Archive for October 1st, 2012

October 01, 2012

Libertarian personality

Someone studied it and concluded that libertarians are cold and calculating:

The study collated the results of 16 personality surveys and experiments completed by nearly 12,000 self-identified libertarians who visited YourMorals.org. The researchers compared the libertarians to tens of thousands of self-identified liberals and conservatives. It was hardly surprising that the team found that libertarians strongly value liberty, especially the “negative liberty” of freedom from interference by others. Given the philosophy of their heroes, from John Locke and John Stuart Mill to Ayn Rand and Ron Paul, it also comes as no surprise that libertarians are also individualistic, stressing the right and the need for people to stand on their own two feet, rather than the duty of others, or government, to care for people.

Perhaps more intriguingly, when libertarians reacted to moral dilemmas and in other tests, they displayed less emotion, less empathy and less disgust than either conservatives or liberals. They appeared to use “cold” calculation to reach utilitarian conclusions about whether (for instance) to save lives by sacrificing fewer lives. They reached correct, rather than intuitive, answers to math and logic problems, and they enjoyed “effortful and thoughtful cognitive tasks” more than others do.

The researchers found that libertarians had the most “masculine” psychological profile, while liberals had the most feminine, and these results held up even when they examined each gender separately, which “may explain why libertarianism appeals to men more than women.”

My god! They think and do math!

Safety: There’s no app for that

An app called StreetSafe does, well, some stuff:

StreetSafe, a relatively new app for smartphones, claims that for a minimum of $12.50 a month, it will coach you with safety advice in frightening areas on your way to any location. One first feature is called “Walk With Me,” where the user can connect with a Safety Advisor while walking down a street. If the user feels unsafe, the Safety Advisor will stay on the line with you until you have reached your destination. In the event that something does happen to you while on the phone with a Safety Advisor, they will be able to call 911.

Or, you know, if your smartphone had a phone you could call 911 yourself. The single best safety tool at anyone’s disposal is situational awareness. A gun is nice but won’t help if you’re distracted and not paying attention. Seems to me time spent staring at your phone’s safety app is time better spent paying attention to what you’re doing and what’s happening around you.

And when we default

There’s a movie on that the works about the US defaulting to China. Via Tam with the snark.

In Cali

Governor Moonbeam signs ban on the open carrying of long guns.

Feelings on Romney

Yeah, that about sums it up.

In fast and furious news

A recap of Univision’s fast and furious piece.

Whistleblower says Fortune should retract their BS story about gun walking.

Gun blogger in the news

Miguel‘s mug in USA today

Those crazy libertarian lawyers

Heh

Gun Porn

Video of a Glock being fired underwater

10/22 takedown product review

Bullpup

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

Uncle Pays the Bills

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