feasibility. (Assuming I have the name correct and I am on so many narcotics right now it is beginning to be amazing how much fun cancer can really be.)
There are only two machines in Orange County that can do this test and I am scheduled for Monday 2.27.12. I will have some time to walk on the beach and maybe swim in the ocean again.
Following the test I will know more than I do now. What I know now is that I appear to have one foot in the grave and the other foot is on a banana peel that is on my break pedal.
In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.
See you on the other side.
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18
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Sunday Afternoon
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Feb 14, 2012 6:20 pm
287 Views
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Things have been tough for me lately. I got paid on my delivery job and I had some good runs and a few bucks extra. So I decided to splurge and treat myself to some fun things.
At the 99 Cent Only store there were some glow sticks on sale that come 10 in a pack for a dollar. I bought half a dozen and on Friday night, after I had lit my candles and parents were letting their children out to play after dinner; I tossed light sticks to the children to watch them run around in the dusk.
I enjoy watching the children run with the lights. I watch the children toss the light sticks like little lighted bright dreams into the fading light. I enjoy watching the children dancing on the concrete to the musique concrète of their sweet young voices.
Some of the older girls decorated the younger children with lights. Some of the older boys would “accidentally” throw their lights over the little garden fences so they could be dare devils and climb the fences. I find it very pleasant to watch them all run around excited about the little lights I toss them in the warm California evening.
Sunday I did a BBQ. When I moved into this part of the building it was a pit. Shingles had blown from the roof. Bums were making camp under the building. Trash and branches were just everywhere. A bottle of wine to the manager. Some happy money here and there and the place is cleaner and nice with a broad lawn and flowers.
When I cook for myself I like to cook outside on the BBQ. I can cook up beef and chicken for two or three weeks of sandwiches and dinners. The BBQ smoke is a preservative and I freeze a bunch. Plus all the heat and splatter and cleaning is all outside, it is much more fun to do and socialize as the neighbors stop by. For the neighbors I made crab cakes in shells and had tortillas grilled in olive oil for tacos el pastor. I had found a sale on ground buffalo so I was also making buffalo burgers as a special treat.
I also did Uncle Ricky’s Hot Dog Club. At the 99 cent store I buy some packs of turkey hot dogs and buns. The kids all kind of show up and they all laugh and giggle as I do parts of my act for them. I make my nose squeak and wiggle my ears to a syncopated jazz rhythm.
The little boys all like the Thomas the Tank Train bits I do. The little girls all like the birds I make out of my bandana. Everybody giggles when I make myself fly by pushing on my nose. (So do the parents.) The parents stop by to be sure all is well and they always approve. The first rule of Uncle Ricky’s Hot Dog BBQ Club is if you go through the gap in the fence to the storage lot you are out of the club for a thousand years and the parents all like that.
I have skewers for the kids from when I was a Scout leader and they can cook their own hot dogs which is just way awesome. As I cook the kids help me carry things up and down stairs and cook hot dogs and play. I am surrounded by a singing garden of little faces all bright with the newness of the world.
I invited LaVetas, a friend of mine who has his first new grand baby. He came by with both of his daughters. His brother showed up and then his son with a buddy. The baby’s father was setting up a show for his act and couldn’t make it.
We all had a great time as LaVetas and I cooked. We passed chicken, beef, buffalo, tortillas, links, crab, beers, corn, brandy and sodas back and forth as LaVet and I talked Tapolupa to each other. We all got melatonin highs as we passed the baby around.
A church group had set up a crafts thing for the children across the parking lot and the kids kept running back and forth making drawings and painting rocks and such. Some of the boys decided to try to sell us their drawings for a quarter. One little boy had a rock for a dollar. We bought one drawing from each child and the little boy liked his rock so much we just gave him a quarter. He got a huge smile on his six year old face as he scurried away. His hair flopping up and down over his excited little ears as he ran.
