Violent expression of manhood

Yesterday morning I had MSNBC on at work while I was cleaning up and caught the press statement of quarterback and dog abuser Michael Vick. Certainly enough has been said about this scumbag that I hadn’t felt the need to comment before. After watching his so called apology I have been disgusted that no one is pointing out a simple fact.

Vick managed to give an apology to his coach, his teammates and all the children who may have looked up to him but at no point did he say he was sorry to/or about the dogs tortured and killed under his direction. He said dog fighting was awful and that he rejects it, however does anyone believe that he wouldn’t still be doing it if he was under so much pressure?

He clearly still believes he did nothing wrong by using the dogs, and he was willing to take the guilty plea on his involvement in the killings yet lied about gambling. That shows a really messed up set of priorities. He shows more remorse about playing football than anything that has happened to those dogs and the judge should nail his ass to wall for that reason alone. He still believes dog-fighting is ok in his heart and that apology proves it.

So what does this have to do with Ted Nugent the motor city madman?

After getting home from work I saw an article about Ted Nugent in Rolling Stone. Nugent was on stage with two machine guns saying, “Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun. Hey Hillary,” he continued. “You might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.”

We in the Animal Liberation movement have long hated Ted, who like Michael Vick seems to tie his exploitation and domination of others closely to his manhood. Nugent’s political speech is yet another manifestation of his patriarchal insanity. The man is one of the most public defenders of killing animals for sport. His bow hunting is no different ethically from Vick putting dogs to death.

While Nugent would argue that he eats his kills, the health benefits of vegetarian diet negate any logic in this thinking. He has spent a lot of energy on making hunting into a manly activity in the public eye. Nugent clearly gets a big boner from expressions of violence and domination. That is the real reason he hunts or resorts to violence hate speech to make a political statement.

I hope that more people disgusted by Vick’s actions will widen the circle of compassion and see that violence against animals is never ok, no matter how hidden or justified it is by our culture.