It seems to me that, in general, Democratics, liberals, and leftists are more intelligent than Republicans, conservatives, and right-wingers.

Without getting bogged down in the details of what they actually did, let's look at the general intelligence levels of some recent presidents as exemplars:

Since FDR, who was himself pretty brainy, there have been only four really intelligent presidents---Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton; of these, only Nixon was a Republican. The dumbest presidents since FDR include Eisenhower (borderline dumb), LBJ (borderline dumb), Ford, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II; of these, only LBJ was a Democrat.

Few intelligent people would argue that the dumbest presidents of the recent era are Reagan and the two Bushes---all Republicans.

Since it takes intelligence to see through the daily shitstorm of propaganda to the truths about our world and their (grim) implications for the future, it is no surprise that PO.com's membership is left-leaning.

Granted these are generalities only---averages, if you will. There are some very smart conservatives.

Exactly... when people in first world countries start losing their beloved standard of living, they will not give a toss about the earth getting 2.4ºC warmer over the next 100 years. They will not care about any of the issues they currently "care" about.

If PO hits hard, there might not be any food on the supermarket shelves. Do people honestly expect ANYONE to care about global warming or "world poverty" by this point??

It seems amusing that someone in Australia, currently undergoing one of the worst droughts in recorded history, would neither believe in nor care about global warming.

I guess you'll believe, and care, Johnston, when you have no alternative but to believe and care. That day will come for you.

Until then, enjoy your climate-controlled cocoon.

Doesn't matter which party, you think you "belong" to your still getting screwed by the private for profit bank that prints our money out of thin air, then turns around and charges us interest. Your playing in a rigged game. Doesn't matter who you vote for or if you protest. The N.S.A. most likely lurks this site daily.

I am not sure how strong the evidence is that this drought is caused by man-made climate change. There are people in Australia who think that if the government "does something" and signs Kyoto, the drought will dissapear.

It would be more effective to put the money directly into solutions, such as water recyling. But people recently voted that down because they didn't want to "drink toilet water". Even thought the water would have been purified to a medical standard (eg. pure enough for kidney dialysis).



I have never had air-conditioning, even though we suffer 7-month summers here. It is 90ºF today and this is only the beggining of the hell. There is no-one who hates heat and hotness more than me... if I thought there was something we could do about it I would want to do it.

Well, the first step to doing something is to believe what the world's climate scientists are telling us with one voice and the evidence of your own skin, Johnston.

Don't be a climate change denier---it's a silly stance, and not becoming of someone from your great country. Read the stories on climate change posted on this site and get educated on the subject.

I agree it may be too late to do much about it.

This thread is now posted on the Energy Bulletin site!

Yes the dots are proportional.

Yes the NSA visits here frequently & in significant numbers.

As does every branch of the US military including centcom.gov.

Our Chinese traffic is largely from Chinese ISP's. (although they could be anything since I don't read Chinese.)

The Chinese traffic is about 3-4 months old BTW... before that we have never had a recordable Chinese visitor IP... ever.

And yes... the diversity of opinion here is broad, and creates an excellent perti-dish of ideas.

Despite the lamentations of minority-view posters.

Notice on the map that you are looking at only the 1st 500 of over 20,000 visits. (A software limitation)

Something must have changed in the way that the Chinese address space is indentified, because I have routinely read PO.com from China during my travels over the last three years. I assume there are probably plenty of other PO.com lurkers that travel China and read the site from there.

I think this kind of perspective is the reason why many conservatives don't even want to bother engaging in conversation with large groups of liberals. If you already think you are smarter and that the correctness of your positions is self-evident, debating with you is a waste of my time.

I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that liberals are any smarter than conservatives. Is it smarter to be an idealist or a pragmatist? Conservatives and liberals just follow different dogma. On both sides, a very few manage to break out of the dominant dogma.

I laugh when people try to make comparisons in presidential intelligence. You guys can't even decide if GWB is an idiot or a Machiavellian genius capable of carrying out terrorist attacks on US soil to masterfully manipulate the country to war.

Gee, I never claimed that GWB is a Machiavellian genius.

My sense is that conservatives follow the established dogma and that liberals attempt to break free of it. That concept is embodied in the terms for these groups themselves.

Thus, it takes creative intelligence to be a liberal. Conservatives need only toe the line. That takes less brains.

Liberals therefore tend to be the Greens who want to create an entirely new world based on sound ecological principles. Conservatives want to keep things as they are, on a path they pigheadedly refuse to acknowledge is doomed.

Perhaps this is only a silly theory, but when you look at the chief standard bearers for these two groups---the presidents---a fairly clear pattern does seem to emerge as analyzed in my earlier post.

Bush is an idiot. Cheney is the Machiavellian genius pulling Bush's strings.

There ya go.

I had no problem accessing "questionable" websites from Hong Kong a couple months ago. I think they are outside the great firewall though. The way I see it Hong Kong is being recorded as Beijing or it's the Chinese government. My reasoning is that most people in mainland China likely don't speak English but almost everyone in Hong Kong does.

I must admit I completely agree with dissimulo.

To think you're more inteligent that "rightys" simply because of your rabid hatered of bush is...well...wrong.

"leftys" seem to take a bit of data and place their own inconclusive conclusions on it (ie., a blurry pic of something hitting the pentagon means Bush was behind sept. 11, "rightys" are lurkers...therefor they are spying on "us".)

Let's face it...i find the biblical "end of time" a facinating subject...but i don't bother posing it here because i've seen threads like that just flamed out like no other...why should i waste my time? I'm not even arguing that it will happen in that way...i just find the topic interesting...but i've learned from you all to never post such "nonsense"...

I'm not allowed that freedom of speech.