This is as good a place to note my disgust as any. In an example of life imitating the Babylon Bee, a bipartisan group of House members decided that in these “challenging times” they have nothing better to do than to troll Gov. Kristi Noem, she of the itchy trigger finger, while sucking up to PETA.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) announced in a post on Twitter, alias “X,” “In light of recent events, we’re launching the Congressional Dog Lovers Caucus today! This group dedicated to man’s best friend aims to foster bipartisan cooperation and will help put paws over politics.” His post featured photos of Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Susan Wild (D-Pa.), alongside Moskowitz, each with a dog.
Mace issued a press release blathering,“While Congress might disagree on everything, we can all agree that dogs are beloved companions, bringing us all so much joy. We started this caucus to champion legislation that protects the rights and well-being of dogs, ensuring they receive the care, respect, and recognition they deserve…In a time of polarization and partisanship, I’m proud to join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle and commit to working on behalf of our pets, who give us so much joy and comfort every day.”
This insulting nonsense, coming on the heels of Congress overwhelmingly passing an anti-hate speech bill that is unconstitutional on its face, raises a genuine question as to whether the nation would be better off with dogs running things in the Capitol instead of these boobs.
The dogs might as well take over the state houses too. The Hill reports that Kristi’s spin on her animal-shooting rampage is now that the dog she shot was a veritable Cujo.
But that’s enough from me: this is your chance to howl…
Ethics Alarms 
Compliments to the South Dakota TV station that asked the appropriate people for opinions on Noem shooting Cricket: hunting dog trainers. https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/hunting-dog-experts-weigh-in-after-cricket-story/
It seems to me that instead of trying to criminalize speech such as the case in HR690 it would make sense to expand the FACE act to include all places in which one group is denied access or impeded by another to prevent or intimidate such access.
It seems unethical, if not unconstitutional, to me to limit FACE act violations to reproductive health care facilities which benefits only one class of citizens.
We have right to life protesters jailed for singing hymns because they stood outside a clinic yet these student protesters who are actually threatening one group of students and the administration while also commandeering and vandalizing property are subject only to misdemeanor trespass.
Expanding the FACE act to include all types of protests that intentionally block, impede or otherwise deny access to facilities or use intimidation tactics to deny access would go along way to Constitutionally mitigate these events while protecting one’s right to speak.
I was thinking about this the other day. Surely someone intelligent out there can explain that impeding access to classrooms and other campus facilities is wrong and, in the eyes of the Left, should be no different than impeding access to abortion clinics or Planned Parenthoods.
Those restrictions are already in place on college campuses. Different universities have slightly different policies, and public and private institutions work a little differently, but no one disputes that “reasonable time, place, and manner” restrictions exist and that they’re appropriate. These criteria generally include things like no encampments, no blocking access to buildings, no amplified sound except in certain areas or at certain times, etc. That these rules have sometimes been violated with few repercussions is a matter of enforcement, not of insufficient legislation.
There are two problems: the Columbia version, where those policies were not initially enforced and things got very much out of hand very quickly, and the UT-Austin version, where students and even at least one journalist were arrested and physically attacked by riot police although they had not violated the policy. Neither is acceptable.
Curmie
I am not talking about college policies I am talking about the rationale for the FACE act be applied not just to protect abortion seekers and providers based on 1st amendment right to be protected against religious interference. The FACE act in section 2 specifically suggests that religious dogma against abortion violates providers and seekers civil rights.
Colleges and universities can have their own policies but none have the ability to penalize offenders with a year in jail for a first offense or 10 years and a $10,000 fine for a repeat offense.
Currently the FACE act can be used to intimidate only conservative pro life persons into silence yet firebombing pro life centers do not warrant investigation because, according to Garland, the crimes occur at night.
The point of expanding the FACE act to include other issues is that it criminalizes behaviors that seek to intimidate or otherwise prevent others from enjoying the same rights of access and travel as abortion seekers.
