Random thought/question for the day:

Where do you draw the line between killing alive things? (let me expand on that)

While walking down the sidewalk, its doubtfull that any one of us is going to hesitate to step on an ant that is in our way. If we even notice it, we're not likely to deviate even one footfall to save that ants life.

On the other hand, most of us are not going to smoosh a cat or dog (if one of them happened to be in our way, and we could kill it by simply stepping on it)

I ask this because, well, I accidentally killed a squirrel. It was (and has been) taking all the seed out of my bird feeder. So I got out my BB gun, pumped it up 8 times and was planning on just shooting it's tail, to send a message. Well, the little furry guy twitched sideways as I shot and wouldnt you know it, that BB went right through the little bastards spine. He fell down to the ground paralyzed, and died a couple minutes later.
I felt like the most worthless piece of shit. Killing an 'innocent' squirrel to protect 5 dollars worth of birdseed.
I realized then that squirrel falls above the line of 'have no qualms killing it'. (at least for me)

Where is your line? Which animals are above and which below being summarily extinguished because they get in our way?

Squirrel tastes good man.

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I kill ground hogs that try and attack my dog and eat my shit. Rodents are alright to kill, I guess. As long as there's a reason to do it.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

when i was like... 14, i borrowed a friends BB gun. i shot a dove and wounded it. it fell to the ground, and tried desperately to fly, but to no avail. after a half hour of trying to fly, it eventually died.

i havnt shot any type of gun since. i have no desire to.

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Great question. Not sure I have a set line. If we're just talking about "getting in the way", then I think I draw the line at insects. Having said that, I've killed a number of mice for being in my house. But I guess I viewed that as a threat to my food, as well as possible disease spreader. Then I've also killed a rat and a baby possum with my hockey stick in the last year or so because they were both in my yard in the middle of the day after I failed to scare either one away. Those guys I considered potentially rabid and harmful to my cats. I'd be willing to beat one of those pig-killing dogs from my neighbor's place to death if they ever got in my yard and made a move for my cats, but otherwise I'd never dream of killing a dog or anything near that big. So it's totally situational for me.

If it's not causing me any problems, I leave it alone. I generally don't kill spiders or ladybugs, but I've gone to town on wasps. Likewise I've been responsible for the deaths of a number of mice and other house attacking vermin.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Yankee, you pumped a BB gun 8 times, pointed it at a squirrel, pulled the trigger, and ACCIDENTALLY killed it?
DP had it right. You should have eaten the squirrel, then it would have been more honorable.
Just busting your balls man.
I think you can get bad karma points for killing, so I try to limit it to mosquitos, ticks and beers.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

Yankee, I forgot to mention that you can put capsaicin (super concentrated hot spice) in the bird food. For some reason it doesn't bother the birds at all, but (just like us) if a squirrel eats some of it, he'll never forget it. A friend of mine told me about doing this, and said he watched a squirrel get into some of his treated birdseed, and then run as fast as he could, literally dragging his tongue on the ground, trying to rub the stuff off it!

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

That's cause birds can't taste spicy food.

haha, ok, I SHOULD have included the fact that my attic (one of those 'full floor' but unfinished jobs) has been turned into a sort of BB gun shooting range. After about a year of having fun up there with friends I can hit a half inch bullseye 9/10 times from about 40 feet. I'm like a legit Doc Holliday up there. IF THE FUCKING SQUIRREL HADNT MOVED, it would have one sore ass tail.

Sigh...but yeah, ultimately i'm responsible for it dying, and I feel like crap about it. Thanks for rubbing it in asshole!

Nice! That will make my birdseed last a lot longer. Thanks for the tip.

Unless it's a super powerful bb gun, i'm a little surprised that you killed it. Those things are pretty tough.

Related, if it was paralyzed, why didn't you just give it some mercy and kill it? It doesn't take much strength to snap it's neck, especially paralyzed. Yes, i hunt and fish, but i hate letting an animal suffer for one second more than it needs to. Even if i suspect that it can't feel the pain.

I was shooting from the attic window, it got hit, fell to the ground and was twitching. I DID try and put it out of it's misery with a quick head shot, but...there was something in my eye and I couldnt get a good bead on it. So I ran downstairs to do the job personally and it was dead when I got there.

My neighbor and I have set up bird blinds in our back yards and used pellet guns to take out a feast of morning doves and squirrels before. A cooler of ice cold beverages, two lawn chairs, the smoker set on delicious and an overkill of a bird blind works for an afternoon of fun. We are supposed to eat them. Don't feel bad for being a hairy cave man.

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If it makes you feel any better, my mother, a totally straightlaced, perhaps bordering on prissy woman used to shoot at squirrels at her birdfeeder with my pellet gun as well. One day when I was fairly old and hadn't used the gun in years, my mom asked me to teach her how to shoot it. I was pretty shocked, and semi-impressed honestly, that my mother could have ever gotten enough hate of a small harmless animal together that she'd be willing to shoot a gun at them, even if it wouldn't really hurt them. She didn't want anybody fucking with her birdfeeder.

I love language, words, and how they often relate to each other in some meaningful/playful/interesting way.

For example, It occurs to me that the difference between Asians and Caucasians, is the Cauc.

I was just bowling with the family and there was a sign on the wall reminding us that bowling is an "athletic event" and to take precautions

That made me think of bowler

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Hold my beer and watch this...

The people who use the words hater or swag are just a few IQ points away from licking farm animals and frequently shitting themselves.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

From what I can tell there are three ways to use 'swag'

1)Swag: Corporate crap you get for some reason,

2)Swag: Meaning just generally crappy

3)Swag: Specifically meaning low quality marijuana.

Are you saying this about ALL swag uses, or just a particular one or two?

what about swagger?

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