28 | October | 2011 | Existential Ennui

Tags

animals, baseball, evolution, Herman Cain, Humor, OWS, Rick Perry, the brain, The Contrarian, World Series

The Contrarian and I seldom go to bed at the same time.

Last night, I happened to awaken just as he was getting into the bed.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I uttered.

“What?” he intoned.

“You’re stealing the blankets!”

“I’m not settled yet,” he grunted. “It’s supply-side blankets.”

“WHAT?”

“When I’m settled, the blankets will trickle down.” he chuckled.

I never slept a wink last night.

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I confess that I never thought animals were terribly thoughtful. I figured they were pretty much responsive to stimuli creatures. Brandy taught us otherwise. We learned from her that dogs at least can think and plan, and make choices. A new dimension has been added as we watch Bear cope with her absence.

Bear didn’t seem to express the typical mourning we expected, though he looked for her a lot, and avoids her grave. He went there once that we know of, removing a rawhide bone we had left in her dish and bringing it back to drop at the Contrarian’s feet.

Over time, we noticed a real oddity. The two had always had their own idiosyncracies. Brandy would lay impatiently in the doorway to the kitchen while we ate. Bear would lay elsewhere. Now he has taken up that position each day. When snacks are eaten at night, again, she was the pushy one, wiggling and twitching at each bite. He would lay back, appearing to not care. Now he does the wiggling and twitching.

It is like he feels that he must take over all her behaviors as well as his own. We don’t know how he thinks about this, but clearly he is pondering his role within the house.

An article on recursive thinking, long thought to be the province of humans only, is being re-examined. Recursive thinking is the human ability to look backward in time at distant events, and then place them in future scenarios. Studies now suggest that chimpanzees engage in such thinking, and certainly I saw instances of Brandy doing the same as she planned how to get Bear off the couch so she could have it.

We are all of us living beings so much more alike than we are different. Evolution tells me so. 🙂

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See the new Herm Cain ad? The one with his campaign manager smoking? Seems that his manager has some “issues”. Charges of voter suppression that got him banned in Wisconsin for three years, drunk driving convictions, foreclosures, unpaid bills and taxes.

Yesterday, I picked up this on MSNBC talk shows: The Cain campaign is in utter disarray since Cain is conflicted between his “book tour” agenda and where the VOTERS ARE. Also we understand that new campaign staff are informed that under no circumstances are they to speak to the king unless the king speaks to them first. Doncha love that kind of stuff?

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I was just a thinkin’ (dangerous I know). I’m really surprised that the scientific community doesn’t make more of this, along the lines of the possible finding of faster-than-light particles. I mean it is revolutionary in a scientific sense. What do I mean?

Why the fact that “trickle-down” economics is a perfect proof that money at least doesn’t always obey the laws of gravity. The money seems to go up, instead of falling down.

Just a thought.

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Do you find it tiresome that the clueless Right continues to whine that the OWS folks have no “message” and then likens them to anarchists? Are they unable to read the signs? Or is it that the Right is so attuned to the “talking point” that it can’t understand that people might just be individualistic enough to think for themselves and create signs that reflect that? Slate has a good article on this today.

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Need a laugh? Juanita Jean’s usually has one. This is Rolling Stones little nod to our boy Ricky (aww shucks, I ain’t no good at debatin’) Perry. This is The Best Little Whore in Texas. It’s Friday. It’s been a long week. Teaser: this description–“a goggle-eyed mega church Joan of Arc like Michele Bachmann”. Or this one: “Perry is a human price tag”. Now that’s some writing I can love. It’s Mike Taibbi of course.

Seriously, if you want to know how Perry attracts money all the while being an awful speaker, this article gives you a big clue. Long article but well worth it.

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I am a jinx. We turned Game 6 of the World Series off in disgust. In the 8th inning. Texas was up two runs. The Cardinal pitching was awful. There had been five errors, causing me to question how these could be the two best teams in the “world.” Course, it turned into an exciting game. And now there will be a Game 7. We will watch it. But. . . it will undoubtedly be a no-hit one run winner for Texas. That’s my prediction, since I’m gonna watch it. If I don’t watch it, it will be 24-23 after 15 innings and the Cardinals will win.

What to do, what to do?

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If you needed any more evidence that Herm Cain is stupid, I mean really stupid? Well he went to Israel. And he refers to the Palestinians as the “so-called Palestinian people.” And he says that the only reason they want statehood is because Obama is so weak. Except that he was once in favor of a right of return policy. Sort of, as best he could understand what it meant. How can only a so-called people have a state to return to Herm? And I think the desire for statehood on the part of the Palestinians might be a tad older than the three years Obama has been in office.

Do they not have a basic primer for you Herm? Can’t your smokin’ campaign manager find you a Dick and Jane version of world history?