Bad news, all you joggers, dieters and fitness freaks:
People who live to 95 or older are no more virtuous than the rest of us in terms of their diet, exercise routine or smoking and drinking habits, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
Their findings, published August 3 in the online edition of Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggests that "nature" (in the form of protective longevity genes) may be more important than "nurture" (lifestyle behaviors) when it comes to living an exceptionally long life. Nir Barzilai, M.D., the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research and director of the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein, was the senior author of the study.
The proable truth is (before all you smokers, drinkers and couch potatoes start doing high fives) that our genes program us in general for relatively short or long lives, but the lifestyle choices we make tweak the program upward or downward a few years. That mixture is probably truer in a lot of areas than a lot of people might like. There is a genetic component to everything we do, including our worst behaviors, but that's only a potentiality that doesn't excuse making rational judgments based on careful
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It's not just your life expectancy. According to Dr. Michael Shermer, prominent skeptic and atheist, our genes are about 40% responsible for our political inclinations.
I'll wait a moment for you to snort that Shermer is a fuzzy-headed liberal academic. Done yet?
He's also a prominent Libertarian.
You know Littlejohn, there may be some validity to Shermer's claim if genes are directly related to maturity levels I guess.
All babies are born liberals, as they require spoon feeding, their heads patted, arses wiped, and constant reassurance their needs are being met by someone other than themselves.
My guess is then, using Shermer's theory, would be that the segment of society that displays the above mentioned behavior is indeed afflicted with the "liberal" gene defect.
Those without the defect obviously grow up and become productive members of society.
Fascinating.
ROFLMAO, Tim...!
;)
Bravo.
Tim, I guess that might be funny if Shermer, whom you have never heard of, had written that genes are related to maturity levels.
But of course I wrote no such thing. Shermer wrote no such thing. You just made it up, much to Bob's amusement.
It appears that an argument can be made that conservatives just pull stuff out of their nether regions, pretend they're true, then laugh their whatevers off.
One could also conclude that you and Bob are mentally retarded, or, at the least, illiterate.
I didn't make anything up at all Littlejohn, I just set up a hypothetical for a punch line.
"You know Littlejohn, there may be some validity to Shermer
I can't get this image out of my head of you and Bob as simple-minded characters in a bad sit-com, making embarrassingly stupid jokes, then high-fiving each other until one of you steps in a bucket of paint or falls off a ladder.
How long did it take you to come up with that thigh-slapper?
Heh, Littlejohn. You ask "How long did it take you to come up with that thigh-slapper?"
Not long at all, liberal ideology pretty much writes it's own punchlines.