Mirror Mirror: Who’s the most narcissistic of us all?

MoonHowler

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According to Washingtonpost.com, psychology has confirmed what women have known all along:

Depressing news from the world of psychology: nearly every stereotype about the gender gap with regards to narcissism, ambition and leadership is right.

That’s according to a study in the March issue of the Psychological Bulletin, the journal of the American Psychological Association. In a review of three decades of survey data from nearly half a million participants, researchers found that men are more likely to demonstrate narcissistic behavior than women, regardless of generation or age.

With what must have been a tremendous tolerance for inflated egos, the researchers examined some of humanity’s least-attractive characteristics — manipulativeness, self-absorption, aggression and arrogance among them — and looked at how people responded to statements that included “If I ruled the world, it would be a much better place” and “I know that I am good because everyone keeps telling me so.” Lucky them.

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Where were the thundering hordes?

MoonHowler

As I watched speaker after speaker go to the podium in the Supervisors chambers last night, requesting that the BOCS advertise a tax rate high enough to support the 5 year plan, I questioned my own sanity.  Where were the thundering hordes of people I had heard about?  You know, those people who wanted the tax rate frozen at some ridiculously low figure that would pretty much halt most progress in Prince William County.

Our house-mate suggested that I must have been listening to talking hand  sock puppets–that old propaganda trick of making people think that there were a lot more people out there than really exist.  Sometime after 9 pm, a lone man got up and asked for a 1.3% rise in taxes.  Actually, I think he thought that was even too much.  He was also plenty irate about the budget sheet that got sent home with each school kid.  I wonder if he got irate last year and the year before that?

Sending materials home with students is the main way the school system communicates between school and home.  It always has been.  Just because we live in an age of technology doesn’t mean that all parents have computers.  Even in households with computers, often the computers were bought for the kids to help them with their studies (forget enhancing their social life).  I don’t think some of our middle and upper middle class residents understand that everyone isn’t just like them.

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Netanyahu: Should he be speaking before Congress?

MoonHowler

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Too late now.  Netanyahu is scheduled to speak before Congress at 11 a.m. today.  Many Democrats will not be in attendance.  President Obama will not meet with the Israeli prime minister while he is here.

Many Americans feel he broke protocol by accepting an invitation from Congress to speak.  In fact, many Israelis want him to cancel also.  The chart above gives the break down.

At the heart of the matter is talks with Iran.  Netanyahu doesn’t like our stance.  Perhaps there are two sides.  Who knows.  The issue has gotten all tangled up in American politics and probably in  Israeli politics also.  Israel has elections in 2 weeks. Could this visit have any bearing on those elections?

 

Lawson and Candland: F in diplomacy

MoonHowler

Insidenova.com:

A weekend meeting between the Prince William Board of Supervisors and school board to discuss budget challenges devolved into bickering over a flier about the school division’s “current budget challenge,” sent home with students last week.

The meeting, held Saturday at the Buckhall Volunteer Fire Station in Manassas, was called ahead of Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, when the board will vote to advertise a tax rate for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1.

By law, once supervisors approve an advertised tax rate, they can vote to reduce the rate but cannot raise it.

The vote is important for Prince William County’s 95 public schools, which receive about 45 percent of their funding from local real-estate taxes.

Under controversial “budget guidance,” approved by supervisors in December, local tax bills would rise 1.3 percent next year – or the inflation rate as defined by the Consumer Price Index. The move would mean an $11 million reduction in expected revenue to the school division for the 2015-16 school year.

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