According to Time Magazine, researchers at University College London have figured out why Speaker John Boehner is such a sobbing sissy: it's because conservatives' brains are built more on emotion than liberals.

   

In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the University College London, people who identified themselves as liberals generally had a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a comma-shaped region near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making. By contrast, those who identified as conservatives had larger amygdalas — almond-shaped structures that are linked with emotional learning and the processing of fear.

Time goes on to describe another study that has purportedly identified the "liberal gene" that is linked to personality types driven to seek out new experiences. 

Of course this is all Freudian bullcrap from the trash compactors at Time Magazine. Pop psychology, junk science. When their writers can't come up with anything better to cover, they pull out the latest "study" of the moment to fill up column space.

From a study of an enormous pool of 90 young adults they were able to come up with such sweeping analysis as:

Liberals were more likely than conservatives to follow another person's gaze, suggesting that people who lean right value autonomy more; alternative explanations suggest that liberals might be more empathetic, or that conservatives are less trusting of others.

Now that's science for you. Because participants follow someone's eyes, it must be because they care more. Obama certainly seems to believe in this fuzzy analysis, coming out in his speech on the deficit yesterday claiming the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Democrats want to protect Grandma, the poor kid with Down syndrome and the disabled. And Republicans don't.

Of course all of this "science" doesn't answer the age-old question: who has the larger madulla oblongata?