Not to be, like, “negative” or anything, but these are kind of disturbing. Do you think you could post a little warning at the top, something to the effect of “If you’re sensitive to closeup photos of blood and dead animals, you might not want to scroll down”?
That said, the photos *are* fascinating. The story, it seems, is that the mountain lion was about to kill the ram, and they both got whacked by a truck. Note the tuft of fur in the lion’s mouth.
ditto on #3 — these are fantastic photos, if unsettling. cool that your brother thought to get out of the car and snap them! did he drag the bodies from the road when he was through?
I’m quite taken by the horn in the other lane.
Also, were they hit by a truck? Or did they leap off that very tall cliff in the background?
i haven’t spoken to my brother about this, but my guess is, they fell off the cliff while fighting. and i don’t think he touched anything. i think he simply shot what he found.
Lane, thought you’d like this (and it’s appropriate to the dead ram pic):
“I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history,” [Newt] Gingrich said. “We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.”
The photos also remind be of one of those annoying grampy-type riddles: a ram and a mountain lion are both lying in the road; both are dead. How’d it happen?
The sacrifice that makes us feel good in religious practice (giving up something for something else, and getting that internal buzz we call “spirituality”) in cosmopolitain paganism works like this.
You go to the Apple store and you really want that new Steve Jobs gadget. (Steve Jobs is one of my pagan gods) You pay $300 for the object that has a production cost of $50. The $250 difference is the sacrifice at the altar of Apple.
And that new Apple gadget makes you SOOOOOO happy! If you allow it to, even transcendently so. Literally carrying you over and beyond the woes of the flesh.
Newt Gingrich actually practices this too. With golf clubs, and trips to middle brow resorts. He just doesn’t admit it. He just likes to talk about Jesus and depict any kind of materialism as “Ram” worship.
Dave, what’s in that link? I wanna follow it because of the quote, which is interesting but seems spurious (taken out of context, I’m sure), but I’m scared — can’t see anymore pics like this. Lane, they are great: some awesome material for a tenebrous eclogue with a very profound meaning (I can totally read about, just can’t look at…)
Natasha, the link is just to a news article about Gingrich and Huckabee speaking in Virginia Beach. It’s gruesome but in an entirely different way than these photos.
“Paganism works. You want proof? Try a week or two of self-flagellation; then a week or two of constant prayer; THEN slip into an Armani jacket, pick up a perfect guitar, play the intro to “Stairway to Heaven” (or what ever you can play) while perusing a calm blue painting by John McLaughlin. I rest my case.
. . . Paganism functioned quite efficiently as a dominant spiritual idiom for three thousand years and, as far as I can tell, still does. In its cosmopolitan manifestations, classical pagan culture was no less ethical, aspirational or obsessed with meaning than our own; it was more attentive to the physical world, more sensitive to the manner of our social and commercial interaction, and more understanding of our lust for private pleasure and public adulation.
What if we are living in a great pagan culture that is more visionary, more creative, less secular and LESS CHRISTIAN than we dare imagine- a realm of dreams, magic, divination, visions and mercy – albeit with fundamentalist birth defects?”
I think these pictures are amazing. A little tough to take but awesome nonetheless.
This to me seems like a very natural moment and the horror on the rams face is shocking but sublime. I believe that there was a chase and a fall with the cat still chomped on rams neck until impact.
We are so removed from this reality that I would feel a bit of an honour to stumble across this scene. I like that the unexpected happened here too.
I just shared these pictures with my special fella and he responded, “Amazing to see this. That cat is very underweight which is sad to see. There was no vehicle involved here. That is for sure. What a dramatic and beautiful example of the wildness of the American west and how it becomes bifurcated.”
Yeah, I agree–as upsetting as these are, there is something so incredibly natural and real about them, especially since they probably weren’t hit by a car (though the road being dynamited out and paved over by humans may have contributed, by making a cliff where once there was none). Sublime is the perfect word for them. Really moving photos–really excellent post.
