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Neil Slade of Denver writes:

Hubris, in the United States of Apathy.
While the World Series has completely dominated the major media headlines in Colorado this past week, like a further injection of corporate phenobarbital into the veins of our comatose Colorado population, an disproportionate number of conscious citizens numbering in the mere hundreds attended an anti-war rally on the steps of the State Capital on Saturday.
The World Series isn’t over yet. But whoever wins this sports contest is hardly important.
The real game is already over.
Check your national debt sports fans, and the current war bill for every man, woman, and child, born and unborn, and that’s just the cost of money, not to mention the cost of blood and tears.http://www.brillig.com/debt—clock/ Check the cost of your energy bill this winter and ask yourself why the United States has nearly zero plans for renewable energy, compared to other nations who are already far ahead in implementation.http://www.german-renewable-energy.com/Renewables/Navigation/Englisch/root.html Check the state of education, especially here in Colorado where education comes in 47th in the nation. http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm Last week brain researchers helped to pinpoint the areas of the brain involved in optimism, now shown to highlight portions of the human mid-brain.
Bear in mind, this is not the most advanced part of the brain, the frontal lobes, which is able to calculate cause and effect, and to take into account more complex scenarios that lie further in the future, and can distinguish fantasy from current reality and a likely future.
For example, the mid brain will cheerfully declare “Mission Accomplished", while the advanced frontal lobes perception of “You are now bankrupt” is being ignored. At a brain modification facility where I worked for eleven years, we called this “false transcendence".
In sports, there are winners and losers. And invariably at the start both teams will emphatically declare themselves superior.
In war and world politics, it is the same.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

Well Neil you make some interesting points. I notice you didn't track the brain location of liberalism. Well, we all know it isn't a brain based function now don't we?

And, if the frontal lobes of politicians weren't dominated by the teachers' unions they would see that the cause and effect of poor learning in students is caused by poor teaching. In schools where there is discipline and hard academics instead of the self-esteem express and dumbed down classes, student from every level of our society learn and flourish. We need to let the parents have vouchers so they can send their children to a school of their choice. That will improve education and cause and effect thinking see that. Political pandering produces nothing but safe jobs for teachers no matter what their ability or attitude is, as long as they support the union, and dead end classrooms where learning is no where near the top of the list fail the children at every turn.

In war, as in any dangerous situation, analytical thinking is replaced by adherence to discipline and following orders. The problem with this war is someone is trying to micromanage the soldiers on the ground instead of protecting their actions by banning news media from the theater of war either by edict or by denying them any protection and granting the military leaders on the ground to control the actions of their troops without giving in the the whining for PC encounters instead of forceful ones. In simple terms, fight the war and let the only rule be to save the lives of the troops and destroy the enemies capability to wage any meaningful attacks.

Of course I will wait and watch with interest if you ever get the chance to measure either Bush, Chaney, Bill Clinton or Hilary. Would that be an eye opener but you'd never get any public liberal in there. They work from emotion, not reason.

I wouldn’t flatter liberals by claiming that they actually have a brain.

momma y,
I have a question..
Is our children learning?

Is it possible to remain aware of all of life's troubles and still enjoy World Series baseball?

I would comment on this whole apathy thing, but I just can't be bothered...

lol

Momma Y.

Is it your contention that it is only Liberals that are the source of all our troubles and Conservatives are the only ones who can get this country back on the right track? If so, you are no doubt naive and probably delusional as well. Since when has any party been at the front of any war, never. And never has any party been right on all things, though this is claimed by both in this absurd and escalating war between left and right that blinds them to what is going on in the real grass roots America.

It reminds me of a school yard full of disfunctional kids argueing over things they haven't a clue about. Does anybody see that our tax money is fast disappearing down an unfillable rat hole while the cost of utilities, food, gas and other necessities continue to rise exponentially and more tax increases are in the works.

It is not the left or the right that is to blame, it is the whole wacked out bunch politicians who live in the fantasyland they created to insulate themselves from the real world the rest of us live in. Everyone of them, both repulican and democrat are clueless to the problems We The People face every day and, they could not care less.

But boy,oh boy, do they ever enjoy this massive pissing contest that keeps the public attention away from the truth that they are fiscally, intellingently, and common senselessly incompetent and totally unaware of it.

Mr. Campbell said:

"Is it your contention that it is only Liberals that are the source of all our troubles and Conservatives are the only ones who can get this country back on the right track?"

Perhaps, momma y was just trying to balance out Mr. Slade's letter. After all, Mr. Slade would have you believe that it is only Republicans at the source of all our troubles. You certainly don't seem disturbed about Mr. Slade's one-sidedness.

But, Mr. Slade shows why there is more to being smart than being smart. He's probably a very smart guy. He probably did very well in college. Yet, he lacks wisdom. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to point out all the bad things in the world. But, the presence of bad things does not mean we cannot enjoy the good things as well.

Lighten up, Mr. Slade. Don't be such a Cassandra. Go to the ballpark, have a few beers, eat a Rockies Dog, and watch some great baseball. All of life's troubles will wait for you.

"I would comment on this whole apathy thing, but I just can't be bothered...
Posted by on November 3, 2007 09:07 PM"

I wish I could take credit for that one.

I don't know whether to despise Keith or feel sorry for him; Keith is so limited in his vocabulary; it is a vocabulary I have been active in dissuading from being used so as never to compel the moderator to cancel this blog out of disgust.

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