thoughtsignals

Two fascinating newspaper articles in recent days shed light on why people believe what they believe, even when those things aren’t true.

The Washington Post reports that people, even when told that certain things weren’t true, later recalled that they were in fact true.

The research is painting a broad new understanding of how the mind works. Contrary to the conventional notion that people absorb information in a deliberate manner, the studies show that the brain uses subconscious “rules of thumb” that can bias it into thinking that false information is true. Clever manipulators can take advantage of this tendency.

And California researchers have done a study suggesting that the minds of liberals and conservatives actually operate in different ways, with liberals’ brains being more open to new ideas:

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments, whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

I leave it up to you, gentle reader, to decide which political phenomena these studies help explain.

Related:  7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make (Lifehack.org)

That’s what Christopher Hitchens says in an interview with New York magazine:

I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, “I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.”

Assuming it’s true … I never would have guessed that.

Link.

Part 5 of the New York Times series on how faith-based organizations have carved out exemptions for themselves from conventional government regulation and taxation:

It looks like a business and, in many ways, acts like one. But it is beyond the reach of most of the rules and government oversight that apply to businesses — because it is a church mission.

This is the “medical bill sharing ministry” known as Christian Care Ministry, based in Melbourne, Fla., the largest of a handful of similar ministries around the country.

Link.

My previous posts on this series are here, here, here and here.

The issue here is not whether or not religious organizations should have constitutional protection against government interference. The issue is when are those protections taken so far that they end up giving the religious organizations an economic advantage over organizations — when do protections from government interference morph into government subsidies. At that point, the government is aiding the establishment of a religion. And that’s unconstitutional.

As I usually do after a blogging-type conference, I have lots of ideas post-ConvergeSouth. I also have at least 72 things in my “to blog” que, not to mention various half-formed ideas in my head. But I also have several deadlines crashing down around me this week, so all those will have to wait. Please stay tuned, your regular programming will return Friday (or thereabouts).

In the meantime, check out this very cool database-driven web site by a group in California. It shows the links between state legislators, campaign contributions, industry interests and legislators’ votes. Link.

From The News & Observer, a story that’s pegged on veteran lawmaker Howard Coble of Greensboro. It’s all about the power North Carolina’s U.S. House delegation doesn’t have:

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Howard Coble piles into the members-only subway car in a tunnel of the U.S. Capitol, all grins and how-are-ya’s with Republicans and Democrats, chatting up a storm on the way to cast a vote on the House floor.

Coble, North Carolina’s longest-serving member of Congress, has all kinds of friends. But Coble has little real power in Washington.

Really, no one in North Carolina’s House delegation does. None of the state’s 13 members can march into the House and make things happen on a broad, national scale.

Link.

Part 4 of the New York Times’ series on special exemptions for faith-based organizations:

Religion-Based Tax Breaks: Housing to Paychecks to Books

Also today, Diana Henriques, the reporter who has written this series for the Times, writes about how faith-based orgs are seeking more exemptions, still, from various government regulations and taxes. Link.

BTW, you can read Henriques’ bio here. Turns out she’s currently a senior warden at an Episcopal church in New Jersey.

My previous posts on this here, here and here.

Day 3 of the NYT’s series on the expansion of exemptions from government regulation and taxation for faith-based organizations.

Members of the St. Joseph County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, all but one of them lifelong Catholics, see it differently. To them, a charitable ministry does not consist of providing lovely retirement living to affluent people. The current residents of Holy Cross Village have an average net worth of $1 million. Those with deposits on the units under construction are even better off, averaging $1.6 million.

If Holy Cross Village is not taxed, members of the assessment board point out, a heavier burden will fall on the working families in the county that are struggling to pay the taxes on their small homes in careworn communities like the west side of South Bend.

Link.

YouTube’s managers are walking a fine line when they flag videos like the one conservative commentator Michelle Malkin has complained about being removed from the site, NYTer Tom Zeller Jr. says.

This is not to suggest that Ms. Malkin’s video would not be
particularly offensive to some people. There is little that Ms. Malkin
says or does that is not. But it is hard to imagine what YouTube hopes
to gain by punting such content, or what sort of uphill rhetorical
battle it is setting itself up for when it does so.

Link.

Michelle Malkin says YouTube is censoring her videos: Link.