Study finds that belief in religious fundamentalism partly due to a brain impairment. Tell me something I didn't know.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness. 

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group. 

Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.

Once again this is one of the those things which seems so blatantly obvious, and which we are supposed to be too polite to say out loud.

If you literally believed in leprechauns, unicorns, or zombies people would legitimately be concerned about your mental health, but if you wrap it in a religious shroud then suddenly your insistence that magical beings are all around us looking out for our well being is taken as a testament to your deep faith.

Remember how Joy Behar was forced to publicly apologize for suggesting that Mike Pence was mentally ill for saying that Jesus Christ talked to him?

Joy Behar of `The View’ apologizes for comments she made about Vice President Mike Pence and Christianityhttps://t.co/KF1sNAcoYJ

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) March 13, 2018

Well obviously she was right.

Joy Behar asks "Shouldn't Sarah Palin be turning letters over on some game show at this point? "

Courtesy of Extra TV:  

Extra” was with Joy Behar at a special preview of “Lipshtick” at the Venetian Las Vegas on Thursday, where the comic commented on rumors that Sarah Palin might be joining “The View.” 

Behar quipped, “Shouldn’t Sarah Palin be turning letters over on some game show at this point? Why is she even relevant? She and Dick Cheney need to just sort of say bye-bye and disappear, so I don’t really see her on any show, frankly… I wouldn’t watch.”

Behar has a point about the letter turning. You know if in fact it could be proven that Palin knows her alphabet.

After all she does have the outfit for it.

By the way Palin will not be "slaying salmon" in Bristol Bay this weekend (Yeah, like she ever did!) because she will be appearing tomorrow in  Denver, Colorado to speak to a room full of Right Wing paint chip eaters along with the likes of Michele Bachmann, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Allen West. Jim DeMint, Ralph Reed, Tammy Bruce, well you get the picture.

The conference will be focused, I believe, on Obamacare, the IRS scandal, Benghazi, and maintaining the proper dosage during an episode of schizophrenia.

Palin's presentation is entitled "Seize the day."

How a woman who quit her job as governor to hawk a poorly written book, star in a poorly received reality show, and is currently engaged in a long slow tumble toward irrelevancy has anything to say about day seizing is beyond me.

But then again I am not a Right Wing lunatic.

Let's end the day on a high note. Michelle Obama wins the hearts of the ladies of the View.

I am sorry that today was so video-centric here at IM, but there just seemed to be a lot of important video to share.

As you know I am NOT a regular watcher of The View, but I did catch the entire episode this morning and really thought that Michelle Obama was the very epitome of charm and class. I don't like to make comparisons, but I kind of felt she did a better job than the President did during HIS visit two weeks ago.

BTW I joked earlier today that by the end of the show FLOTUS and Elizabeth Hasselbeck were hugging and joking with each other like two high school girlfriends. I would not put it past the First Lady to have made such an impact on the View's token conservative that Hasselbeck might be questioning her political point of view and wondering HOW she can justify being in opposition to this delightful couple.

Just our President being awesome.

To see the image larger just click here.

Immediately after making these remarks Barbara Walters said that in her entire time on the View that this was the FIRST time that she could ever remember the ladies on the panel being respectful and not talking over a guest for such an extended period of time.

And they say this President can't perform miracles.

He got the ladies of the View to stop talking for almost three minutes, compared to that walking on water should be a snap!

The hosts of the View ridicule the idea for Bristol Palin's new reality show.

 I love the part where Joy says that Gino "makes Levi Johnston look like Stephen Hawking."

You know you are a huge fuck up when even  conservative hack Elizabeth Hasselback can't defend you.

By the way below is video of the Oprah interview that Sherri Shepherd alluded to while discussing that Bristol is opening herself up to a whole lot of judgmental scrutiny based on her assertion that she will NEVER have sex again until she was married. (I don't think the Palin family has a firm grasp of the definition for "never.")

Can you say "Stockholm Syndrome?"

By the way I think this video clip tells VOLUMES about the relationship between Bristol and her mother.

Everything about Bristol's body language screams "Help I'm a prisoner!" and it should come as no surprise that seven months later she tried to make a run for it with Levi.

I have to wonder if this newest reality show idea is yet another attempt to get out from under her mother's thumb, or if her mother is orchestrating it as well? It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell where Sarah ends, and Bristol begins.

(H/T to Mediate.)

Joy Behar on the Lawrence O'Donnell show talking about Sarah Palin, "Shouldn't she be turning letters somewhere on some game show at this point?" Silly Joy, that would involve spelling.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So much goodness in this interview.

If only every liberal gave the President the kind of support that Martin Sheen does not hesitate to provide.

In my personal opinion Sheen is dead right, and I am humbled by his unapologetic zeal for our President.

The President IS doing the best he can, but without reliable support from his base, and in the face of a Republican party that has taken a scorched earth approach to politics, what more can anybody expect from the man?

Look I am not an "Obama-bot" (As described in this Politico article), and I imagine that after Obama wins his second term I will unload some of the frustration that has built up these last three years in his direction.

But let us make NO mistake, we are in a war! And I for one refuse to help provide ammunition, or aid and comfort, to the enemy.

In the middle of a fire fight is the wrong time to walk up to your commander in chief and punch him in the nose. There is plenty of time to get that all medeival on his ass after the bullets stop flying.

