Monkey Day

Today is the day in 1925 that Tennessee declared that the Biblical version of creation had to be taught in school. I just finished reading How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. This is from page 195:

Six rhesus monkeys were trained to pull on a variety of chains to get food. If they pulled on one chain, they got a large amount of their favorite food. If they pulled on a different chain, they got a small amount of a less enticing food. As you can possibly guess, the monkeys quickly learned to pull on the chain that gave them more of what they wanted.

After a few weeks of this happy setup, one of the six monkeys got hungry and decided to pull on the chain. This is when something terrible happened: a separate monkey in a different cage was shocked with a painful jolt of elecrtricity. All six monkeys saw it happen. They heard the awful shriek. They watched the monkey grimace and cower in fear. The change in their behavior was immediate. Four of the moneys decided to stop pulling on the maximizing chain. They were willing to settle for less food as long as the monkey wasn't hurt. The fifth monkey stopped pulling on either chain for five days and the sixth monkey stopped pulling for twelve days. They starved themselves so that a monkey they didn't know wasn't forced to suffer.

Compare this behavior with the Milgram experiment and then tell my why the religiosly correct (RC's) refuse to recognize their better cousins.

A Couple Observations

The cliched depiction of a crazy person is a guy carrying a sign saying "The End is Near". What does that say about the 2012 crowd?

I am still looking for a pit bull owner who is carrying a poop bag. Now that would be a miracle.

All insurance is socialistic.