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Ha, ha. Very clever, Doug.

To play devil's advocate here (on 6/6/06): would you admit, Mr. Clark, that at least some physical behaviour arises from surges in one's brain/nerve capacity?

If depression is strongly related (95% of doctors would say directly linked to) chemical imbalances in the brain, and athletes and soldiers and others in emergencies experience hyper-adrenaline surges that drive one to physical acts of strength and courage (mothers lifting cars off children and the like), why then is it impossible to attribute to some people less ability to suppress sudden overwhelming aggression?

Isn't the science for the first examples pretty well established? What exactly prevents similar diagnoses for "IED" (frighteningly the same acronym as for Improvised Explosive Device")?

You're right, Freddy.

Such people have an obligation to develop effective restraining mechanisms. We all have to harness our temperament in order to conform our behavior to social norms. For some, this might require anger-management therapy, counseling or medication. For others, some emotional discipline might be sufficient.

[[Such people have an obligation to develop effective restraining mechanisms.]]

No kidding. Because, memo to everyone on the far side of 40: It's WAY too late in the game to start pleading insanity.

Makes sense to me Doug. Sudden urge syndrome means a sudden action or reaction thus JERK. So as you say, call a jerk a jerk and forget the psyco-babble. As one who was in the psychology business for a long time I say KISS and call it JERK, no excuses.

Unless such afflictees are star athletes, boxers , World Cup soccer stars, wrestlers, soldiers fighting suicidal maniacs or other kinds of freedom fighters, or comedians like Sam Kinison, then thank god for IED.

This is another big joke perpetrated upon the American public. We are fast making medical discoveries to explain every bad behavior in the book. It won't be long before no one can be blamed for their actions, regardless of the harm that their actions cause. The result will soon be that everyone will go to court, blame a medical condition of their actions, and be released. No one will ever have to pay for their bad behavior. I expect that we will soon find that robbery, rape, and murder will be blamed on medical conditions, so no one will actually ever suffer consequences of their actions. Heck, we are even making movies showing us the softer side of terrorists, so they won't suffer the scorn of those injured or killed by their "bad behavior".

Are we now to believe that the 19 jihadists on 9/11 really were just victims of IED, and they aren't to be blamed for their actions?

I guess the old adage "The Devil Made Me Do It" will soon exonerate us for all of our actions and behaviors. Geesh!

Forget this pscho-babble. Let's call a jerk a jerk.* Doug

Doug! The next time you write a terrible story full of your pscho-babble and we don't get it. Remember you cannot use the jerk excuse, since you were the jerk that did it.

So, if the facts bear out this condition of IED, then I agree it is the responsibility of the afflicted to seek and get counseling or other (maybe a pill?) help. But that means not dismissing the possibility they do suffer from a biological problem, in large part. It means dealing with it.

This is new science, and may well turn out to be disproven (as all science is based on trying to DISprove, not just assert things). Well and good. Meantime, I wonder if there's an equivalent biological explanation for rude blogging behaviour...