Dave, I read the article. The real problem with guys like him is not really the ignorant stupidity of his statements; it’s the strange phenomenon of the en masse instinct resulting in the overwhelming number of poorly informed ill-bred followers. I respect all religions as long as they are practiced in the privacy of their own home or a religious establishment and not imposed on my rights, the progress, or, worse, the politics of the country I live in. His entire statement stems from the plenary Christian believe that Pagans worship Satan rooted hundreds of years ago. It is never researched by the modern Christians, but immediately accepted as true in the mental meat grinder the church processes each member through. The fact is: Pagans do not believe in Satan. More so, they do not sacrifice animals to appease him (speaking of sacrifice). Satanists do. They are an entirely different religion associated with Paganism merely by the obnubilated political opinions of the Christians as well as their ignorance. I bet that in his manufactured indignation and his bios kibitzer brain, he cannot even properly define Paganism. Sometimes I wonder how anyone would take that kind of stuff seriously.
it’s a sheep, as in a bighorn, not a mountain goat. the cougar is definitely underfed, but it’s spring at altitude in the rockies and the cat is young. the scene doesn’t look much like roadkill, but I guess roadkill could have more than one meaning. . . .
and best i can tell, neither newt nor apple have much anything to do with spirituality, in any direct sense, anyway.
Here is my CSI take on the scene. The horn is too close to the bodies for this to be vehicular. A vehicle hits, the bodies fly, and that horn is going flying down the road, skidding and skipping. The big furry body comes to a stop quick. Also, it isn’t the MO of either sheep or jungle cat to play games in the road. These guys would be creeping around up in the rocks. My money is on the ‘fall off the cliff’ hypothesis.
Not to be, like, “negative” or anything, but these are kind of disturbing. Do you think you could post a little warning at the top, something to the effect of “If you’re sensitive to closeup photos of blood and dead animals, you might not want to scroll down”?
That said, the photos *are* fascinating. The story, it seems, is that the mountain lion was about to kill the ram, and they both got whacked by a truck. Note the tuft of fur in the lion’s mouth.
So sad in every way.
That said, this is an amazing post!
ditto on #3 — these are fantastic photos, if unsettling. cool that your brother thought to get out of the car and snap them! did he drag the bodies from the road when he was through?
I’m quite taken by the horn in the other lane.
Also, were they hit by a truck? Or did they leap off that very tall cliff in the background?
i haven’t spoken to my brother about this, but my guess is, they fell off the cliff while fighting. and i don’t think he touched anything. i think he simply shot what he found.
I’d guess the mountain goat (?) got hit by a truck and then the mountain lion came by for some roadkill and got hit himself.
The last photo is amazing.
Lane, thought you’d like this (and it’s appropriate to the dead ram pic):
“I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history,” [Newt] Gingrich said. “We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.”
The photos also remind be of one of those annoying grampy-type riddles: a ram and a mountain lion are both lying in the road; both are dead. How’d it happen?
ah excellent, paganism and sacrifice:
O.K. so pagansim principle # . . . (whatever)
The sacrifice that makes us feel good in religious practice (giving up something for something else, and getting that internal buzz we call “spirituality”) in cosmopolitain paganism works like this.
You go to the Apple store and you really want that new Steve Jobs gadget. (Steve Jobs is one of my pagan gods) You pay $300 for the object that has a production cost of $50. The $250 difference is the sacrifice at the altar of Apple.
And that new Apple gadget makes you SOOOOOO happy! If you allow it to, even transcendently so. Literally carrying you over and beyond the woes of the flesh.
Newt Gingrich actually practices this too. With golf clubs, and trips to middle brow resorts. He just doesn’t admit it. He just likes to talk about Jesus and depict any kind of materialism as “Ram” worship.
Dave, what’s in that link? I wanna follow it because of the quote, which is interesting but seems spurious (taken out of context, I’m sure), but I’m scared — can’t see anymore pics like this. Lane, they are great: some awesome material for a tenebrous eclogue with a very profound meaning (I can totally read about, just can’t look at…)
Natasha, the link is just to a news article about Gingrich and Huckabee speaking in Virginia Beach. It’s gruesome but in an entirely different way than these photos.
