Jump to content of transcoded page.

This is a text-only page produced by the demo version of Usablenet Assistive: the actual content starts below this notice. For more details go to Lift Assistive Help Center.

Support
Amazon Honor System Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!

Top Headlines
The 2008 Weblog Awards
You Can Vote For Ace Here. Come on people, the Canadian, the Canadian for God's sake, is catching up! You can't let that happen, eh.
Not All Democrats Are On Board With Surgeon General Sanjay "This Is CNN" Gupta, MD. Apparently he was too mean to Michael Moore and apparently some people think that's a bad thing. Who knew?
McCain making it easier to deal with election loss.
Trying to reclaim the "Maverick" label.
Hamas TV Accidentally Broadcasts Semi-Porn Call-Girl Come-On at Three AM
A sorta-NSFW warning for the link; when you click this, you'll get an embedded LiveLeak vid, which isn't playing yet, but shows a still from the video, showing some skin... not exactly scandalous, but enough to warrant a maybe-later-after-work warning [ Snapped Shot]
Missouri Senator Kit Bond To Retire in 2010. Great, another safe Republican seat is now up for grabs.
Israel's Strategy in Gaza
Recommended reading
Teenage Ball Boy Asks Pro Tennis Player To Marry Him. Can't blame the kid for giving it a shot.
Obama Vows to End Pork?
Um, not only is it difficult, but there's no need of "pork" when he's pitching a trillion dollar "stimulus" spending bonanza... which is... um... all pork
Possible Fauxtography?
Not really demonstrated yet, but there are suspicions
Awful...Jack Kemp Diagnosed With Cancer. Best wishes and prayers for Mr. Kemp.
Contact
Bloggers in Arms
2 or 3
7 Deadly Sins
Aaron's Rantblog
Adeimantus
Alarming News
Aldaynet
All Things Jennifer (Journal)
Alphabet City
Alpaca Burger/New Counterculture
Ambient Irony
American Barbarian
American Digest
Amish Tech Support
The Anchoress
Andunie
Anticipatory Retalliation
Antidisestabilshmentarian
Anwyn
Archaeoblog (Archaeology)
Ari Goes Down (Journal)
Armies of Liberation
ASV/A Small Victory
Attu Sees All
Bad Stated of Gruntledness
Bastard Sword
Balloon-Juice
The Baron
The Bastidge
Beautiful Atrocities
A Beleaguered Conservative in Nor Cal
Belmont Club
Besmirched
Betsy's Page
Between the Coasts
Bill from INDC
Binza
The Bitch Girls
BitHeads
BizzyBlog
Blackfive, Paratrooper of Love
The Black Republican
Tim Blair
Blaster's Blog
Blithering Bunny
Blogs For Bush
Blonde Sagacity
Bluemerle
Blue State Conservatives
The Real Boston Irish, Like A Viking
Breakdown Lane
Burn Rate
Cake or Death?
California Conservative
Cartago Delenda Est
Cavalry Charge
A Certain Slant of Light
Charmaine Yoest
Chapomatic
Christina in London (Journal)
Chicago Boyz
The Cliffs of Insanity
Classical Values
Cold Fury
The Colossus Blog
The Corndog Blog
College Pundit
Confederate Yankee
The Country Store
Cowboy Blob
Cox & Forkum (cartoons)
Cranial Cavity
Cranky Neocon
Critical Mastiff
Croooow Blog
Cynical Nation
Da Goddess
Daily Lunch
Daily Pundit
The Daily Recycler (Vidblog)*
Daleks Weblog
Daly Thoughts
Ilyka Damen
Damn the Man
Dave Munger
Dave's Not Here
Dawn Eden
Day by Day (Cartoon)
DefenseTech
Demure Thoughts
Steven den Beste/USS Clueless
Desert Cat's Paradise
Digger's Realm
Digital Brownshirt
Doc Peabody
Don Luskin/Conspiracy
Don Sequitors (Pop Culture)
The Dorian Davis Republican Spectacular
Drake's Drum
Dr. Sanity
Dummocrats.com
E-Claire
The Edge of England's Sword
EduWonk
Emily Starr (Journal/Web-Design)
Emuse
Enjoy Every Sandwich
Enter Stage Right
Eternity Road
Ether House
Dean Esmay
Fish or Man
Fatass the Conqueror
The Fat Guy
(Musings of a) Fat Kid
Feisty Republican Whore
File It Under
Fine? Why Fine?
FloridaCracker
The Flying Space Monkey
Football Fans For Truth and Beyond
The Foggiest Idea
Frinklin Speaks (Baseball)
From Left to Right
Jane Galt/AI
Garfield Ridge
Geek Empire
Geek Soapbox
George Gaskell
The Gleeful Extremist
Ghost of a Flea
GOP Vixen
The Grand Vizier
Greg Gutfeld
Grim's Hall
Hell in a Handbasket
Victor Davis Hanson
Head's Bunker (Guns)
Heard Here
Hugh Hewitt
Andrew Hofer
The Hole Card
Horrors of an Easily Distracted Mind
The House of Payne
The Hundred Percenter
I Love Jet Noise/Joatmoaf
IMAO
Incite
Inoperable Terran
Instapundit
InstaPunk
In the Hat
Iowahawk
Iraq the Model
Iraq Now
Is This Blog On?
It'z News to Me
JamieR (Classics)
JihadWatch
Joust the Facts
JunkYardBlog
Just One Minute
Kadnine
Kausfiles
KelliPundit
Ken Wheaton/As I Please
Kerry Spot @ NRO
Kesher Talk
Kin's Kouch
Kikuchiryo News
Kronology
Last Chance Cafe
Least Loved Bedtime Stories
Left and Right
Le Sabot Post-Moderne
Lesbien C'est Moi (reasonable liberal)
Letters From Desolation Row (JackM.)   Lifelike Pundits
Lileks/The Bleat
Little Green Footballs
The Llama Butchers
Michelle Malkin
Machias Privateer
Marcland (now Hubs and Spokes)
Margi Lowry (was: Miss Apropos)
Matt Howell/Nerf-Coated World
Ryne McClaren   McCullough/Stingray
Mean Mr. Mustard
Memento Moron
Memeorandum (Metablog)
Metallicity (Metal)
Miss Apropos   Mind of Mog
More Eclipse Ramblings
My Pet Jawa
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Newmanisms
The New Partisan
The New Vintage
Nickie Goomba
No Easy Answers
No Pundit Intended
Not a Shrinking Violet
Note-It Posts
Not So Much People
Terry Notus
Now You Know
Number 2 Pencil
NYC Smurfette (Journal)
Ocean Guy
Of the Mind
Oh, That Liberal Media
Oliver Kamm
Andrew Olmstead
On The Third Hand
One Man's Opinion
Outside the Beltway
Partisan Pundit
Patterico's Pontifications
Patriots for Bush
Peppermint Patty
The Perfect World (Discussion Forum)
The People's Cube
Petitedov (Journal)
Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
Pirate Pundit
Polar Opposite Politics
PoliPundit
The Politburo Diktat
The Political Teen
Powerline
PowerProf
Prestopundit
The Primary Main Objective
Professor Chaos
Protein Wisdom
The Pundit Guy
Q & O
The Questing Cat
Qur'an Project
Rambling's Journal
Random Birkel
Random Numbers
Rather Biased
Rathergate.com
Rational Explications
RedState
Reliapundit
Revealed Truth
Riehl Worldview (Carnivorous Conservative)
Right on Red
The Right Place
The Rightwing Conspiracy
The Right Wing Conspirator
Rightwing Sparkle
Rip 'N Read (Podcasting)
Resurrectionsong
Running At the Mouth
The Sandwich Shop
Say Anything Blog
Scrappleface
Secure Liberty
Sekimori Liveblog
Seldom Sober
Semi-Intelligent Thoughts
Seraphic Press
Sharp as a Marble
Simon's New Blog Showcase
Simon World (Asiablog)
Roger L. Simon
Simply Kimberly
Six Meat Buffet
SlantPoint
Slithery D
Slublog
SlowPlay
The Smoking Room
SobekPundit
Son of Nixon
Sondra K/Knowlege is Power
South Park Pundit
SoxBlog
Speed of Thought
The Spoons Experience
International Capitalist/Starbanker
Stop the ACLU
Strange Women Lying in Ponds
Suburban Sundries Shack
Susskins Central Dispatch
Sweet Spirits of Amonia
Sydney T's Weblog
The Tar Pit
Team Hammer
tBlog-- Are You High?
Ten Fingers Six Strings
Texsanity
The Therapist
Thought Mesh
Thoughtomation
Thoughts On Line
Thunder Monkey
T. Longren
TMan in Tennessee
Total Vocabulary Failure*
Traction Control/US Citizen
Jim "Mother May I Sleep With" Treacher
Truth Laid Bear
Try On the Glasses
Two Crackas in My Soup
Twisted Spinster
Two Braincells
The Unabrewer
An Unamplified Voice (Music/Opera)
The Unpopulist
The Urban Grind
VA. Conservative
VanSantos
Velociworld
Viking Pundit
Villainous Company
Vote for Judges
The Wardrobe Door
The Waterglass
Way Off Bass
Matt Welch
White Pebble (Politics/Poetry)
Whitney Gaskell (Author)
Michael Williams/Master of None
Wing Nut Echo Chamber
Witty Sex Kitten (Journal)
WizBang
Wunderkinder
WunderKraut
(John from) Wuzzadem
Meryl Yourish

« 114,000 Pounds Paid to Three British Prisoners After Court Rules It a Human Rights Violation To Deny the Junkie-Criminals Heroin and Force Them Off Drugs Cold Turkey | Main | Finally: Donkey Punch, The Movie »
December 03, 2008

Interesting Article on the Psychological Roots of Obamamania

Seriously.

Okay, that's not the article, that's a link to a blog with some really great photography of the abandoned Danvers State insane asylum. Love the tunnels connecting all the main buildings. My dick just rolled for initiative.

Here's the actual article.

In his forthcoming book, Born To Be Good (which is not a biography of Obama), Keltner writes that he believes when we experience transcendence, it stimulates our vagus nerve, causing "a feeling of spreading, liquid warmth in the chest and a lump in the throat." For the 66 million Americans who voted for Obama, that experience was shared on Election Day, producing a collective case of an emotion that has only recently gotten research attention. It's called "elevation."

Elevation has always existed but has just moved out of the realm of philosophy and religion and been recognized as a distinct emotional state and a subject for psychological study. Psychology has long focused on what goes wrong, but in the past decade there has been an explosion of interest in "positive psychology"—what makes us feel good and why. University of Virginia moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who coined the term elevation, writes, "Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental 'reset button,' wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration."

..

Keltner believes certain people are "vagal superstars"—in the lab he has measured people who have high vagus nerve activity. "They respond to stress with calmness and resilience, they build networks, break up conflicts, they're more cooperative, they handle bereavement better." He says being around these people makes other people feel good. "I would guarantee Barack Obama is off the charts. Just bring him to my lab."

...

. Since it's tricky to study the vagus nerve, [Haidt] and a psychology student conceived of a way to look at it indirectly. The vagus nerve works with oxytocin, the hormone of connection. Since oxytocin is released during breast-feeding, he and the student brought in 42 lactating women and had them watch either an inspiring clip from The Oprah Winfrey Show about a gang member saved from a life of violence by a teacher or an amusing bit from a Jerry Seinfeld routine.

About half the Oprah-watching mothers either leaked milk into nursing pads or nursed their babies following the viewing; none of the Seinfeld watchers felt enough breast dilation to wet a pad, and fewer than 15 percent of them nursed. You could say elevation is Oprah's opiate of the masses, so it's fitting that she early on gave Obama her imprimatur. And that for his victory speech was up front in Grant Park, elevation's moist embodiment, feeling so at one with humankind that she used a stranger as a handkerchief.

Obama causes one to lactate? Sounds about right.

digg this
posted by Ace at 05:41 PM

| Access Comments
http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/aceofspadeshq.pajama.tmus/comments;tile=1;sz=160x600;pos=1;ord=123456789?
Recent Comments
Kensington: ""So show me a picture of a hot chick that is also ..."

Kasper Hauser: "Good riddance cock suckers .Whoa!  Larry Crai ..."

kennah: "When I hear first grade girls talking about image ..."

GareyNash: "21   It looks like no one answered your ..."

ol-dirty-/b/tard: "Pragmatism is exact opposite of principle, and on ..."

Kensington: ""Don't be silly.  Rapists should be shot dead ..."

Peterus: "Hopefully, they'd tank. But I think it will go an ..."

Holdfast: ""It seems quite a few women ask the doctor for boo ..."

Kensington: ""[Allahpundit] was all for Sarah, at the beginning ..."

ol-dirty-/b/tard: " "Allah's post is typically defeatist and depressi ..."

CB: "We like to look down on . . . women for voting so ..."

WonderWartHog: "Anyone here got a problem with shiny kablooeys?&nb ..."

http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/aceofspadeshq.pajama.tmus/comments;tile=2;sz=160x600;pos=2;ord=123456789?
Recent Entries
Search

http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/aceofspadeshq.pajama.tmus/comments;tile=3;sz=160x600;pos=3;ord=123456789?
MuNuvians
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
News/Chat
Archives
Text Only Options

Top of page


Text Only Options

Open the original version of this page.

     

Usablenet Assistive is a UsableNet product. Usablenet Assistive Main Page.