Better Angles of the Schizophrenic American Character

Enos the Chimpanzee was launched into space by NASA on this day in 1961, orbiting the Earth twice before splashing down. The was the third hominid in orbit, behind Yuri Gagarin and German Titov.

...

One of the greatest nonfiction books of the 21st century is undoubtedly Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. A massive book in support of the argument that contrary to our immediate judgment, violence has been decreasing over human history and we're currently living in the safest time of human history. If you don't have time to read or listen to a book like that, you are in luck. There's a 2-hour Nova special on it that just came out, The Violence Paradox. What have we done right to get to this point? If you like, watch it and find out!

November 29, 2018

Comments

-A scholar supporting the opposing viewpoint said, "but this is just not people's experience on a day-to-day basis." That's the type of person who says that there's no global warming on a really cold day. If you feel like joining the rest of us, look at the trends.

-Rates of violent death are several times higher for those who live in non-states versus states of common law.

-Non-violent resistance has a success rate twice as large a violent resistance.

-Universal human rights declared in 1948... spurs, "if that, why not this?" type thinking.

-Never forget the Milgram Experiment... so-called good people will do bad things, even kill, based on subservience to authority. Everything could turn in an instant.

...

Damn... have you seen the rock climbing documentary Free Solo? Best documentary I've seen in ages. I actually needed a bucket of talc next to me for the last half hour to keep my hands from sweating. Talk about perseverance... I don't know how I made it the whole way through without averting my eyes. Alex had perseverance too. It's like a sequel to Man on Wire. I'm just so, so glad they checked his amygdala. The final two shots... perfect. Great film.

November 29, 2019

...

Gretel realized something funny about Christmastime- "People sit on a person's lap, and tell them what they want for Christmas, and that person doesn't buy them anything."

November 29, 2019

...

Probably nothing says more about the schizophrenic American character than a having a day to celebrate what we are thankful for, followed by a day where we go ape shit over the things we were thankful without but now desperately need.

November 29, 2019

...

I hit a good shot at racquetball tonight and my opponent screamed out, "You oughta be embarrassed!" One of the best compliments I've ever received.

November 29, 2018

...

Pepper... not good news from the vet today. We'll hope for the best.

November 29, 2016

...

The title of this video is "Indoctrination."

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/DLeHHpJwLKSQCLC9/

...

Now that Thanksgiving is over, what is everybody least thankful for? I'm going to say nuclear weapons, irrationality and Hitler.

November 29, 2013

...

Perhaps the best lesson I ever learned- running several miles and doing a handful of pushups and situps earns one the right to be lazy for the rest of the day.

November 28, 2009

...

Thomas Edison first demonstrated the phonograph for the first time on this day in 1877.

...

My idea of a perfect joke, from The Bank Dick, which premiered on this day in 1940. 

A drunk asks a bartender if the spent $20 at the bar the previous night. The bartender says he did. The drunk says "That's a load off my mind, I thought I lost it."

https://youtu.be/Lrqn5RRbTvg

Fun fact, Shemp Howard plays the bartender.

...

Atari released Pong on this day in 1972, the first commercially successful video game, and it's been downhill ever since.

...

Country star, Merle Travis, joined us on this day in 1917.

...

Baseball star, Minnie Miñoso, was born on this day in 1925. He played in the nine games in the 40's, tons in the 50's and 60's, then three in the 70's, and two in 1980. It's a crime that they didn't bring him back to play one game in the '90s, one in 00's and one of the 10's. Why not once the team is out of contention???

...

Garry Shandling was born on this day in 1949. 

"When I'm not in a relationship, I shave one leg, so when I sleep, it feels like I'm with a woman."

...

Jerry Lawler was born the same day.

...

We lost George Harrison on this day in 2001.

