Sarah Ward, psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri, conducted a two-pronged study investigating how people who follow their instincts behave in morally charged situations. Acting on instinct, as an area of psychological research, has seen relatively little study. This is partly due to its nebulous nature and the difficulty of pinning down “gut feelings” in an experimental setting. …
Robert Parry – Cruz Threatens to Nuke ISIS Targets
As Republican presidential candidates lined up to one-up each other about how they would fight Islamic terrorism, many mainstream pundits questioned the hysteria and took particular aim at billionaire Donald Trump for seeking a moratorium on admitting Muslims to the United States, but Trump’s proposal was far from the most outrageous. Getting much less attention was a statement by Sen. …
Larry Schwartz – 5 Outrageously Expensive and Useless Defense Projects You and I Are Paying for
Republican candidates for president have all sang out in less-than-beautiful harmony about cutting taxes for the very rich and miraculously balancing the budget at the same time. They have also sworn they will increase military spending. Many of them are urging a full-scale war on ISIS and Donald Trump is even ready to commit war crimes in order to defeat them. …
Dr. Hakim – Kunduz MSF Hospital U.S. Bombing Survivor: “I Want my Story to be Heard.”
“I feel very angry, but I don’t want anything from the U.S. military,” said Khalid Ahmad, a 20 year old pharmacist who survived the U.S. bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz on the 3rd of October, “God will hold them accountable.” The actions of the U.S. military elicit the same contempt from Khalid …
RALPH TURCHIANO – New report finds 43 percent increase in ADHD diagnosis for US schoolchildren
Girls showed a sharp rise in ADHD diagnosis during eight-year study period George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health WASHINGTON, DC (December 8, 2015)–Twelve percent of U.S. children and teens had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in 2011, a number that has jumped by 43 percent since 2003, according to a large national study based on …
Eric Zuesse – The Saud Family to Select West’s ‘Moderate’ Jihadists Who Will Take Over Syria
The Saud family, Saudi Arabia’s royals, have called together a meeting on December 15th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, of their fellow fundamentalist Sunnis who are fighting against the secular Assad government to take over Syria, and the Sauds will announce after the conference which groups will have the West’s blessings. The only armed group that has thus far been announced to have …
EDWARD WONG – Chinese Glacier’s Retreat Signals Trouble for Asian Water Supply
MENGKE GLACIER, China — Over the years, Qin Xiang and his fellow scientists at a high and lonely research station in the Qilian Mountains of northwest China have tracked the inexorable effects of rising temperatures on one of China’s most important water sources. “The thing most sensitive to climate change is a glacier,” said Dr. Qin, 42, as he slowly trod across an icy …
Henry A. Giroux – Fascism in Donald Trump’s United States
Donald Trump’s blatant appeal to fascist ideology and policy considerations took a more barefaced and dangerous turn this week when he released a statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Trump qualified this racist appeal to voters’ fears about Muslims by stating that such a ban is necessary “until our country’s representatives can …
Rebecca Solnit – Oil fuels war and terrorists like Isis. The climate movement can bring peace
Greed for petroleum has produced plenty of war. War can be defined narrowly, as conflict between nations, or broadly, as large-scale violence in pursuit of gain. This is why so many see the climate movement as a peace movement – especially after the recent massacres in Paris. In the fossil-fuel era, some oil corporations became powers equal to states, and …
Obama’s “Legacy of Inaction” on Campaign Finance Reform Exposed
As the 2016 presidential campaign season hits full stride with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in from outside funding groups, democracy reformers are zeroing in on the one person they say could stem the flow of money into electoral politics: U.S. President Barack Obama. “President Obama has no one to blame but himself for his failing legacy on money …