Aphorisms, Articles, and words that begin with A…

Alright…we’re back! And if you’re sad about the lack of updates, well…I DID warn you. And I hope you all had a great thanksgiving. Mine was fun…good food, good times, a good hang…but I’m not sure I have it in me to do any other winter traveling. This long road trip stuff is getting old.

At any rate…

A long time ago, I said I felt mainstream and conventional political labels were useless. I thought I’d attempt a funny definition of what these words ACTUALLY mean now, but I learned something last week and over the weekend: people fucking LIVE to be offended. And I’ve observed that the ones most likely to get offended have NO IDEA how much I want to break their heads they offend other people (And before any family members or friends give in to their insecurities and, well, prove my point: No, I’m not talking about you).

I’ve often wondered why.

Well, one brilliant psychologist has done research and has some answers. His name is Robert Altmeyer, and he teaches at the University of Manitoba.

[Aside: Conservatives, in the mainstream sense, and religious conservatives in particular, can stop reading right now. We're about to go into that pointy headed intellectual hell and talk about science and research and all kinds of other liberal biased secular materialist evil. So go away.]

Dr. Bob wrote a book called The Authoritarians (well, he wrote several, but this one is the one I recommend). I’ve been dying to read it, and on a google search to buy it, Dr. Bob did one better: You can download a PDF file of the book for free. Here’s the link.

I think this book is amazing, and I think it sheds so much light into our current political structure…enlightenment ahead, if you’re so inclined.

I have about a million questions about Life, the Universe, and Everything, and nothing pisses me off quicker than boredom.

I also found another great article on Fark…well, chock full of great articles, but I loved this one…before you read it, pop quiz:

Order these presidents from least to most by how much you think they increased spending during their presidency (you can play the percentages, if you like…remember to account for inflation!):

Clinton, Reagan, Bush 2, Bush 1, Nixon, and Carter. No peeking.

Ready for the answers?

I’ll just say this: if your list doesn’t start with Bill Clinton, you’re wrong.