Partly because the last war on our soil took place a century and a half ago. Sure, we know the troops suffered and some Civil War buffs can recite the stories of atrocities, pain, and long, torturous deaths. But on the whole, save a few pious acknowledgements, we know war is good. War brings good things -- quite apart from the entertainment factor (and how much it riles libruls).
Except for those libruls, we celebrate war.
The US Army today celebrated its 237th birthday with a tank that shoots cupcakes.
The tank, made by Washington, D.C.’s famous Georgetown Cupcake, is constructed of 5,000 camouflage cupcakes and weighs 2,500 pounds, ABC News said.
The tank is a mock-up of the Abrams M1-A1 tank, which does not shoot cupcakes.
“We thought what better emblem for the Army than a tank made of cupcakes,” one of Georgetown Cupcake’s owners told ABC. The store donated the $9,800 worth of cupcakes that made the tank possible.
MSNBC said Georgetown Cupcake sent along an extra 1,500 cupcakes in hopes of extending the tank’s life because you know, cupcakes are irresistible. ...Salon
Salon also adds a link to a video.
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Apropos of nothing in particular, I found out yesterday that Texas has a Communist Party. You know, the other reds.
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Ever wonder why some people are dumb enough to believe what they believe? (Oh, WMD's in Iraq, god talking to you, and that, at your age you can add and subtract reliably?). Well, we all could be. Even though we have those degrees hanging up over our desk, we're not as smart as we like to think. Someone (actually, a Nobel laureate) has done a study.
Here’s a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
The vast majority of people respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs ten cents. This answer is both obvious and wrong. (The correct answer is five cents for the ball and a dollar and five cents for the bat.) ...
... When people face an uncertain situation, they don’t carefully evaluate the information or look up relevant statistics. Instead, their decisions depend on a long list of mental shortcuts, which often lead them to make foolish decisions. These shortcuts aren’t a faster way of doing the math; they’re a way of skipping the math altogether. Asked about the bat and the ball, we forget our arithmetic lessons and instead default to the answer that requires the least mental effort. ...New Yorker
Ironically, it turns out the smarter you are, the more like you'll fall into the "lazy" category.
A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology led by Richard West at James Madison University and Keith Stanovich at the University of Toronto suggests that, in many instances, smarter people are more vulnerable to these thinking errors. Although we assume that intelligence is a buffer against bias—that’s why those with higher S.A.T. scores think they are less prone to these universal thinking mistakes—it can actually be a subtle curse. ...New Yorker
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I guess "birthers" could be put in the "lazy" category. David Maraniss writes, in his book about Obama's birth, that "doctor who remembered the case would change the minds of any 'birthers' open to factual evidence."
We laugh at the birthers. But when laziness allies itself with bitterness and a refusal to accept fact, it looks more like mental illness than a simple human failing.
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