If you walk up to someone and shoot them and they die, did you torture them? How do you think they get these dogs to fight exactly? They don't treat them well, feed them well, etc. and then put them in a cage and they naturally want to ravage each other. Sure, but one involves torturing an animal and one doesn't. They aren't comparable scenarios at all.
I have no idea what point you're trying to make, but I'm going with no and I think you are also, so what's the point? Riddle me this, if I torture you and you don't die but if I kill you with no torture, what will I get more time for? I don't know if you know this, but it doesn't take much to get dogs to fight. they're dogs but both can be considered pretty cruel
how public was the cockfighting thing? i'm, as you know, quite the fan of MLB and i don't recall ever hearing that. of course that's ridiculous and deserving of criticism. my understanding is cockfighting is illegal throughout the United States. but outrage towards cockfighting outside of the US? sure, i find it detestable. i was unaware of any of that, though -- so it's difficult to be outraged by things you're unaware of. but the vick story was different largely because he was operating an interstate crime ring. i'm thinking people would have been even more upset if the crime ring had been operating in something other than dog fighting.
My point is hunting isn't torture. I don't know if you know this, but dogs do not naturally try to kill each other for no reason. When they are starved or beaten, this becomes their behavior pattern. Even Pit Bulls do not start killing once they develop teeth. That is a learned behavior. People who run dog fighting rings have to develop dogs to fight. Sure they can be. I'm not a hunter myself and have no interest in killing an animal. That said, hunting and dog fighting are not comparable acts. Even if you accept them both as bad.
I don't recall who it was, maybe it was Pedro Martinez, but somebody from the DR or one of those countries said cockfighting was just you know... something they do there in their culture and theres nothing wrong with it. There was no backlash against that player from PETA for condoning cockfighting.
Ok...sooo?? I'm with you..cockfighting is bad. It does happen in Latin American countries, and it's entirely legal there. But the media and interest groups here in the US are not going to pay even 1/10000th of the attention to that which they would/did to a star NFL player operating a multi-state criminal dog fighting operation. I think that goes without saying. The outrage is different because of location and scope.
So if they found out Michael Vick in the offseason had been holding dog fights in another country in his spare time, there would have been absolutely no outrage toward him?
of course there would have. but it wouldn't have gotten nearly the attention that he got for what happened..because the legal proceedings became and extended the story. if they found out pedro was operating a cockfighting ring outside of the US, he'd get attention locally to. and PETA would show up to boo his ass. making a comment like, "cockfighting isn't a big deal" and actually operating a crime ring are so different that they're very difficult to even compare. of course the reaction is different.
He operated a crime ring across state lines, and he was the ring-leader. He's lucky he only went to the slammer for the amount of time he did.
No. It was actually Roy Jones Jr. He said as a child, he grew up watching cocks fight and this helped him with his boxing skills.
Yes, it's quite simple, and likely entirely pragmatic. Book publishers tend to limit advance copies sent to reviewers, and hold reviewers sent advance copies to pledges not to leak the contents of the book. Likely, the AP had to parcel out pieces of a book to several teams of fact-checkers to read in a short period of time, each responsible for only a portion of the 400+ page book. Fact-checking is labor intensive and detail-oriented; the Associated Press requires firm deadlines. Thus, more manpower = deadline met for a timely review. Funny you should mention Quayle. Bill Kristol was Quayle's chief of staff, and he's the one who behind the scenes convinced the McCain campaign to choose Palin as the VP pick. Small (Republican) world. Both Quayle & Palin were seen as good-looking empty vessels that could be told what to do pretty easily by their advisers.
Problem is that you can't become president unless: 1. you happen to have 300 million lying around 2. you happen to get a lot of money from lobbyists Sarah Palin is no different in that regard. She is just as beholden to lobbyist.
This is hilarious. Palin has nothing going for her but a superficial public image. Not hard work, because she's never done any. Not experience, because she has none. Not education, because she has the crappiest education of anybody who's ever been on a major ticket in history. Worst, she has no knowledge because she has no intellectual curiosity. She doesn't ****ing know things. You complain that Obama's appeal is superficial compared to Palin? She is the quintessential "no there there" candidate of our generation. Meanwhile, Obama is one of the most studied, most demonstrably smart politicians of our generation. Maybe people love him too much. Whatever. At least there's a reason for it. And it's not just because he speaks well. It's because he knows what he's talking about too. Palin is the polar opposite of that. Speaking "well," winking, saying "you betcha" and basically being a beauty queen is literally all she has going for her. You are hilariously wrong in this. As usual.
Agreed. I lean right and I absolutely cannot stand Palin. That said, I can't imagine a circumstance in which I could find myself taking the time to read her book. I highly doubt there's anything even remotely interesting or substantive throughout the whole thing. Sounds like just a ploy to "buy" more time in the spotlight until 2012. W's book, on the other hand? That I will definitely read.
Obama's economic policies are "back assward." <embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1155201977" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=51063331001&playerId=1155201977&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>
