Tag Archives: Warren Buffet

Snake bite hero, and more

Posted on by

HEY SNAKE. BITE ME. I go solo for most of this week’s program, starting off with the incredible story of Tim Friede, who Pope Leo really oughta canonize. Can you imagine being bitten by venomous snakes 200 times? On purpose?? Then injecting yourself with snake venom an additional 700 times???

That’s exactly what Friede did over the course of 18 years. No, he’s not a nut job. No, he’s not a snake-handling religious fanatic. But those are both good guesses. Friede’s goal in enduring such discomfort and risk (he once landed in a coma) was pure altruism: to see if his body could develop immunity to snake venom through repeated exposure.

Scientists recently confirmed that Friede appears to have been successful in that effort. His blood now holds the potential to save the lives of some of the 140,000 people who die each year from snake bites.

Oh, and, like Pope Leo, Friede is from the Midwest, which as this Raygun shirt confirms is the best region on Earth. Continue Reading →

The conversation people avoid about Kristi Noem killing her dog

Posted on by

Farm and ranch families comprise less than 2% of the US population, so most Americans might not be familiar with the rural expression “take the dog for a ride.” That’s a euphemism for “we got a bad dog and we gotta put it down.”

Common law dating back to the 1800s supports a farmer’s right to kill a dog to protect livestock. Additional state statutes allow farmers and ranchers to shoot dogs that are chasing, harassing, or attacking their livestock. That’s as it should be.

Yet the national media have pounced on Noem, some even calling her a monster. The truth is, if you’ve got a dangerous dog, especially one that has killed livestock, the responsible thing to do is to get rid of it.

Now, perhaps Noem should have taken Cricket to a shelter. It might have been adopted by someone with the skills and patience to train it. More likely, it would have been euthanized.

Bottom line: If a dog kills livestock, shooting it is an appropriate and legally defensible response. Continue Reading →