Paul McCartney, on the last time he saw him- “The last time I met him, he was very sick and I held his hand for four hours. As I was doing it I was thinking ‘I’ve never held his hand before, ever. This is not what two Liverpool fellas do, no matter how well you know each other.’ I kept thinking, ‘he’s going to smack me here.’ But he didn’t. He just stroked my hand with his thumb and I thought 'Ah, this is OK, this is life. It’s tough but it’s lovely. That’s how it is.'"

...

Patrice O'Neal left us on this day in 2011.

"I don’t litter. I don’t throw garbage in the street. Not because I care about the Earth. But I’m afraid I’m going to be walking through the park drinking a soda and when I’m done, I just throw it over my shoulder, it’ll fly over a bush and land on some dead white woman’s head with my fingerprints on the can. Now I’m the Pepsi-Cola Rapist because I’m lazy."

...

Kissinger died on this day in 2023 at 100.

In death we are equal, but in history, not so much.

Hitchens on Kissinger for two minutes:

https://youtu.be/ant6tY-MOIk

Hitchens on Kissinger for an hour:

https://youtu.be/PMN00XcjYrU

...

Other notable birthdays- Joel Coen (1954), Mariano Rivera (1969)

...

Other notable deathdays- Natalie Wood (1981)

...

Huffington Post- Nicolle Wallace Literally Laughs Out Loud At Trump's Latest Genius Claim

Colbert from the Colbert Report: “Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now I know some of you are going to say you did look it up and that’s not true. That’s ’cuz you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that’s how our nervous system works.”

Wallace: "In 2006 it was a punchline. In 2018 it's policy!"

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nicolle-wallace-trump-intelligence-laughing_us_5bff8100e4b0864f4f6a1453

November 29, 2018

...

Leadbelly- Mr. Hitler

https://youtu.be/VQva5wKSfzM

...

Atlantic- The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic

There's a reason I have a bumper stick that says, LISTEN TO YOUR COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

This article makes some excellent points that everyone would do well to put into practice, myself included. Cognitive dissonance is inevitable, but only once we know about it can even resist it. Take a second to reflect before taking positions, we must allow for the possibility that we are wrong. It's an uncomfortable feeling, but critical. Our opinions have little value if we are just jumping towards self-justification at every turn.

Excerpt:

"For example, when people feel a strong connection to a political party, leader, ideology, or belief, they are more likely to let that allegiance do their thinking for them and distort or ignore the evidence that challenges those loyalties. The social psychologist Lee Ross, in laboratory experiments designed to find ways to reduce the bitter conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, took peace proposals created by Israeli negotiators, labeled them as Palestinian proposals, and asked Israeli citizens to judge them. “The Israelis liked the Palestinian proposal attributed to Israel more than they liked the Israeli proposal attributed to the Palestinians,” he told us. “If your own proposal isn’t going to be attractive to you when it comes from the other side, what chance is there that the other side’s proposal is going to be attractive when it actually comes from the other side?”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/role-cognitive-dissonance-pandemic/614074/

November 29, 2020

...

Ricky Gervais-I don't believe in 2,870 suggested Gods. Christians don't believe in 2,869. We're both very atheist really. We have so much in common :)

...

Voltaire:

"Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" 

"Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst."

...

John Stewart- "The thing about a moral compass is you take it out and check it from time to time. You don't have to wait for history to show you you're headed in the wrong direction."

...

Al-Maʿarri, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes- "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: Those with brains, but no religion, And those with religion, but no brains."

...

David Hume, The History of England 1- "The Crusades - the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation."

...

Anthony Jeselnik- “You don’t know anything about pain until you’ve seen your own baby drowned in a tub… And you definitely don’t know anything about how to wash a baby.”

...

Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions:

Dear Sir, poor sir, brave sir." he read, "You are an experiment by the Creator of the Universe. You are the only creature in the entire Universe who has free will. You are the only one who has to figure out what to do next - and why. Everybody else is a robot, a machine. Some persons seem to like you, and others seem to hate you, and you must wonder why. They are simply liking machines and hating machines. You are pooped and demoralized, " read Dwayne. "Why wouldn't you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable.

...

Sagan- "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."