Genetic Mutation Responsible for Conservative Behaviour AND Godzilla?

Ever notice how more than a few conservatives are not happy chappies? Over time, permanent lines become etched into their faces from constant use of the sneer, the snarl, the grimace and the frown.

I'm not a medical doctor or a psychiatrist, but it's fairly obvious that behind the outward signs of anger lies the black dog of depression, which probably affects more than a few Right-wingers. "Why?", you may ask. They're in charge of government and setting the cultural agenda in both Australia and the US. All seems well. But an online report from PNAS (covered by Science News) shows how some of the jigsaw pieces that make up Conservative behaviour fit together. You see, an overactive fear centre in the brain, caused by a mutation in the 5-HTT gene, is proposed to lead to anxiety and depression.

That means that people who carry the short version [of 5-HTT] are never free from uncertainty over potential threats,says psychiatrist Daniel Weinberger at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland

When you fear terrorists, foreigners, brown people, black people, gays, feminists, the Left, Muslims, the Labor Party, Michael Moore, Iraq, the ABC, Kerry O'Brian, Al Gore, Al Franken, Iran, Fairfax Newspapers, scientists, France, the youth of today, environmentalists, Latinos, communists, fear itself, academics, Hip-hop, AIDS, atheists, Aboriginals, David Marr, hippies, Heavy Metal music, North Korea, refugees, artists, university students, the unemployed, the Democrats, nature etcetera etcetera, you can put it down to a shorter version of 5-HTT. Ain't going to make you happy, though. Quite the opposite.