Whipped Cream Difficulties

Let us pause in our revels for a few moments to consider the plight of the less fortunate.

Specifically, the Vegas sports books, which did not do well this NFL season.

The damage was particularly bad in Week 9 of the NFL season, when Vegas-backed underdogs finished 2-10 against the point spread, while seven games that day finished “over” the game’s projected total-points-scored line.

One of the people involved in the MGM sports books claims they took a “seven-figure” hit that day.

“Looking at this, I can tell you we’ll need the underdogs to win in every game. Again,” he said.

If I understand this right, the Texans are favored by between 4 and 5 points over the Bengals. Just saying.

This story was reported by Instapundit and other folks late last week. I didn’t link it because all the reports came back to PRNewswire, who I don’t trust. However, I finally found a link to a WSJ article. So here’s what happened: the ASPCA and other animal rights organizations sued Feld Entertainment (the parent company of Ringling Brothers) for violations of the Endangered Species Act. The organizations, along with a former Ringling Brothers employee, claimed that the circus was mistreating elephants. This has been dragging on for years:

After nine years of litigation, a federal court found that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue under the Endangered Species Act and that the former Ringling employee was “not credible” and “essentially a paid plaintiff and fact witness” whose only source of income during the litigation was the animal-rights groups that were his co-plaintiffs.

The hook (so to speak): last Friday, the ASPCA settled with Feld Entertainment and paid Feld $9.3 million. Feld is pursuing other parties in the case, including “the Humane Society of the United States, the Fund for Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Animal Protection Institute United with Born Free USA, the former employee and the lawyers who prosecuted the bogus case”.

I’m opposed to animal cruelty. I don’t think you should run over turtles. I think dogs and cats deserve decent treatment, and I think we could do a better job of dealing with meat animals. But I also think that when you hear Sara McLachlan singing “Silent Night” while a bunch of sad-eyed animals appear on the screen, you should keep in mind that the money you donate is going to pay off a settlement from a frivolous and malicious lawsuit.