We haven’t had an open thread in a while. The usual rules apply: be concise, be charitable, and, above all, be amusing.
Fireman Saves Kitten Open Thread
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Back in the day, we’d place unwanted kittens in burlap sacks, weighted with rocks, and throw them in the bay. Now, the powers that be save kittens but do to 47,000,000 human babies what we did to surplus kittens.
OTOH, alley cats conrolled the rat population.
Today, we send our “top” rats to Congress.
And so, 535 American villages are missing their idiots.
Wow. I definetly agree that worrying about kittens more than people is wrong. Are we not also caretakers of the animals given to us by God. I value human life way beyond animal life. We were created in the image and likeness of God and are special.
I also think that in the midst of destruction this fireman wanted to experience something good. He saved this kitten and I’m sure this helps him deal with the destruction he sees.
Please understand I would never value life of an animal over life of a human being expecially the most innocent. There are people out there who don’t. There are those out there that think nothing of killing an inoccent human being yet would never want an animal killed. God help these people.
T.Shaw, leave it to you to see this charming video and wax nostalgic for drowning kittens! 🙂
To some of us God gives us power over others, animals as well as humans, for a time during our lives. I have always thought that the mercy and kindness we show, along with justice, on those occasions are quite predictive as to our own reception in the world to come from God.
cute and adorable…
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
This quote is attributed to everybody from Goethe to Malcolm Forbes, but it is in any event true.
That kitten – is he/she named Lazarus?? 🙂
Many of you in the US of A may not know of another “Lazarus” moment which happened on San Francisco Bay over the past week – The Americas Cup regatta.
Emirates Team NZ had won the first 5 races, 5 – zip. The Oracle Team USA won one. ETNZ kept winning lost of the races, till they were on Match Point – 8 – 1; the winner was the first to win 9 races.
It is reported Larry Ellison, in the last 10 days of the regatta, spent $15 mil. to improve the Team Oracle boat. The thing that chokes most kiwis is that he employed kiwi technology and kiwi boat builders(predominantly) to reconfigure the boat, and it gained 2 minutes in time around the course. ETNZ improved their times also, but not to the extent OTUSA did. It was amazing to watch these 72 foot catamarans on hydrofoils, doing in excess of 45knots at times. These boats are really at the cutting edge of design and technology.
Oracle Team USA did a Lazarus act, and won the last 8 races so the final score was OTUSA 9 – ETNZ 8.
A fantastic effort by our guys, but in this particular sport, its hard to beat money, as has always been the case in the Americas Cup.
But NZ can take a lot of credit from Oracles win – The OTUSA syndicate is owned by Larry Ellison, but headed up by kiwi Russell Coutts. The majority of the crew on the boat were kiwis, the boat designers were kiwis but funded by Ellison, and a large number of Oracles shore crew and boatbuilders were kiwis.
So we don’t feel that bad by being beaten by the USA 🙂
Just wait till nest time !!!!
Our kiwis beat your kiwis Don! 🙂
Any sporting contest that is that close and hotly contested does honor to all the participants!
And while I never did it, I took the kittens to the farm, a burlap bag with a brick was common practice. My daughter had a kitten that took up with a pole cat, a genuine, real skunk, Pepe Le Pew himself. They honeymooned under the car. Every morning the kitten came out and the skunk went back into the woods. Kitty did not know she wasn’t a skunk.
“Our kiwis beat your kiwis Don!
Very true, Don. 🙂
To be fair, the OTUSA crew was made up of quite an international bunch. Only, I think, 2or 3 Americans, but also a few Aussies – including the skipper, Jimmy Spithill, a world renowned sailor, and a couple of pomms (brits) including Ben Ainslie(actually Sir Ben) who has won several Olympic gold medals, and has a freakish ability to pick wind shifts, and the correct wind lanes to sail in.
But yachting is very much a professional sport nowadays, and particularly the Americas Cup, so when someone like Russell Coutts, managing the team for a guy like Larry Ellison who has an unlimited budget, offers a crew position and is prepared to pay the best for the best, who would turn it down.
Don and Don,
Them “yachts” looked more like space ships. Here’s my idea for a cup race. First in from San Francisco to NZ.
If I had an unlimited budget, I’d have built one of them 100-foot schooners that used to (dory) fish for cod on George’s Bank, early in the last century.
Not to worry. The All Blacks would beat the heck out of any US rugger team.
Look at that kid’s backpack, and all the damage– their whole life is screwy… and that fire fighter was able to give them back the kitten, at least.
The burlap sack option is a coward’s way; if you must kill, you should do it cleanly and quickly.