How now! A rat?*

"The leftist utopian dream was doomed from the start because it denied the economic logic of nature and human nature," we wrote last year, citing the work of blind paleontologist Geerat Vermeij, who "reads the embattled history of a snail in the dents and damage to its shell . . . mollusks appear to have evolved ever more rugged armor to protect their delicate flesh just as their predators developed more vicious weaponry . . . Everyone is affected mostly by their enemies." Recent rat studies reaffirm that when it comes to enemies, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Baby and Tiny, above keeping cool at Goomp's on Father's Day, conduct ongoing rat studies of their own.

You've probably heard about the rat studies that suggest -- as the New York Times headline writer put it -- "Dirty Better Than Clean":

Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate.

Extrapolating to our species:

The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by disease and dirt early in life, so the body's natural defenses overreact to small irritants such as pollen.

It was something in the NYT article that set our crackpot-authority antennae abristle:

When the immune cells in the wild rats are stimulated by researchers, ''they just don't do anything, they sit there; if you give the same stimulus to the lab rats, they go crazy,'' said study co-author Dr. William Parker . . . He said what happened in the lab rats is what likely occurs in humans: their immune systems have got it so cushy they overreact to the smallest of problems.

Yes! That explains the inexplicable pronouncements of late on the part of John "Blue Falcon" Murtha and other -- in Dr. Sanity's memorable versification [to be sung to the tune of "My favorite things" -- "Democrat leaders who froth and who blather, MSM marxists and Mapes and Dan Rather," together with assorted Kos Kids and fellow sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome desperate to snatch defeat from you know where. As with the immune-cell response of lab rats in sterile surroundings, with these mollycoddled** fellow Americans in their Pauline-Kael bubbles, the mere thought of the 43rd President of the United States causes them to "go crazy." From our "Bloggers are 'cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open'" post of last year:

**Leftists have become soft and flabby in their thinking over the last 20, 30 or more years because their fellow travelers in the mainstream media -- supposed to be keeping them honest -- have been giving them a free ride, even as thinkers of the right, not enjoying such reflexive support, have been honing our debating and intellectual survival skills. That leaves the left soft and lazy and the right battle ready.

Our recent analysis of the Kossacks is equally applicable to their "betters" on the left side of the aisle inside the Beltway and in the editorial boardrooms of the MSM:

[They] don't seem to have any ideas beyond Bush hatred and "taking back" the country. It's all about power, with "a core message" as an afterthought, a far cry from the conservative message, honed through decades of thoughtful debate and research.

Beyond having become soft and flabby and reflexive in their thinking, our friends of the left have hobbled not only themselves but all of us through the insidious imposition of their fear-society-lite politically correct groupthink that has rendered many of our leaders afraid to call an Islamist terrorist an Islamist terrorist -- preferring to cast them instead as Gramscian victims of Western imperialism (All about Oil™) -- lest they themselves be accused of racism or worse. As we wrote a couple of years back:

Goomp always said the road to Hell was paved with good intentions.  One would have thought that the fall of Communism had taught us once and for all -- even those persons of the left still desperately clinging to their youthful embrace of Rousseau's pipe dream of the Noble Savage -- that you can't fool Mother Nature. There are certain laws of human nature that will always out. Incentives are all. Reward anti-social behavior by telling the perpetrator he's a victim of society and it isn't his fault, and like any infant he'll keep on behaving badly.

Back to that NYT headline: "Dirty Better Than Clean." It resonates.

Update: How now! A cat -- a lot of cats -- at the superb117th Carnival of the Cats, with lots of pics of a certain "bad kittycat," at Mind of Mog.

*"How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" -- Hamlet (III, iv, 23)

Comments

[goomp]

Soft and flabby and without moral conviction. Melanie Phillips's "Londonistan" shows us the society that thinks all things are relative and that freedom means there is no longer a need for moral standards and a disciplined life style. Such a society cannot survive under the assault from a society of inspired believers who are sure God is on their side.