The teen aged girls met their friends, had a giggle fest and went to the mall across the street which was another just perfect thing. The teen aged boys left as soon as the girls did and they all went to check out stereos in the cars. For a time I felt like I did when California was open and uncrowded and everybody was family the first time you met them
After the food was put away and things were cleaned up there were half a dozen little boys kind of hanging around doing totally excellent little boy stuff. I thanked them for helping me and gave them each a little bit of chocolate. Then when the chocolate rush hit them I watched them play and run around in perfect little boy fashion, on a nice big lawn I had made for them in the nice garden I was making for them after a Sunday afternoon Hot Dogapalooza in the middle of a concrete city.
Sometimes I recite Frost’s “Birches” to myself as I enjoy the parade of children following me when, all of them trying to do the whistles I teach them.
************************************************************************
As I was writing this I heard rocks being thrown against the building. When I went outside a boy was throwing rocks and bits of wood. I asked him “Why are you throwing things at where I live?”
He told me he was throwing rocks at squirrels. I thanked him for “protecting me from the squirrels as they carry diseases, but please don’t throw stuff at where I live.” He said “OK. Sorry.”
I smiled as I went back inside and thought to myself “Uncle Ricky’s Hot Dogapalooza BBQ Club rules.”
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3
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Obama’s Progressive Strategy To Build A Modern American Navy
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Feb 12, 2012 8:22 am
275 Views
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Sister Ship USS Independence
On February 10, 2012 the United States Navy named a ship for the brave former Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords. The terminally indignant may find a FOX News article about the event to have proof it really happened.
The USS Gabrielle Giffords is LCS-10; the tenth in a radically new design and category of warship: The Independece Class Littoral Zone Combat Platform—Littoral Combat Ship--LCS. The Littoral Combat Zone is from the mean high tide line to 600 feet from shore. The LCS is designed for asymetrical warfare; 418 feet long, 2,500 tons, with a trimerine hull using waterjet propulsion systems the LCS can surf breakers with the dolphins at 50 miles per hour.
Up to this point in time the one thing that Iran has as leverage over the entire world is the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz narrows to 56 kilometers, supertankers carrying 20% of the worlds oil must slow to make a 180 degree turn in 50 meters of water. The Strait of Hormuz is an international logistical choke point that Iran nealy shut in 1987 with WWI technology: The United States Navy was helpless against anti-ship mines designed for use by the Imperial Russian Navy.
When the United States leads the United Nations and the International Community to impose sactions on Iran, the cash flow to the Iranian governemnt diminishes. To increase the world price of crude oil and increase the value of Iranian crude oil to counter the sanctions Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs will threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz because the World knows two men in a boat with a limpet mine can sink a supertanker in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz and bring the petroleum based World Economy to its knees.
Nurtured through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency by the Clinton Adminstration as a long term strategic project the first LCS, the USS Sea Fighter, was launched as a prototype vessel in 2003. The Pentagon issued advanced reseach and develpment contracts, however, under the Bush adminstration the progam languished and was tainted with management and procurement scandals.
With the election of President Obama in 2008 the program was recognized as the game changing, force multipling, modern combat system needed. Based on the same tactical concept John Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for; the LCS is designed to bring the fight to the enemy. the LCS concept emphasizes speed, mission flexibility and shallow water operation.
Former Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England described the goal of the LCS program; "The ship is easy to reconfigure for different roles, including anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, and logistics. Due to its modular design, the LCS will be able to replace slower, more specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger assault ships.”
Built around a hanger and flight deck capable of basing two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, the LCS design is a blue water ship that can project American force from our shores to the shores of our enemies quickly and quietly. The 40 member LCS crew has the technology to launch and recover hovercraft from a stern ramp. The Littoral Combat Ship has the cargo payload and combat capability to transport, deliver and support a specialized American assault force, including armoured fighting vehicles on any beach, any time, anywhere.
