BUSH ACTUALLY LIKE CHIMP: Proven by science!

DD has only seen Bushorchimp.com once or twice. But even though I did not get all the photographic comparisons, Bill Feldspar was apparently on to something all along.

In today's New York Times, Paul Krugman writes, "Of course, minimizing and mocking the suffering of others is a natural strategy for political figures who advocate lower taxes on the rich and less help for the poor and unlucky. But I believe that the lack of empathy shown by ... Mr. Bush is genuine, not feigned."

This in a Krugman column on the parsimoniousness of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

" ... [The] truth is that they aren’t bothered by the fact that almost nine million children in America lack health insurance," writes Krugman.

Then, just in time for lunch, DD read in the LA Times that "a study with chimps finds they are content with decisions humans would reject as unjust."

"In a food-sharing experiment published today in the journal Science, chimpanzees readily accepted stingy offers [from their peers] humans would tend to reject, suggesting the human sense of fairness evolved to foster cooperation in a complex society made up of unrelated individuals and groups."

"In the context of everyday life, it is an advantage to not allow people to treat you unfairly," said one author of the scientific study to the newspaper.

The study was based on an adaptation of an "ultimatum game" administered to humans.

In such a game, a small parcel of money is given to one player with the orders to divide it between himself and his game-playing partner. If the offer of money to the second player is accepted, the money is shared. However, if the second player rejects the offer because of a lack of generosity, no one gets to keep any cash.

In humans, offers of less than 20 percent of the whole tend to be rejected "giving the first player a strong incentive to be fair."

Scientists used raisins instead of cash with chimpanzees.

"Chimps tended to accept any offer and didn't get upset when they were offered a small amount of raisins or none at all," reported the newspaper.

The primary author of the study told the newspaper that chimps behave more rationally than humans, saying "...[I]t makes perfect economic sense to accept any nonzero offer and to offer the smallest amount possible while keeping the most for yourself."

"Human sensitivity to fairness may have evolved along with empathy and other traits that allow individuals to cooperate..."

However, comparing George W. Bush to a chimp is a bit unfair. To the chimpanzee.

A scientist told the Los Angeles Times that chimps have a strong sense of justice but that it is just not the same as that which is found in humans.

Anyone who lives in Los Angeles County knows this is absolutely right.

A family in Covina kept an old acting chimpanzee named Moe in a cage in their backyard for many years. Moe was very popular but there came a time when he bit off the tip of a finger of a visitor, mistaking the visitor's brightly colored red fingernail for a piece of candy.

Covina officials required Moe to be removed and so he was sent to an animal refuge which served as a sort of retirement home for other old acting chimpanzees near the Angeles Crest forest.

Moe's human "parents" visited him regularly and one day brought him a celebratory cake for a party.

The other acting chimps incarcerated at the animal refuge became incensed and sought vengeance when they were not welcomed to Moe's party and invited to have cake. They broke out of their cages and attacked Moe's human dad, biting off his nose, lips, testicles, fingers, a cheek, an eye and a foot while beating him so savagely he lapsed into a coma.

This is a true story.

"Deviations from the [chimpanzee] code of conduct are dealt with swiftly and succinctly and then everybody moves on," said the chimpanzee scientist to the Times. "They're more adaptive than we are -- just look at the Middle East."