1.There was an American woman killed by a lion in
a South Africa. This must be a terrible
time for her family and friends. She was
in a lion park and, against the rules, had her window down. Was it to get a better photo? I am not sure we’ll ever know for sure. As many of my readers know, Sage has had more
than his share of close encounters with bears, rattlesnakes, sharks and even a
mountain lion. He’s been fortunate and
never harmed. However, he still respects
the animals and have always been nervous when encountering them at close range
as he knows they are wild and are unpredictable. Over the past year, I have seen many
disturbing animal of “animal love” on social media. Photos of a man who raised a young lion and
is reunited years later and the lion runs out and welcomes the man, jumping up
on him, like Sage’s daughter used to do when he walked to her elementary school
to pick her up at the end of the day. I
wonder if these photos and videos of people swimming with sharks, playing with lions
and bears, appearing to be “saved” by wild animals have desensitized us to the
dangerous and unpredictable nature of wild animals. Having a window down when only three feet
away from an African lion seems pretty risky and, in the long run, will
probably undo her efforts to “save” African wildlife. Yes, wild animals are beautiful and a treat to
see, but let’s remember that they are, first and foremost, wild! Use some common sense when around them and
give them space. If you want to cuddle a
wild animal, why don’t you adopt one like me, overstuffed with cotton.
2. 2. Bikers thinking that the police over-reacted and
were stereotyping by taking into custody all the bikers they could get their
hands on at a Waco, Texas bar… Who did they think killed those nine dead
bikers, aliens from another plane? Maybe
the police and courts didn’t work fast enough to clear those not involved with
the fight, but when bikers are fighting, taking bikers into custody doesn’t
seem to be stereotyping.
3. 3. The obsession with Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner…
Eek! Never put your window down. Never! I feel for her grieving family and friends...that is horrible to think about.
ReplyDeleteI think the police did what they had to do. It's hard to pinpoint who is and is not involved in a situation like that.
Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful. But it is annoying to see her EVERYWHERE.
Eek! Never put your window down. Never! I feel for her grieving family and friends...that is horrible to think about.
ReplyDeleteI think the police did what they had to do. It's hard to pinpoint who is and is not involved in a situation like that.
Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful. But it is annoying to see her EVERYWHERE.
Yeah, me neither. I was telling Lana last night, I'm glad Caitlyn Jenner has done something she wanted to do but I really don't care one way or the other. It's none of my business.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand these things either. I saw the story about the woman in the news, really terrible.
ReplyDeleteOh I hear you Nevada Jack, and we had our own experience last summer in South Dakota where we were told strickly to never get out of your car or roll any of your windows down, while driving through . Did they all listen, no, there was a car where they even hung out of the moon roof. Sometimes people make tragic mistakes.
ReplyDeleteNevada Jack: I agree on your points. With regard to the Lion attack, I believe the solution is to have guided tours inside a park vehicle designed for carrying tourists safely. The idea that raising wild animals in a domestic setting as a pet, is nuts. But then, I have lost faith in our present social culture when it comes to common sense issues and cheap sensationalism.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the wild life. Wild is wild, no matter what. Respect animal life, respect plant life. And above all, treat it as what it is, wild.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Assigning human characteristics to animals might be okay if they're small, but it's just tempting fate with wildlife - yet I see it time and time again.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that girl put the window down. That is mind-blowing.
Of the three the SA one is the most outright odd. One imagines, and this said wholly without prejudice, that if you can afford to travel to South Africa that one has a reasonable degree of common sense. Now I've met rich and/or well-educated people and that's little guarantee that common sense resided within. Here though, and I hesitate to call it this way, the person driving through a National Park devoted to lions with the window wide is an idiot on the scale of idiot on the far right of a piano. I'm sorry it happened to them, but really.
ReplyDeleteI had a bike, not a big one. But on this side of the Atlantic ownership of a bike is almost entirely amongst the uppermiddle class. Or at the very least very well got moneywise. When we read about HD riding roughshod over a town we think lawyers in bike leathers. €25,000 http://www.harley.ie/harley_davidson/new/bikes/softail/2015hdsoftailslim.htm
Three, I've utterly lost interest. I just don't care. I read he-->she has become something of a media issue in the US of A. Sorry.
I think it is a good thing for nature to reassert itself at the top of the food chain now and then. A lion eating a woman wrapped in a decorative metal wrapper, a bison goring a girl with her back turned to it while smiling into a small device at the end of a long stick, or a group of bikers seeing if another group of bikers are bulletproof are all examples of nature keeping our gene pool a little bit cleaner in the shallow end. I only wish Caitlyn had come sooner to erase the existence of the Kardashians.
ReplyDeleteSigned,
Desert Rat
Wise comments and I especially like your last one even though I have never watched or kept up with the Kardashians!
DeleteAs cute as they are...they are still wild animals. I think many people aren't as knowledgeable as you are about it, especially tourists who know only what they've seen online and on TV. So, yes, I think this is desensitizing people to just how dangerous these animals are.
ReplyDeleteI think what you may be searching for, Nevada Jack, is the common sense, and it seems to be getting harder to find.
ReplyDeleteI saw a story recently where Yellowstone (or perhaps some other) Park is banning selfies because people are endangering themselves all for the purpose of something to post on Facebook.
And I'm perpetually fed up with whatever happens to be the media's current flavor of the week.
I agree on three counts!
ReplyDelete1) i f you don't know how to respect your surroundings regardless of where you are there is a high probability you will become roadkill.
ReplyDelete2) With the police under assault by the black community I would have made the press broadcast from a thousand outlets, for two weeks the bikers being arrested.
3) None of my business.
People think wild animals are like stuffed animals and have no real concept of how dangerous they can be!
ReplyDeleteI don't get the Jenner obsession either. He/she has a mental illness. I don't know why it has to be glamorized.
People really need to think about why parks have rules and obey them. They are there for a reason. It's tragic that anyone is killed or hurt but if it's because you didn't follow the rules then you have no one to blame but yourself and I have no sympathy. I don't agree with killing an animal if they kill someone who broke the rules, they are only doing what they would do in the wild..acting like the wild animal they are.
ReplyDeleteYES... the obsession with Bruce/Caitlyn...i'm sorry I just can't take it anymore. that whole family is deranged, I'm sick of all their faces... and that's a good point about the desensitizing to wild animals. For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would roll down their windows that close to a lion. It's so tragic. Definitely could have been prevented. I think we also live in a culture where people just have to have that epic photo for social media.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but if this girl mauled to death by a lion because she rolled down her car window doesn't get nominated for the annual Darwin Award there is no justice.
ReplyDeleteAs for Caitlyn, the plight of a rich and famous man discovering his true gender doesn't interest me in the slightest. Especially when I've heard this is all promotion for her new reality show. I'm more worried about gay and transgender kids having to deal with abuse from family, church, and other kids.
Thanks everyone for commenting. I was a little busy this past week to respond promptly!
ReplyDeletePeople were insane when we were visiting Yellowstone. I was shocked by them running after the bison.
ReplyDeleteIt's not PC to say this, but I agree with other posters that Bruce has a mental illness.
Yeah, along with a fairly high narcissistic need for the spotlight and a hefty dose of greed.
DeleteI'm very much aware of the wildness of animals. I can't believe some news items, because people should know better.
ReplyDeleteNow the media attention is on Rachel Dolezal. There's always a constant focus that gets tiring.