Although the seemingly light standard armament for the LCS is a Mk 110 57 mm gun, the LCS incorporates the lessons of the Battle of the Coral Sea and is able to launch manned and unmanned autonomous air, surface, and underwater vehicles using superior American technology to take the fight to the enemy.
Further correctiong distortons to the military procurement process of the past administration the Obama administration has ordered a new laser based anti-mine detection system that will allow the ship to be physically seperated from the mine detection and neutralizaiton processes. Many of the on board electronic warfare systems were developed by the Israel Defense Forces and have been battle tested by the Israel Defense Forces in asymetrical littoral combat.
In keeping with the United States Navy design standards the LCS is a quantum leap forward in applied surface ship stealth technology. The onboard electronics can operate as an independent combat center or can be networked for larger naval combat operations.
Under the Obama Administraion the United States Navy is employing a progressive strategy for building a modern American Navy; retiring obsolete ships, modernizing the critical supply chain to enable the addition of modern ships that can counter the modern threat of asymetrical warfare: the threat of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in speed boats shooting RPGs to close the Strait of Hormuz.
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3
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Why I find History Interesting
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Feb 10, 2012 6:29 pm
336 Views
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Chinese Nuclear Reactor with water tank on top.
Many people ask me why when I write history I appear obsessed with macabre stories such as the public execution of elephants. The reasons I do such things are buried in the back story and the current history associated with the event and the people involved.
Topsy the elephant was caught in a grand battle between George Westinghouse backing Alternating Current and Thomas Edison backing Direct Current to supply electricity.The Unforgiven Electrocution of Topsy the Elephant
Both systems were based on inventions of the brilliant physicist Dr. Nikola Tesla. Edison stole the patent for short core generators and motors from Tesla. Westinghouse invested in Tesla’s alternating current.
Edison demonstrated his Direct Current system by electrocuting animals in public using Alternating Current. Tesla demonstrated his alternating current by having florescent tubes light and go dark in his hands in public.
General Electric is the corporate descendent of Thomas Edison just as Westinghouse is for George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla.
There were six separate nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant. All six were designed by General Electric. Five were GE Mark I and one was a GE Mark II. In the event of a power failure all six needed electricity to pump critical cooling water and safely shut down.
The recently approved nuclear power systems approved in Georgia are of the Westinghouse AP1000 design. These are the same design nuclear reactors used in China and in the event of a power failure there is a water tank on top with an emergency supply of cooling water and all that is needed for a safe shutdown is gravity.
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8
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Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study
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Feb 6, 2012 9:20 pm
504 Views
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Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study•
Children with low intelligence grow up to be prejudiced
• Right-wing views make the less intelligent feel 'safe'
• Analysis of more than 15,000 people
By Rob Waugh
Last updated at 9:29 AM on 3rd February 2012
'Individuals with lower abilities may gravitate towards right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo.
It provides a sense of order,' say the academics
Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.
Conservative politics work almost as a 'gateway' into prejudice against others, say the Canadian academics.
The paper analysed large UK studies which compared childhood intelligence with political views in adulthood across more than 15,000 people.
The authors claim that people with low intelligence gravitate towards right-wing views because they make them feel safe.
Crucially, people's educational level is not what determines whether they are racist or not - it's innate intelligence, according to the academics.
Social status also appears to play no part.
The study, published in Psychological Science, claims that right-wing ideology forms a 'pathway' for people with low reasoning ability to become prejudiced against groups such as other races and gay people.
'Cognitive abilities are critical in forming impressions of other people and in being open minded,' say the researchers.
'Individuals with lower cognitive abilities may gravitate towards more socially conservative right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo.
'It provides a sense of order.'
The study, by academics at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, used information from two UK studies from 1958 and 1970, where several thousand children were assessed for intelligence at age 10 and 11, and then asked political questions aged 33.
The 1958 National Child Development involved 4,267 men and 4,537 women born in 1958.
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23
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To link to this blog (RickySpin02) use [blog RickySpin02] in your messages.
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