In other words why should one group get special protections regarding their ability to travel unimpeded by protesters?
I have zero interest in Noem’s book in general terms, but in the present circumstances it would be worth knowing the entirety of the section about the late Cricket. There’s that word again: Context!
If she details the dog’s aggressiveness in the book, then her description of the events has been distorted into little more than gossip–making someone, anyone, look bad gets website hits, ad revenue, etc. If not, then she’s just lying to try to put a less negative spin on the story. Given that her initial response to the criticism didn’t include the dog’s behavior but rather her willingness to make tough decisions, this is the more likely scenario, but the former is certainly possible.
When the still book is available to the public, we’ll know.
I wish I had more interest in reading a Kristi Noem autobiography than I do in perusing Sexus, Nexus and Plexus in Esperanto…
I agree. Is she doubling-down or did the reports emphasize only the fact that she put down the dog over its lack of birding prowess?
If it’s in the book, she’s a victim of being a Republican; if it’s not, she and whoever assisted/advised her in the writing of it are foolish for not including the full details.
You’re right. She could be just an idiot instead of a liar. Friendly amendment accepted.
Context has been my concern with this story too. Was the dog was being properly trained and was always overly aggressive/violent/known for psychotic breaks? That is one thing. If the dog is a poorly trained puppy, it is another story.
Another item of context, how did the dog attack her and how many witnesses were there? Some places have laws that a dog attacking a human, no matter the reason, must be put down. Other times, the viciousness of the attack requires it. My uncle had the sweetest dog, a husky, for five years. She was never maltreated, except perhaps to get a little too many treats. One day he walked near her and patted her on the shoulder, like he always did and she snapped and went for his throat. He got an arm up in time to save his life but had to go to the ER for treatment and it took four burly animal control officers, my aunt, and cousin, to get her off him, snarling and insane the whole time. By the time he made it to the hospital, the animal control team had put her down. There was no legal remedy, except her death, after all those witnesses and the savagery of her attack.
Finally, what are the laws regarding the chicken killing? Some farming/ranching communities are pretty strict on this, requiring dogs in henhouses to be put down, no matter what. Is this a matter of doing the legal thing, despite your desire to do something else? If this was the law, then putting your dog down is hardly unethical, is it?
This story lacks so much context that we seem to either have Kujo or a psycho who would shoot a puppy and no middle ground. Context would probably make this a story where we could better decide if this woman is unethical, or was, as she claims, making hard choices and doing the right thing.
Also, and I don’t know much about Noem, but if this was an actual farm dog, they are free roaming. No leash and no fences. Any dog is a guard dog on a farm. You have to put down a consistently aggressive dog. We put down an aggressive dog before in the same manner.
No!
As much as I like dogs and cats, if we don’t stop this now, we will quickly head down that slippery slope to the ferrets, rodents, hamsters and guinea pigs until we leave Mammalia entirely and get into the reptiles, and, eventually, they’ll be talking about how much they love fish.
This must stop now!
-Jut
But I love my pet rock!
Me too. My pet rock has been my faithful trusty companion since 1977. I take it everywhere I go. My rock gives me great consolation.
jvb
Leaders address solutions to future problems.
Managers address solutions to current problems.
Politicians address problems to past problems.
Politicians routinely seek to legislate morality which is a fool’s errand.
Our country is sorely lacking leaders and we all pay the price
Read this, if you can read it without puking your guts out. This is the kind of thinking we’re dealing with on college campuses these days. I’ve added a few thoughts of my own.
Allie Wong, a would-be Ph.D. at Columbia wrote in USA Today:
Tuesday night, two dozen Columbia University students linked arms in front of the student-occupied Hamilton Hall at dusk. I was one of them.
