Your Brain Lies to You
June 30, 2008 5:41 pm

False beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the Sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. The effort to correct misbeliefs may be more difficult than it seems, thanks to the quirky way in which our brains store memories - and mislead us along the way.

In one study, a group of Stanford students was exposed repeatedly to an unsubstantiated claim that Coca-Cola is an effective paint thinner. Students who read the statement repeatedly were nearly one-third more likely to attribute it to a credible source.

The secret to use your brain well, it seems, is open-mindedness. We tend to remember news that accords with our worldview, and discount statements that contradict it. In the same study, when subjects were asked to imagine their reaction if evidence pointed to the opposite conclusion, they were later more open-minded to information that contradicted their beliefs. Apparently, it pays for consumers of controversial news to take a moment and consider that the opposite interpretation may be true.

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Peter Marshall, Christian Nationalist
June 30, 2008 5:42 pm

By Jonathan Rowe, Talk2Action

Previously I discussed the Reverend Peter Marshall's work here.  Rev. Marshall is a fairly big figure in "Christian America" circles.  From what I know of his work, it's pretty shoddy.  He wrote a classic in that idiom entitled "The Light and the Glory."  Here is how Dr. Gregg Frazer describes that work in his PhD thesis from Claremont Graduate University:

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Gen. Clark and That POW Thing McCain Hates Talking About
July 1, 2008 5:44 pm

Paul Waldman, HuffPost

.....

Of course, they were just wrong: Clark didn't call McCain's record into question; he didn't say McCain wasn't a hero, and he sure as hell didn't "Swiftboat" McCain. Not only was he responding directly to Schieffer's question, using Schieffer's words, but he explicitly honored McCain's service. Those key pieces of context were left out of the reports that all three networks broadcast the next day, as well as many of the reports in newspapers and on television that followed. In The New York Times, Jeff Zeleny not only removed the context, but he simply repeated the McCain campaign's outrageously disingenuous charge that Clark was "impugning Mr. McCain's heroism."

But to understand why the press is reacting with such outrage, you have to understand what they've been saying about McCain for the last decade.

There's a myth out there that the McCain campaign and the media have cooperated to create. It says that John McCain is reluctant to exploit his Vietnam POW story for political advantage, so modest and full of integrity is he. We've seen this repeated again and again, not just by McCain and his supporters but by reporters who ought to know better.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

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The Credit Crunch Is Far From Over
July 2, 2008 5:45 pm

Bonddad:
From the WSJ:

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., $45.4 billion of the $631.8 billion in construction loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter were delinquent. When banks announce second-quarter results in coming weeks, they are expected to report sharp increases in loans that builders can't repay. Banks are also facing intensifying pressure from federal and state regulators to deal with the problem loans on their books.

Nearly one in three of the banks analyzed -- or 2,182 -- had construction-loan portfolios that exceeded 100% of their total risk-based capital, a red flag to regulators, although it doesn't mean the bank is in danger of failing. Risk-based capital is a cushion that banks can dig into to cover losses.

Over the next few quarters, banks are expected to begin recording much larger losses. In 2007 and the first quarter of this year, U.S. banks wrote down just 0.7% of their residential construction and land assets as bad debt, according to Zelman & Associates, a research firm. Over the next five years that figure could rise to 10% and 26%, which would amount to about $65 billion to $165 billion, Zelman projects.

During the housing boom, many small and regional banks doubled down on construction loans because they were largely shut out of the home mortgage market dominated by large originators. But now the banks' difficulties are threatening to sharply shrink the home-building industry. Credit Suisse analyst Dan Oppenheim estimates that as many as 50% of the closely held builders won't survive because of the tightening lending environment and housing downturn.

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Silent Crash
July 4, 2008 5:47 pm

EWT

On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, the bear market became "official" by the mainstream definition....

You see, when you measure your stocks' value in dollar terms - namely, the way the Federal Reserve wants you to measure it - you are literally short changing yourself. The simple fact is, dollar-denominated - or "nominal" - stock values have been pumped up (sic: propped up) since 2002 by enormous credit and U.S. dollar inflation. The Fed is partly to blame for credit inflation, but in truth so are the millions of consumers who snapped up easy credit at every opportunity. What's worse, that credit (sic: funny money) usually goes to discretionary spending rather than debt reduction - and on the cycle goes.....

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Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144
July 5, 2008 5:49 pm

Think Progress

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden -- the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free -- listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans "have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims" by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11.

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John McCain's "protective barrier"
July 6, 2008 5:50 pm

by Jamison Foser

Let's pause for a moment to review. According to the news media, if you call John McCain a "hero," but say that heroism doesn't qualify him to be president, you have dishonorably attacked his military service. (Feel free, however, to say the same thing about John Kerry.) And if you criticize McCain's Iraq policies, you are participating in "an organized campaign against John McCain's military service."

But wait! There's more!

The media's knee-jerk defense of McCain doesn't stop at their use of his military service to rule criticism of his Iraq policies out of bounds. It extends to (things having nothing to do with) his age, too. See, if you criticize John McCain for ignoring his own pledge to avoid negative campaigning, the media will quickly announce that you're really attacking his age. That was ridiculous, of course, but McCain aide Mark Salter told them to say it, so they did.

You get the picture: the media is on the verge of declaring any criticism of John McCain off-limits -- even when it isn't really criticism. Even when you call him a "hero," but not quite enthusiastically enough.

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McCain's radical plan to gut employer-based health coverage
July 6, 2008 5:53 pm

Jed Report

Employer-provided health insurance is about as American as apple pie, but if John McCain had his way, we'd scrap it all together.

It would be one thing if he were proposing a single payer system to take its place, but that's the last thing in the world that John McCain wants. In his ideal world, when it comes to health care, each American would be on his or her own.

You see, when McCain looks at the health care system, he thinks that it is a huge problem that 177 million Americans receive insurance through their job (47 million have no insurance and the rest get it individually or through government programs).

Talk about being out of touch.

McCain proposes to solve the "problem" of employer-based coverage by offering a recycled version of a Bush's health care plan: individual tax credits of $2,500 per individual or $5,000 per family (indexed for inflation) and elimination of the tax subsidies that support employer-based health insurance.

What this means is that under McCain's plan, employers could choose to continue offering employer-based health plans, but employees would be responsible for paying tax on the full value of those plans.

Not only would McCain's plan lead to a huge tax increase for those who maintain employer-based plans, but it would also dramatically widen the gap between health care haves and have nots without doing a thing to lower costs or improve the quality of coverage.

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