Friday Post

Being green doesn't necessarily mean being nice:

Purchasing green products may license people to engage in self-interested and unethical behaviours, such as cheating, stealing and lying, according to a newly published study.

The study, in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science and conducted by University of Toronto professors Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, set out to determine how green consumption fits into people's sense of social responsibility and how if affects their behaviour.

Really?

More from the article:

In one experiment, 156 volunteers were randomly assigned to a computer screen showing one of two online stores that either carried mainly green products or conventional goods. One group was asked merely to rate the products for "aesthetics of design" and the "informativeness of description." The others were invited to select products for purchase.

The students were then invited to take part in an ostensibly unrelated game where they were given money and told they could divide it with a partner any way they liked, as long as the partner agreed. If the offer was rejected, no one would get any money. The results were startling.

Those who had been exposed to the green store and asked merely to rate the products shared the most money. Participants who had made purchases in the green store shared less money than those who made purchases in the conventional goods store.

But...but... green is good!

No, green is a trend and a way to lord over others one's sense of moral superiority.

Moving on...

Sweet vindication in the form of a letter to the editor:

As a Japanese student at Queen's University, I was far more offended by the Alma Mater Society's (AMS's) treatment of this issue than I would have been by the sumo suit battle. In fact, I might have participated in the latter. To marginalize Japanese-Canadians by painting them as a group unable to enjoy a good "Sumo showdown" is the real racist action. For goodness sake, my grandparents endured relocation and internment at the hands of the so-called "white-privileged," so have a little more faith in us.

The ineffectual AMS knows that there are real issues of racism at Queen's, so they cloak themselves in political-correctness to veil their failure to deal with the roots of the problem. Case in point: Did the AMS take action when the Queen's University Muslim Students' Association prayer area was broken into and vandalized with the words "Muslims should die" in September 2008?

Get over it, AMS. The Japanese students at Queen's don't care, neither should you.

I'm satisfied.

Obama needs China's help in pressuring Iran. Insert laughter here.

Angry little fascist at the University of Ottawa actually works for Pat Martin of the NDP. Insert own opinions here.

Christians in the Holy Land on Good Friday.