There are plenty of prairie rattlesnakes around parts of South Dakota, but unlike idiots in the Appalachians, people here aren't stupid enough to take a literal interpretation of one bible verse, and handle these things in church services here.
A couple of things lately to help soothe my angst regarding the cruelty and stupidity of the human race. First, a 2-week vacation with little internet access. Hard to get worked up about current events when you’re not keeping up with current events for a couple of weeks.
The 2nd event…a story of the idiot Appalachian minister who was killed by one of the rattlesnakes he uses during his services. Evidently the idiot was “worried” that the tradition of handling snakes during church was dying out in the Appalachians, so he’s been traveling all over, using his rattlesnakes in his services. And, just like his idiot father before him, this idiot was bitten by a rattlesnake during a service and died from the venom.
Perhaps I should have more faith that natural selection will lead humanity towards a path where the survivors live sustainable lifestyles and don’t spend a lot of their time trying to kill each other. However, life is just simply FAR too easy for many human beings, and natural selection never really comes into play. You can be as dumb as a board be a completely out-of-shape slob in America, and still get along quite well in life…something that is abundantly obvious once I’m back “online” after vacation, and again start reading stories like this one.
This guy shouldn’t have worried that people in their 20s and 30s were “losing interest” in snake handling during church. I DON’T have faith in the ability of natural selection to eventually improve the human race, but I have plenty of faith in the continued stupidity of humanity. This guy won’t be the last Appalachian hillbilly snake-handler to die for his “faith”.
