Hook, Line and Over the Top...
Interesting article about PETA this morning and the impact the organization sometimes has on regular folks:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1452912/posts

A few points about this kind of over-the-top nonsense, but first, a word from our sponsor:

I kind of like fishing (although I've only tried it four or five times in my lifetime). It does have a relaxing quality to it, and it does demand discipline and patience. All in all, not a bad way to pass a day, and the potential rewards of this activity (i.e. food) make it a productive use of one's time. While I do enjoy the idea of fishing for sport, I somehow find the idea of competetive fishing somewhat laughable. I further find Corporate Sponsorship of a Competetive Fishing Event patently ridiculous. But that's just me.

Be that as it may, we must now move on from the world of sport to the world which PETA seems to inhabit.

I find it quite strange that an organization that claims to stand for the humane (note how the root of that word is "human"?) treatment of our animal friends would resort to a picture of dog suffering with a fishhook through it's bloody mouth in order to make a point about the "brutality" of fishing. Although it's obvious that the suffering pooch was intended to make people think about what happens to fish by presenting the fishing analogy to us complete with an animal that most people love and feel an affinity for, it was really designed for shock value.

And that's what PETA (and many other organizations that cannot make their case on logic and reasonable argument) are reduced to --- shocking sensibilities and then pretending as if they've done something profound.

In the meantime, there's a new business in Pittsburgh that has to try and attract customers with an unatrractive advertisement above their front door. Yep, a picture of a bloodied and tortured dog stuck on your roof does wonders for business.