Obama swats a fly, PETA upset

If the alleged connections to terrorism, killing of animals and fallacious arguments don’t provoke mocking of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), this should.

President Obama, in the middle of an MSNBC interview, killed a fly with his hand saying, “That was pretty good, wasn’t it? I got the sucker! What you think, Gibbs?” This prompted PETA to issue a statement saying:

We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals. We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.

“Even for the smallest.” It seems to me that PETA would be inconsistent, then, to kill bacteria with cleaning products in their houses or with antibiotics in their bodies. Or to spray for cockroaches or scorpions. Or to treat an infection. Or to accept chemotherapy.

But the people of PETA aren’t about being consistent; they’re about being cretinous assholes in the news. The head moron at PETA has said that they’re “media whores”; that’s a decent description.

But perhaps a set of hypocritical, bogus viewpoints isn’t worth publicizing?

Red

March 21, 2011 Reply

John, you made a lot of references to bacteria and other single-celled organisms in the apparent belief that animal activists behave hypocritically toward them. The trouble is, bacteria aren’t actually animals.

According to any high school biology course, there are five taxonomic kingdoms of living organisms. Bear with me. In ascending order, the five kingdoms are…
1. Prokaryotes (single-celled organisms, including bacteria)
2. Viruses (yes, they have their own kingdom)
3. Fungi
4. Plants
5. Animals

So bacteria are very far removed from the animal kingdom. They’re nothing more than a
single cell each. There is no hypocrisy in an animal-rights activist taking antibiotics, and any biology textbook will tell you so. Hope I’ve given you a little more insight.

John

March 24, 2011 Reply

Red,

Well it was a taxonomical reach, to be sure, but the point behind it remains: there are many ways in whichanimal rights activists do behave hypocritically. What do they do when mice invade their houses? (Hint: the same thing I do.)

March 25, 2011 Reply

OK, John, it was one hell of a reach! Unlike mice, bacteria don’t even have any nervous systems, so they can’t feel pain. And what do animal-rights activists do when they find a mouse in their house? Well, at Ace Hardware they sell Havahart cage traps which catch small animals alive and unharmed so they can be released very, very far from your property. It’s a bit presumtuous of you to assume that just because you can’t be bothered to use this option, then neither can anyone else.

April 10, 2011 Reply

I’ve conceded the reach; I’m not sure how many times you’d like me to repeat the concession. Now what about the main point of my very brief original post above, which is about PETA’s criticism of the killing of a FLY?!

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