Taking Life

This morning, I awoke to find that the trap I set had captured and killed a field mouse that had taken up residence in my RV. In this area, there is a dangerous virus that is found in field mouse feces; thus, it was necessary to eradicate the rodent from an area I spend most of my waking hours frequenting. I cautiously disposed of the corpse in the mound of dog shit I have been heaping up in this bad weather and then rearmed the trap.

About an hour later, I was ready to fix my supper. I then discovered a second field mouse in the trap dead. I took the corpse outside and returned to prepare the meal. After cleaning up, it occurred to me that I had felt terrible about killing the first mouse as I had, but had not had that same feeling about the second. Just the discovery of the second rodent was shocking enough to provoke some thought.

About this (perhaps-higher form) taking of life to insure that their life will endure safely is the conclusion that the ability to reason and enact a process to a specific end effect is the differentiation between sentient and non-sentient life. The law is unclear because social condition often affects the degree of severity involved in punishments. The common civil right to take this life is a given in most common civil law, with notable exceptions regarding local customs. In fact, laws regarding public health demand eradication and methods of cleaning up after are a common public service.

The madness is in the mean method of execution. I used an open spring-loaded trap of a common variety. Actually, I set out three in the area where I had seen the mouse previously. One trap caught both, so the other two remain armed and ready to kill. I have been walking around all day being distracted by this set of events; preoccupied by it and its happening just when it had.

 

OK. So...The Shrub and Sir Colin bombed Iraqi radar situated in the No Fly Zone again. In a month, The Shrub has attacked the separation of church and state in the name of enactment of significant social change, proposed a preposterous tax cut weighted to the upper class (who also are to no longer require estate tax planning that involves giving to charity), and proposed billions to "help Johnny read" programs. That present schools are said to be failing at doing with the money they already get from LOCAL FOLKS, another controversial idea from our new Chief Executive; while Sir Colin plans to fly to Arabia. Will George W. Bush become the Republican-version of Harry Truman American by using nuclear weapons in a combat situation? Is this the end of the World? Or is it the Executive level of the "First 100 Days until We Run Out of Ideas" rerun of Newt’s Congressional Revolution?