George Carlin on "Animal Torture"

I was stunned to read that George Carlin died yesterday of an apparent heart attack.  This vigorous 71-year old in many ways, revolutionized comedy.  From his "Hippie Dippie Weatherman" of the 70s ("tonight's forecast:  dark... continued dark until scattered light in the morning") to this "seven words" to a recent monologue on Conan O'Brien where he was stunning in doing a "Modern Man" rant that's too hard to explain.

Few people know that he also wrote some hilarious, insightful, and of course, ascerbic books.  Awhile back, in a Mad Cowboy Newsletter in 2006, I noted the following quotes from his book "Brain Droppings:"

"And I think people have a lot of nerve locking up a tiger and charging four dollars to let a few thousand worthless humans shuffle past him every day. What a ****** thing to do. Human must easily be the meanest species on Earth." p. 236-237

"I do not torture animals, and I do not support the torture of animals, such as that which goes on at rodeos: cowardly men in big hats abusing simple beasts in a fruitless search for manhood." p. 237

"One last item to demonstrate the depth of human perversity: Some zoos now sell surplus animals to private hunting ranches where rich white men hunt them down and kill them for amusement.

No wonder they call it the descent of man." p. 240

("Brain Droppings," by George Carlin, 1997, Comedy Concepts, Inc. ISBN:
0-7868-8321-9)

I think of George often, sometimes riffing on one of his bits about "where to keep your stuff?" When someone asks me at a store "did you find everything?" I feign frustration and say "...but, I wasn't looking for everything... and if I had it all, where would I keep it?"

... ah, tell-it-like-it-is Carlin... he'll be missed... I'll bet he's setting God (or the Devil!) straight even as I write this.  Pity he wasn't on a low-fat vegan diet... he kicked cocaine, but let the meat and dairy take him down...