Michael Vick and punishment for crimes

The animal rights people are out for blood--blood and a pound of flesh of a human, an athlete, an African American, a celebrity, a rich guy. Not only has Michael Vick received far more punishment, jail time and faster justice than athletes who beat up girl friends and wives, but now they want to take what's left of his sorry career, too. After a good part of my professional life in the agriculture and veterinary libraries of Ohio State--where I collected their publications--I'm not surprised, and yet I am. Animal rightists baffle me (don't confuse with animal welfare). People who go all soft and quivery over cruel and despicable actions toward animals, who liberate research lab rats who could save the lives of children and pets, who think your pet dalmation has the same rights as you and therefore you can't own him, don't bat an eye lash at chopping up an 8 month old human fetus in the name of choice, or depriving millions of African children of protection from malaria with DDT in the name of saving the environment.

Who is more dangerous to society, Michael Vick or Barack Obama?

This morning I heard a news story on the radio that Michael Vick's bankruptcy "plan" was turned down by the court. Too bad someone doesn't apply the same standards to our President who has unleashed the pit bull of socialism on our people! Our little cock fighter pranced around the ring and sang "peck me" like a Dixie Chick. We're sending tea bags, but I don't think that is going to scare him when he's seen the crowds in Europe chanting and clapping. Even the phony Soros backed demonstrations made him happy. Or Barney Frank, how about a plan for him? He has actually physically threatened Americans. Michael Vick didn't threaten children. Congressman Frank prancing in front of TV cameras was actually going after citizens' children when he demanded names in Congressional hearings on job contracts he approved for the bailout.

I was flitting around the house doing laundry and ironing about 5:30 a.m. (I'm an early riser, obviously.) I decided to turn on the radio in the laundry room, and the reception isn't terrific, so I settled on NPR. Proximity to the WOSU tower seems to allow that when nothing else is up. After five minutes of a guy with a British accent preach about how we needed to teach banks "morality" and reporting with lots of saliva (is it their bad teeth?) the fabulous relationship between Obama and Brown, which just a few weeks ago was in the toilet, I switched to the early a.m. show on the paranormal--it made more sense than that guy. But after 5 minutes of a guy remembering an apparition in blue that came into his bedroom when he was 5 and it looked exactly like his mother who was quite ill and putting up with a gambling husband who was being hunted by the mafia, it really was a draw.

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When Blacks are sentenced

Michael Vick, a black football player, is to get 23 months for dog fighting. And he deserves every minute and I hope they get the rest of the ring because these fights don't happen with only one guy. However, I'm looking forward to the day when a big, burly NBA or NFL guy gets 23 months for beating up his wife or girlfriend. She usually ends up dropping the charges and he might get a reprimand and returns to the court or field to make millions for an industry that looks the other way. (And yes, I've heard of Mike Tyson, but that's a different "sport.") Oprah or another woman's show occasionally covers the topic, but the media doesn't give nearly the attention it gives the dogs. Or how about jailing the creeps who sing and dance about the bodies of females encouraging assaults with easily recognisable hate speech?

Then there's Conrad Black who's been sentenced to 6.5 years for cheating the shareholders of Hollinger International (now Sun-Times Media Group), mail fraud and obstruction of justice. He was caught on a security camera removing 13 boxes of documents from his office. Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's national security adviser, was caught also--stole important documents about the Clinton administration response to terrorism from the National Archives, destroyed them, and then lied about it. He got no jail time. Didn't I see somewhere that he was working in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign? He should be doing more time than either Vick or Black.

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She's right, for the wrong reasons

Women's studies professor at Duke, Kathy Rudy says [quoted in Taranto's Best of the Web:

"We need to face the fact that dog fighting is not the only "sport" that abuses animals. Cruelty also occurs in rodeos, horse and dog racing (all of which mistreat animals and often kill them when no longer useful). There are also millions of dogs and cats we put to death in "shelters" across the country because they lack a home, and billions of creatures we torture in factory farms for our food.

She then goes on to say Vick is being wrongfully charged because he's black. Oh, please! Not the race card again. Stop this incessant infantilization of adult black men who ought to know up from down. Michael Vick didn't slaughter his dogs because he was some poor black kid, he was just plain old vanilla evil. However, she's right about the mistreatment of pets. Most pets don't die of disease, old age or the cruelty like Vick demonstrated, but from owner carelessness and stupidity. There are factory farm animals raised for consumption that have a better life than some pets because the owners need to turn a profit. Pet owners don't neuter and train their animals; the animals become community nuisances with barking, biting, defecating and urinating inappropriately and dropping babies; owner sends "bad" animal off to the "shelter," where they are killed--by the millions. Facing facts, as Ms. Rudy suggests, means I give her a C+ for getting some of it right.

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Comments on the News

Gonzales--would you be able to reconstruct without any errors anything you said or did a year ago, last week, this morning? The only good thing about the Democrats' witch hunt into executive privilege territory is that it keeps them from doing what their party faithfuls elected them to do.

Michael Vick--before his fighting dog problems, I'd never heard of him. If he's done even a fraction of what he's accused of, he should be ashamed (although people who do this have no shame). However, thousands of dogs are killed each year because their owners abandoned them or didn't train them and they became problems. Professional athletes are frequently in the news for beating up women, and you don't hear nearly the outcry as you do about this. T-shirt manufacturers don't pull the product. I won't link to any dog fight photos, but it's a terribly cruel sport for which millions cheer and gamble. Hmmm. Sounds a bit like football, doesn't it?

Nifong--He's apparently apologized, now let's see if the Duke faculty can display a bit of class and do the same--both the 88 and the others who just stood by. I'd fire the bunch, but I'm sure they are hiding behind some sort of legal protection, something they weren't willing to offer the lacrosse athletes of their school. I sure wouldn't send my kid to Duke if these clowns are any example of their faculty.

BET--I read about BET's new reality show displaying outrageous, ill mannered behavior by blacks. Now that's a help, isn't it? If people are idiots, what makes the producers think they'll shame them into some manners? I'm betting some of the investors in this travesty are after the green, regardless of their color, and they won't all be black. It's the only color that matters in the entertainment world.

Ward Churchill--Three investigative panels of the University of Colorado found phony baloney Ward Churchill rewrote history to fit his personal and political views and refused to take responsibility for his academic misconduct. So of course, he is suing. Between Duke's 88 and Colorado's Churchill, it's not a good year for academic administrations. Colorado should have booted him much earlier just on the strength of his smarmy lies that he was a native American. Time for some cage cleaning.