Althouse: Fox News.

January 3, 2011

Fox News.

Really.

52 comments:

Phil 314 said...: Abnormally large animals can be a good thing (sort of ); 1/3/11, 5:08 PM
Opus One Media said...: Fox News in the same heading. shame on you.; 1/3/11, 5:12 PM
Toad Trend said...: Haha House nothing to bitch about.

I keep my cats indoors for this very reason, the fox and the coyote like cat snacks.; 1/3/11, 5:14 PM
chickelit said...: LOL: link; 1/3/11, 5:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Tie it to a Post and Pierson it.; 1/3/11, 5:16 PM
Pastafarian said...: From the article: ""I'm not against foxes; I think everything in nature has a place," he said, according to The Daily Mail. "But there is a limit, and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans..."

And so the giant god-damned fox was trying to restore order: By eating the invasive artificially introduced species run amok, house cats.

Not that I'd want my cats to be eaten by a fox; but there are other ways to avoid that. I don't see how killing this fox helped to restore nature's balance. I'm all for hunting, but to trap a predator, just to protect house cats that tear up the song birds; it seems like a nonsensical waste to me.; 1/3/11, 5:20 PM
Capt. Schmoe said...: Are Brits allowed to take matters into own hands and kill a cat eating fox? I didn't think that they were allowed to do anything for themselves any more, much less defend cats.; 1/3/11, 5:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/3/11, 5:26 PM
Quaestor said...: That is a large fox, indeed. Too bad Tony Blair's Labour hooligans banned fox hunting in Britain. Maybe there was a reason for that traditional means of predator control all along, hmmm?

BTW, Sky News is a sister network to Fox News, and is likewise a bane of arrogant philistines the likes of which post here from time to time.; 1/3/11, 5:27 PM
Toad Trend said...: @Quaestor

"Maybe there was a reason for that traditional means of predator control all along, hmmm?"

Methinks.

I do not get 'cat problem' from the article as much as I get 'human problem' with regard to the fox. Where I live, it is illegal to discharge firearms due to the population density. It hasn't, however, helped with the deer population which is a problem. Car-deer accidents are commonplace and so are arguments about how to cull the herd.; 1/3/11, 5:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: A network where most of the announcers are young and sexy blonde women really should be called a Fox Network.; 1/3/11, 5:41 PM
Quaestor said...: Yeah, that Meghan Kelly...yum.; 1/3/11, 5:50 PM
Cedarford said...: Kind of fun, actually, all the catty sophisticated urban homo things said against fox-hunting like "The Unmentionable in pursuit of the Inedible" and all the animal lovers and cat women viscerally against hunting are now having their beloved "Fifis" and "Mr. Scraps" and "Mr Puss n'Boots" devoured by now-safe giant English foxes.

Sort of like the idiots in Massachusetts who want hunting banned statewide and "natural predators" like mountain lions and wolf packs reintroduced to Boston suburbs.
"Are you suburbanites fucking insane????"; 1/3/11, 5:52 PM
campy said...: Eating people's beloved pet cats? You call that fair and balanced?; 1/3/11, 5:56 PM
Unknown said...: This is what happens when valuable traditions are allowed to be curtailed by the Lefties.

The lads who broke through at Cambrai learned their horsemanship riding to hounds.

PS Did they do that when you lived in DE, Ann?

Ride to hounds, I mean.; 1/3/11, 6:00 PM
Michael said...: They have only the pc anti crowd of London to thank for these supersized foxes. The country people will bait and kill them in time.

You can "hunt" foxes in England, it is just against the law to have fun doing it. Never on horseback.; 1/3/11, 6:27 PM
Toad Trend said...: @Cedarford

"Are you suburbanites fucking insane????"

No, but we are quite often dictated to by the *'Pansy Left' nanny-state types that think they are smarter than the average bear.

*Credit to George Orwell for the 'Pansy Left' and Mark Steyn for aptly using this term to describe our tyrannical persecutors.

Terrible Ted is right!!!; 1/3/11, 6:34 PM
Fred4Pres said...: That fox is like a coyote. I see foxes around but they have not (as of yet) gone for the chickens. So I have not bothered them.

Raccoons will go for the chickens, but I shoot at them on site with the air rifle so they tend to leave them alone.; 1/3/11, 7:08 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I see coyotes occasionally, but not as much as foxes. But it is wooded near my house so I know they are out there. Sometimes I hear them howling.

We get occasional cougars. They sometimes eat dogs.; 1/3/11, 7:10 PM
Anonymous said...: We get occasional cougars. They sometimes eat dogs.

I thought they prefer younger men.

Peter; 1/3/11, 7:27 PM
jr565 said...: Pastafarian wrote:
"But there is a limit, and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans..."

