In case some of you loyal The Voice readers haven’t noticed that in each of my columns I try to inject some valuable educational material (yes, I know sometimes it’s inconveniently buried in valuable nonsense material), this week I’ll put it right at the beginning where it’s hard to miss.
Did you hear that researchers at U.C. Berkeley (where else but California?) have discovered that we modern humans are carrying two previously unknown traces of DNA from our ancient unknown relatives? We already knew about our genetic legacy inherited from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Minivans. (Minivans were discovered in the DNA of soccer moms and former Chrysler Corporation employees). But I digress.
One of the ghost ancestors interbred with modern humans in Africa more than 50,000 years ago and a second ghost separated from us 800,000 years ago. We even have a trace from an older population in our modern human-type bodies that existed 1.8 million years ago (if that’s someone’s idea of modern, I’ve got a nice fleet of Stanley Steamers for sale). But fear not. Their DNA only makes up about 1% of us, same as what we have from Neanderthals. Although the Neanderthals and Denisovans died out, Minivans are still around but not as prevalent as they used to be.
I’m not sure what all this means to our soon-to-be-replaced-by-AI modern day humans, but to me it means reconstructing my family tree and getting a refund from 23andMe.
And now for the valuable nonsense material. In the Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Person Department, Trump, in his usual “everyone’s to blame but me” stance while losing his tenuous grasp on reality, is blaming Jeanine Pirro for failure to prosecute former Olympian David Hearn of damaging the beautiful Reflecting Pool that he restored. He erupted in fury because she couldn’t get a conviction (she hasn’t been able to as yet get a conviction on anything) just because she had no evidence (the park people tossed the supposed piece of evidence) and their pool expert testified the installation was shoddy and that’s what caused the resurfacing to fail. Donald won’t admit that his overpaid contractor buddy was at fault. “It was a pure case of vandalism!”
I have nothing but sympathy for Pirro (and very little of that) because now she’s getting the Trump treatment that every one else who hooks up with him gets. Let’s see how she enjoys her view of the underside of a DC Bluebird bus. While she’s checking the exhaust under there, she’s taking a cue from her increasingly demented boss and passing the blame for her failure to prosecute Hearn on to Doug Burgum’s Department of the Interior because he didn’t provide her enough information at the start of the case. Inevitably the blame will be passed on ad infinitum and end up on the guy walking through the park picking up trash with a pointed stick.
Enough with the valuable nonsense. Here is some valuable educational “Wisdom of the Ages” doled out by anonymous wise people. For instance, there are five things that a stupid person says to let you know that they’re actually stupid:
1) It’s not my fault. “People who refuse to own their failures often remain trapped in the same problems.”
2) I already know that. “The fastest way to lose respect is to keep explaining yourself to people who’ve already decided not to understand you.”
3) That’s impossible. “The moment a person becomes comfortable with excuses they become a stranger to success.”
4) I don’t care. “People who repeatedly say ‘I don’t care’ often reveal the opposite in their behavior more than in their words.”
5) What’s in it for me? “A mind that constantly calculates personal benefit starts to lose the ability to recognize value that does not come with immediate reward.”
And one final bit of wisdom from Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu, a wise guy who isn’t anonymous: “A liar will get mad at you for knowing the truth.”
Remind you of anybody?