Ted Rall for January 22, 2014

Money to be made! That should be on the USA flag. Oh, and the money.

Sharks aren’t the only creatures to be slaughtered to satisfy frivolous tastes. The international illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horns, bear gall bladders, exotic pets, and even migrating African-Eurasian songbirds is causing various problems..Of course, where’s there is money to be made, people will make it. Unfortunately, many of the people at the low end of the system are paid little and suffer the diminishment of their local fauna, with eventual ecological imbalance and disasters. Powerful consortiums have corrupted governments and flouted international laws for years. .China is no more evil in this regard than other countries are and have been. Remember the American bison and passenger pigeons? Beaver fur hats? Egret feathers? .There are foundations attempting to educate people that might not be aware of the part they play in these sad outrages. Cultural traditions that cause consumption of these animal products are hard to counter. People with new wealth may think that it is their right to participate now when they could seldom before..Actually, I think it’s hopeless. Eventually small representations of all large land and sea animals will be in zoos, all that’s left of those species. Their wild counterparts will all be eaten and excreted by human beings.

Ted’s at it again, it’s a twist at the end worthy of Alfred Hitchcock or Rod Sterling. The twist makes us think, and I’d rather Obama keep his fins before the corporate interest cut them off!

Obama sleeping with the sharks… How appropro…

“If Obama had any decency, he’d impose sanctions on China until they repeal all their laws against shark fin soup.”

Is that what you meant to say? That they should repeal laws banning the soup?

More likely it would be out of professional respect just as sharks don’t eat ACTUAL, REAL lawyers….

But the original post said the opposite – that was the point I was raising.

Yeah, we’re all still waiting for Cheney and his sock-puppet to get what they deserve.