the familes in our heads: the difference between progressives and conservatives

Damn, I'm just running into a lot of old, though provoking stuff on the interwebs these days:

Red Family, Blue Family: Making sense of the values issue uses a "Nation-as-Family" metaphor to explain why there is such a difference between liberals and conservatives on such "moral" issues as the environment, women's/gbltq rights, war, etc.

It's long, but I recommend scrolling down to the red and blue Strict Father and Nurturant Parent family descriptions if you have time for nothing else - I'm not saying this model explains everything, but it is eye opening. Much of it refers to the books of George Lakoff, Don't Think of an Elephant and Moral Politics, which attempt to apply cognitive psychology to political movements. A snippet from the link says more than I can:

( snipped for brevity )

Good stuff. Luckily these books are in my public library.

Thoughts?

teevee meme-icry: 25 coolest characters

A much belated meme from Joss Whedon by way of semmie17. Belated because I couldn't come up with 25 characters: Perhaps I don't watch enough of the tee vee. Whedon held himself to "no shows of my own", but luckily I have no shows so I am not similarly restricted:

( I could only come up with 16, in no particular order )