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Gear

Best of the Web: Police State: 85 Things that Might Get You on a DHS Terrorist Watch List

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© Unknown
Because the Department of Homeland Security has asked parts of the public to report suspicious activity through the "Communities Against Terrorism" program , if you visit an airport, stay in a hotel, drink coffee at an Internet cafรฉ, or in some other way interact with one of the Halloween G-men in the American public, a full-fledged FBI investigation is only one phone call away, says LaTi.

Take 2

Best of the Web: Syria: coup engineers used the same sniper tactic to incite Venezuelans in 2002


Comment: See also:

Sickening Hypocrisy: the CIA's Dirty War in Iran

The Revolution will not be Televised

Yemen Protests: Evidence Snipers Shot to Kill

CIA or Mossad Snipers Caught in Syria?


Gear

Best of the Web: Wealthier People More Likely To Lie or Cheat

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© unknown
Maybe, as the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested, the rich really are different. They're more likely to behave badly, according to seven experiments that weighed the ethics of hundreds of people.

The "upper class," as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, researchers reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Taken together, the experiments suggest at least some wealthier people "perceive greed as positive and beneficial," probably as a result of education, personal independence and the resources they have to deal with potentially negative consequences, the authors wrote.

While the tests measured only "minor infractions," that factor made the results, "even more surprising," said Paul Piff, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a study author.

One experiment invited 195 adults recruited using Craigslist to play a game in which a computer "rolled dice" for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate. The numbers each participant rolled were the same; anyone self reporting a total higher than 12 was lying about their score. Those in wealthier classes were found to be more likely to fib, Piff said.

"A $50 prize is a measly sum to people who make $250,000 a year," he said in a telephone interview. "So why are they more inclined to cheat? For a person with lower socioeconomic status, that $50 would get you more, and the risks are small."

Evil Rays

Best of the Web: More Women Speaking Out About Humiliating Experiences With TSA

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© Unknown
Would you want your wife or daughter viewed naked in "pornoscanner"?

US - Is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) forcing women to endure full-body scans so that voyeuristic security officials can sneak a peek at their physiques? That's the charge being made by a local news affiliate in Dallas, which recently discovered a shocking pattern of abuse after reviewing complaints from more than 500 travelers.

According to an investigative report, one Dallas resident traveling out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was forced to undergo three scans before being allowed to board. The passenger, Ellen Terrell, told a local CBS news reporter that a female TSA screener asked her, "Do you play tennis?" When Mrs. Terrell asked, "Why?" the agent replied, "You just have such a cute figure."

After making Terrell go through the scanner twice, the TSA screener spoke into her microphone and was overheard saying: "Come on guys. All right, all right, one more time."

Eye 2

Best of the Web: Wall Street Species: One Out Of Every Ten Wall Street Employees Is A Psychopath, Say Researchers

Christian Bale
© Lions Gatee/EverettChristian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street investment banker and psychopath. Researchers believe as many as 10 percent of people in the financial industry may exhibit the traits of clinical psychopathy.
Maybe Patrick Bateman wasn't such an outlier.

One out of every 10 Wall Street employees is likely a clinical psychopath, writes journalist Sherree DeCovny in an upcoming issue of the trade publication CFA Magazine (subscription required). In the general population the rate is closer to one percent.

"A financial psychopath can present as a perfect well-rounded job candidate, CEO, manager, co-worker, and team member because their destructive characteristics are practically invisible," writes DeCovny, who pulls together research from several psychologists for her story, which helpfully suggests that financial firms carefully screen out extreme psychopaths in hiring.

To be sure, typical psychopathic behavior runs the gamut. At the extreme end is Bateman, portrayed by Christian Bale, in the 2000 movie American Psycho, as an investment banker who actually kills people and exhibits no remorse. When health professionals talk about "psychopaths," they have a broader range of behavior in mind.

A clinical psychopath is bright, gregarious and charming, writes DeCovny. He lies easily and often, and may have trouble feeling empathy for other people. He's probably also more willing to take dangerous risks -- either because he doesn't understand the consequences, or because he simply doesn't care.

Comment: And possibly 9 out of 10 CEOs and government officials are psychopaths.


Cookie

Best of the Web: What's With The Antagonism About Low-Carb From The Paleo Community Lately?

