Things are really heating up in here and we are all losing our heads. Can’t we all get along? Can we all agree to use our intellect rather than emotions? ……… but then again that’s easier said than done. Interesting reading below; it may help some of us step back from the madness and reflect on how we actually make political decisions. Let’s not forget that we will all be here needing each other come May 2013, whichever way this election goes. Happy reading, though I know most ears are deaf to any kind of reasoning at this moment 

C&P
Dishonest politicians! Never!
Emotional factors influence how we vote for our politicians much more than our careful and logical appraisal of their policies, according to Drew Westen, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Emory University in Atlanta and author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. This may come as little surprise to you, but what about when we learn that our favored politician may be dishonest? Do we take the trouble to really find out what they are supposed to have done, and so possibly have to change our opinions (and our vote), or do we experience that nasty cognitive dissonance and so seek to keep our minds comfortable at the possible cost of truth?
Addicted to self deceit
Westen and colleagues conducted a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans on the brains of staunch Democrats and staunch Republicans in the USA. The MRIs showed that the emotional areas of participants' brains lit up when they read articles suggesting their favored politician was dishonest. So far, so much what you would expect. But get this!
There was a decrease in activity in the parts of the brain that deal with reasoning when they read this damning information. So part of reducing the discomfort of cognitive dissonance may be to think less. This makes sense. The flying saucer cultists, when confronted with their unfulfilled doomsday prophecy, didn't think their way out of their dilemma, they felt their way out of it, and based their decisions on emotion.
The researchers in Westen's study found that all the participants appeared to find ways of ignoring any negative information relating to their favored politician, thus allowing themselves to hold on to their previous beliefs. When their emotional response eventually overcame the reasoning, it stimulated the brain's reward system - similar to what happens to drug addicts when they get their fix. Nobody said that a sincere search for truth would be comfortable!

CORDeshians must be having a grand time watching this in-fighting. I hope tho' that President PK is not having trouble with some of his enthusiastic supporters. Its like the aftermath of a Gor game, the riotious fans make one hate the team.

Whatever the outcome, we remain brothers. That is, after PK has settled in State House

By the way what is the genesis of this fear?
Ati RAO is bitter [of what, I've never understood].