Duplicate Post (Commenting)

Occasionally, I post something worth duplicating onto another blog. This would be one instance and to spare you the extra click, you can read today's agblog entry here...


In my opinion, it is commenting on other people's work and ideas that both challenges and strengthens their positions and arguments. Additionally it is through these challenges that other people are led to make up their own minds about critical issues in the world around us. This leads to a two-fold point on commenting on blogs.

Firstly, it is absolutely vital to comment only with true facts. Too many times there are extremists on either side of the issue who let their feelings get the better of them and then they end up just spouting off a bunch of over-exaggerations which serve only to promote greater intellectual chaos among the new faces to a debate. This is not helpful and can often be even worse than the obvious falsities promoted by extremists in their blogs to start with. If you can't make a point with sure facts and strong arguments, then please don't waste my time by moving your mouth or typing a lot.

Secondly, censored comments have a good ideal at their origin. However, if you over-censor comments such as the Making Hay blog does, then it destroys the point of your article in the first place, that is, if you were actually interested in debate. However, both Wayne Pacelle and Gene Baur have proven time and again that they are not truly interested in debate. It seems that they would rather force their opinion down the throats of intelligent people by first mis-educating the masses about the "truths" that they would like to share about animal agriculture. Is there truth to what they say? Sure, there is some truth to what they say, but not enough.

There must always be truth to something that people will believe, but in a radical rights movement such as theirs, misleading information will propagate their position much quicker and easier than debating facts. The facts would lead too many people to be moderates, thus causing too many people to be willing to work things out between groups. Instead, Pacelle, Baur, and their colleagues use their propaganda to trick people into a much faster ideological movement. The thing about movements is that they run out of time and energy. If you can't find something new to lie about, then you will finally run out of steam. What's amazing is how good HSUS and their groupies have been about coming up with misinformation to keep their groups on the move.

This is where I get back to my second point on commenting. If you have to go to the effort to block my IP address from even loading up the comment option on your blog, doesn't that mean you're scared to discuss the issue with me? It was bad enough when you deleted my comments during the censoring phase, but now you've cut straight to the greater efficiency and stopped me from being able to even submit my comments in the first place.

It's a shame that you're scared of people seeing the other side of an issue. People are smart enough to think for themselves; you don't need to be doing that for them. What's even more shameful is your blatant fear of my comments which have been posted here in my blogs for people to see since they would never be published on your blog. There is no foul language or hate for your organization proposed in my comments; I've even bordered on over-conciliation at times. Yet, you continue to dodge the obviously less-experienced and thus poorer equipped debater of the two of us.

If you're too scared to speak up for what you "believe in", then you'd better find a new cause to support.

Possum-throwing...

I was literally speechless with incredulity when I saw this article on Danielle's facebook page today. Mind you, not because I was aghast at the treatment of the these dead animals, but excited by the awesome factor of it. Coming from an animal welfare background in my Masters study, I imagine you'd expect me to be at least mildly critical of the event. Instead, I'm pleasantly surprised by the "gala" at this New Zealand school. Let me explain.

I am against the mistreatment of dead animals and humans in the sort of disrespectful ways that some people maim dead animals and use them for photos or disfigure them. However, we kill pests and dissect animals for learning; this is ok. In my opinion, the throwing of dead possums falls somewhere in between these practices. And if you're outraged about them being thrown you've missed some of the point. They also trapped all of the possums in the first place similar to how you would rid your house of ants, spiders and mice in your own home. Obviously, if you find a dead animal somewhere on your place, you're likely to either throw it in the garbage or put it out back somewhere, but entirely less likely to bury some strange animal that you consider a varmint with the care that you would show to your pet. Possums definitely fall under the category of varmints in my book and in most countries, except for Australia apparently.

With possums as varmints (and altogether very nasty animals based on my encounters with them) then I feel no shame or guilt in killing them and little remorse in their death by any means. They are vicious and self-serving disease vectors that would as soon give you rabies as eat your pets. Thus I doubt you'll bury one when you find it, so why are people so upset about these possums being pitched? This was just a celebration of the success of the pest trapping, right? It would seem that they are offended because this is a competition and an organized event in which kids are throwing dead possums without any good cause (catching them wasn't?). Well, they're kids, and they ought to be let to have a little fun. This is like a learning experience where they get to embrace fear of a nasty animal while having a little bit of fun. Besides, they're celebrating their hard work. Frankly, from an animal welfare standpoint it's not a big deal because it's not hurting the possum at all (which doesn't have any feelings beside hunger even when it's alive); the possum's already dead. And the kids will automatically learn more about the animal with the hands-on experience than they ever would have in school iteself.

Does this mean they'll disrespect death in other cases such as treasured pets and humans? Death is all around us. It's death of something that gives us nourishment, regardless of our diet base, and death is literally a fact of life. This is the way things work and it's important for kids to learn this at an early age. Catching these possums to reduce their destructive impact on the school area in the first place is part of this "circle of life". These possums will soon be eaten by other gross scavengers and bacteria that are just waiting for the chance to multiply. I think that kids will continue to respect death in the way in which it deserves to be respected just so long as they have good parents who can help them paint the lines and appreciate the difference between primordial instinct to play with dead animals (we learn much more by play than classroom education) and the passing of "Tiger" the cat. One is loved by you, and another is not. The difference is that other people can empathize with you when you lose a dog, but there is no sympathy for the bottom-feeding, hand-biting, last marsupial in America. We need to draw lines, and the whole reason we get into such problems in the first place is that people have started failing to draw them and the gray area in between has gotten too big.

This article far outshines my original post concept about Bill Clinton changing towards a "plant-based diet". I would too if I had had a heartattack, etc., in my recent years. Then again, Bill, you could just divorce Hillary and then be free of all the stress that crazy lady adds to your life.