Monitor lizards, oh my!

In a short AP article lacking crucial information, we learn that a monitor lizard has been stalking the farmyards of Connecticut.

Reports of a large reptile roaming an eastern Connecticut town over the past few months have turned out to be true: A police officer shot a monitor lizard to death as it was attacking chickens at a resident's home. 

What's lacking is any mention of the "large" lizard's size. It could be a foot long, it could be hundreds of feet long, as far as the article is concerned. AP doesn't bother to tell us.

The story caught my eye because I recently watched a NOVA episode about monitor lizards. It was called "Lizard Kings" and it was really interesting. They're apparently quite smart. One researcher went so far as to refer to them as the "primates of the lizard world". They can count. You can train them. And they even respond to affection, sort of like a dog. Amazing. Anyway, it's weird to hear about one of them roaming freely in the US. Undoubtedly a pet fiend bought one, got bored and at some point let it loose.

Don't let your pets loose, kids. Especially when they're dangerous, aggressive animals.

Image: Bengal Monitor (Wikipedia Commons)

Let's encourage priests to practice abstinence

Unbelievable irony from the Catholics, yet again.

As The Hartford Courant is reporting, the Hartford archdiocese stated that its Office of Diaconate director, Deacon Robert Pallotti, is planning to launch a local chapter of a national ministry called "to support men and women who struggle with homosexual tendencies and to motivate them to live chaste and fruitful lives in accordance with Catholic Church teachings."

The ministry, called Courage, is based in Norwalk, Conn. and claims to have more than 100 chapters around the country. "By developing an interior life of chastity, which is the universal call to all Christians, one can move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete one in Christ," the organization's website explains. 

I think it would be far more productive to start an organization called ABJECT, that encourages priests to live a life without sexual gratification. It makes so much more sense than the above drivel. After all, priests aren't supposed to have sex. Just saying.