[srm913]

"And while I miss the spirited give-and-take, when Supreme Court Justices become worse than Hitler and when those who vote a certain way do so because they’re idiots, it’s time to talk about the weather."

Maybe, Pat, you should just tell them to buy a vowel.

[riri]

bookmark

[JoJo Gunn]

“Well, don’t you think that people who live in large urban areas, who travel and read and speak other languages are better able to make informed choices?”

---

"Norway rats have been bred in scientific laboratories since the middle
nineteenth century. Artificial selection has elicited-partly
through unconscious choices by laboratory personnel-a strain of rats
that is calmer, tamer, less aggressive, more fertile, and with significantly
smaller brains than their wild ancestors. All this is a convenience
for those experimenting on rats.

In a now-classic experiment, the psychologist John B. Calhoun let
Norway rats reproduce in an enclosure of fixed size until the number
of occupants, and therefore the population density, was very high. He
made sure, however, to provide everyone with enough to eat. What
happened?

As the population increased, a range of unusual behavior was
noted. Nursing mothers became somehow distracted, rejecting and
abandoning their infants, who would wither away and die. Despite the
surplus of ordinary food, the bodies of the newborn would be greedily
eaten by passersby. An adult female in heat or estrus would be pursued
relentlessly, not by one, but by a pack of males. She had no hope
of escape, or even sanctuary. Obstetrical and gynecological disorders
proliferated, and many females died giving birth, or from complications
soon after. When crowded together, the rats lost their inclination
or ability to build nests for themselves and their young; their desultory
constructions were amateurish and ineffective.

Among the males Calhoun distinguished four types: the dominant,
highly aggressive ones who, although "the most normal," would occasionally
go "berserk"; the homosexuals who made sexual advances
to adults and juveniles of both sexes (but, significantly, only to non ovulating
females): their invitations were generally accepted, or at
least tolerated, but they were frequently attacked by the dominant
males; a wholly passive population that "moved through the community
like somnambulists" with nearly complete social disorientation;
and a subgroup Calhoun calls the "probers," uninvolved in the struggle
for status but hyperactive, hypersexual, bisexual, and cannibalistic.

(from Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan-Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1992 pages 184-185)
_________________________

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:vjj8FGZBelYC:luna.cas.usf.edu/~miles/belchpt9.htm+%22behavioral+sink%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8



Animal study: Calhoun and the behavioral sink …. In his study rats were placed in a "perfect" environment, had adequate resources and were allowed to reproduce freely. The cage was designed so that 2 of the 4 rooms had only one entrance/exit, while the other 2 rooms had 2 entrances/exits. What happened was that in the 2 rooms with limited entrance/exit, a dominant male was able to maintain reasonable order, with limited crowding, normal feeding, socialization, and breeding. In the two rooms with multiple entrances/exits, no single male was able to maintain a normal dominance hierarchy, high density occurred, social order broke down, 4 classes of males developed (including marginally normal dominants, pansexuals, passive neutrals, and probers who were "hyperactive, hypersexual, homosexual/cannibals") and two classes of females (one abnormal in almost all manner, and the other marginally normal) occurred. Total chaos occurred in rooms 2 and 3. ….Would humans, if faced with such density levels act the same way?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

"Justice" Harry Blackmun and six others WERE worse than Hitler, as are the current supporters of abortion.

[trubluolyguy]

Pat, trying to speak logic to liberals is like trying to teach a pig to fly, a waste of time for all involved and very annoying to the pig.

[Sally II]

I didn't know Sajak was a conservative. He is really spot on --it's exactly how I feel about arguing with liberals. They always end up being the obnoxious bullies in a debate, comfortable making up contradictory rules because they see themselves as being on the side of "good intentions." Gotta remember that these are the people who are likely to put up a "Question Reality" sticker on their bumper. To the liberal, reality and human nature are not constant and easy to define. Instead they change from day to day, according to what best suits their purposes and desires.

[Major Matt Mason]

The moral superiority they bring to the table allows them to alter the playing field and the rules in their favor.

Which is absurd, of course, since those with no morals have no moral authority or superiority.

[free_life]

I have lunch once a week with a bunch of liberals including two who call themselves conservatives. The hatred for GW Bush they have almost makes them foam at the mouth. And it never fails they never have any real source for their facts.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The tendency to immediately jump into ignorant argument and/or commit informal fallacies certainly isn't monopolized by the left - I've had that same problem with conservatives.  

Here at FR it happens all the time.....hell, I've done it.

But, by-and-large, when I find it happening it's usually a lefty doing it.  Usually, the slide into absurdity occurs the minute you back the person into a corner of logic.  

The most interesting part is how childish they become:  one minute you're talking to a presumed adult and the next they're doing the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and saying "I'MNOTLISTENINGICAN'THEARYOU".

I just won't allow myself to be drawn into discussions with leftists anymore.  It's not worth the time.

 

[lionheart 247365]

I CALL IT MY ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN....................

[Junior]

Another gem from a DINFOS-trained killer (military journalist types will know what I'm talking about).

[Dad yer funny]

ping for a spin,..er um I mean a read

[Slicksadick]

bump

[Taliesan]

Sajak's fatigue is precisely why Ann Coulter's approach is so wise. The Left is an endless source of amusement.

[Emmett McCarthy]

I've also stopped arguing with lefties. All you ever get with them is what I call "dogmatic jingles". They don't even know the whole song, but they've got that "hook line" locked into what passes for their consciousness.

Logic is pointless and irrelevant because words have no clear and predictable meanings, so I will no longer "cast pearls before swine", but leave them be worshipping at their pagan altar. I can neither save them nor destroy them, so I have to leave them be and let God take care of it in His own time.

[GSWarrior]

it’s time to talk about the weather.

Even the weather is Bush's fault!

[Taliesan]

Well, don’t you think that people who live in large urban areas, who travel and read and speak other languages are better able to make informed choices?

I doubt there are many Manhattenites who read more than I do, out here in the boonies, and as for travel, well, I'm not sure what a week in France or sunning in Monaco does for your brain cells.

[MinuteGal]

Many times I forward a thread posted here to hard-core, experienced liberals (yes, I know some).

One of their favorite sly tricks is to pick out the most dumb, outrageous, conspiratorial, vulgar, etc. comments found on so many threads and then point them out as indicative of the radicalism of this forum and freepers in general.

Or they parse an errant word or two, or a few unsourced sentences to death. They ignore broader truth and facts until one's eyes glaze over. You realize they don't want to debate the issue (which they will lose), just counterattack on form over substance.

These are leftist spin tactics right out of books like Sol Alinsky's "Rules for Revolution" (Hillary's bible).

I still forward FR threads to these folks because their replies are so predictable they tickle my funny bone.

Leni

[Altamira]

"My friend asked, “Well, don’t you think that people who live in large urban areas, who travel and read and speak other languages are better able to make informed choices?” It turns out it is superiority, not familiarity, which breeds contempt."

Indeed. Where the heck do they get this idea that the only people who travel, read, and speak other languages are people that live in an urban area in a blue state?

I travel constantly, speak other languages besides English, and I live in a town of about 4,000 people in a red state.

These people are sanctimonious idiots.

[sauropod]

I find myself doing the same thing now. They're not worth the trouble.

[Paradox]

These city folk are dillusional about WHY "they" vote liberal/democrat. Its not because they are smarter, more cosmopolitan, etc. Its because they have a large number of urban types (blacks, whites, hispanics), idiots pretty much most of them, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.