My Cock Would Beat Your Cock Any Day

Just as "terrorism" is the last refuge of scoundrels out to erase the 4th Amendment, "bird flu" is the last refuge of scoundrels out to ban cockfighting. But, at least one legislator still understands the redeeming value of freedom.

Condemned by many as cruel, cockfighting has endured in Louisiana even as most other states have outlawed it, and some say it's part of the culture there.

But now opponents in the state have a new argument in favor of a ban -- avian flu -- and a measure forbidding cockfighting is moving through the legislature.

"Anyone who can tell me one redeeming value to cockfighting, I'd like to hear it," state Sen. Arthur J. Lentini (R) told local reporters last week.

State Sen. Nick Gautreaux (D), who comes from a district where cockfighting matches are held, pointed out that one might well ask the same question of other liberties: "What is the redeeming value of shooting a bird out of the sky, or what is the redeeming value of going to a strip club?"

He noted later that much of the state still lies ravaged by last year's hurricanes and that "you'd think we'd have better things to talk about."