“Study Finds Left-Wing Brain, Right-Wing Brain” says the Los Angeles Times today [http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story?coll=la-home-center]. 

I will refrain from the obvious, lowbrow joke that the difference between liberal and conservatives’ brains is None and A Big One, respectively.

The UCLA study says, in a nutshell, liberals are better problem-solvers, think more complexly, and such high-order thinking has been responsible for many scientific and social advances throughout history.

Now, if only we could get them to accept studies regarding differences in men and women’s brains.

The study was performed on a sampling of college students who were then asked to press an M when it lighted up on a keyboard and to not press a W.  Students who self-identified as “more liberal” did better on this test, proving… that it was an easy test, that most college students self-identify as “more liberal,” therefore: more liberal students do well on this easy test!

Which reminds me of the poll in August that sadly reported 1 in 4 Americans read no books last year.  [http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/reading.ap/.]  The poll made distinctions [women read more, men read more nonfiction] and said that non-readers tend to be older, less educated, poorer, from rural areas, or a minority.  What you’d expect.  There was a mention towards the end that Democrats read “slightly more books” than Republicans.  (I’m surprised that the title of the article wasn’t “Liberals Lead Country in Reading.”) 

So what would you expect Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, to say?  Something like “we need to turn off the television” or “encourage children to read”? 

She said: “The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes … It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page.”

Okaaayyy... 

I guess that there is a valid point.  “No New Taxes” or “W04” are quite straight-forward and simple.  While “Bush Lied, People Died” and “No Blood for Oil” play on many subtle political nuances and requires much more of that higher-order thinking they are now scientifically proven to posses. 

What was the grave difference between the devout scholars of the Left and the Nascar-watching Right?  According to the AP-Ipsos poll, among those who had read at least one book, liberals typically read nine books in the year, conservatives typically read eight, moderates typically read  five. 

Surely we couldn’t be expected to read that one extra book per year because we’re too busy shopping for bumper stickers.