Bad start

Got up, kicked--er--fed dog(s), got ready for church, remembered I never go to church, got coffee, turned on the computer, turned on the TV (Tom and Jerry!), and what greets my amblyopiac eyes?

Glenn Spagnuolo. Or rather, a horrible pic of Glenn, with his voice droning over it.

Friday the Greenwood Village City Council voted to hire a contractor (Halliburton? Blackwater?) to commit genocide against coyotes that have beccome a nuisance in the Denver 'burb, eating a dog here and there and trying to attack a kid.

After his triumph leading protests at the Democratic National Convention, you'll remember (or maybe not), Glenn turned his formidable revolutionary skills to protecting the earth by stopping the genocide.

Anyway, on TV (the CBS affiliate, I think), Glenn said the usual stuff: "It's not a hierarchy"; "We're not better than the animals," etc.

Back to bed.

Update: Forgot to mention, the reportron called him, in perhaps the worst attempted genocide of his name yet, Glenn "Spagula."

Update II: A CBS4 internet story has the exact quote from ol' Spagz:

A Denver social activist told CBS4 he'll challenge the coyote kill. Glen Spaguolo [sic] of Recreate 68 also says we need to live in harmony with nature."We need to learn to deal with the wildlife in a way we can all be safe and going out and killing them is just as bad as having their child killed", Spaguolo [sic] said. "We're not superior, we're not a hierarchy in nature, we live together along with all of our relations."

That's, as a commenter notes, Highlands Ranch resident G. Spagz. Again, I'm willing to bet he's never read a topo map, paddled a canoe, or even hiked in the woods for more than a mile or two in his life. Another resident of the soul-draining suburbs answers:

"What do you say to someone who would say, 'But wait a minute, these are living creatures, who are we to put them down, to kill them?' Well my children are living creatures as well and it's only a question of time before a small child is seriously injured," Greenwood Village resident Gene Felling said.

Update III: A commenter sets me straight on Spagula's wilderness experience:

Hey, just thought I would help you not appear like a fool. Some of us know Glenn and he is very knowledgable of the outdoors. He worked in Yellowstone Park leading wilderness trips, he went to the National Outdoor Leadership school and in addition to running the youth programs at Longmont, he ran the outdoor recreation programs as well. Also, I know he worked at a nature center for a couple of years and his wife is a wildlife biologist. I would go into the woods with him as my guide any day of the week. I bet while you are busy playing on your computer, he is probably enjoying the outdoors as we speak. Plus, he has a long history of environmental activism. He is one of the few who is willing to defend the environment from the likes of you all. Learn before you spew your hate.

Glenn, is that you? Bit late to prevent me "appearing" a fool, as you'll know from reading this blog, but if what you say is true (big if), I wholeheartedly (okay, halfheartedly) apologize for assuming what apparently isn't the case. (Still bet I've spent more time "listening to rivers" (in the words of another eco-creep) than you have.)

Thing is, no matter what you've done, wilderness-wise, this coyote business is just pointless grandstanding--pointless, that is, for anything but keeping your name in the news.

Why don't you do something useful, like, say, helping to rid the Colorado River system of the (man-introduced) plague of tamarisk that does more damage than a million evil 'burbanites who don't want their kids et by vermin?

I know, not sexy enough, by which I mean human-hating enough. Just hard, pragmatic work, with little in the way of revolutionary oomph.

Update IV: At least give me some props, Glenn, for being able to spell and pronounce your name. Nobody in the media can. Hell, your good buddy Wart can't. Don't you get sick of it?

Update V (11 February): "DOW plans to track coyote attacks."