There is something rather disturbing happening behind-the-scenes in the Paleo community that I've seen unfolding before my eyes over the past six months or so. And in fact, it is becoming even more overt lately with various prominent bloggers writing about their questioning of long-term low-carb dieting for optimal health, including highly-respected people such as Dr. Kurt Harris, Stephan Guyenet, Richard Nikoley, Chris Kresser, Paul Jaminet, Danny Roddy, Dr. Garrett Smith, Matt Stone, and I'm sure many others. At the same time low-carb stalwarts like Dr. Jack Kruse have tried to bridge the gap that's beginning to grow between the Paleo and low-carb communities with a workable solution for us all to follow.

PaleoHacks.com featured a question last summer questioning whether Paleo is low-carb or not and noted this sudden shift away from the low-carb aspect that some people choose to include as part of their Paleo diet. It's all leading to a great deal of confusion and concern in the low-carb community with innocent people not knowing who or what to believe anymore. That's why this is disturbing to me and could quite possibly jeopardize the entire ancestral health movement if we're not careful to be mindful of the damage that is being done to the overall cause. There's still time to mitigate any damage that has been done and to unite behind the overall mission to help those people who just don't care about nutrition and how it impacts their health.

I will clear one issue up right away for the sake of getting it out there. No, a Paleo diet isn't necessarily a low-carb one. But as Professor Loren Cordain author of The Paleo Diet told me in a pre-interview chat I recorded last week (listen to the full interview airing on March 7, 2012 on The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show), "The evolutionary diet supports low-carb...it's a pretty good fit." When I brought up to him how I'm disheartened that there has been this sudden rise in antagonism about low-carb from the Paleo community lately, Cordain was quick to point out that, "It's very difficult to eat Paleo and eat high-carb. I don't think most people can do it." So what's the deal with all these subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to disparage a way of eating that is beloved by so many of us for being a lifesaver for our health?

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Wyoming Narrowly Defeats Measure to Prepare for Apocalypse

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US: Cody, Wyoming - In a sign of rising consumer confidence prevailing over go-it-alone pessimism in the Cowboy State, Wyoming lawmakers on Tuesday narrowly defeated a "doomsday bill" to help the state prepare for a total collapse of the U.S. government and economy.

The bill, rejected on a 30-27 vote by the state House of Representatives, would have allocated $16,000 for a panel of legislators and emergency managers to study various measures, including a new state-issued currency, for handling a range of apocalyptic scenarios.

The bill's chief sponsor, Republican Representative David Miller, originally had sought $32,000 to fund the task force, but the Joint Appropriations Committee later cut that amount in half. Republicans control both houses of the state Legislature.

House members on Monday had given the bill their initial backing after striking a "poison pill" amendment that mockingly asked whether Wyoming should purchase its own aircraft carrier and fighter jets.

"I guess a lot of people think if you're trying to prepare for a disaster, it makes you seem crazy," co-sponsor Kendell Kroeker said. "I was interested in it mainly because I don't think there's any harm in being well-prepared."

Heart

Best of the Web: Asma Al-Assad, Diana of the Middle East: Syria's First Lady on Gaza

Wife of Syrian President, Asma Al-Assad, speaks out about the despicable Israeli abuses against Palestinians in this interview with CNN, recorded three years ago. Are we beginning to see why the Al Assads have been targeted for elimination? Conscientious leaders of just societies must be removed to make way for barbaric 'democrazi' and total world domination of, by and for psychopaths.


Bandaid

Best of the Web: Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill

In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority-sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society's most oppressive authorities.

Handcuffs

Best of the Web: Shocking Abuse of Power and Human Rights: Family Invaded after daughter draws picture of gun at school

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© The Record/Peter LeeArrested: Jessie Sansone was arrested at his daughter's school after the 4-year-old drew a picture of a gun.

A Kitchener, Ontario father is upset that police arrested him at his children's' school Wednesday, hauled him down to the station and strip-searched him, all because his four-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun at school.

"I'm picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I'm locked up," Jessie Sansone, 26, said Thursday.

"I was in shock. This is completely insane. My daughter drew a gun on a piece of paper at school."

The school principal, police and child welfare officials, however, all stand by their actions. They said they had to investigate to determine whether there was a gun in Sansone's house that children had access to

"From a public safety point of view, any child drawing a picture of guns and saying there's guns in a home would warrant some further conversation with the parents and child," said Alison Scott, executive director of Family and Children's Services.