We sang with broken yet mighty voices (oh boy, here we go with the over-poetic portrayal as “voices in the wilderness), “Your people are my people, your people are mine; your people are my people, our struggles align.” (of course, lyrics of peace and inclusiveness, who can argue with this?) We were a group of activists of differing faiths and none, friends and strangers united, linking arms with one another and, in spirit, with the generations of courageous students who came before us (now they’re the keepers of the flame of the 60s?) . Electricity crackled through the air from the growing protests echoing just beyond the university gates – gates I had just moments ago slipped through and sprinted from like a bat out of hell. (Unless there was an electrical storm or some kind of short, you are full of it)
We knew we were likely to be arrested for being on campus despite the university-mandated shelter-in-place order, but chose we to run into the fire anyway. (admitting stupidity doesn’t make it not stupid, and admitting an act was wrong doesn’t make it less so) .
As a human chain, draped in keffiyehs and shaking like leaves in the autumn wind, we sang with hushed tones and breathed deeply as hundreds of New York police officers armed with flash grenades and pepper spray marched toward us like a military parade. (Can we stop with the hackneyed and bad poetic references and attempts to portray yourselves as saints under attack by stormtroopers?)
As they approached from multiple directions, we sang with frail and cracking (this woman never met an adjective she didn’t like, and one is not enough if she can use two) voices, “This love that I have, the world didn’t give it to me; the world didn’t give it, the world can’t take it away,” (more bad lyrics) as officers threatened student journalists with arrest, presumably to ensure minimal coverage of the aggression they were about to exert. (Maybe, but also maybe because everyone present was creating an unsafe situation and breaking the rules?)
Students in dorms craned their necks and shakily stretched their iPhones out windows to observe the impending attack. (of course they did)
We clung tighter to one another as they approached us, and seized us like rag dolls and slammed us into the hallowed ground of brick and concrete. But unlike rag dolls, we bleed, we crack, we bruise, we feel. (Oh good grief, how much more of this overwrought pathos are we going to read? What is hallowed about Columbia University or the fact that a protest took place? Hallowed ground is the Silver Star or the Way of St. James, not this. Everyone knows you aren’t children’s toys. Maybe don’t act like children and you will avoid their fate?)
Police at Columbia were anything but professional. (says you. I’m sure they tell a different story)
Once dispersed, I held my hands up to show I was neither resisting nor armed. In response, I was handled brutally by police alongside other students being shoved down concrete steps saying with shameless condescension, “Watch your step.” (or maybe they were just concerned you wouldn’t trip) We were arrested, bound and shuttled down to 1 Police Plaza, where the New York Police Department had a pizza party prepared for arresting officers (or maybe just food provided after a long and difficult assignment where meal breaks were hard to come by).
They threw us in cells like animals – cells where the only toilets women could use lacked any privacy and where our naked bodies were in plain sight to throngs of male officers. (that’s what happens when you overload the cell capacity. You could have walked away and avoided all this)
During news conference hours later, New York Mayor Eric Adams said there were no incidents of violence. This is an abhorrent lie. (not just a lie, an ABHORRENT lie) Later on Wednesday, in an email sent to the entire university community, Columbia President Minouche Shafik thanked the NYPD for their “professionalism.” This supposed professionalism is also a lie. (OK, so the mayor and the University president are liars, but students who have already shown themselves to be out of touch with reality should be believed without question?)
What is nonviolent and professional about seizing a compliant 120-pound student with her hands up and slamming her to the concrete ground? (says you) What is nonviolent and professional about brutalizing students? (who’ve already acted like anarchist thugs by trying to take over and take hostages) What is professional about removing a woman’s hijab during police bookings and refusing to return it (because you need to see someone’s face) – yet offering me, a non-Muslim, my vest because the jail cell was cold? (no good deed goes unpunished) What is professional about forcing women to expose their genitalia to male officers in order to use the toilet because we “trespassed” on our own university? (Like I said, you overloaded the capacity. Of course you could have worn depends, like some of these agitators do).
We sang “Like a tree planted by the waters, we shall not be moved” (more singing? Somehow I doubt you folks are on the level of the folks at the Met) as our bodies were seized – but we would not be moved. (au contraire, I think you were just that) Protesters aren’t antisemitic. Our hearts are with innocent Gazans (uh huh, sure they are, that’s why you claim you are all Hamas).
