One of my themes here is that we have enabled the asshole fraction to the point where they are crippling our ability to function as a society. Rather that hanging people who proved to be nothing but a nuisance, we cater to them. The result is a tax on all of us that is getting too large to bear. A good example of this is Walter Palmer, an asshole from Minnesota.
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 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.
Conservation groups in Zimbabwe reacted angrily to the news that the 13-year-old animal had been killed: partly because the lion was known to visitors and seemingly enjoyed human contact, and partly because of the way in which he was killed. He was lured out of the national park and shot.
“He never bothered anybody,” said Johnny Rodrigues, the head of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. “He was one of the most beautiful animals to look at.”
A spokesman for Mr Palmer told the Guardian that the hunter believed he may have shot the lion.
“As far as I understand, Walter believes that he might have shot that lion that has been referred to as Cecil,” a spokesman for Mr Palmer said.
A non-asshole who mistakenly shot a protected animal would be full of remorse and would apologize about it. Everyone on earth knows that lions are endangered. First world people, like Walter the Asshole, have been told this since birth. But, Walter is an asshole so he takes pride in being a nuisance. That’s why he mugged for that picture. Walter Palmer is proud to be an asshole.
The right answer here is the old answer. Walter the Asshole and his clan should be fed to the lions. It’s not for the crime of killing an endangered animal. It’s to lessen the burden on society. We can only tolerate so many assholes and we are well past that limit. As they make themselves known, the humane thing to so it remove them from the gene pool immediately.
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Surprised to read that the Z Man cares about endangered animals
I think he cares about people who insist on being assholes when they could just as easily be civil.
by paying $50,000 for a permit (which is more than most people make in a year) he has done more to help Africa than probably any of these sanctimonious liberals
The asshole was not doing this to help Africans. He was there to be an asshole. He’s the sort of guy who would hunt humans if not for fear of prison.
“He’s the sort of guy who would hunt humans if not for fear of prison.”
Exactly.
I’m not disputing the level of assholedness displayed, but… Lions are not endangered. The USFWS is considering placing them on the “threatened” list, but that’s mainly because of pressure from “conservation” organizations who are mainly interested in “conserving” their donor base. They need another photogenic species to put on their fund-raising letters, and polar bears and baby seals are so… yesterday. They breed like rabbits. Every zoo in the country has their lions on birth control, because they’ve run out of space and can’t find any other zoo that doesn’t have the same problem. Give them some space and they’ll… Read more »
I’m not disputing the level of assholedness displayed, but…
Ahem, I believe the term is “assholatry.”
“should be fed to the lions.”
Don’t contemplate or suggest feeding the paperhanger who sold him the permit to the lions, though. That would be wrong.
I only have so much outrage and wasting it on foreigners is not prudent.
” That’s why he mugged for that picture.”
When Patterson killed the Tsavo maneaters back around 1900, he did the same mugging—they all do.
(“The Ghost” and “The Darkness” did not have cute names like “Cecil”, but they “enjoyed human contact” well enough.)
Framing this as deliberate “murder”—“He was lured out of the national park and shot.”—is Disney level anthropomorphism.
Good for fundraising, bad for understanding.
There’s a difference between hunting a killing. I used to hunt and the rule was you eat what you killed, which meant you don’t kill for sport. People who just enjoy killing are never to be trusted. This asshole just like killing so he can make up for his micro-dick.
“People who just enjoy killing are never to be trusted.”
Which would be why I do not trust humans. Including the ones without any sort of dicks at all.
You’re engaging in a logical fallacy. Some people certainly like killing, but not all people. In fact, most people do not enjoy bloodshed. You’re trying to get around holding this asshat responsible by playing the “everybody does it” card. Walter Palmer, like every hunter, has to be responsible for what he kills. The old rule is you are responsible for every round that comes out of the chamber until it lands. When I fire my weapon, I’m responsible for whatever happens to that round. Walter Palmer was so wrapped up in pretending to be the great white hunter he forgot… Read more »
“You’re engaging in a logical fallacy.”
I doubt you share my experience with in extremis human nature and murder—and may you never.
You are, however getting mighty close when you write this kind of thing—“Every once in a while you need to burn a witch, even if there is no such thing as witches.”
