08 | March | 2011 | Existential Ennui

Tags

evolution, GOP, humans, Iowa, Koch Brothers, Muslims, political science, Politics, right-wing neo-cons, sociology, teabaggers, Zoology

I like elephants. I can’t imagine why anyone would harm one. I recognize that they can inadvertently cause damage because of their size, but that’s more poor planning on the part of humans than on elephants.

Ingenious testing of elephants has found that they have cooperative skills, a sign of much higher social functioning. Few other animals share this skill, chimpanzees, hyenas, rooks, and of course, humans.

In fact, the elephants score higher than the other groups in literally understanding why they have to work together to achieve a goal. Given our lack of willingness to work together these days, I guess one could say that elephants have something to remind us about.

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Speaking of evolution, or science, one of those, what is likely in humanities future? While is can be argued that we are devolving rather than evolving, some people in the know suggest that our future may find us shorter and fatter. I’m doing a pretty good job of the latter at least, and I’m not very tall, 5’4″ doesn’t make me basketball material.

Scientists tell us that our ability to adapt (read make clothes and houses) slows down any need to physically change to meet the challenges of the environment. However, that nasty bugaboo to “creationists” and evolutionary naysayers, DNA genome development, suggests that we in fact may be changing on the inside more than we know.

Additional flies in the ointment are that natural selection doesn’t operate much any more because of our abilities to “save” babies who would otherwise die due to genetic and disease complications. And what may be even more important, our growing ability to manipulate genes may have the greatest impact. Makes ya just want to stick around and see how it all turns out!

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As much as the wacko right (mainly Beck) squawks about George Soros, they seem to poo poo the importance of the Koch brothers who fronted one of the first “tea” parties, and continue to meddle in everyone’s affairs. They are deeply imbedded in the success of Governor Walker’s move in Wisconsin to destroy public unions. Rachel Maddow documented their involvement in bringing in “counter” protestors. In fact she shows how they are always in the picture wherever needed to push the teabagger position that they so carefully have created. Moe has some good stuff on this too at Whatever Works.

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We seem to be living in times when people are not acting rationally for the most part. Groups continually act in total opposition to their own best interests. They are manipulated by obvious forces, yet they seem blind to it. What to make of all of it? A new book by Stanford professor, Dr. Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order, may point the way. A NYTimes review might whet your interest. I’ll see about getting a review copy.

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People and things that are just driving me nuts today:

Peter King and his witch hunt against Muslims in America. This is being orchestrated to be an unassailable probe with King calling only “Muslims” who attack other Muslims for radicalism.
My state is inundated with a plethora of sleazy Repuklicans “testing” the waters here. The funky smell of insane politicos fairly reeks with the likes of Newt and Herman and Mikey, The Donald, et al. Go SOMEWHERE ELSE! You are pollution.
Mitt Romney’s pathetic attempts to distance himself from his own “Obamacare” in Massachusetts, and his rather upper class assail on the President’s abilities. Mitt, go away. It ain’t gonna happen. A huge section of your own wacko party doesn’t think you are a Christian–a must in GOPer circles these days.
Computer crap. My reader is causing me fits. Won’t clear out “marked as read”, the refresh button works sporadically, and the next button also works when it feels like it. The Contrarian always downloads the fixes and always cleans the darn thing every few days, but this dial-up just tangles everything eventually. What was a one minute job, is now a twenty-minute one.
Oil prices. I’m sure they never go up because of any “crisis” but I’m just as sure that every “crisis” is an excuse to raise prices. It’s one of those things we can’t control much because we just don’t have the cojones to invest in alternative energy programs like the REST OF THE MODERN WORLD!
Anything at all to do with Charlie Sheen. The man is sick. Get him in a hospital. Stop making him “news.” He is no more so than a sick dog.

Hope you like the new look. If I were rich, I guess I’d redecorate the house every six months. But I’m not, so I do it here. Still tinkering with the wallpaper. Not sure what I like best. A vote? lol.

What’s on the stove: tostados!