No, it tells me that the balance of nature has been upset by foxes.; 1/3/11, 7:34 PM
Toad Trend said...: @ironrailsironweights

"We get occasional cougars. They sometimes eat dogs.

I thought they prefer younger men.

Peter"

When I was in my late 20's, I was approached by a 'cougar' in an 'oldies' bar. I think I went in there on a dare - she said she was 45 and that she was a 'witch'. A 'wiccan', that is.

I believed her. I finished my beer and got the fuck out of there.; 1/3/11, 7:44 PM
Fritz said...: Alternative title:

Giant pussy eater captured in England; 1/3/11, 7:55 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/3/11, 8:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Man that
Sumbitch was
Neigh on 20 inches long!
Biggest Fox I Ever Seen
Caught!; 1/3/11, 8:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Cats are
Now Safe In
Nottingham!; 1/3/11, 8:11 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Of course animals in cold climates have a tendency to grow larger than normal.; 1/3/11, 8:14 PM
Clyde said...: I have a friend at work who is of Finnish extraction, and he told me that back in the Middle Ages, one of his however-many-greats uncles was eaten by a wolf. There is a reason that our ancestors thinned out the carnivores like wolves, bears, mountain lions, foxes, etc.: Because they were dangerous to their livestock and to them.

Now we live in a Disneyfied "Circle of Life" culture where the animals are cutesy and animated. Except, of course, for the real animals that are still out there roaming the wilderness, and growing in numbers because of no-hunting laws, etc. We've even seen wolves reintroduced to areas where they were extinct.

Nature, however, is no cutesy Disney movie. Nature is red in tooth and claw, and we forget that at our peril.; 1/3/11, 8:19 PM
Fritz said...: We get occasional cougars. They sometimes eat dogs.

I thought they prefer younger men.

Young men, dogs, whats the difference?; 1/3/11, 8:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Le Roman de Renard, or Eating English Pussy, by Viscounte Sir Roger Graham Postlewaithte Ailes.; 1/3/11, 9:00 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Young men, dogs, whats the difference? "

Dogs don't piss in the sink, no matter how drunk they are.

There are a number of red foxes that live in the field behind my house. The local cats and them seem to get along fabulous. At night, the cats come out of the homes and the foxes from the field, and they get together and play or fornicate in the middle. I can't tell which it is. Happy pussy and horny pussy looks the same to me. They all seem to enjoy each other without any missing cats so far. As I suspected, size does matter after all.; 1/3/11, 9:17 PM
Ralph L said...: C4, that was "The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable", an Oscar Wilde epigram about quayle hunting, IIRC.

This is what happens when you let your 19 year old pussy out of the house. Peter is upset that the fur was left behind.

I saw a fox in my front yard this summer, though I'm miles from the country. At least some of the bunnies and feral cats (and too many squirrels) survived.; 1/3/11, 9:43 PM
Irene said...: Fox in the yard.; 1/3/11, 9:47 PM
Quaestor said...: edutcher wrote: Did they do that when you lived in DE, Ann? Ride to hounds, I mean

As a confirmed member of Wilde's Unspeakables (I'm entitled to wear colors) they do indeed ride to hounds in Delaware, though it's mostly drag in that crowded state. However, the best hunting in the world outside of Ireland is to be had nearby in northern Virgina along the Rappahannock between Culpepper and Leesburg.

The UK hunting ban is purely a matter of class -- the hoi polli Labour philistines sticking it to the Man, as it were. It's got nothing to do with concern for the fox.

Hunting has to be the least effective means of killing anything that has ever been devised, and England's foxes were never in any danger of extinction or even measurable decline while the sport was legal. In fact hunting has a positive benefit for the fox, and not for any quasi-Darwinian "survival of the fittest" effect. The fox which makes its home in hunt country quickly learns to associate the sight, smell and sound of humans, horses or hounds with deadly peril and thus to avoid approaching any dwelling where any of these stimuli can be detected, even if the "hound" in question is an otherwise delectable Yorkshire terrier or chihuahua. In short fox hunting functions like avoidance training. Today the British fox doesn't receive that highly ritualized avoidance training they were wont to receive in the heyday of hunting that Oscar Wilde found so odious, and thus they've lost the timidity born of wisdom only to wander suburban streets in search of unguarded pets and small children. (Wilde is one of my favorite Victorians, but his attitude toward country life was positively barbaric); 1/3/11, 10:17 PM
Trooper York said...: Fox eats pussy.

