When a Sparrow Falls

Ok. I am going to post a news story from Yahoo from today, Jan. 2, 2011. With my comments on said news story, since this is my blog. The story is true, the mindset of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission almost unbelievable.




And I quote, "– Sun Jan 2, 9:18 am ET BEEBE, Ark. – Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.
Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.
Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.
Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned." End of Quote.

Let's examine the possibilities together, gentle reader:

"Similar events have occurred elsewhere"? The only other time I have seen a story like this is after Chernobyl, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima.  But over some wheat field in Arkansas? Should we be wrapping our houses in plastic and duct tape? Where have I heard that before?

Fireworks scared the birds to death? What kind of fireworks are they using in Arkansas? Are they marked, "Made in North Korea?" Or maybe the birds keeled from realizing the jokesters were breaking innumerable fire codes and noise ordinances? OR, maybe they were on retreat and meditating. Anything but a noxious cloud of something drifting over Arkansas and poisoning the birds. That would be alarming.


I can actually buy the one about the hailstorm, since Arkansas is in Tornado Alley and Tornado Alley has been having a bad week. And lightening--- the phrase, "A thousand points of light" drifts across my mind. But the commission didn't run with that one. They ran with: fireworks?

It can't be a train wreck releasing deadly gas into the atmosphere. We've already had one environmental crisis this year in the Gulf spill. There can't be two, that would be overwhelming. The public might realize that the Environmental Protection Agency is a shell of an government entity, a hollow mask propped up to mute those who want the U.S.A. to work on the reduction of global pollution. Holy Cow.


It's much more likely that some of Lord Voldemort's dementors are hovering over Arkansas and killing blackbirds thinking they are Aurors. (With all due respect to J.K. Rowling)

And I think, that with that talent, the commission should be paid better.

Tomorrow: I Am Just Waiting and Watching the News