MSNBC has a video report on people complaining that their neighborhood is overrun with rats. My suggestion would be for them to buy a Spanish-English dictionary and look up the name of their town: Boca Raton. Do you think there might be a reason the Spanish explorers chose the name “Rat Mouth”?
You clear the land and kill all of the large snakes and you are going to have rats in Florida.
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
7 comments
Yeah it is probably like when they started harvesting the sugar cane in Hawaii. The first step is to set it afire and burn off all the leaves. This, of course, makes the hundreds and hundreds of rats, mongoose, spiders and everything else that has lived in the 12 foot high field for a couple of years come scurrying out. With only about 100 yards between the field and the ocean and my house in between it was a sight to behold. Snakes were not authorized.
At least they had mongoose in the field that would control the rats to some extent, but a few large snakes would be much more effective. Of course, the primary purpose of the mongoose is to eliminate snakes, so that wasn’t an option in the cane fields.
The descriptions are probably of Norway rats which are almost always the result of cargoes from shipping.
They kill all of the predators and wonder why they have vermin.
OT: Speaking of clueless, predators & vermin…
I was reading that the actress who played Coulter in the Oliver Stone movie W. (Anne Pressly) was severely beaten in her home and has died. It was thought originally that she had been stabbed also, but this was not the case. There is a blog about it at IMDb. Anne Pressly was also an anchorwoman for KATV News.
IMDb: W. (2008)
‘Ann Coulter’ actress from W. found severely beaten,stabbed…
I wonder if the truth will ever be known? I hope so.
RIP Anne Pressly.
And here I thought all the rats lived in the Washington, DC area.
She apparently interrupted a burglary, Kryten. At least one of her credit cards has been used since the assault, so the police should have video. Scalp wounds produce a lot of blood, so the stabbing was probably based on the blood found. She never came completely out of the induced coma, so she was unable to provide any information.
The rats in Florida tend to eat garbage, Jill, not generate it like those in DC. Different species.
Ehh… I did that in a rush. I wasn’t trying to imply anything one way or another. I was just sad and curious about the comments on that blog post. It just showed to me how extreme both sides have become and that whatever happens, no matter how *normal* or *Innocent* it may be will be blamed on the *other side* or be taken wholly out of context. The problem is… given the past 8 years (and in this particular case, Coulter’s history), I can’t really blame them. The right has spent the past couple decades trying to score political points at every opportunity, regardless of context or relevance. And the people on the left seem to simply assume now (possibly because the past several years have proven them correct more often than wrong) that everything that is in any way related with the right will either be caused by a person or group on the right, or used by them to score cheap points. *shrug*
There is a significant lack of trust in almost everything in America these days. And that’s a real problem.
I wasn’t assuming anything, Kryten. There was a question of motive in early reporting because apparently the only thing that was taken was her purse and the police didn’t know that was missing initially. Normally you would expect signs that someone was taking the electronic equipment and rifling drawers looking for valuables, but you would need someone familiar with the victim to spot a missing purse as women normally have more than one.
It’s impossible to say what’s missing if you don’t know what was supposed to be there. If the credit card hadn’t been used it would take a detailed search to discover that the victim’s ID was missing. In cases like this everyone who could help is in shock and bringing them to a bloody crime scene is not something you want to do, but you sometimes have to.
The early reporting reflected the fact that the police didn’t know why she was killed.