Herding, packs, and schools of news stories stating our wildlife is dying are hitting the internet faster than coupons under wipers for Weight Watchers at the Golden Coral.
The reporting of fish and bird deaths from around the globe and pin pointing a unifying answer or scouring the globe for similar events is paramount to ” Texas Sharpshooting”. Last year due to a long stretch of record breaking cold weather we lost enough snook in Florida to cancel snook season on both sides of the peninsula. Cold weather also resulted in the deaths of thousands of iguanas. I’m not saying that’s the cause across the board this go around, I’m only pointing out that these events happened 12 months ago and no aliens, magnetic shifts, Monsanto conspiracy theories, or biological scenarios cropped up. Not even on the Coast to Coast mid-night radio show with George Noory
The definition of a “The Texas Sharpshooter“ is this: Buck and Earl walk up to the top of the bluff with .270 rifles and look down at the big red barn. They each take turns shooting the side of the barn blindfolded from about 600 yards out. (fyi the barn is not blind folded they are) After a few shots they walk down to the barn, have a few beers and sit back and admire their shots. They notice a cluster of 4 shots that are tight and a few that are off to the side. Buck gets a can of white paint and paints a white circle around the cluster of 4 shots. Bulls Eye! Earl jumps in and paints additional circles to make the target pattern. Clive, delivering hay, looks at the fine shooting and says “damn, you boys are good”
Exploiting the death of the feathered and gilled to sell more papers, Internet ads or better yet blaming me and you again because we are greedy Americans with no regard for our wildlife (Can they blame us for dove deaths in Italy?) is Cliche. Wildlife and media would both be better served if the facts were just reported and we wait for the toxicology reports and look at each occurrence on its own.
Well the Good news from all of this is that child actor turned evangelist Kirk Cameron says its not the Apocalypse. That is a relief, I still haven’t bagged my first deer with my son yet and due to recent weight gains I don’t think I could be lifted to heaven without some sort of jet propulsion.
Does the media care about all the plants and vegetables that have died due to the cold? Do they only care about birds and fish, plants have feelings too.