Man that was the plot of one of the best pornos I ever saw.; 1/3/11, 10:41 PM
Bruce said...: Foxes are not "canines", they are "vulpines".; 1/3/11, 10:52 PM
Quaestor said...: Well, technically canids, members of the family Canidae. Foxes are sometimes said to be members of the tribe Vulpini, though some authorities consider Vulpini paraphyletic, i.e. strictly morphologic. Vulpine means "of or relating to foxes, or foxlike," and nothing is more foxlike than a fox.; 1/3/11, 11:06 PM
Quaestor said...: Trooper York wrote: Fox eats pussy.

Like those lez flicks, eh Trooper?; 1/3/11, 11:08 PM
DADvocate said...: LOL. Get out the horses and the hounds! We're going a hunting!

And, don't forget your funny looking little red coats.; 1/3/11, 11:36 PM
Quaestor said...: Their called "pinks" after the tailor who popularized them.

wv: platio - oral sex from a Platonist; 1/3/11, 11:40 PM
Quaestor said...: Oops. Correction. They're called "pinks."; 1/3/11, 11:42 PM
Quaestor said...: The red coat was adopted universally during Victorian times as a safety measure. It's easier to find a dead body lying in green bracken if it's dressed in red than in some other colors.; 1/3/11, 11:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Of course, on US news, these hunters would be vilified for killing an endangered, morally superior, animal.

It seems strange to me that, here, house pets and toddlers are seen as less worthy than coyotes. Cats and dogs and kids have to be kept inside; coyotes must be given free rein to roam at will. Why?; 1/4/11, 12:11 AM
Penny said...: Pastafarian wrote:
"But there is a limit, and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans..."

Blogger jr565 said...
"No, it tells me that the balance of nature has been upset by foxes."

Nature, out-of-balance, is not good for man or beast.; 1/4/11, 12:43 AM
Ralph L said...: They're called "pinks" after the tailor who popularized them
Same guy who invented the funky shears?; 1/4/11, 12:54 AM
Quaestor said...: Penny wrote: Nature, out-of-balance, is not good for man or beast.

Please explain balance in this context. I'm not convinced there is such a thing.

wv: spituthi - the sound one makes after a surfeit of snuff.; 1/4/11, 1:33 AM
Quaestor said...: Ralph L. wrote: Same guy who invented the funky shears?

The story is (and I'm quite sure its apocryphal) that after Waterloo the guy called Pink (or Pincke) bought a large amount of red woolen cloth from the British government, stuff that had been bought originally to make army uniforms but had gone surplus since Napoleon had been shipped off to St. Helena. According to the tale Pink paid sixpence in the pound for the material, which is about par for the course, government waste-wise. Pink made riding coats from some of it and paid the fancy-pants dandy Beau Brummel to wear and promote his new style. But he also made other garments from the stuff, including underwear, which explains the traditional color for union suit long-johns; 1/4/11, 1:51 AM
John Burgess said...: We in Florida have traditionally had alligators to take care of the suburban pet overpopulation. Now, we've also boa constrictors and assorted escaped and/or released reptile pets. The song birds are cheeping with joy.

WV: Something's stuck in my throat = cophsgul; 1/4/11, 3:00 AM
DADvocate said...: it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans..."

If so, it's by humans not hunting enough. Humans have hunted and killed other animals for food and safety for eons. Not to do so is unnatural.

Most hunting today has set limits as humans now have a huge advantage. But, too many lily livered, bleeding heart, know-nothings only think of animals from Disney cartoons. Hunting is good for us and good for the animal kingdom.

The balance of nature was upset years ago in many ways, introducing the Russian boar to the U.S. is one example. The species best fit to control animal populations and ensure the survival of native populations IS HUMANS! Hunting is a needed tool in that quest.

Most of all this fox incident is simply more evidence of the animal conspiracy against humans.; 1/4/11, 8:28 AM
jerryofva said...: I live in Arlington VA just outside of DC. We have at least three 3 foxes (2 red and 1 grey)in my immediate neighborhood. They are fearless of humans and even the dogs. They are a constant danger to small dogs and cats, and always a potential rabies threat. The county has told us that we are in their space.

They usually leave my yard alone because of Angela and Jethro. Angela is a smallish but murderous red tick [English] Coonhound; Jethro is a average size (meaning quite large) Plott Hound. While Jethro is kind of a pansy he does follow Angela's lead and between the two of them no fox, even the monster english fox, would stand a chance.; 1/4/11, 9:23 AM
DADvocate said...: The county has told us that we are in their space.

Somehow, this is the prevailing misconception nowadays. Humans have no rights to a "space." Are we not a natural part of this world? If a fox intruded into the den of a mountain lion, bear, wolverine, or Wisconsin badger, it would be sorry or dead.

The nature folks act as if humans landed here from outer space.; 1/4/11, 9:34 AM
jerryofva said...: Not if it were a TCU fox; 1/4/11, 9:59 AM