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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Natasha Vita-More<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] bull whoops ass<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Hi Spike,</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'> I loved being in all these regions of Spain because I didn't see any bull fighting! IMO, it is brutal and cruel. Some are trying to outlaw it: </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/28/us-spain-catalonia-bullfighting-idUSTRE66R2X620100728"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/28/us-spain-catalonia-bullfighting-idUSTRE66R2X620100728</span></a></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>> but you can read the defense believes it to be a national sport, centuries old. The facts are horrific: </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.stopbullfighting.org.uk/facts.htm"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://www.stopbullfighting.org.uk/facts.htm</span></a></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'> ; however, hopefully the more awake and evolved humans will continue making their stand: <<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/07/catalonia-becomes-second-spanish-region-to-ban-bullfighting.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/07/catalonia-becomes-second-spanish-region-to-ban-bullfighting.html</a>></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Natasha</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Hi Natasha, thanks for the links.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>This whole thing has been simmering in my mind all weekend and putting me in a foul mood, so do allow me this one rant, and I will let it go, or try to. We are all allowed an occasional righteous rant here occasionally, if we don’t abuse the privilege, and this is mine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I have long known of bullfighting, and try to not think about this practice which I find most distasteful, for I have no moral high ground. Not only do I occasionally eat beef, I eat shrimp at every opportunity. One bull can feed an army of proles, but an army of shrimp must be slain to provide a most tasty sushi-meal for a single prole. Furthermore, the bull is a farm animal one would suppose, but most shrimp are taken from the wild. So this isn’t a moral argument exactly, although I may redouble my efforts to give up shrimp and cut down even further on beef.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>That being said, the thrust of my argument is simply fair play. I cannot find the answer to what happens to the bull in the rare event that he wins the match. After I saw the video, I seriously thought of creating and distributing an internet cartoon, a snorting bull with spears in his back and one bloody horn, with the caption: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Care for el rematch-o, Senor One-eye?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I didn’t do it, for that would be cruel humor, and cruelty is el matador’s department, not mine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Regarding the notion that bullfighting is centuries old and is cultural, do let us ignore the stunningly illogical reasoning process that leads to the notion that somehow that makes it all OK. Ummmm, well, never mind, let us not ignore that. Saying anything old and cultural is OK is just bullshit and I don’t like it. Cultures evolve. To resist cultural evolution opens the door for all manner of egregious and distasteful mischief and misanthropy, or in this case, misbeastopy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>So here is what I suggest. We don’t even need to pressure the bullfighting culture to outlaw the practice, for that goes against my inner libertarian. I consider it perfectly legitimate to pressure the Spanish government to impose from the outside a sense of fair play, in this way. Make it a requirement that in the rare event that the bull wins, that bull must be allowed to live, never to fight again. A third party is given an option to buy the beast and supply the veterinarian to patch his wounds. Volunteers would donate the money (I would gladly contribute to that fund.) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>That bull is declared a champion forever. Never again does he enter the arena. They patch him up, allow him to live his life breeding with the heifers sired by other champion bulls. That way, every bull from that particular pasture has a father and moo-ternal grandfather which managed to draw blood from el matador, or better yet to plunge an enraged horn up his el asso, or cause him to retreat in terror from the ring in any fashion with the bull still standing and snorting. Over time, better and better El Toros would evolve. Future matadors beware. OLE!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>We set some kind of time limit, after which the match is called a draw, and the bull lives to fight another day, or is up for option to buy for Operation Bull-fighter Fighters (OBFF.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>No sawed-off horns. Sharpened horns, bueno, muy bien.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Take all of the other participants out of the arena. El Toro already has odds stacked against him sufficiently, he shouldn’t be distracted by half a dozen other proles hanging around in the arena, there to protect El Matador. If the bullfighter is so eager to demonstrate his courage, this is an even more impressive opporutnity. Go right ahead, Mister Testosterone, let’s see you go in there alone, you big strong brave hombre. If the bull manages to rip away half the matador’s face as happened last week, and the matador is down with the bull still standing, the spectators allowed to gasp in horror and pray to their favorite deity, or if they are atheist bull fans, to simply comment OLE.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>If El Toro manages to injure in any way, or draw any blood from El Matador, or even frighten the silly hombre into fleeing the arena, the bull is declared winner and champion. The losing matador is retired permanently. There is no appeal. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>In the case of ambiguous injury, a panel of judges makes the call. This would be an example of a unanimous decision in favor of the bull:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><img border=0 width=184 height=241 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image003.jpg@01CC8747.38812FC0"></span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>OLE!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Apologies for entering this into the ExI archives, but it helps get this burden off my chest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Both participants of any murderous spectacle deserve a souvenir or memento. The newly retired matador gets his swords back, but the bull gets to keep the hat, along with any body parts the matador leaves in the arena, such as the eyeball from last week. The defeated matador gets a digital recording of the terrified gasps and cries of the spectators as he was getting ass whooped by a rightfully enraged hunk of beef.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Most bulls go to the slaughterhouse, where their chances of survival are exactly zero. In the arena, the bull’s odds of victory are between slim and grim out on the rim, but at least it is SOME chance. This is loosely analogous to cryonics, ja? The slaughterhouse is then analogous to traditional burial. But if they slay the victorious bull anyway, in what way is there ANY justice, or ANY justification in that sport? They give the bull a really bad afternoon which he never requested, with nothing in return. If they arrange for the tragically-infrequently victorious bull live out his life in peace and copious love, well then I would say the arena is actually preferable to the slaughterhouse, as cryonics is preferable to the grave. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Spaniards, go right ahead with your offensive cultural spectacle, but do impose some fair play on the egregious practice. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>The rest of the world is watching and listening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>