[Teresa]

The analogy works for me. I've been scared for years now over the "anti-bacterial" craze and the lengths that people seem to be going to to keep themselves "clean".

Now we - the conservative types seem to be the bacteria in the liberal world. Unfortunately for them they are finding us to be intractable. *grin*

[Kenny]

America is in trouble.

What's the answer?

Cats to hunt the DemocRATS.

[hNAV - 'We are the President']

It is truly an insightful conception and really well composed...

The equation of being pampered, compared to the liberal denial seems quite appropriate.

Is the problem of spoiled idealism, failing to relate to reality, adding to the problems?

Why do they ignore the vivid reality, socialist systems are more oppressive, provide a lower quality of life, offer less opportunity, build dependency?

It must be more, than the addiction to special interest groups, seeking a share of some entitlement pie...

I feel you could expand the untested, unchallenged, theory to the DNC's inability to promote sound Representation as well. All too often they champion people like the Clintons, who have serious flaws, and end up being detrimental to the Democrat credibility once in Office. McKinney is a fine example. Or even, running Kerry, Dukakis, Mondale, being too untested, unchallenged, revealing a weak Candidate on the National Stage.

One of the biggest problems for the Democrats, I feel, remains being 'out of touch', due to this 'pampered isolation'. Elite, untested, etc., so many in the MSM - DNC often foolishly assume they have the populist sentiment. The bashing of this President seems to support this folly. The liberal Democrats remain isolated or unchallenged in certain circles, and foolishly believe 'Wellstone Memorial' expression is the overwhelming fashionable conception of the populace. Only to be stunned later, to be confronted with the conflicting reality to their misguided fantasy.

Chiraq seems to have made a similar mistake in regards to Iraq. Believing anti-Bush-anti-American mentality was a norm outside of France, he felt empowered to challenge the effort to remove a monster named Saddam. He could not have been more mistaken.

I hope they run Hillary. It would be good for our Nation, to confront the Liberal Denial, with another huge loss for what Democrats believe is an attractive candidate.

[Tom Bowler]

Love the analogy. Without question lefty politicians get a pass from MSM, but I think it's more than a pass. MSM consider themselves, with some justification, kingmakers. I'm talking natural selection here!

The politicos that most accurately repeat the MSM approved line for public consumption get sparkling coverage, so much so that the public ceases to enter into a candidate's thinking. All that matters is what will get that positive press coverage.

And in terms of that coverage, the ones that don't play along get tossed under a bus, which is generally OK if they happen to be running in districts where folks don't rely on bus service.

But there is a winnowing out, and look what's left. Generally, it's the left.

[enrevanche]

I suppose the obvious (to me) explanation, that the sewer rats who *don't* have healthy immune systems are already dead and thus not available to study, has been explained away by these scientists?

[Scott]

That leaves the left soft and lazy and the right battle ready.

I think it is true that the left is less able to form and defend arguments on their merit, however they do have another weapon in the debate arsenal that we (generally) lack - venom.

This was illustrated recently by the incident with Ann Coulter and the Joisey Girls - Coulter succeeded in striking past the previously impenetrable armor of contrived victimhood with her cutting remarks, remarks that were met with ambivalence to scorn by the allegedly fire hardened members of the right (the ones I saw anyway).

In this case it wasn't pure reason that succeeded - that had been tried to death - it was venom. The very cutting statement that Ann believed the 'Girls "were enjoying their husbands' deaths".

Some call that a low point or a failure, and they're free to do so, but I have to say it was nice to finally - finally - see a shot find its mark on these normally untouchable opportunists rather than being squelched once more by the moral syrup of Dowd and her ditzy ilk.

And the message did get through, loud and clear - if it had been dismissed as merely hurtful and senseless, it would have received the opprobrium that we have seen leveled upon those who make racist remarks and so forth.

But Coulter's still holding her head high, she's been on Leno etc - when she said that, people listened. And that's something the rest of the right can take notes from.

[Sissy Willis]

Survival of the fittest means the ones who survive to reproduce are by definition the fittest.