Richard Noggin Saturday: Rats- To Capture or Beat Down?

I’m not a big rat fan but I wanted to mention two stories about rats and you decide which is best… the one where a big rat is caught in the streets or where a big rat is beaten down in the streets (h/t’s Neatorama and Alternet):

Giant rat caught in China

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

The rat, which weighed six pounds and had a 12-inch tail, was caught at the weekend in a residential area of Fuzhou, a city of six million people on China’s south coast.

The ratcatcher, who was only named as Mr Xian, said he swooped for the rodent after seeing a big crowd of people surrounding it on the street.

He told local Chinese newspapers that he thought the rat might be a valuable specimen, or a rare species, and had to muster up his courage before grabbing its tail and picking it up by the scruff of its neck.

“I did it, I caught a rat the size of a cat!” he shouted out afterwards, according to the reports. Mr Xian is believed to still be in possession of the animal, after stuffing into a bag and departing the scene.

Christopher Hitchens Catches a Beat Down in Lebanese Street Brawl

Heroic Whaa

The assault on Christopher Hitchens’ body continues – he’s been waterboarded, body-waxed and suffered through countless hangovers.

In the latest incident, Hitchens sustained gashed knuckles and bruises in a vicious street brawl with shoe-shopping thugs during a Valentine’s Day night out on the streets of Beirut.

Hitchens, the chain-smoking, hard-drinking, intellectually ambitious Vanity Fair columnist, was beat up during the altercation, according to several blogs.

Hitchens was apparently visiting Beirut at the invitation of the Hariri-Saudi group, affiliated with the assassinated Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, when he defaced a poster for the Syrian Social Nationalist party and was assaulted by some members of the SSNP who happened to be walking by, according to the Angry Arab News Service.

I kinda like the second story best. Why? Because any drunk and stupid son of a bitch that would go to a country like that and deface anything pretty much deserves to have the shit beat of him.

Let’s say that he happened to walk down the streets of my little TN town and decided to deface a poster or whatever on our streets. I would hope that someone would at the very least call the cops, but knowing my redneck friends and the fact that Hitchens is a loud-mouthed foreign prick (he don’t come from these here parts), I doubt he would get off as lightly as he did in Beirut.

I mean, REALLY. Beirut?!?

Does anyone really give this drunken clown any credibility any more? Give the man a joint and have him calm down a bit.