There's no hope for the human race !!!

Will Rogers: "A man that don't love a horse, there is something the matter with him. If he has no sympathy for the man that does love horses then there is something worse the matter with him."

Hey Folks,

You'll have to decide whether there's something the matter with me or not. I guess you could say I love horses - to some extent - and I have sympathy with those who love them more than I do.

Still, for anyone who hopes that the world might some day be ordered on a rational basis, the story posted below is disheartening. Basically, it reports that the state of Texas has outlawed the butchering of horses for food. It also reports that the court decided the case based partially on the opinion that no cinematic cowboy had ever eaten his horse.

Well, personally, I don't care whether Texas slaughters horses for meat or provides rest homes for aged equines, with hospice in their final days and the inevitable burial/cremation paid for by the state.

But the story still disturbs me. It is an example of the unlikelihood of our race ever living by a rational standard. Loving horses is fine, but everything else about this story is nuts.

1. We are not told, but it seems likely that horses can still be sold to the glue factory when their owners no longer want them - they just can't be sold to provide meat for HUMAN consumption. Hmmmmm ... If love of horses keeps us from butchering them for food, what enables us to send them to the glue factory?

2. Texas is known for raising cattle to provide meat for human consumption. I'm sure Texans also raise pigs and chickens and catfish and maybe even emus for meat for human consumption. Westerners are also known to love hunting, killing, and consuming wild deer (Bambi), mountain goat, buffalo, antelope, rabbit (Thumper), etc.

As a child, my grandfather raised some pigs, chickens, and beef cattle. He also had a saddle horse. I loved all the animals (well, maybe not the chickens - the Leghorn roosters were mean as hell), but I particularly favored the pigs. The porkers were cuter and smarter than the horse, the steer, or the chickens.

There have been any number of cinematic pigs, and I don't remember any of them being eaten. I wonder if Nebraska or Iowa, corn Meccas, might outlaw the slaughter of pigs for human consumption?

Nahh, that would be irrational.

3. Texas is big on "bidness" and is "conservative" politically. Those who own and run Texas would be the last among us to "dictate" to business on anything relevant to the well-being of workers, the environment, or the general population. It's a "Right to Work" state, has no income tax - graduated or otherwise; environmentalists, feminists, civil rights activists, and - certainly PETA enthusiasts - are not appreciated there. It is the home of JR, rampant pollution, the Death Penalty, gigantic property holdings, & Big Oil.

Yet, they WILL totally eliminate a business (at least a foreign-owned one) to salve a culturally inculcated, emotional, and arbitrary notion related to animals and - supposedly - to cowboys.

Hmmmmm ...

Now, Folks, at this point some of you may be cussing me and thinking, "Why does he hate horses?" or "He can't make me hate horses!" or "If I want to be against the butchering of horses for food, I can, and HE can't stop me!" or something along those lines.

If so, you are letting your emotions over-ride your intellect. As I said above, I personally don't have a horse in this race. I am saying neither that horses should be butchered nor that they shouldn't. Besides, it doesn't matter what I say; Texas does as Texas is - without benefit of my opinions. And you will believe as you believe based on your own intellect and emotions - regardless of what I may opine.

The point of this essay involves people, not horses. If you can wrap your head around that, you can quit cussing me, calm down, and maybe even take a break to pet your horse and give him some oats (just "a few").

Having said that, if you are still upset with me, you are demonstrating the same depressing behavior I noticed in the original article. You are so enamored of horses, that you feel the need to "defend" them - even against someone who is not attacking them. THAT's irrational.

Well, Folks, now you may again be thinking - something like: "Who are you to say I'm irrational?" or "Big deal! So, I'm irrational," or "So what!! Who cares? What difference does it make?"

Well, I'm nobody, but irrationality does have a definition in the language. You be the judge:

irrational: not governed by or according to reason

reason: sufficient ground of explanation or of logical defense

It is not logical to attack someone for threatening horses when he is not threatening horses.

As to what difference it makes, if one is still talking about horse meat, it doesn't make much difference. Some ethnic Americans will be put out, perhaps some authentic French chefs and gourmets, too. The price of a horse steak will probably go up (supply & demand, you know). But on a global scale, it's no big deal.

What it represents, however, is huge.

If people will behave on the basis of emotion rather than reason on a matter like this one, how much more unlikely to expect them to act rationally on matters that ARE big deals?

War, the environment, torture, nationalism, party affiliation, religion, capital punishment, abortion, race, ethnicity; class/tribal/caste systems; the "Justice" system, public education; capitalism/socialism/communism; taxes, health care, jobs/opportunity, substance abuse - all of these and more are big deals, are serious matters, and all are continuing sources of antagonistic, never-ending discord.

As with the horse meat issue, these issues incite strong emotional responses, and more often than not they are not rational or helpful responses. Intellect, rationality, a scientific approach are suppressed to protect the emotional components. While a relative few are affected by the Texas outcome, litterally billions of people have suffered over the ages from irrational, self-destructive actions relevant to these and similar issues.

We all have heard:

"If we do not learn from the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat them." - Santayana

Well, learning from the mistakes of the past is a rational, intellectual exercise. Loving one's country, industry, army, political party, religion, moral code, skin color, ethnicity, personal income, etc. does not help one objectively understand history or its mistakes. Rather, these "loves" hide the lessons of the past from us. We protect our loves by rejecting our rationality - it's called "rationalizing" as in "My country [etc.], right or wrong; since it can't be wrong - since it's MY country [etc.]."

And so, this essay is not about whether or not horse meat will remain available in this country. It is about whether the human race is capable of grappling with issues rationally, whether it is even possible for humanity to "learn from the mistakes of history."

As a young man, I thought it was. Over the years doubt crept in and has grown. The news piece below hasn't helped rekindle my optimism.

- Uke Man

Court: No horse slaughtering in Texas
By RASHA MADKOUR, Associated Press

HOUSTON - A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation's three processing plants are located.

The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court's ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.

The lower court said the Texas law was invalid because it had been repealed by another statute and was pre-empted by federal law. However, a panel of three judges on the 5th Circuit disagreed, saying the law still stood and was still enforceable.

The 5th Circuit decision also cited more than the law.

"The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse," wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.

The ruling involves the Dallas Crown Inc. slaughter mill in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in nearby Forth Worth. The nation's third plant is in Illinois, run by Cavel International Inc. at DeKalb. All three operations are foreign-owned.

A bill pending before Congress would shutter all three operations.
The plants ship the meat overseas, since it is considered a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia.

About 88,000 horses, mules and other equines were slaughtered in 2005, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

While proponents such as the American Veterinary Medical Association say slaughter is a kind way to deal with old horses and a better alternative to abandonment, opponents including Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and country music star Willie Nelson have argued that the killing of equines is un-American — and that many young horses are killed as well.

The Humane Society of the United States, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, applauded the 5th Circuit decision.

"This is the most important court action ever on the issue of horse slaughter," Wayne Pacelle, the society's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "When this ruling is enforced, a single plant in Illinois will stand alone in conducting this grisly business."

There was no immediate response to calls seeking comment Saturday from representatives of Dallas Crown and Beltex.