h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Who should we blame for the govenment shutdown?" The Senate Majority leader said.

"That should be 'whom,' dear," said his wife. "Anyway, Let's turn on the news. They
always ahs the right answers."

"The Demnocrats are to blame, even though they weren't in control of the House until last
week. We just like to blame them for everyhting at Floss News"

There, you see?" said his wife. "You're a Republican, not a Democrat, so you won't have to eat
crow this time. I'm running out of recipes for it anyway."

She switched to another channel. "It's obvious that the Republicans are to blame. They should
stand up to what's-his-name and override his veto."

"But he just told me not to cave!"

"Dear, we're in Kentucky. There are 5,000 caves. There's one under this house, and I think the snails
have been taking all our pizzas into the caves with them."

"Fine. Let's blame the government shutdown on snails in caves."

"Could we blame pizza instead, because they're a foreign food?"

"What's-his-name likes pizza a lot, especially those double-crust ones from Pizza Cottage. You would
just upset him, dear."

"So, this government shutdown can't be resolved?"

"Only if we put up a wall to prevent foreign snails from entering the country to steal everyone's pizzas....."

"Well, how likely is that?"

"Not very, dear."

President Trump seems oblivious about the affects of the partial government shutdown.

That's probably down to the fact that the empathy center in what goes for his brain is in complete shut down.

If he ever had one

An undersized or damaged Amygdala will render its owner sociopathic to some degree.

But let's look at it scientifically: there was a scientist who studied sociopathy (a.k.a. psychopathy). In a double-blind test, he compared brain waves from a sample of people, including himself. It turned out that he was sociopathic. He was a fine scientist, from an apparently good family. There have sociopathic people who have done many fine things for the world. I suspect (but can't prove) that Thomas Edison was that way. What you don't want is the ones who had abusive or dishonest parents or early childhood friends. But that's true for many people who are *not* sociopaths.

I love and respect science. Except when scientists do a poor job, and/or let their personal prejudices color their conclusions. If some of the best scientists have underdeveloped amygdalas, that could be an advantage for them. They could be happy as clams doing their thing.

But I gather that Trump was not brought up well. That's the original problem, and the ripples have spread pretty far by now.

Speaking of ripples: Was Trump's father and mother brought up well? And there parents and other forebears?

Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) claims he is a high functioning sociopath. I believe they exist.

"their parents" not "there"

Anyway, I was having fun with the pettiness that pervades legislative groups when they are in crisis (which seems to be most of the time lately). Jonathan Swift portrayed pettiness in terms of a feud over which end of a hard boiled egg to crack.

What was the conclusion?

Feuds are not notable for having conclusions.

You mean we'll never know?

Actually, we know that Lemuel Gulliver was an unreliable narrator. At the end of the book, few people will have anything to do with him because he thinks horses are smarter than people.

In other words, he may have been imagining the places he claimed to have visited.

Was Gulliver the first whisperer?

I would argue that Bellerophon was the first horse whisperer, as he needed to ride Pegasus.

http://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2008/9/21/bellerophon-and-pegasus-a-greek-legend

Not that it matters, but that link takes me nowhere

I have heard of whisperers also, but never about whisperers

I think I can guess why, I've had myself

Bellerophon and Pegasus go back probably 3,000 years.

I hope someone has been clenaing the Aegean stables since then. _

When the marketplace at the Acropolis in Athens was excavated archaeologically, it was found to be buried fifty feet deep in accumulated debris.

The A-crap-olis?

An archaeological treasure trove with the cave of the Graea at the base of the hill.

You say there was a basement under the junk yard?

Well, you had to get past the junkyard dog, who was as mean as.....another junkyard dog.