Zimbabwe conservation group: Cecil the Lion's 'brother' killed http://www.khq.com/story/29687288/zimbabwe-conservation-group-cecil-the-lions-brother-killed Here's the CNN story: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/01/world/cecil-the-lion-brother-jericho-illegally-killed/index.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/08/01/jericho-cecil-brother-dead/30990931/ This says that he is reported alive. I hope this article is true.
Here's what I'd read: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/31/1407584/-Cecil-s-Brother-Is-Protecting-The-Cubs-From-Rival Regard that some of these cubs may not be Cecil's as lions are polyandrous breeders.
Does anyone know the birth pride of Cecil and whether or not he is brothers with Jericho definitively? I'm more familiar with the lions of Savuti and Okavango with a few others I follow as they're photographed for their own Facebook pages.
I think it's interesting that Jericho was protecting the cubs. I read the articles about the supposed poaching of Jericho, and scratched my head, because for the last week I was being told that he was most likely going to kill the shit out of all the cubs. Now all the sudden he's gone from sounding like Scar to sounding like Simba's lesser-known cool uncle Bob. I was gonna write a whole post about the media sucks at reporting things, but then I found some links from yesterday that did say Jericho was protecting the pride, so...nevermind.
Male lions take over prides often as bachelors who joined up together to survive, and often they are brothers and maybe a cousin or another male they made pals with 'on the road'. The lionesses of a pride copulate with every male so no one knows who sired what, and the females share in nursing the cubs, so sometimes they don't even "know" who is who. The only time a male or males kills cubs if is he just overtook a pride after ousting the last pride's male(s). They'll cuff or snarl a bit at a cub, but they're amazingly tolerant, sharing food with cubs, grooming them and of course protecting them from invading males, spotted hyenas and other threats. Here's a male playing with some cubs. Those paws that can break a jackal's back with a swat are used to just lightly tap, those fangs that can strangle Cape Buffalo to death are used to play with these little fuzby roly-poly cubs. It's freaking adorable.
If that's the case, then why wasn't that scenario brought up when the story about Cecil first broke? I'm not attacking you, or trying to start an argument. I'm just pointing out how the sensationalist nature of the media brought focus onto the most absolutely awful outcome and pushed that. This is a quote from the leader of the task force in the investigation: "The saddest part of all is that, now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho will most likely kill all Cecil's cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females," Rodrigues said. "This is standard procedure for lions." That was what we were told. That was the standard procedure, most likely outcome, and it was treated as a fact and was lamented in news stories, editorials, all over my Facebook feed, and even mentioned in a few posts on this thread. And it didn't happen. Why didn't any article say "However, since they were members of the same pride, there is a good chance Jericho will protect the cubs"? The media sucks, that's my only point.
Because AR types broke the story, and the narrative was spun that this one lion, who may or may not in the legal sense have been poached, was a precious being who was 'murdered'. I'm an animal lover who is pro-conservation, pro-preservation and pro-hunting, and using a human term like 'murder' which is literally a killing of another human outside of war, it really cheapens the word 'murder'. Male lions in the same pride who've all copulated well over 100 times or more with the lionesses have no clue which cub is theirs. Cecil's cubs might very well be Jericho's or another pride males or even an outsider who got to a female on the edge of the territory while dodging the pride males cleverly.
So...in Memphis... In January a guy was sentenced to 121 months probation. For bank robbery Saturday night he shot and killed a police officer during a drug deal. Horrible right? It gets worse. This happened after they arrested the guy: How fucked up is this? http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story...dy-accused-of-killing-mpd-officer-sean-bolton
Oh...oh...oh....hold the presses! The Memphis cop killer was just mindin' his own business and the cop started roughing him up for no good reason. At 2AM. In the middle of a drug deal. While he's carrying a gun. While on probation. Yep. Free T indeed. Fuck me.
