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Whenever I am in West Germany, I am amazed by the apparent normality of everyday life. As only an occasional visitor to Germany I see strange things that must by [...]

C. VIRGINIA V. BLACK: INTENTIONALLY UNHELPFUL Following Watts, the Supreme Court did not address the level of intent necessary to constitute a "true threat" until 2003 in Virginia v. Black, [...]

The moral authority of an institution depends on the belief that it is legitimate by those who are to be governed by its rules or who support it. Legitimacy implies [...]

Trait anxiety fails to show any relationship with threat-related cognitive processing bias in children, in spite of their state anxiety. Two related studies show that high and low anxious children exhibit high priority towards information processing related to physical harm. They show processing bias for threatening information under nonstressful conditions, while such bias is absent under stressful conditions. High anxious girls exhibit processing bias for threatening information, which gradually diminishes in the presence of stressor.

This study examined firsthand observations of adults (N = 70) making public verbal threats to physically punish or hurt children. While many adults threatened the child with a 'spanking,' most used a variety of other terms, some euphemistic and some menacing, to label the threatened event. Angry shouting seemed rare, and swearing was almost nonexistent. Many threatening adults, however, also hit the child. In the course of threatening their children, adults typically attributed unshared responsibility for group problems to the child. They also normalized their own aggression by acting as though nothing unusual had happened. Perhaps for tactical reasons, most children also reacted as though there were nothing unusual about the threat. No one inside or outside the group intervened. It is argued that a complete understanding of verbal aggression against children requires an appreciation of the ongoing interaction in which episodes are embedded, and of the immediate social context in which episodes develop. Public places may be an important facilitative context because of the expectations associated with a parent's public persona. Key Words - Verbal aggression, Physical punishment, Threats.

There is a need for a better understanding of the inherent biases in forecasts and assessments. The collapse of the Soviet Union after the Cold War proved that the US military, a apart of the so-called Western Threat Industry, deliberately overestimated the opposition by a factor of three. This practice, using fear to justify budgets, jobs and careers, is innate in most human organizations and should be recognized when confronted with assessments regarding global warming, the aging population and germ warfare.

"I have assembled a task force ... to assess our current threat-level system and provide Options for any improvements."--Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "The more refined [the system] […]