Humans are superior to animals, riiiiight...

I just got back from a walk in The Zoo. Overall it was a great trip (aside from the heat), but there was this one thing that disgusted my whole family.

We saw a peacock walking near a public path, with some chicks -- something that we'd never seen before, in all the years we've been going to the zoo. However, an East Indian man and his five year old son were following them (the boy quite close). Sure enough, this kid ran at and spat at the babies, while his father just watched innocently.

ALL of us, plus some other tourists, saw this and yelled at them both to stop. He only seemed to get the message when we pointed out that if the kid goes near the flock again, the mother will probably attack.

Honestly, this just boiled my blood for two reasons. One, I hate bullies -- one of the few things I can honestly and shamelessly say that I do loathe -- especially anyone who is twisted enough to attack newborns of any species (don't forget, serial killers often start out as animal abusers). Two, no matter what culture you're from (if indeed that is an issue here), if you've been around animals at all then you know that the most universally potent instinct that exists is that of mothers to fanatically protect their young offspring. In short, if the animal has any capacity to harm a human at all, then picking on its own is literally suicide.

But anyway... I wish I'd thought to congratulate these idiots/jerks for teaching a bunch of infants that humans are the most obnoxious and heartless creatures on this planet.

Election Bullshit

By now, not only is the American presidential election pretty much in high gear, but the Canadian government is making noises about wanting to pull the plug on itself and call an impromptu election (the excuse -- I mean, reason -- being that supposedly the opposition has made Parliament dysfunctional; in actuality, it's the government that's been doing that by muzzling and threatening the opposition every chance it could get).

I realize that elections are a key part of democracy, and that there's only so much that can be done to stop leaders from overriding their own laws, or to stop the kind of stupid infighting that we're seeing in the states (ie. McCain having a rather patronizing view of Barack Obama, especially considering that his newly minted V.P. nominee is a young and inexperienced governor... hmmm, sound familiar?).

In my view, governments who break election laws, block any judicial investigations, make a mockery of free elections... in general, have contempt for civil process, should automatically forfeit their stake in the election. In other words, Stephen Harper should be tossed on his ass immediately, and McCain should give up the Republican nomination to another person. But then again, that's because I have a low tolerance for stupid bullshit. That's because I was raised to have a mind of my own, and to behave like a mature adult in public.

Global B.S.

Well we all know by now, Russia and Georgia are getting into a territorial pissing match (leading to Russia waving its prick around some more over now-sovereign countries that it can't get over losing control of). All I can say is, if this isn't incentive for the U.S. to stop fucking around with smaller non-problems like Iraq and Afghanistan and get with the program, I don't know what is.

In other news, it's kind of neat that so many athletes are doing well at the Olympic Scams -- I mean, Games -- but I stand by my view that if they really cared about "integrity" they would be competing elsewhere.

Archived -- Updates (as of late July)

Originally posted July 28, 2008.

Making "Bored on the Corner"

Originally posted July 24, 2008.

Archived -- Bearing Arms and Losing Minds

Originally posted July 21, 2008.

Archived -- Omar Khadr

Originally posted July 16, 2008.