Lane, that’s hilarious. I disagree about the transcendental happiness, but I’d love to hear you and Gingrich talking about this.
Gingrich isn’t even really a Christian, of course.
“Paganism works. You want proof? Try a week or two of self-flagellation; then a week or two of constant prayer; THEN slip into an Armani jacket, pick up a perfect guitar, play the intro to “Stairway to Heaven” (or what ever you can play) while perusing a calm blue painting by John McLaughlin. I rest my case.
. . . Paganism functioned quite efficiently as a dominant spiritual idiom for three thousand years and, as far as I can tell, still does. In its cosmopolitan manifestations, classical pagan culture was no less ethical, aspirational or obsessed with meaning than our own; it was more attentive to the physical world, more sensitive to the manner of our social and commercial interaction, and more understanding of our lust for private pleasure and public adulation.
What if we are living in a great pagan culture that is more visionary, more creative, less secular and LESS CHRISTIAN than we dare imagine- a realm of dreams, magic, divination, visions and mercy – albeit with fundamentalist birth defects?”
Dave Hickey
I think these pictures are amazing. A little tough to take but awesome nonetheless.
This to me seems like a very natural moment and the horror on the rams face is shocking but sublime. I believe that there was a chase and a fall with the cat still chomped on rams neck until impact.
We are so removed from this reality that I would feel a bit of an honour to stumble across this scene. I like that the unexpected happened here too.
I just shared these pictures with my special fella and he responded, “Amazing to see this. That cat is very underweight which is sad to see. There was no vehicle involved here. That is for sure. What a dramatic and beautiful example of the wildness of the American west and how it becomes bifurcated.”
Yeah, I agree–as upsetting as these are, there is something so incredibly natural and real about them, especially since they probably weren’t hit by a car (though the road being dynamited out and paved over by humans may have contributed, by making a cliff where once there was none). Sublime is the perfect word for them. Really moving photos–really excellent post.
Dave, I read the article. The real problem with guys like him is not really the ignorant stupidity of his statements; it’s the strange phenomenon of the en masse instinct resulting in the overwhelming number of poorly informed ill-bred followers. I respect all religions as long as they are practiced in the privacy of their own home or a religious establishment and not imposed on my rights, the progress, or, worse, the politics of the country I live in. His entire statement stems from the plenary Christian believe that Pagans worship Satan rooted hundreds of years ago. It is never researched by the modern Christians, but immediately accepted as true in the mental meat grinder the church processes each member through. The fact is: Pagans do not believe in Satan. More so, they do not sacrifice animals to appease him (speaking of sacrifice). Satanists do. They are an entirely different religion associated with Paganism merely by the obnubilated political opinions of the Christians as well as their ignorance. I bet that in his manufactured indignation and his bios kibitzer brain, he cannot even properly define Paganism. Sometimes I wonder how anyone would take that kind of stuff seriously.
it’s a sheep, as in a bighorn, not a mountain goat. the cougar is definitely underfed, but it’s spring at altitude in the rockies and the cat is young. the scene doesn’t look much like roadkill, but I guess roadkill could have more than one meaning. . . .
and best i can tell, neither newt nor apple have much anything to do with spirituality, in any direct sense, anyway.
Here is my CSI take on the scene. The horn is too close to the bodies for this to be vehicular. A vehicle hits, the bodies fly, and that horn is going flying down the road, skidding and skipping. The big furry body comes to a stop quick. Also, it isn’t the MO of either sheep or jungle cat to play games in the road. These guys would be creeping around up in the rocks. My money is on the ‘fall off the cliff’ hypothesis.
Yep, me too–imagine the frozen second midair before freefall, Hanna-Barbera style. Yikes.
Damien Hirst has nothing on this.
Who’s hungry?