October 05, 2003

Setting the Cause of Gay Rights Back 100 Years

NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS:Disturbing Movie of the Month

Posted at 06:20 PM in Mind Boggling | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Moron of the Year So Far

WHILE ROY FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE IN LAS VEGAS, the tiger headlines keep on coming: New York police remove 400-pound tiger from housing project

Ah, yes, another feather in the cap of public housing in New York City was plucked yesterday when the tiger on the fifth floor was evicted by tranquilizing dart gun and several really nervous members of the police force. The facts of this cold-blooded example of the fascist New York City authorities acting to deprive a citizen of his furry and cute companions are:


A half-hour later, the slumbering cat was carried out of the Drew Hamilton public housing complex at 2430 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. in a cage. It was held in a city animal shelter overnight and will be taken to a Cleveland wildlife preserve Sunday, officials said.

A 3-foot cayman alligator, swaddled in a white sheet, was also taken from the five-bedroom apartment.

The animals' owner, Antoine Yates, 37, was tracked down at a hospital in suburban Philadelphia about 8 p.m. and taken into custody, cops said. Charges were pending.

"I just spoke to my brother. He's going through extreme pain. He asked me how's his cat, how is his alligator," Yates' brother Aaron told the Daily News.

Officials said the urban spinoff of "Wild Kingdom" began two years ago when Yates brought the male Bengal-Siberian tiger cub, named Ming, home to his family's fifth-floor apartment.

The exotic pet was an open secret in the building, where at least one neighbor said she complained to the Housing Authority about tiger urine leaking from upstairs. An agency official acknowledged a complaint about odors but said he didn't know it involved a tiger.

Downstairs neighbor Janaya Smith, 9, said a little girl who lived in the apartment invited her to visit one day.

"My friend said, `Wanna see my tiger?'" Janaya said.

"Hey little girl, just trot up to the fifth floor and check out my 400 pound carnivore?" Just another diversion in the projects where it is now obvious that even having human body parts nailed to your front door is not grounds for eviction.

Word is that the owner kept his private zoo happy by feeding them rats -- a virtually inexhaustible resource in New York City with a particular liking for the projects. Still, if we were investigating this little bit of urban horrror, we'd be looking at any reports of missing children or elders coming out of this particular node of Housing Project Hill.

It all begs the question of just what the hell was going on in this high rise. Call us incredulous but, from the small experience we've had with tigers at zoos, they are both stinky and noisy. Tiger scat is nothing that can be trumped by a few Air-Wick Herbal Glade plugins. And the sound of a tiger just clearing its throat is enough to get the attention of the hairs on the back of your neck rapidimente compadre.

The report says it was an "open secret" at the project. That speaks volumes about the level of diversity this particular project was willing to tolerate. Just a tad too much even for our advanced 21st century tolerance, thank you. It also speaks volumes about the level of oversight the people in charge of the project were handing out -- just a few degrees below absolute zero.

Prognosis: Yates gets out of hospital, flushes any medication for his more than obvious mental illness, gets his apartment back refurbished by PETA, gets a lawyer and sues to have tiger and alligator returned to him at his abode. Got forbid this marching moron gets evicted. After all, another homeless man on the streets of New York is one thing, a homeless man with a tiger in his shopping cart is quite another. Lord knows, I'd give him ALL my spare change if he asked. Wouldn't you?

Posted at 01:02 PM in Mind Boggling | | Comments (0)

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