For right now, I have chosen the side that I believe in, and that is the side I am committed to for the duration.  And by the way, it does not exactly hurt my dedication that the other side is completely wrong about virtually every single issue that I care deeply about.

All I know is that I will do everything that I can to ensure that Barack Obama gets four more years.

(H/T to Joy Behar)

Some people are born liars. Levi Johnston is not one of those people.

This is why I kept saying in the comments yesterday that Levi was not being truthful. 

Just watch how his eyes are CONSTANTLY shifting over to the right, where I am certain Tank Jones is standing, to make sure that what he is saying is okay. If this book is telling the whole truth then how can what he says NOT be okay?

This same behavior continues as Joy questions him about allegations in Joe's book that Palin might not be Trig's mother. He keeps looking over at Tank and appears to become quite anxious that Joy will not let it go.

I cannot find the clip but Levi also claims that he actually saw Sarah in her hospital bed hours after she would have given birth, and she that still had the IV in her arm.  That would make Levi the ONLY person to have ever claimed they saw Sarah in a bed in that delivery room. Even Bailey did not go that far.

But is it feasible that She would actually have the  doctor insert an IV drip JUST to fool her family, Frank Bailey, and Levi Johnston into believing that she had given birth?

 On page 53 of his book, Levi claims the following:

Sarah had been telling Bristol for the past month that her water was leaking once or twice a day.

WTF?  This was right before Trig's birth, so the logical questions would be, WHO would would risk a flight out of town in that condition? And what kind of a doctor would allow that to happen?

Now we know that Palin was not pregnant so what is the story here?

Did the Palins put on a circus act that fooled the whole family and others, including Bristol, Willow, Piper, Frank Bailey, the Heaths, AND Levi?

Or is Bristol and the family in on it and helping to flesh out the mythology while feeding it to only those outside fo the family?

Or is Levi also part of the cover up and, for reasons that I cannot wrap my head around considering that they will NOT let him see his son, is still willing to play his part?

Actually, as I alluded to earlier, there is another piece that will only make this even more confusing which I will add later when I can finally sit down and write out a comprehensive review of Levi's book.

Trust me when I say that it will not help but it will strongly suggest that Levi IS covering something up.

And I cannot tell you how much I wish that were not true.

P.S. I am still looking for the clip of Joy talking to Levi specifically about babygate. If any of you find it please send it my way and I will include the link.

Bill Maher on the Joy Behar Show on Trump, Palin, Bin Laden, and our "ninja" President.

Joy Behar has some things to say about Bristol, Willow, and the Palin family.

I think that the Palin-bots will live to regret cheating to get Bristol this far in the DWTS contest. They may have played their hand much too early to help their queen in 2012.

Joy Behar on Sarah Palin and Trig: "They were passing that kid out more than a joint at a Grateful Dead concert."

Believe it or not but I was going to try and stay away from Sarah Palin related stories today.  But really how could I not post such an amazing comment?

Here is part of the conversation from the Joy Behar Show, with Lizz Winstead, co-creator of the Daily Show, and Ana Marie Cox (Who I have a ginormous crush on for some reason.), discussing Sarah Palin, Joe McGinniss, and the Great Wall of Wasilla.

BEHAR: Well, she implies in her Facebook thing that he`s going to be staring at Piper through the window, which automatically makes him into some kind of pervert, which is not his intention at all. Okay, the fight escalated this morning when McGinniss went on NBC`s Today Show. Watch.

JOE MCGINNISSS, AUTHOR/SARAH PALIN`S NEIGHBOR: It`s probably a lesson for the American people of the power Palin has to incite hatred and her willingness and readiness to do it. She has pushed a button and unleashed the hounds of hell, and now they’re out there slobbering and barking and growling. And that`s the same kind of tactic – and I`m not calling her a Nazi – but that`s the same kind of tactic that the Nazi troopers used in Germany in the `30s, and I don`t think there`s any place for it in America.

BEHAR: Okay, now she says in response, "When I say, all right, leave my kids alone, it means simply that. Let my kids have a fun summer without having a journalist 15 feet from their play area. How that equates me with the Nazis is quite beyond me." Okay, she`s not, he didn`t really equate her with the Nazis. He`s saying the tactic is very Nazi-like.

WINSTEAD: Well, I just think any time you know-

BEHAR: Which is, which is what? Which is unleashing the wrath of the Palinites out there on this guy.

WINSTEAD: Yes.

BEHAR: That`s where the Nazi tactic comes in because when she says they`re attacking or being a threat to my children, all of these little Palinites go berserk.

WINSTEAD: I know, but just Nazi thing kind of, like, he has (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Nazi thing.

BEHAR: Over the edge.

WINSTEAD: Over the edge, you know what, I just find it boring. Now, here`s the thing that I think is the biggest problem with Palin, is that why didn`t Bravo find her two weeks before McCain did, and we could just had the real housewives-

BEHAR: I know, we have to blame him.

WINSTEAD: -of Alaska and have it begun because she is exactly like that crazy woman on the Housewives of New Jersey.

BEHAR: Yes, the other thing is that isn`t she the one who put her kids in the spotlight in the first place? I mean, they-

WINSTEAD: Yes.

BEHAR: -at the convention, when they were passing that kid out more than a joint at a Grateful Dead concert.

Wow!  So what do you think gang?  A little over the top, or right on target?