"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

double standards
May 25, 2006 - 6:41 am

i forget the details of the shark.. except that the "hammer" was three feet across. that's mighty big. the rest of it was just as impressive looking.

of course, they kept the shark... and it was laying on a trailer-thingie with people standing around to have their pictures taken.

i'm not a hunter or a fisher.. but i don't get this.

all the person did was drop some bait into the ocean and the shark was unlucky enough to chop on it. the person then, no doubt with some sort of mechanical help, reeled.. and reeled.. and "fought" the shark until it was exhaused.

at some point the shark just becomes to f'ing tired to struggle anymore and is "caught". perhaps it had a heart attack. i know i probably would.

hunting and fishing when people eat the food.. doesn't bother me. hunting and fishing when people catch/release.. sort of bothers me (why terrorize critters in such fashion?) hunting and fishing for pure sport.. to catch/kill a critter just because you can.. and to showoff, to me, is just plain wrong.

it's a value judgement. one i freely and happily make.

afterall.. just think of the reverse.. one lion.. one bear.. one shark.. one anything attacks and kills one person and it's national news. it's a travisty. the animal MUST be hunted and down and killed. nevermind it was simply doing what it's nature dictates.. and the person was, more often than not, doing something he/she shouldn't be doing -- a darwinism moment.

it's this double standard that irks me on the subject.

if a person swims in the ocean, a given risk is a shark will come and nibble on your toes. we've set up various sorts of protection/warnings, but still... why is so completely and totally unacceptable for a shark to eat a person for food.. and yet a cause for celebration when a shark is caught just for fun?

seems to me.. sharks have the "right" to eat quite a few people to make up for the pointless killings they've endured over the years.

but.. people are all about double standards. not just in this case, but in general. it's a quirk of our nature. a flaw in our mental processes, or so it seems.