Kristi Lohmeier here from the Iowa Policy Project and as the lead
organizer for our Green Bike Tour 2007 I come to you with a small
favor that could help make the Tour a huge SUCCESS!

As you know, we do not charge folks ANYTHING to ride in the Green Bike
Tour. We are committed to using this event as a purely
awareness/informational/educational piece, and to that end use our own
monies to get it done. However, we have found a hole in our resources
in the form of transportation. We have a number of folks from the
Johnson, Linn, Cedar county areas who are interested in participating
in the Tour, but have no way to get themselves plus their bikes up to
the Cedar Falls area. That is where you come in!

I know that there are a number of bike teams in our area, and I am
looking for some problem solvers to allow us to use any of the
following to help transport riders: trailers, trucks, or buses (that
can take passengers and bikes). If you or someone you know can help
with ANY ASPECT of this request, I would really appreciate it!

In the past, the Green Bike Tour has been used as a vehicle to raise
awareness on global warming and other environmental issues. This
year, we are using the tour to highlight the amazing fantastic work
going on in the Cedar Falls/Waverly/ Waterloo area around renewable
energy and energy efficiency.

Help us make this event successful not only by participating but also
by helping to get more folks to participate who wouldn't normally have
the access or resources to do so!  Also if you could tell me if you are interested in participating, we can start to get a tally from the area!

I can be reached at 319.338.0773 or klohmeier@iowapolic yproject. org. I look forward to hearing from you and THANK YOU in advance for all you do!

The Authoritarian Political Brain

---

by Propagandee

September 3, 2007

Drew Westen's The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation helps explain the neuro-cognitive mechanisms involved in rationalizing away inconvenient truths, something we all do regardless of political affiliation. From the Introduction:

The neural circuits charged with regulation of emotional states seemed to recruit beliefs that eliminated the distress and conflict partisans had experienced when they confronted unpleasant realities. And all this seemed to happen with little involvement of the neural circuits normally involved in reasoning.

The results show that when partisans face threatening information, not only are they likely to "reason" to emotionally biased conclusions, but we can trace their neural footprints when they do.

When confronted with potentially troubling political information, a network of neurons become active that produces distress. Whether this distress is conscious, or unconscious, or some combination of the two, we don't know.

The brain registers the conflict between data and desire and begins to search for ways to turn off the spigot of unpleasant emotion.

Nothing earth shattering there. But here's where it gets interesting (italics in the original):

But the political brain did something we didn't predict. Once partisans found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits involved in negative emotions shut off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on. The partisan brain didn't seem satisfied in just feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating rewards circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased reasoning. These reward circuits overlap significantly with those activated when drug addicts get their "fix", giving new meaning to the term political junkie.

To read the rest of the article, click here: