Taking the Scenic Route

#158 Zora posed Obi-Wan’s hand on his head and declared “Not AGAIN!” as she had him walk through her Polly Pocket wreckage. (that’s Luke back there with Obi-Wan)

And a few more, where he mentors his padawan

#157 Carcassonne expansions really add a lot to the game play. The dragon kept throwing wrenches into things.

#156 Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

This morning, the kids just would not wake up (probably overtired from the sleepover). Zach took them outside. Zane draped himself over the table, and Zora just went and laid in the grass. lol. Eventually they did wake up though.

Ah, here she is…

Near their bedtime I wanted to take a shower (mostly just needed some time alone, and that was the easiest way to accomplish it) so Zach took Zora downstairs to play. I got out of the shower and noticed they were still downstairs, and sat at my computer for a few more stolen moments. Then I heard snoring. I peeked down the stairs to see this.

I thought this was really interesting. It makes sense too. I am one of those weird people who purposely clicks on the links with big warnings of *GROSS* on them. Puss and such is sort of facinating to me. About the only thing that grosses me out is certain smells, but they didn’t bother me before pregnancy, but 9 months straight morning sickness left some lasting gag reflex psychosomatic effects.

My mom should be humored by this considering a small part of our conversation earlier today.

the link: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/easily-grossed-out-you-might-be-conservative-21814.html

Easily grossed out? You might be a conservative!

ITHACA, N.Y. — Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch?

If so, chances are you’re more conservative — politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians — than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell University studies.

The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust — an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments — in contemporary judgments of morality and purity.

In the first study, published in the journal Cognition & Emotion (Vol.23: No.4), Pizarro and co-authors Yoel Inbar of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Paul Bloom of Yale University surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically mixed “swing states.” They subjected these adults to two indexes: the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, and a political ideology scale. From this they found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.

To test whether disgust sensitivity is linked to specific conservative attitudes, the researchers then surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage, abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action.

Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity. The researchers also found a weak correlation between disgust sensitivity and support for tax cuts, but no link between disgust sensitivity and the other issues.

And in a separate study in the current issue of the journal Emotion (Vol.9: No.3), Pizarro and colleagues found a link between higher disgust sensitivity and disapproval of gays and lesbians. For this study, the researchers used implicit measures (measures that have been shown to assess attitudes people may be unwilling to report explicitly; or that they may not even know they possess).

Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid place in making moral judgments, Pizarro noted. Conservatives have argued that there is inherent wisdom in repugnance; that feeling disgusted about something — gay sex between consenting adults, for example — is cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete reason. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm.

Studying the link between disgust and moral judgment could help explain the strong differences in people’s moral opinions, Pizarro said; and it could offer strategies for persuading some to change their views.

“People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral values seem driven by emotion, and in particular, disgust appears to be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral judgments,” said Pizarro.

That can have tragic effects — as in cases throughout history where minorities have been victims of discrimination by groups that perceived them as having disgusting characteristics.

The research speaks to a need for caution when forming moral judgments, Pizarro added. “Disgust really is about protecting yourself from disease; it didn’t really evolve for the purpose of human morality,” he said. “It clearly has become central to morality, but because of its origins in contamination and avoidance, we should be wary about its influences.”

The studies were funded by Cornell.

#155 Friends.

the focus wasn’t quite right, but I still like this one too…

One more game of Carcassonne with the kids today. It was a lot of fun.

Zane playing wii with the boys

In the last week, I have heard a lot of Pro-life people who want to make it clear that they do not agree with the actions taken by the murderer of Dr. Tiller. I completely agree. I understand the desire to completely seperate themselves from the Christian Fundamentalist Terrorist, because 99.9% of the people in the pro-life movement would never even consider doing such a thing.

With that in mind, I would hope that many would take that experience and evaluate if their perception of Muslims has maybe been distorted in the same way. The vast majority of Muslims, especially those not in the Middle East, would never consider doing any acts of terrorism. In fact, most left the Middle East for that exact reason…they wanted to live in peace with their families and not have to live with the craziness of war and terrorism in close vincinity.

Use this experience to remember to show kindness and respect to others, even if they disagree with you. Lumping groups together rarely accomplishes anything other than mistrust and misunderstanding.

I normally just go to the admin pages of my blog, without visiting the “public view” of my site.  I was a little confused as to why I hadn’t gotten any comments for quite a while, until I discovered, much to my embarrassment, that I have the default set as “unpublished” instead of “published” now.  Not sure how that happened, but I do know that I wasn’t looking for it, so it didn’t get done.  So, I had to go back and “publish” a whole host of posts.  duh.

So, for those of you that like to read in order, go back a few pages until you find the post after “project365 #135-139″ and start there.

#154 Five Kids in the School Room

Robert & his kids came over for the afternoon and overnight.  The kids had a blast.  We made homemade pizza, played Carcassonne, and watched movies.

The princesses and their Daddys head to the store for supper ingredients.

Playing

On a personal level, Tiller and the “Summer of Mercy” really shaped my beliefs. 

In 1991, when Randall Terry, Dobson, and Operation Rescue descended on Wichita, I was suddenly thrust in the middle of a fight that wasn’t mine.  I had never had an abortion, was pro-life, and didn’t really think much about the issue.  I had made up my mind, in that black and white world that the young inhabit, and didn’t really care to think about it much.  I was decided, that is, until I had to deal with the protesters.

I didn’t have the slightest idea where Dr. Tillers clinic was, but discovered that summer that it was right next door to the hotel I worked at. (you can actually see it in a lot of the news coverage of the clinic)  I remember being confused as to who all those people were that first day, but was suprised to learn what was going on.  I was supportive of the protesters cause.  That view grew thin as the weeks rode on. 

Every day I had to leave earlier and earlier to slog my way through the screaming crowds.  As time wore on, I found the protesters comments and insults yelled at me and my vehicle (I had the unfortunate combination of a very hot summer, a sweater vest as my work uniform, and no a/c, so I had to keep my windows down to keep from suffocating).  It wasn’t my fight, so why was I constantly being screamed at every day and had people trying to block my car?

I also started having to deal with the protesters personally.  They would follow guests into the hotel, harrassing them and being completely crappy to hotel employees.  Then, we started having groups of them come in to try and use our restrooms, then hang out looking for guests to come by, presumably patients.  The things they said were horrifying, and not words I would have EVER thought should come out of the mouths of supposed Christians.  We ended up having to hire security for the lobby to keep them out. 

By the time the six weeks was up, every one of us who worked there was about as fed up as we could be with the whole thing.  I just wanted the protesters to go home, and distinctly remembered starting to have the running joke as to whether I was going to go “people bowling” that day to get to work.  (just keep driving even if idiots jumped in my way again) because it was so frustrating.

I am pretty sure I am not the only one that started really looking at the issue during those weeks and found the pro-life movement to be lacking.  Their actions seemed to have very little resemblence to what they proclaimed to believe.  They were about the most un-Christ-like “Christians” I had ever seen (followed closely by the Franklin Graham representatives who all got drunk & rowdy in another hotel I worked at). 

The result of the “Summer of #$()#*$)%&” is that I utterly and completely did not want to be associated, in ANY WAY, with the pro-life movement.  I was still personally against abortion, but from that point on would always vote for choice.  There are a lot of things in this country that are legal, that I don’t agree with, but it is not for me to decide how everybody else should live. 

Even though I vote pro-choice, there was a part of me that was a little uncomfortable about that actual issues surrounding abortion.  After having 8 miscarriages myself, and a few friends who were faced with abortions, I knew that the feelings of an unwanted pregnancy were very similar to the feelings of both infertility and miscarriages.  At it’s root, it is the desperate feeling of being totally out of control of your body and your life.  

As I have gotten older, my views have only gone more towards pro-choice.  On the most major point, I realized that I will never be able to vote against abortions until there is actual, tangible, consistent support for children and mothers.  Frankly, the way the current laws are written, I think they are too restricting for that very reason alone.  When we, as a society, make sure that every child is able to be cared for and supported, then I would support restrictions.  I think it should always be available for cases of rape, especially incest, and for medical need. 

On a more personal level, I have seen, first hand, how difficult some of the severe birth defects are, both on the babies and the families.  I have seen instances where abortion can be the most selfless and giving act of a parent who can’t watch their child suffer any more.  Even though I think I would chose to deliver a child with severe, survivable defects, I do have more understanding of just how difficult that road is.  I can’t say “for sure” that I would never, because I have never been faced with it.  I am old enough to know that a lot of times your “nevers” are just a matter of “haven’t yet” because some things are out of your control.  Some things are beyond your understanding until it is laid out in front of you.

In an interesting way, Dr. Tillers death has brought me around to being more at peace with the pro-choice movement.  Some of the lingering questions were laid to rest as personal accounts, online and in person, have come to light.  Although it saddens me greatly that there is ever a need for an abortion, I am thankful that we do have the option.  I sincerely hope and pray that somebody with as much love, compassion, and expertise is able to step into Dr. Tiller’s shoes.  Until this week I didn’t understand why Tiller could be anything other than simply tolerated, now I understand why he is called a hero.