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The same idiots who shoot at road signs.

I wonder, too. I suspect that some will shoot and then claim that they didn't see the collars. Oh, well! Or, they will shoot the cats, remove their collars from the dead bodies and perhaps toss the bodies into the bushes. No collar -- okay to shoot.

Further, how do you know a cat is really feral, and not a farm cat? Don't farmers keep barn cats to control rodents?

I have a number of friends who live in the country and their cats go outside minus collars. One of my friends owns a horse and I've visited the various barns that he has been kept. The barn owners keep cats and I don't recall seeing collars. I may be wrong, though.

It is possible. It's depends on the cat's pesonality and age. Kittens tend to be more trusting (up to six months). After six months, it is possible to tame them, but more difficult. It takes plenty of patience and food and there's no guarantee that you will be successful. Some cats are naturally wary and others are just not friendly. Of course, that's true of domesticated cats, as well.

If a cat (or fox or any other predator) takes one quail in one year, that's one less quail these manly men can shoot. So they want to knock off the competitors. Of course, some people simply hate cats and others wish to kill for the sake of killing -- they are the type who try to run over an animal when it runs across the road in front of their car.

I have friends in the country who let their cats outside, uncollared and unsupervised. I think that is unwise. I've been told that they are afraid that a collar will catch on something. I keep my cats indoors, but over the years there have been escapes (brief and permanent) of cats without collars. Some think that all of these cats are fair game.

That's an excellent point. People are no longer executed for petty theft but only for the most horrible crimes: mass murder, murder-rape, murder-robbery, etc. The victims suffered terribly, in fear and probably agony, every second feeling like minute, a minute feeling like an hour. Blubbering over brutal killers is typical of the twisted "compassion" for the bad and indifference to the innocent that is so pervasive in this country in so many different ways.

A good stout piece of rope is good enough for a killer.

No. At one time, I was involved in taking care of feral cats and the tamability of a feral kitten depends on two things: basic personality and age.

Some kittens are trusting and affectionate -- they can easily be tamed, at least up to six months. I have two female ex-ferals who are the most loving cats imaginable, but they were friendly towards me even before I took them inside my home. Other kittens are more suspicious -- they may never be tamed. Also, after age six months it is more difficult, though not impossible, to tame a feral. It's takes a great deal of patience and food.

A former feral who I found as a kitten hanging around my home slipped out one morning and disappeared. He didn't have his collar on and I hate the thought of some trigger-happy psychopath shooting him for the sake of shooting him. I also have friends who live in rural areas and let their cats outside. One set of cats don't wear collars.

Interestingly enough, my ex-ferals have no desire to go outside. They are content to sit on a perch in a window and watch the birds. On the other hand, with Spring here, the original Siamese Princess (a sealpoint cat I bought from a breeder) will want to go to play!

Excellent point. This is a worldwide phenenomen. It's reverse Darwinism -- the survival of the least fit. The advanced socieities of east Asia have very low birthrates. Japan, for instance, will begin to decline in population next year. This is true within the Western nations -- the unmarried welfare mama has five kids while the postman and his wife, who are supporting her, have two. This doesn't bode well for the maintenance of a advanced civilization anywhere in the world.

Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Did the White House celebrate St. Patrick's Day in 2001, 2002 and 2003, during Pres. Bush's first administration, and was Gerry Adams invited then? Mr. Steyn says, "for the first time in a decade...." It is unclear.

I have no idea. Many "theatrical" films, including ones starring well-known performers, are virtual "straight-to-video." It seems that they are in the theatres for two or three weeks and then they disappear.

Heck, no. I read a great deal -- books, newspapers, magazines or the internet, or just plain talk to people.

Last year (?), a piece in The Wall St. Journal mentioned that studio execs claim that the "average" movie (however defined) only makes 30% of its take at the boxoffice. About 40% comes from DVDs, 15% from pay TV and the remaining 15% from other sources such as network TV. Just a few days ago I read somewhere that about 80% of Hollywood's revenues comes from DVDs and TV.

The majority of moviegoers are young men, so, not surprisingly, the studios cater to that demographic: they like loud, stupid and violent films. People who are 30+ have lose the habit of going to the movies and simply wait for the DVD or video to be released. I recently read somewhere that DVDs, unlike videos, are priced to sell and not to rent.

The movie industry took a huge hit first with the advent of TV, then the demise of the much-maligned Hayes code in 1966, cable in the 1970s, and finally videos in the 1980s. Movie theaters nowadays are largely patronized by young, unmarried people (predominately male) in their teens and 20s, or adults accompanying children. Adults over the age of 30 rarely go the movies -- they wait for the DVD. The DVD release of a movie is normally about 5-6 months after the theatrical release. Most people are willing to wait.

A co-worker of mine gave away his two cats because he was never home and he thought that is was unfair to them. A very short time later, one night at around 10 pm, he heard strange noises in his apartment -- turned out to be mice. He panicked and called an exterminator to deal with them. He paid plenty got sn exterminator to come in the middle of the night and he admitted that he didn't have the problem until the cats were gone.

They think that the government will always be there to take care of them, no matter how foolish they are.

The State has replaced God. "Our father, who are in (insert Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, etc.).... The population looks to the State to look after them, not the Lord.

I think that it was G. K. Chesterton who said that "when people cease to believe in God, it's not that they believe in nothing, it's that they believe in everything," or words to that effect. The decline in traditional religious belief has led to a massive increase in superstition.

Right. Some homeless cats belonged to someone but got lost or were abandoned. A friendly but homeless adult cat is a stray. Adult ferals may be friendly to a person who feeds them, but not to strangers, for good reason.

Exactly. That's why tyrants hate cats -- too darn independent. Hitler and Napoleon hated cats. I bet Saddam Hussein hated them, too.

No, human beings are to blame for most, if not all, decimations and outright extinctions -- either by overhunting or habitat destruction, or both. The end of the last ice age hurt some animals, such as mammoths, because of change of habitat that they were unable to adapt to, but humans probably finished them off.

That's what happened to a man I know. Coyotes killed most of his barn cats. In NJ.

I'd pay to see that.

I don't object to hunting -- my late father hunted and I have hunter friends. I just don't hold with killing a animal for the "fun" of it. If you kill it, you eat it!

In some areas, feral cats and coyotes have taken over empty ecological niches. Here in NJ, most of the predators (especially the big ones) are gone. Black bears, redtailed hawks, a few eagles, foxes, racoons, coyotes and feral cats. No wolves, though mountain lions have been spotted (a friend and former big-game guide in Africa spotted one in northwest NJ).