Wow, you write all that? Impressive.
If you think there is a limit to how much childishness there is among Californians, you may want to reconsider -- especially for Californians in academic communities.
Recently a mountain lion was discovered up in a tree in Palo Alto, a residential community adjacent to Stanford University. This was at about the time of day when a nearby school was getting ready to let out. There had already been an incident of a horse being found mauled by some animal on Stanford land, and some thought it might have been a mountain lion that did it.
Fearing that the mountain lion might find one of the local school children a tempting target, the police shot and killed the animal. Outrage against the police erupted up and down the San Francisco peninsula and as far away as Marin County, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, more than 30 miles away.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The police agency has been flooded with outraged calls and e-mails from people inflamed by TV news videotape of the lion lolling peacefully in a tree just before an officer shot it to death with a high-powered rifle."
Yes, the mountain lion was sitting peacefully. That is what cats do before they pounce -- usually very swiftly.
Second-guessers always have easy alternatives. One protester against "the murdering of such a beautiful creature" said that it "easily could have been removed from the premises and relocated" and that the "dirty blood-thirsty bastards" who killed it should be ashamed of themselves.
The protester offered no helpful hints on how you "easily" remove a mountain lion from a tree -- and certainly did not volunteer to demonstrate how to do it in person the next time the police find a mountain lion up a tree in a residential neighborhood.
Animal rights advocates said the police could have given the mountain lion "a chance" by attempting to tranquilize it while it was up in the tree, and save shooting as a last resort if it turned aggressive.
A makeshift shrine has been erected on the spot where the mountain lion died. Flowers, cards and photos have been placed around it.
This is an academic community where indignation is a way of life. Those engaged in moral exhibitionism have no time for mundane realities.
The police, of course, have to deal with mundane realities all the time. Not long before this episode, the police had tried to capture three mountain lion cubs by shooting them with tranquilizers. They missed on two out of three tries with one cub.
What if the police had shot a tranquilizer gun at the adult mountain lion in the tree and missed? Would they have had a chance to get off a second shot at a swiftly moving target before he pounced on one of the hundreds of children that were soon to be leaving school near him?
Moral exhibitionists never make allowance for the police missing, whether with tranquilizers shot at mountain lions or bullets fired at a criminal. The perpetually indignant are forever wondering why it took so many shots.
It would never occur to people with academic degrees and professorships that they are both ignorant and incompetent in vast areas of human life, much less that they should keep that in mind before they vent their emotions and wax self-righteous.
Degrees show that you have knowledge in some special area. Too often they embolden people to pontificate on a wide range of other subjects where they don't know what they are talking about.
The fact that academics are overwhelmingly of the political left is perfectly consistent with their assumption that third parties -- especially third parties like themselves -- should be controlling the decisions of other people who have first-hand knowledge and experience.
The cops probably haven't read Chaucer and don't know what existentialism is. But they may know what danger is.
Some Palo Alto parents of small children living near where the mountain lion was killed said that the police did the right thing. There are still some pockets of sanity, even in Palo Alto
Wow, you write all that? Impressive.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You know better than that, I don't have the time to waste when I'm pulling your chain.Originally posted by Pi?a:
Wow, you write all that? Impressive.
Hey Tommy,
Have you got a job, or is your wife still supporting you?
Ah, the attempts, weak ones at that, to insult me. Makes me pine for the good old days.
You ran out of steam a lot faster than I figured you would. (And still haven't provided a source for your, ooops someone else's, intriguing post above.)
1. There is no reason why the area could not have been contained and a high powered tranquilizer gun used to sedate the animal to be relocated.
2. The real problem is over development. You know the song "Pave paradise and put up a parking lot" when that is done (Florida must have been the inspiration for that song but southern California is as good an example too I suppose) that wild animals are killed or displaced. For every parking lot and strip plaza built trees are destroyed, natural habitats are destroyed and the animals that are "lucky" enough to escape the destruction of their home have no where to turn.
I don't think protesting the death of that mountain lion equates to being out of touch with reality. I think it has everything to do with being intuned to the larger reality and not just concern as to where can we slap up another WalMart and McDonalds....
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Same can be said for firing a bullet at him too...They could have had several tranquilizer guns trained on him, I'm sure they didn't have just one rifle. And if they did, what if that shot missed? Couldn't they keep the kids in school until the situation was under control? That whole article reeks of arrogance...What if the police had shot a tranquilizer gun at the adult mountain lion in the tree and missed? Would they have had a chance to get off a second shot at a swiftly moving target before he pounced on one of the hundreds of children that were soon to be leaving school near him?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds to me like they need more target practice and yet people feel safer with them using live ammunition on the mountain lion in question? Definitely some whackos talked about in this article, only indirectly.Not long before this episode, the police had tried to capture three mountain lion cubs by shooting them with tranquilizers. They missed on two out of three tries with one cub.
Just recently I saw video on the news of a bear that climbed up a tree and wouldn't come down. In this case, a tranquilizer gun was used. I don't mean to make fun of this, but just as Tricia Macke (Channel 19) was telling us the bear was removed from the tree without harm, you see the bear plummet forcefully to the ground, in direct contrast to her words.
Funny thing about tranquilized animals in high places. They fall just as hard as you would if you fell 40 feet out of a tree.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I thought of that too but at least it's giving them a chance. Tricia Macke still doing Fox 19 "news" huh? I always liked it better when she was off and Jack Atherton did the news by himself. Now Maria LaRosa, she made any forcast nice to watch [img]wink.gif[/img]Originally posted by reason:
Just recently I saw video on the news of a bear that climbed up a tree and wouldn't come down. In this case, a tranquilizer gun was used. I don't mean to make fun of this, but just as Tricia Macke (Channel 19) was telling us the bear was removed from the tree without harm, you see the bear plummet forcefully to the ground, in direct contrast to her words.
Funny thing about tranquilized animals in high places. They fall just as hard as you would if you fell 40 feet out of a tree.
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