Tags
death penalty, evangelical nutcases, GOP, Humor, Islamophobia, John Boehner, psychology, SCOTUS, sociology, teabaggers, Ted Haggard, Troy Davis
We’ve had the argument about violence more than once here. Are we by nature violent? Or was it learned behavior. I’m of the latter persuasion surely.
Plenty of factors contribute to our willingness to harm others in pursuit of our own interests, and I found this article a few days ago and found it quite informative on the issue.
Take a look at Why is There Peace? written by Harvard professor Steven Pinker. I have voiced a number of his arguments at one time or another, but I think he puts it all together quite well. Take a look and see if you agree.
(I thought the pic would appeal to the creationists who no doubt recognize humans using their dinosaurs in pursuit of warfare.)
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Congressional Republicans continue to act like dodo birds. Did anyone tell them that that bird is now extinct?
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As some other blogger (sorry, forgot who) said, a job creator is not a job creator until they creat: JOBS!
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Class warfare? Oh yeah, picking on 1% of the population is now class warfare. Keep on with that argument robot generic GOP stooge.
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But another example of Islamophobia:
Oh and don’t miss the sponsor listed as ATLASSHRUGS.COM. You go Paul Ryan. This is what you support eh?
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Oh happy stupid days. This just made me laugh my moneymaker off. It seems that disgraced evangelical and sometimes gay man, Ted Haggard is so down and out that he has signed up for “Celebrity Wife Swap.” No doubt Haggard misunderstood and thought it meant something quite kinky. But then again, it could. Turns out he’s swapping wimmmin with none other than Gary (I even look crazy) Busey.
One almost–I did say almost, wants to watch this. Almost.
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Beeryblog has something to say about the Troy Davis execution, and if you are smart you’ll go read it. Beery can write, he makes me jealous of his talent. I can only try harder to say less and more at the same time. Damn good writing. Damn good thinking.
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Boehner’s butt cheeks are now as orange as his face, given the spanking he got by his own party TeaNutz®.
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Michele Bachmann says another stupid, mindless, inaccurate thing in Iowa. Oh wait, this blog is about NEWS. Nothing to see folks, move along.
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New game: watch the GOP thingie called a debate and see which candidate is trying the hardest to channel Reagan. Is he the ONLY hero they have?
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Oh, the $16 muffin scandal at the DOJ was all a myth. It was just a shorthanded means of invoicing by the hotel, who was given a budget, and didn’t want to list every piece of food, so stuck the charges under just a few categories.
Don’t look for the GOP to change their tune though. They are loving them so muffin-gate.
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The “Ground Zero Mosque, which was really a Community center, had its official grand opening with nary a protestor in site. The first event was an exhibit of children’s pictures against hate.
God, also known as God, Allah, Yahweh, Higher Power, and other endless appellations, was seen touring the photograph and thoroughly enjoying His/Her self.
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Here’s some “strict constructionism” that makes the Crazy Right just search for that vibrator cuz it TURNS THEM ON: This from that icon of logic against all common sense, JustUS Antonin Scalia:
There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. You convict ’em, we kill ’em, no questions asked or answered.
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What’s on the stove? Oh some high falutin’ chicken breasty thing with white wine, goat cheese, oven-dried tomatoes, garlic and butter, lots of butter. Along with steamed new potatoes and broccoli steamed as well. If the chickeny thing turns out as good as it sounds, I’ll be posting that recipe, maybe even today.
Stay tuned.
Existential Ennui 
Now that the Palestinians are going for recognition before the UN, I expect the pro-Israel rhetoric to really heat up.
Ted Haggard needs to live his life and stay off the TV. I’m sick of him.
Yes it certainly has, but it seems that those independent voices of knowledge think that Perry and Romney are woefully wrong in their analysis of the situation. And it seems that Netenyahu (wrong spelling for sure) did not support their assessment either. I am thoroughly convinced that justice is on the side of the Palestinians and that they deserve their own state. Being a person of faith doesn’t obviate me from the truth–the land was theirs and Israel’s claim has always been based on a book, rather than true history. Not that they are not entitled to live in the land, for I believe they were disbursed throughout the area historically. The move from Egypt to the Promised land is largely fable. Little by little, the tribes, who had been there all along, managed to gain control over regions, at least for a time before they too were taken over by the Babylonians, Persians and Romans. It seems to me that the Palestinians and Hebrews have about an equal claim to longevity.
(1) Has anyone Reminded Congressional Tea Party/GOP, and GOP Presidential Candidates that they Violate the Constitution of our Founding Fathers basic Intentions? What House of Representatives Constitutional Responsibilities? (2) Animals almost never kill Each Other: Same Species; they only Display, Challenge for superiority. Isn’t it Our Selfishness that cauases our Viiolence, Killing, even anger?
Tony I believe the Constitution is only important to the TeaNutz when it serves their purpose to invoke it with their silly twists of interpretation.
We are violent it seems for a variety of reasons, but I consider none of them innate to our natures. Just my opinion.
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Okay I haven’t yet read Pinker’s article, but my feeling is that we humans *are* instinctively inclined to violence. Nature, being “red in tooth and claw” and all that, is hardly peacably inclined, is it? The problem is, where we have used our big brains to increase our potential for violence (leading to such possibilities as destroying the entire species, other multiple species and indeed perhaps the entire world we abide on), our challenge as “civilised” humans is to overcome our instincts and use our big brains to create peace…
Really? I don’t think so, but I think we are instinctively inclined to self-preservation and that causes us to guard ourselves at the expense of others, which leads to attempts to retain and obtain those things that help self preservation, and that then can lead to violence. Perhaps we are saying the same thing, but I’m just taking a longer round about way to get there.
I think we *are* kind of saying the same thing! According to Dawkins and the like, our primary motivation (and indeed that of all living things) is to preserve and reproduce our genes… which leads to self-preservation… which leads to protecting ourselves from potential threats… which can lead to violence. So we are each just pointing out different links in the same instinctive chain! 😉
(I suppose my point was that, while self-preservation often, in nature, leads to violence, it perhaps takes a particularly advanced brain or a relatively high level of thought to realise the possibility of preserving the self through non-violent means… and also to realise that, in protecting our species and our planet, we are also, in the longer term and indirectly, preserving ourselves and our genes… or something!)
I agree. One hopes that our superior brains at some point come to the realization that self-preservation is most enhanced by non-violence against each other and protection of our environment. We still seem to be acting rather primitively don’t we?
Not primitively enough and not intelligently enough, methinks. We seem to be stuck in a dangerous half-way point, where we still think throwing rocks at each other is the way to get what we want, but we have the “intelligence” to make our “rocks” big enough to destroy the world. We are like stupid little gods.