Flamingo Stealer Convicted of Animal Cruelty

I think it was Karl Marx who said history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce. Or maybe it was Pauly Shore, but the point is still valid. While details change, the basic fact of human stupidity does not. And since I have been reporting on that topic for a long time now, it shouldn’t be surprising that this is not the first time we’ve discussed a case in which some idiot stole a bird from the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. That first time was indeed tragic, although to be honest the headline I used back then may not have adequately conveyed a sense of tragedy. See “Berkeley Boys Busted for Bird Beheading” (Oct. 15, 2012) (discussing the alleged murder of one (1) helmeted guineafowl by two (2) UC Berkeley law students). Oh, wait—now I see that was not the first case of this kind we’ve discussed. It wasn’t even the first bird-decapitation case. See “Lawyer Says Client Is Remorseful Over Duck Beheading” (Oct. 18, 2007). Well, both of those were tragedies because the birds did…