{"id":1064,"date":"2009-07-13T14:42:53","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T19:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2009-07-13T14:44:06","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T19:44:06","slug":"my-vindication-dammit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/","title":{"rendered":"My Vindication, Dammit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am usually wary of the liberal bias of the New York Times but every now and then they split the bullseye. Like this article<\/strong><\/a>: <\/p>\n

Cursing and Pain Relief
\nBy Nicholas Bakalar
\nIf you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? Automatically or involuntarily cursing under such circumstances is extremely common, if not universal, and a group of British scientists wondered if cursing helps reduce the agony..<\/p>\n

For their study, published online July 13 in NeuroReport, researchers found 68 student volunteers willing to place their hands in ice water to see how long they could stand it. First, the experimenters asked them for \u201cfive words you might use after hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer.\u201d (One of them managed to come up with five words that were not curses, so the researchers eliminated that student from the experiment. Among the others, the favorites were the two four-letter words you are now thinking of. Since the students were English, \u201cbollocks\u201d was also a common selection.) <\/p>\n

The volunteers then immersed their non-dominant hands in 41-degree water while repeating the first swear word on their list. As a control, they went through the same process, but this time using neutral a word they had chosen to describe a table.
\nThe researchers measured their heart rates and timed how long they could keep their hands in the ice water. On average, people were able to withstand the pain for significantly longer if they cursed than if they did not. Swearing also increased heart rate and decreased subjective reports of pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientifically speaking,\u201d said Richard Stephens, the lead author, \u201cwe\u2019ve only looked at one particular kind of pain. Different kinds of pain are slightly different physiologically. Nevertheless, the finding probably carries over.\u201d Dr. Stephens, who is a lecturer in psychology at Keele University in England, said that swearing has its proper place. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t recommend it with little kids around,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it can be helpful and useful.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So… anybody who wants to give me **** the next time I cuss out some ******* driving slow in front of me – well…. hmmpf. Science is on my side. <\/p>\n

Damn shame that George Carlin is not still around. He could work this study into his “Seven Words” bit in a way that would be magical. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am usually wary of the liberal bias of the New York Times but every now and then they split the bullseye. Like this article: Cursing and Pain Relief By Nicholas Bakalar If you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-bovard"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am usually wary of the liberal bias of the New York Times but every now and then they split the bullseye. Like this article: Cursing and Pain Relief By Nicholas Bakalar If you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"My Vindication, Dammit\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":5,\"keywords\":[\"Bovard\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/\",\"name\":\"My Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/07\\\/13\\\/my-vindication-dammit\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Vindication, Dammit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard","og_description":"I am usually wary of the liberal bias of the New York Times but every now and then they split the bullseye. Like this article: Cursing and Pain Relief By Nicholas Bakalar If you bang your thumb with a hammer, does it really lessen the pain to let loose with a string of curse words? […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"My Vindication, Dammit","datePublished":"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/"},"wordCount":397,"commentCount":5,"keywords":["Bovard"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/","name":"My Vindication, Dammit - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-13T19:42:53+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-13T19:44:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/my-vindication-dammit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Vindication, Dammit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}