Our hearts are with Gaza, our resolve is stronger than ever, and we hope the world sees the brutality of the police against peaceful protesters, at the behest of our own university president. (the world sees a bunch of entitled troublemakers finally being told enough is enough)
But make no mistake, we are not the heroes of this story (oh, at least you figured that out) – that honor belongs to those in Gaza; those whose families have been starved, whose cities have been bombed, whose children have been slaughtered; and those who did not have the privilege of choosing arrest or offering their bodies up as a public relations sacrifice. (there is nothing heroic about voting a terrorist group into power, then supporting their assault on another nation that has the power to bomb you into rubble, then crying when they do that)
Nor are we villains – those are the perpetrators of slaughter, such as Minouche Shafik and the Board of Trustees who would rather beat and arrest students than divest from a foreign government committing genocide. (Oh please. They didn’t slaughter anyone. No one was killed during these actions. They are just people who finally decided to do their jobs, after tolerating your outrageous behavior for far longer than they should have.)
On Saturday, I hosted a Passover Seder at my cramped Manhattan apartment for many of my closest friends. (good for you) Representing many faiths and none, we broke bread together and celebrated the Jewish liberation from slavery and a broken, unjust system of oppression. (you’re such good people)
On Tuesday I was shackled and arrested as part of the campus movement that many in the news media are calling “antisemitic.” It isn’t. (any movement that uses a chant that is shorthand for Israel must be destroyed is anti-Semitic)
Critically, our fellow Jewish students are not the villains in this story. They are our friends, our family, our blood, our fellow foot soldiers. Like us, they bleed, they crack, they bruise, they feel. At no point have the student organizers called for or promoted violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are calling to end the violence and genocide against our Palestinian brothers and sisters. (Now who’s lying?)
I chose to risk arrest because – unlike many of my classmates and friends – I’m privileged enough not to face deportation; because my potential suspension – and any other consequences that may befall me – does not even register on the scale of suffering experienced by those for whom we sing, whose lives have been taken, whose children have been slaughtered, whose families are being starved and tortured – those whom Columbia University is complicit in killing. (This doesn’t make you a hero. It makes you an idiot and a waster of resources).
We are not the heroes, nor are we the villains – the latter category belongs to Columbia and the broken system it refuses to heal. (I didn’t know healing it was Columbia’s job)
Allie Wong is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, an M.A. in International Affairs from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (before or after the fall of Communism?) and a bachelor’s degree in Human Rights, Peace and Nonviolent Activism from New York University. (This woman’s resume should tell you all you need to know about her. She’s an ivory tower studier of wishful thinking)
OK, a few closing thoughts. This rhetoric is no different than the rhetoric I read from other destructive activists over 30 years ago. I wonder if it is delusional or if it is rehearsed to a certain formula. The rhetoric always contains the same elements, and those elements are, at least as far as I can tell:
Call me when they get the January 6th treatment. Then, I might care.
What is it about societies that causes them to consistently hatch these sort of mass, self-destructive pathologies? Where do people like this woman come from? And how can they be so legion? What is it about societies that causes them to spawn these seemingly cancerous organisms? There must be an explanation for this phenomenon.
Hi Jack – apparently my last comment went into moderation because it had too many links (I pulled part of it from USA Today) Can you help me out?
Of course. It’s up.
A couple of times a month I join a small diverse group of people for breakfast and talk about recent local and national political topics. The group includes, current and past politicians, people directly involved in political campaigns, activists, businessmen and bloggers. I’m a bit out of my league with the on that have been directly involved in politics for 30+ years but I find the conversations engaging and quite interesting, I do a lot of active listening and jump in when I have questions or an opinion to share.
