Having just re-entered these fora, I'm not sure where things stand on cutting and pasting copyrighted material. And I assume not everyone has access to the NYT website. I'll post a really interesting link, and then make some comments. here is the link to an opinion column which refers to an actual medical study of the brains of highly partisan democrats and republicans and which, in essense, shows the same sort of chemical changes that go on in brains of sports fanatics. Specifically, it refers to how sports fans tend to see bad things happening to their team as the fault of the referee, etc; and how such a rationalizations repress the feel-bad part of the brain and replaces it with the feel good part. Likewise when a political partisan is presented with, say, something stupid said or done by his/her leader. The stress shows up, and is rapidly replaced by feel-good, as the partisan ignores/rationalizes, etc.

Which (seriously, not cynically) answers a question I ask myself with increasing frequency and despondency: how is it that there seems to be no point at which the apologists for Bush will recoil and admit ANYTHING wrong with ANYTHING he's done.... Now we know. And surely it applies to foaming liberals as well: partisanship to a rabid degree takes us to parts of the brain involved in reinforcing pleasure. It's, chemically speaking, not different from the pleasure centers behavior in addiction. Which bodes poorly for discourse aimed at actual problem-solving. Since it's only the most rabid who tend to get elected nowadays. Interesting to consider how much we are dragged around by our brains, as they seek to pleasure themselves.

That's really interesting Sid. It's sorta like brains can psyche people to believe what they want and not what is real. Actually that does explains a lot. Now I know that it's just run-away brains that's making people believe so much of the stuff going on these days.