As IF Times

link  ‘Magic mushroom’ drug may improve personality long-term – USATODAY.com.

As fascinating as this story may appear on the surface, it’s really like the sound of one hand clapping.  For thousands of years, there has existed the magic elixir from which springs bearable personalities; it’s called booze. 

In the guise of beer, it makes otherwise obnoxious men bearable as they gather to watch sports events.  In the guise of wine, women are able to tolerate each other’s banal discussions about men.  In the guise of martinis, it makes business people business partners.  In the guise of tequila, it makes college students into Internet sensations.

As we all know, the use of alchohol is a neccessity when having to deal with otherwise boring and boorish people.  Not that it makes them less boring or boorish, but the fog of alcohol makes them more tolearable.  Sort of like wearing gloves to wash the toilet.  So what does this study mean?  I suppose it means the beginning of an entirely new commercial industry to cultivate, package and promote the use of mushrooms as polite social lubricant. 

The discovery that the ‘shrooms have long lasting benefit trumps the very transitory effects of simple wine or spirits.  In those cases, it’s Jekyll in the evening and Hyde in the mornings.  If the fungi actually works, imagine the military uses.  Instead of dropping bombs on enemies, drop sandwiches or corn dogs laced with mushrooms instead.  This will be labelled the Kumbaya potion,  everyone will be in peace and harmony.  It’s the ultimate Stepford Wife drug. 

Naturally, there are some drawbacks.  If everyone and everything becomes benign, sweet and giving, what will be the point of going to France? Who would buy rap music?  MSNBC would be out of business.  It all sounds nice, but if there’s such a benefit, there has to be a hell of a hangover.  What happens when the effects wear off? Until we know that, it doesn’t make sense to abandon what’s worked over the eons.  At the least, the cachet of owing a winery is a little more elegant than saying that you own a mushroom farm, which is essentially a dung pile.  Let’s just keep the booze flowing for now.

link Janeane Garofalo: Racist Republicans Support Herman Cain | RealClearPolitics.

The perpetuation of drivel from entertainment personalities continues.  At this time of year, while most people are critically assessing the new crop of TV shows for the fall season, the best reality show going on is the battle for the public’s mind concerning the upcoming 2012 presidential elections.

For the average person, it’s a big snooze-fest, as exciting as watching infomercials on late night TV.  For those with an interest in human nature and a stake in the future of the country, it’s enormously entertaining.  Just as TV has descended from  programming offering compelling dramas and witty comedy to now showcasing contrived cartoons and base humor, political discourse has also pushed to new levels of coarseness.  Despite characterizations to the contrary by most media outlets, it is the ongoing opinions of the left that are the most amusing and wildly entertaining if not for the seriousness of the topics.

For most people, determining who is sane and who isn’t sane is relatively easy.  You observe what they say and compare it to reality.  If there’s a significant and consistent divergence, then questioning sanity is valid.  Good examples of the latter would be Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore and as evidenced by the linked article, Janeane Garofalo.  An interesting give-away of insanity is the apportment of the hipster horn-rimmed glasses in which they are often photographed.  Rather than create an image of intelligence however, it instead conveys a look of crazed fanaticism with the only missing element being foam at the mouth.  Some may notice that from time to time, in an effort to look intelligent, Rachel Maddow and Matt Damon also wear these types of frames. 

The opinions of acting and entertainment personalities are frequently employed in the media to push a particular point of view, typically the so-called liberal or progressive perspective.  We assume this is done, not to just display the obvious nuttiness of the messenger, but to curry influence with the target audience of the TV network or newspaper.  After all, these people are paid entertainers who ACT for a living; in essence, they are  like hand puppets , tools used to convey a message.  For that vast number of people who don’t have their own formed opinions, this tactic will work.  For most people over the age of 12 with a modest exposure to real life, it won’t or shouldn’t. 

In the recent bleat by Garofalo, obviously important enough to be publicized by media outlets, she joins another actor, Morgan Freeman of assigning racism as the root of the troubles that befall Americans today.  Freeman recently opined that the troubles of Obama center on his race and not the record of ineptitude that has marked his time in office.  For Garofalo’ s part, she thinks that a Republican presidential contender, Herman Cain, is merely a ruse and a cover for the racist base of the Tea Party movement.   Cain is about as wholesome and apple pie as you can get, but this is moot.  In other words, it doesn’t matter how valid a person is, if they are playing for the other team, they are dismissed as being irrelevant.  No racism there. 

It’s impossible to satisfy their ideological biases.   They are unwilling to accept that in a free society, people can have opinions that differ from theirs.  Global warming is a fact, if you don’t believe it, you are a denier of truth.  When someone has a cup of coffee from Starbucks, they are contributing to the massive “military, industrial complex enslaving indigenous people and depleting resources”.  Or, they may just be having a cup of coffee.  If current political policies are not working well, it may not be because of racism.  It may be just that they’re stupid.

It’s great to watch the ongoing melodrama of political sparring,  it makes for great TV.   I only wish the dialogue from the left gets better…or they get credible actors.