Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know.

— Cullen Hightower

You have undoubtedly heard by now that Barbaro was euthanized yesterday because the horse’s medical woes simply resulted in too much suffering for the equestrian celebrity.  While I do not intend to belittle the animal’s suffering and do not intend to disparage those who felt something for this horse, I absolutely intend to step all over the melodramatic and offensive brouhaha that has resulted since the horse first was wounded, and especially since his death was announced.

I have seen deep and heartfelt outpourings of emotions from around the world, lamentations on par with that fit for the greatest humanitarians and conservationists, or the most prolific philanthropists.  But instead, like bloody molasses dripping uncontrolled from a fatally wounded tree, a great many people are gnashing their teeth and declaring horrific sorrow at the loss of one horse.

I find the entire ordeal offensive in ways heretofore unheard of.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent animals are intentionally killed each year in the U.S. alone because they are homeless, unclaimed, and unwanted.  It’s not that they’re sick and suffering; it’s that there is no one to love them.  So they die.

Millions of children around the globe suffer and die each year at the hands of war, famine, disease, and broken homes, yet they are mere statistics, inconvenient tidbits of cultural detritus, the victims of progress and an uncaring species called humanity.

Millions more adults likewise languish in horrendous conditions like homelessness, starvation, illness, and the devastation wrought of conflict, sectarianism, and an uncaring, unsympathetic world, and too many of them leave this life without notice.

Our environment is nearing collapse.  The oceanic chain of life is due to implode in less than fifty years.  Thousands of species are on the verge of extinction.  Forests are being laid waste in great swathes that cannot be recovered in time to stem the devastation that will result.  Our climate is spiraling out of control at an increasing rate.

Dare I go on?

I find it so entirely contemptible to see and hear the plethora of histrionic mourning, and I find myself drowning in a flood of shallow tears.

What is wrong with you people?  Can you not see the trivial, superficial nature of this commotion?  Has everyone taken leave of their hearts so that they might weep a bitter tear for the loss of a single horse while our planet suffers and dies a slow, agonizing death, while more animals than can be counted are killed because they cannot find a home, and while people young and old fall by the wayside in vast numbers only to die lonely deaths?

Again, what is wrong with you people?

I simply cannot fathom this petty, pathetic, repulsive, nauseating spectacle.  I find it all quite repellent.  It is absurd to the point of being sickening.

I am so very sorry the horse died.  That is a tragedy, yes, but it pales in comparison to the greater and ongoing tragedies that take place around us all day, every day, around the world.  Yet none of those warrant this level of attention and concern?  None of those lives lost are important enough to elicit even the smallest bit of maudlin feeling?

Times like these make me think our species truly is not worth saving, worth any investment of time or energy.  How small of all of you for this gross farce you have created.  The world is a stage, I see, and it’s replete with vapid actors incapable of overcoming their own tawdry and small selfishness.

This has proved Joseph Stalin correct when he said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”  What a shame.

Don’t Call. Don’t Write. Let Me Be.  This is an excellent article by the New York Times outlining the many opt-out mechanisms available to reduce unwanted solicitations and the sharing of personal information.  “The popularity of the do-not-call list unleashed a demand for other opt-out lists. A consumer can now opt out of the standard practice of their banks or loan companies selling their information to others. Other opt-outs stop credit card companies from soliciting consumers or end the flow of junk mail and catalogs. While most of the opt-outs are intended to make life less annoying, they can also have the side effect of protecting personal information that can be misused by identity thieves or unscrupulous merchants. ”

I can’t recommend enough that you go read Chris Clarke’s latest about his ailing dog Zeke.  It’s beautiful and heartfelt, and it should certainly touch the coldest of hearts.

This is chilling in far too many ways.  “President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.”

Grand Rounds: 3.19 is focused on consumer-driven healthcare.  There’s plenty of informative writing from the medical blogosphere, so be sure to check it out.

Experts Call for Monitoring of Cats, Dogs for H5N1: “The discovery of Avian influenza in cats and dogs has heightened concerns about a virus that experts had thought was basically infecting chickens, ducks and other fowl. Health experts have called for closer monitoring of the H5N1 virus in domestic animals after Indonesian scientists detected it in stray cats near poultry markets in some parts of the country. They worry that if the virus adapts to mammals it could more easily spread among people.”  It’s also important to point out they’ve discovered the virus in pigs.  While still not indicative of a looming pandemic, these findings warrant close scrutiny.

Developing “The silence of snow” and going through those wonderful photographs has brought back a great many memories, especially of snow and ice when I was a child.  Part of my fondness for those times stems entirely from the magical play in winter wonderlands that can occur at no other time and under no other circumstances.  Snowball fights, for instance… and this word, which immediately jumped to mind.

glissade (glis·sade): / gli SAHD /
noun

(1) a controlled or skillful slide down a snowy slope without skis made by someone in a standing or crouching position
(2) a gliding or sliding ballet step

verb (intransitive)

(1) to slide down a snowy slope in a controlled or skillful manner without skis and in a standing or crouching position
(2) to perform a gliding or sliding ballet step

[From French glisser meaning “to slide, slip,” from an alteration of Old French glier meaning “to glide” (probably influenced by glacer meaning “to slide”), from Old High German glitan meaning “to glide.”]

Usage: One of the most common venues for winter entertainment in Dallas is to visit Flagpole Hill after it snows, which provides one of the best places to sled and glissade.