Fish Fear Me

Woe Unto Walter

File this under "See ya, wouldn't want to be ya":

Cecil the lion – the most famous creature in one of Zimbabwe's national parks – was killed by an American hunter who has boasted about shooting a menagerie of animals with his bow and arrow, The Telegraph can reveal.

Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, is believed to have paid £35,000 to shoot and kill the much-loved lion with a bow and arrow. The animal was shot on July 1 in Hwange National Park. Two independent sources have confirmed the hunter's identity to the paper, which has also seen a copy of the relevant hunting permit.

The StarTribune is reporting that Palmer will dispute some aspects of the allegations, so we will have to see how things shake out. Big game hunting appears to be Palmer's "thing" based on photos of him posing with various animals he has killed over the years. One thing for certain, the forecast for Walter Palmer today is 100% chance of severe shitstorm. And in this case maybe it should.

As I've noted here on several occasions, I'm not a big fan of the online outrage machine. However, if the poaching allegation is true then Palmer deserves a great deal of scorn. And if this is true he deserves even more:

The American is believed to have shot it with a crossbow, injuring the animal. The wounded lion was found 40 hours later and shot dead with a gun, Rodrigues said in the statement.

40 hours? That animal suffered for 40 hours? You know, if you're going to not only go all Great White Hunter, but also "Look at me hunting with a bow and arrow"(trust me, that's what most bowhunters do), then you damned well better be good enough to make the kill cleanly, or at least be able to track it down and dispatch it in a hell of a lot less than 40 hours.

I don't get big game trophy hunting, I never have. I'm okay with it though, when it's part of a hunt where the meat is taken. That is an ancient and honorable thing in my book. Or if that lion had become a danger to humans or livestock that might be another story. But taking an animal's head and skin simply for display is not an honorable thing as far as I'm concerned. There's an argument that says the people paying big dollars to legally do this sort of hunting are funding conservation efforts, and it's true. It still doesn't seem right to me.

Quote Of The Day

The despicable Nick Denton had a despicable story blow up on his despicable website the other day. Ace of Spades has all of the details for you so you don't have to go to the despicable website. He also responds to a laughable claim by the despicable Nick Denton that he's sorry his despicable reporter "...was exposed to such traumatizing hatred online, just for doing his job." To which Ace supplies the QOTD:

"Isn't exposing random people to traumatizing hatred online their entire business model?"

Why yes, yes it is. That the despicable Nick Denton and the despicable creatures who work for him have any audience at all is a sad commentary on the human race.

Wait, What?

So, I haven't quit the blog here, but I needed to take a break. Much of my time has been consumed with good stuff such as gardening, shopping for a new stove and refrigerator, and doing more IT studying. But there are some other reasons too, mostly around just how crazy things have gotten, the BS that is served up to us on a daily basis, and the astonishing nature of our incompetent yet arrogant "elites." I've been too fed up with all of the crap to even write a coherent post. However, I feel like I'm finding my voice again, so we'll see if I can get back on a roll while keeping the ranting and raving to a minimum.

I'll start with what's a minor story in the grand scheme of things, but one that illustrates just how crazy and stupid we have become.

It seems a server at a suburban St. Louis restaurant had some trouble remembering her table numbers, so she substituted "BLACK COUPLE" for one table that she served. Because, well, they were a black couple.

Believe it or not, that's now a firing offense in 2015 America. Yep, the couple complained, the owner immediately assumed the position, and the server was terminated. For the incredibly racist act of calling a black couple, the horror, a black couple.

Now, I'm all for respecting customers and serving their wishes, so I see no problem with noting their complaint, despite its hypersensitive nature, and acting so it doesn't happen again. But firing the server? Ridiculous, and so is this mewling, groveling apology:

I guess I can understand a business fearing and wanting to get ahead of the digital lynch mob, but the environment that we live in now in that regard sickens me. We've become a nation where hypersensitive assholes are more powerful than common sense and basic decency and it's past time to start pushing back against the mob.

I know, easier said than done.

"Eat My CO2"

So man-made climate change is supposed to be this huge problem, right? It's supposedly caused by humans burning fossil fuels, right? To fix it, humans need to urgently and dramatically reduce the use of said fossil fuels, right?

So then can someone explain to me why President Obama is literally flying halfway across the country today in Air Force One(the C-17 carrying his motorcade arrived yesterday) to deliver a speech on overtime and then, 2 1/2 hours later, flying all the way back home? What's the carbon footprint of that not-so-little excursion? 

If man-made climate change was really a serious problem the ecowarriors would be freaking out today about Obama's profligate injection of CO2 into the atmosphere simply to deliver a quick speech that could have just as well been delivered at the White House. But they won't, because Obama does this crap all of the time and we hear nary a peep.

And that's because, just like his overtime proposal, the climate change hysteria is all a bunch of bullshit. When phonies like Obama and the rich and famous climate change freaks stop jetting all over the place and learn to love video conferencing I might start believing them.

As for the overtime nonsense, I wrote about that a year ago and here are two points from that:

A reasonable case can be made for adjusting the minimum salary threshold below which an employee cannot be made exempt from receiving overtime. It has been 10 years since that was adjusted and inflation has added up to about 24% during that time. A more radical increase, such as the more than doubling mentioned at the link, would create chaos and probably hurt vastly more employees than it would help. At the same time it would put additional regulatory costs on employers, making less money available for either salaries or profits.

...

So if/when Obama seeks "to force American businesses to pay more overtime," what is going to happen?

Well, what's not going to happen is a sudden windfall of overtime pay to American workers. Businesses are not going to just shrug and move on, even if they can afford to pay more to their employees. Instead, life is going to get more complicated for everybody.

For affected employees a time card will probably accompany a new and lower hourly base rate. Congratulations! Since most employers are not actually out to screw their employees, an expected amount of overtime will probably go with that to keep compensation at about the same level. Now all they have to worry about is some new boss coming in and the all too familiar "No Overtime!" edict coming down from on high. That's the real world.

Instead of helping workers and forcing companies to pay higher salaries, radical changes to overtime rules are more likely to just make life more complicated for everyone, and could actually result in some of the affected employees making less money than they did before.  

For just about everyone involved this will amount to nothing but more bullshit from the incompetent nitwits in Washington DC. Well, that and the puzzlement of the tools who sent the moron there in the first place.

Now Showing

Today's feature at a local venue is a horror movie: "The Pickup That Ate My Income Tax Refund."

No sooner did my state refund arrive than some ugly noise erupted in the front end of my Ranger. The diagnosis from a mechanic I trust: Ball joint/control arm problems. The passenger side was biggest problem(one bad pothole from catastrophe), but the driver's side wasn't in the best shape either. Given my plan to keep it for a few more years even if I get a newer day-to-day vehicle, I went ahead on getting it fixed up right, but yeesh. I had other designs on that money.