The death of a mouse

"This is an admittedly snarky post, although there is a serious point that underlies it," avers Alice Miller of The Light of Reason, attempting a lame Fisking of our recent controversial post re Baby's cold-blooded murder of a baby mouse in the hour before dawn:

I have commented at length, and with an eye to the complex underlying psychological dynamics [Gak, not the complex underlying psychological dynamics again! --ed], on the warhawks’ obsession with death, destruction.

Last evening, I came across a considerably more minor example of these same dynamics -- an example which concerns the death of a mouse. Hardly earthshattering but, viewed from a certain perspective, revealing nonetheless.

"Hardly earthshattering" -- not to mention snarky yet serious [She would normally never be snarky if she had a serious point to make, but just this once?] -- says it all.  This little gal has no concern for the death of a mouse but will use our own moral dilemma as a mother of cats to bash Bush and the entire right-of-center sector of the blogosphere. As she snickers at our "aching earnestness," Alice M. continues:

The photographer (and blogger, it seems) had no time to save the mouse -- but she had plenty of time to take several photographs of the carnage in process, which carnage is subsequently mourned with utmost sincerity.

Why, it’s a display of emotion for lost lives, and lost possibilities, worthy of our Great Leader.

That must be the snark part. Guess what, Ali girl: The mouse was already dead. Here's where this woman of the left shows her true colors:

The following is also typical of Mr. Bush -- yet another expression of regret, unfortunately offered in a considerably less than convincing context.

So that's what this is all about.  Blogger envy. She can't stand Glenn [thanks for correcting our spelling, Mr. Arthur "It wold help to have people on the other side of the debate who at least have the reading comprehension abilities of a five-year-old" Silber] Reynolds' being the number one blogger of the Ecosystem, worships the defrocked Friday catblogger Kevin Drum and is beside herself with being on the wrong side of history -- not to mention unable to face Mother Nature's cruel ironies.

Update:  Carnival of the Cats is open for business at enrevanche.

Update II: Baby Cakes hits the big time with his first InstaLanche. Too bad the little mouse wasn’t here to see it. It’s ten o’clock, Kevin Drum. Do you know where your cats are?

Comments

[lovesick alien]

I don't discourage my kitties from catching & killing their prey -- it's what they do, and in Florida they have lots to chase. I don't photograph them, FWIW.

That being said - you might at least have the courtesy to correct your [still-]misattribution of the column you reference, "The Light Of Reason"by Arthur [not Alice] Silber [not Miller] who is, I hasten to add, an extraordinarily astute thinker & writer.

You, on the other hand are a rather average typist, who could do well to study more of his work and complain about it less.

[Walter E. Wallis]

Death in open combat is not murder.

[andophiroxia]

Oh this is silly. Sissy likes photographing her cats in their natural state. This was their natural state. Why is this an open battleground between red and blue? Quite silly of those people to aliken a cat's activities as the 'nefarious' and 'murderous' activities of President Bush as well as the blogger's. Yes, the personal attacks are part of the icing on this lopsided cake on any count.

Go on, Sissy. Do not be bothered by those that like to snipe and be snarky. Go forth and do what you do. We like it.

[willow]

Hear hear.

[pam]

How the heck did someone draw a line from Baby to Bush?
Multiple generations of millions of families have kept cats specifically for the purpose of rodent killing.
They're not simply built for the kill, but seem to enjoy it as well. It's their JOB and they are good at it in a way no other creature could be, even predatory fowl.

Un-fricking-believable. Is there tin foil on that hat??

[Walter E. Wallis]

Bush lied, mice died?

[Sissy Willis]

LOL.

[FireWolf]

"Bush lied, mice died?"

I hear a great T-Shirt Slogan in the making!

LMAO!

Some people have too tight a grip on reality

[willow]

LOL!!! I'll buy one, Sisu, if you make them!

Anyway, I'll spare you the story of how I found two baby mice in our bathtub one morning (I live in the mountains) - near death because they were so tiny and the porcelain was cold and who knows how long they had been stuck there - and made little nests for them, brought them into work and everything to try and warm them up before I finally released them into a field outside of town. There's much more to it, but I'm afraid I'll spoil my image as a heartless conservative and simply throw some people's tiny little worldview into such a spin! So, all you 'reality-based' folk can just ignore that and assume I'm MEAN! We're all very, very mean! Bush lied! Mice died! Okay, feel better now? :)

Anyway, seriously, although I had had had to save them tiny little mousies (I mean, they were helpless - what could I do?) they are pests, which is why I released them far from anyone's home. Horrible pests. Sisu, as an art (history?) buff you might find it interesting that mice historically have been thought to be a sign that the Devil was about, because mice break into grain stores and destroy all the hard work done during the summer to ensure people will get through the barren winter months, just like people thought 'the Devil' would destroy all the hard work people did on their souls. And all this would be done in the dead of night when no one was around - you could never see the damage being done, you could only see it afterwards. I'm not overly religious but I thought that was interesting the way people correlated very tangible challenges to their physical survival to challenges to their spiritual well-being. In fact, in the left panel of Campin's Merode Altarpiece, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ha112/957120/ , Joseph can be seen to be making a mousetrap, and according to my Art History teacher, this was supposed to represent a trap to catch the devil before he could do any harm to the household. And I'm almost positive it wasn't the 'catch and release' kind, either!

Anyway, cats are much more efficient (and cuter!) mousetraps.

[VARepublicMan]

I have had a wonderful time following the "Death of a Mouse" posts. I, myself, have saved several mice from cats (and traps) but I always feel weird doing it. I mean, we buy traps and cats to KILL mice. So why do we feel obliged to save them?

I wonder. Does Alice M. have any qualms about killing flies or mosquitoes or is it only small mammalian vermin? If not, is she being bigoted, preferring mammals (her own kind) to insects (an obvious inferior form of life)?

[Walter E. Wallis]

It helps that we do not enjoy killing too much.

[flip]

Death of a Whale

When the mouse died, there was a sort of a pity:
the tiny, delicate creature made for grief.
Yesterday, instead, the dead whale on the reef
drew an excited multitude to the jetty.
How must a whale die to wring a tear?
Lugubrious death of a whale: the big
feast for gulls and sharks; the tug
of the tide simulating life still there,
until the air, polluted, swings this way
like a door ajar from a slaughterhouse.
Pooh! pooh! spare us, give us the death of a mouse
by its tiny hole; not this in our lovely bay.
-Sorry, we are, too, when a child dies;
but at the immolation of a race, who cries?

- John Blight

[Sissy Willis]

Awesome! Thanks so much, flip. Are you, by any chance, from Down Under too?

[rubyy]

the "death of a whale" poem by John Blight..
can someone explain it to me coz i need to write a speech on it for skl..
what exactly is the underlying meaning.. like, what is it actually about

[Sissy Willis]

rubyy: You're off to a start, but there's so much more out there for the googling. A quick search suggests Blight had in mind the idea expressed less poetically by Joseph Stalin:

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.

More here and here.

[heb A]

i have 2 write a speech about that poem 2

it due in like 2 weeks along with analysis of the song "in the end" by linkin park and i havent started yet