” I used to hunt and the rule was you eat what you killed, which meant you don’t kill for sport.” But it still is sport. You’re not a primitive tribesman, a wandering Algonquin, who’ll starve along with your family if you don’t bring down that deer. If your car breaks down on your way to the woods for a weekend of hunting, you’ll just get your food at the grocery store instead. It’s a kind of play-acting. You’re re-enacting an element of our people’s traditional lifestyle, and taking the meat home (to go in the deep freeze!) is just… Read more »
ZMan, there’s some real projection going on here which surprises me in that it’s coming from you. The guy may be an asshole, but these poor African countries take in millions of dollars a year in license fees to operate their preserves. Without the fees paid by hunters, the preserves likely would not exist.
I doubt that hunting fees count for much. Tourist fees do support these preserves. But, that’s really not the point. Walter Palmer is a loathsome person because he enjoys killing things for sport in order to offend people. That’s why he display the photos of dead animals and mugs for the cameras. He can’t piss and moan now that everyone is properly offended.
A year ago I probably would have wholeheartedly agreed with you: stupid man, too much money, poor lion, how useless, etc. But today I’m tired of internet outrage mobs. The usual hysteria has arisen – publicize where the guy works, get him fired, bankrupted, disgraced, whatever. To me, that’s the real “big game hunt” going on today. We only hear when a particular story swims into focus and becomes the crusade du jour. I think this goes on thousands of times every day: people competing for a starring role in Indignation Theater, posting whatever petty outrage they can scrape up,… Read more »
I get the outrage exhaustion. I also get that this had the SJW vibe to it where a mob on-line ruins a life. There’s certainly some unfairness at work here. I fully admit to assigning negative qualities to someone I don’t know because he did something I find loathsome. Walter Palmer could be a saint, other than his fetish for killing animals most people don’t want hunted. But, public morality is a good thing even if it is abused by bad people. Every once in a while you need to burn a witch, even if there is no such thing… Read more »
Certainly watching the likes of Jimmy Kibble choke up over a lion while his cohorts blithely tweet about “garbage” and “piles of goop” that are in actuality unborn humans whose organs were harvested by overclass vegans is genuinely revolting. But this dentist is still an asshole. Lions may not be “endangered”, but it is illegal to hunt one in a park, or remove its collar. Cecil was lured out of the park with food, and his collar was removed after he was killed. Despite paying a small fortune to slaughter hundreds of animals with a bow and arrow to demonstrate… Read more »
According to Zimbabwe, licenses accounted for $15 million US out of a total $125 million (US) tourism revenue stream.
Better than %10 is significant.
With an after tax monthly average income of under $600.00 US they can use every penny of the 50k the Hunter spent.
I can’t believe I am reading this diatribe here either.
Also, I know people who just LOVES them some rats. Therefore, according to your statement that “most people don’t want hunted” we should stop killing rats.
Until one bites your kid, or if you are a poverty stricken bush dweller, eats your kid.
Then the long knives come out.
Sorry Mike, but you’re all wrong. If the community standard said that rats were sacred, then sure, you would have a point. That’s not the case and it has never been the case. We do have a standard that says you don’t kill protected species. This guy went out of his way go against that and piss off his countrymen. he is paying the price for that.
But who establishes what “the price” is? It seems to be “whatever the mob can gouge from your hide”. And there’s no recourse; no place to go for a refund if in a week or two a few people have second thoughts and decide that Mr. Palmer was overcharged. That’s what happened to Sir Tim Hunt, after all. Can’t you see – *haven’t you seen* – how easily a weapon like that can be turned against you tomorrow? “Your countrymen” could probably draw up quite a list of things you do that piss them off. You even admitted to hunting… Read more »
Mr. Z, Apologies if I seemed contentious; I so enjoy your writing and philosophy that I reacted instead of counting 10…..:) But the points Bud raised are valid: its not quite clear that lions are endangered. And imho, the perpetually aggrieved who rend their fabrics over. Every. Last. Thing. deserve very very little of my concern. That you abhor this is relevant to me, but I also find that the opprobium cast on Sir Tim relevant to the discussuon of this explosion of outrage. Yeah it sucks that Cecil is no more, and the other lion will kill his cubs… Read more »