Kats, Kooks & Kristof Wednesday

Well, we've made it to the middle of the week, and I thought I'd collect up some of the critical news of the week.

NYT consummate liberal Nicholas Kristof, who is usually good for a laugh, has recently discovered the media is biased. Well, sort of...in his column today in the Gray Lady, he notes that most people perceive the media as "arrogant, out of touch and untrustworthy." Gosh, imagine that! Anyway, it's probably not worth registering for the NYT on the link above to read the whole column, but here's my favorite part:

I think we're nuts not to regulate handguns more strictly, but I also think gun owners have a point when they complain that gun issues often seem to be covered by people who don't know a 12-gauge from an AR-15.

He's right, of course. But — at the risk of repeating repeating repeating repeating myself — it's on us as an industry to help the media understand who we are. And we're not doing that, either. Here's an interesting blog analysis of the Kristof column.

Meanwhile, on the white-hot topic of cat hunting, Wisconsin residents have given it a big ole thumbs up. This from the A&P (that's a joke on my part):

Wisconsin residents support a plan to legalize wild cat hunting, according to voting results released Tuesday.

At meetings across the state Monday night, residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats should be listed as an unprotected species. If so listed, the cats — including any domestic cat that isn’t under the owner’s direct control or any cat without a collar — could be hunted.

A total of 6,830 voted yes and 5,201 voted no, according to results released by the Department of Natural Resources.

When I was a kid in Tennessee, the state actually paid a bounty for feral dogs. I always tell people that, when if comes to dogs not under the direct control of their owners, that I operate under "Tennessee rules" — it bites; it dies. This has led to some fascinating discussions at local dog parks! Still, the Wisconsin situation is crazy — volunteers feeding feral cats for years without the slightest concern for those cats' devastating effect on the local environment. What a bunch of morons!

And yes, sorry for not mentioning long guns in yesterday's cat-hunting round-up. Three quick choices would be the Ruger 10/22 semiauto and 77/17 bolt gun, the Taurus 172 pump gun and Henry's Golden Boy lever action rifle.

Finally, I couldn't close this report without noting that silicone implants failed to win re-approval from the FDA yesterday. I refer you to Virginia Postrel's excellent essay, written in 1992, on the whole issue (with a tip of the hat to Instapundit for the link):

But the breast-implant debate reveals at least three other fundamental divisions -- about the interests of consumers, of women and of science -- that reflect very different sets of values and ways of understanding the world: How much justification must consumers give the government for their choices? Are women liberated by rediscovering their natural femininity or by seizing control over their biological destinies? And, at least for the sake of public policy, how do we sort evidence from anecdote?

I'll bet you thought I was going to make a boob joke, didn't you?