One of the people in this group introduced us to a new non partisan group that he’s involved in called Wisconsin Alliance for Civic Trust. We discussed their purpose is which is “a cross-partisan network of Wisconsin residents that promotes values fundamental to our democratic republic, including support for fair, safe, and secure elections, and support for civil engagement” and it sounded like something that is right up my alley. The group is supported by The Carter Center and it “welcomes participants from across the political spectrum, from every corner of the state, and from every walk of life”.
I can say that President Carter wasn’t very effective while in office but since he left office he sure has used his political clout in effective ways to promote a lot of non partisan organizations that can help our society. I think this is another one that could be the pebble in the pond if promoted correctly.
For many years I have veered away from joining any organizations that have its tentacles in politics in any way, but I have chosen to branch out a bit since I retired and I joined this particular organization specifically because of its stated purpose and I really like its focus on values. If it starts to veer away from its stated purpose and begin leaning at all partisan, I’ll walk away from the organization as fast as I can.
“Values serve as standards for who we choose to follow and for those who choose to follow us. Values are our personal bottom line. Values are our beliefs about what is most important in our lives. Our values determine what we think is right or wrong, good or bad, and what we do or do not do. Values are like the executive level of a computer system. Values are the leverage point that structures a powerful internal impulse that enables leaders to think and act beyond limitation. Use values as leverage to build strength of character in ourselves and those around us.”
Because many of our values are human commonalities, these values can be a solid foundation to build upon to help us intentionally become less partisan.
Hope lies in the truth, our strength of character to tell the truth lies in our values, so ultimately, hope lies within each one of us to stand up for, and spread the truth. I think this alliance can help build and spread hope and I choose to be a part of it.
See if there are organizations in your area that can do something similar.
Animal rights and humane treatment of animals are quite the ethical topic. Just because I’m a farm girl doesn’t mean I approve of Noem’s shooting of her own dog, however we picked up a dog clearly abandoned along an isolated stretch of road and left to starve. Kittens are left out here too for others to deal with if they are lucky or to stave in the box if they’re not. Plus we don’t know the entire story. Who knows? Here is a feel good job for you.
https://kdvr.com/news/colorado/colorado-based-company-looking-for-cow-cuddling-intern/
While everyone is upset over her shooting a dog, voters allowed wolves to be introduced back into the state which will kill way more animals and they will watch and do nothing about it. Sorry bout ya! Oh and we probably have a rapist as president. Just saying… glass houses and all that.
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2024/04/30/grand-county-rancher-pissed-after-wolves-kill-5-cattle-in-11-days/73503301007/
More ridiculous Columbia students: The Columbia Law Review‘s Administrative Board student editors demand that final exams be cancelled and all students awarded passing grades.
https://twitter.com/aaronsibarium/status/1786116920619511885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1786116920619511885%7Ctwgr%5E659c6e046f825c5e4f17831977cd3b61a4b16040%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F645295%2F
If I were still a practicing attorney, I would get a list of these editors’ names and make sure that none of them was ever hired by my firm. They can’t do their jobs because distressing things are happening in the world? Then they’re unfit to be attorneys. They’re unfit to hold any position of trust and responsibility, as attorneys or otherwise.
From myself:
https://humbletalent.substack.com/p/principles-are-hard
The “Basket of Policies”
Up until last October, I could with a frightening degree of certainty predict the average person’s politics by asking three or four standard questions. Measure whether they’re to the left or right, measure whether they’re an extremist, and then measure where they sit on one or two internal disagreement points, and you can basically divine the average person’s basket of policies. This seems worse among Americans, I think because of your two-party system… In Canada we have options: Labour lefties (NDP), academic lefties (LPC), social conservatives (PPC), fiscal conservatives (CPC), Quebec nationalists (BQ), and environmentalists (GPC). It means that while people still organize to a certain Overton window within their parties there are more baskets to choose from, and I think that competition between parties for support means that we’re more likely to tolerate a bit of overlap. This still happens, but for better or worse, Israel and Palestine have kind of shook up the baskets a little.