Dude, we're talking about an entire community who is uneducated and verifiably targeted by LEOs. As ridiculous as it is, I can't really be bothered to get riled. The reality is these people are fed up and lashing out. It is stupid THIS is the issue chosen to protest, but given the circumstances what do you expect? The news this morning is fucked. That shitskull Cruz is losing in the polls so he cooked bacon with the muzzle flash of an assault rifle. Bobby Jindal wants to shut the last two LA Planned Parenthoods over the abortion scandal even though federal funds don't pay for abortions (and there is no scandal). And a pro-confederate flag rally, in Georgia, celebrating heritage had a bunch of racists there. The Aristocrats. The rest of the world is laughing at us. An entire arm of our government is trying to one-up Jerry Springer, a massive chunk of our population is too stupid to breathe with their mouth closed, and instead of a jobs bill we got more legislation against women's reproduction (which thankfully failed).
I know the supporters like to wrap themselves in the banner of women's rights, but thats not entirely true. It might not be direct debit payments, but federal funding goes into planned parenthood, which performs abortions. Stating that its just a move to restrict reproductive rights its a little disingenuous. Its motivated by the callous disregard for human life as shown in those videos. People can claim that its just "a bunch of cells," but when when PP administration is talking about selling body parts that were harvested from fetuses around 28 weeks, that characterization doesnt work anymore. I dont know how backwards-ass someone's sense of morality has to be to not take issue with it. Im not trying to trigger an abortion debate, thats not my point. But I dont know whats worse, this video or the fact that people are more upset about a lion.
I'm just going to interject here and make it crystal clear, that topic is off limits. If it turns into what Juice said, those that partake will get some time off. Carry on.
I'm not up to date on all of the health care changes so this is a serious question, aren't most of the things PP does now covered by insurance? If we all have insurance now, we're supposed to, why is it necessary for PP to do the same things that insurance and/or doctors do? I'm also not sure what programs/services PP offers so I might be totally off but if there is a lot of overlap why would we fund both?
Planned Parenthood does a lot of things, provides birth control, reproductive health guidance, counseling, etc. @audreymonroe is much better suited to answer the questions on the services. The majority of things that they do are good and Im not philosophically against them as an organization, but true or not, what was said in those videos was pretty abhorrent, which is the driving motivator behind defund effort. Im sure lots of it is covered by insurance, but insurance being as shitty as it is sometimes, and with government health care it gets federal funding to supplement its services that insurance doesnt cover or for individuals who do not have it.
Thanks Juice. My question was more related to double funding as we now have govt subsidies for individual insurance plans. I was staying way way away saying anything against PP since I don't know much about it. It sounds like some of their services are outside of what is covered under insurance. That video is disturbing though.
I was out of the loop on the subject so went looking for the videos, and I was gobsmacked. The one I saw was apparently the 5th video that was leaked, between PP's Director of Research and a couple of actors playing the part of someone wanting to buy scientific specimans. http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/250179-fifth-planned-parenthood-video-turns-to-intact-fetuses I can understand the fact that they're probably scrounging for every available avenue of revenue to help support their efforts, but this sure sounds like they're looking at doing their procedures in such a way that they can deliver scientific specimens for sale in a particular state of intactness. That is all kinds of fucked up. Sure, it might be taken out of context, and it might be that my reaction is due to me not being involved in such efforts at all, but it was a bit shocking.
Sale and selling is a misnomer, really. Medical examiner offices frequently "sell" cadavers to medical schools and other research facilities, making sure that any fee charged covers only the cost of the process and there is no net gain. And I'm sure they have to sort through all their donations to see what is useful for adding to their "inventory" and also discuss ways to ensure that the cadaver stays intact for storage and transit and a myriad of other clinical, administrative, and financial considerations that are often discussed in detached terms. And hospitals have to have strategies in place for harvesting organs in the most efficient way possible, to save as much as they can from the still cooling body of an organ donor who just died, strategies that are discussed in detached terms.