don’t be a jerk

This weekend - San Diego. And in San Diego - the zoo.
Jill wants to see the Pandas. I’m a monkey and ape kinda guy myself, but there’s no denying it. Panda’s are cute.
 
From an ecological standpoint, I’m not terribly impressed with them as a species. For as long as I can remember, people have been working their asses off trying to keep them from going extinct. As a species, they’re not as tough as, say, pigs.
 
Now that’s a tough, hardy animal. Pigs’ll live anywhere and thrive. And it’s a good thing too, cause pigs are ugly and not cute, like pandas. All ecological concerns aside, it’s amazing the lengths people will go to to save an attractive, cute animal like a panda, or a dolphin, or an otter. I’m sure there exist organizations to help save and preserve monitor lizards, but they’re probably small and not as enthusiastic as Pandas International.
 
Seems unfair to me at first, but really, can you blame people for having preferences? I definitely have mine. I love dogs and macaques and gorillas. I hate possums and lampreys.

That is a possum crawling on this old man’s shoulder. This man is obviously senile and completely insane and maybe evil because he is smiling and not trying to kill the disgusting possum that is crawling on his shoulder. One night i got wasted drunk in college and soccer punted a possum down Veteran Ave. Horrid Horrid little creatures possums.
 
I guess we really don’t treat people that differently, eh? Elian Gonzalez wouldn’t have created such a fervor had he not been a good-looking kid. I don’t see how the Elizabeth Smart case would have been as newsworthy if she had been swarthy and frumpy. The Elizabeth Smart kidnapping (and subsequent rapes) were a shock to the upper class sense of security. The loss of youth and innocence elicited the expected sympathy from the American public. But equally, I think, it was the defiling of something beautiful that really assaulted people’s minds.
 
This is not bad, I think. This is normal. Normal people will preserve beautiful things. Normal people will save beautiful creatures. Normal people will fight for beautiful people because that’s what normal people do.
 
Better people will fight for everyone else. Better people are the champions of those that are not beautiful.
 
I still think possums are disgusting. They look like giant, pasty-faced rats.