What Does that Mean in Practice?
My point in saying all that is that I don’t believe that people have principled reasons for a lot of their positions. They have some positions, which have led them to their baskets, and then they have picked up all these issues that they purportedly have high conviction of, but often can’t tell you why. I can think of no better example than post-secondary students chanting “From The River to The Sea”. They know neither the river nor the sea in question, what’s between them, and they don’t know what they would do with the people displaced from the area. It’s a genocidal chant, but without genocidal intentions, because the people saying it are ignorant of what they’re saying… It’s just what they’re supposed to say to be a member in good standing. Once presented with the facts: That we’re talking about the Jordan River, the Meditteranean Sea, and the removal of all Jews from the Areas currently known as Israel, The West Bank, and Gaza they moderate their language, because that’s not what they want. Which is a win, I suppose, but it’s not a complete win, there’s still a lack of awareness… They don’t often take the next step and ask: “What other stupid things am I just regurgitating?”
My Theory
I want to posit a theory: One that seems painfully obvious to me, but has purportedly blown the minds of people I’ve said it to: The Left™ doesn’t care about Anti-Semitism. They don’t care about Racism. They don’t care about trans youth. They don’t care about the environment. Your mileage may vary, you might find a true believer on any or all of those topics. But generally, what The Left™ does care about more than anything else is staying in power. And they do that by putting on meaningless, performative, slacktivist airs. They’ll decry the tiki-torch wielding anti-Semites because it’s easy and makes their opponent look bad, but they won’t actually deal with the anti-Semites in their ranks. They’ll wear kente cloth shawls to work, and say all the really nice things, while they fail their black constituents from cradle to grave. They’ll wear buttons, say slogans, take photo ops… All to avoid dealing with the problem, because dealing with the problem might be uncomfortable, and when you’re a party that has dedicated it’s existence to avoiding discomfort as a draw for votes, well… That’s political suicide.
HT
Conceptually your theory about the left not caring about the cause has been around for some time. HRC’s thesis was entitled “It is only the fight”. I listen to a DC based conservative talk radio channel. The thrust of most programs espouse that very theory. The pro Palestinian activities are a charade. The protester are ignorant but pliable sycophants for the professional Leftist activists. The end game is to destroy western culture in order to remake society into their image in which their leadership make the rules and profit from the labors of the proletariat. That is why they push for more ways to anesthetize the millions of young people through drug legalization.
It’s certainly not a new idea to me, I’ve been saying it here for years, but it’s new to a lot of the people I’m talking about.
Recently, I was watching a left-leaning political streamer, Steven Bonnell, who I think is slowly being pushed to the right by reality and bad actors on the left. His positions on Israel/Palestine basically mirror my own, and he was struggling with the Left’s response to October 7th. His audience forwarded the idea that the reason why so many left leaning people who were outraged by the Charlottesville protests could go on to be ravingly anti-Semitic was because they were always at best disinterested in the plight of Jews, but they were opportunistically using them as a tool against Trump. You could see realization dawn. I’ve never seen an epiphany in someone else in real time: But there it was.
It never occurred to him that the Democrats were only in it for the clout.
And again… Take that to the next step: How many other things that Democrats declare high conviction belief in do they really not give a rat’s ass about?
This idea, I think, needs to be talked about because Democrats and Republicans talk about different things differently. You can famously see it in some of the high-profile debates: There are Democrats who actually think that Republicans oppose abortion because they want to control women. There have been papers written about how Republicans and Democrats process disgust differently. We’ve fractured and polarized to the point where we have our own languages, mores and cultures.
We need to repeat the basic truths, explain them in a way that penetrates… Not to the extremists, but to the average Joe. We need a way to talk to reasonable people and build bridges, and we can’t take for granted that people know what we know.
Comment of the Day (#2, so far!)
Anyone catch this…by AP, no less:
Study Says El Niño, Not Climate Change, Was Key Driver Of Low Rainfall That Snarled Panama Canal
PWS