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A beloved lion named Cecil was lured out of his sanctuary in Zimbabwe, and killed by an American hunter. The world mourned, and wingnuts roared that the lion’s death drew attention away from their scam to bring down Planned Parenthood.

Cecil - Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

Image via Vince O'Sullivan @ Flickr.

Walter Palmer, an American dentist from Minnesota, paid $54,000 for the chance to hunt a lion. Cecil was shot and wounded with an arrow from Palmer’s crossbow, and tracked for nearly two days before being shot, killed, skinned, and beheaded. Cecil’s carcass was left to rot. His six cubs will most likely be killed by the next lion who takes over the pride, to encourage the females to mate with him. Meanwhile, Palmer — who claimed he didn’t know the hunt was illegal, and sent a letter of apology to his patients — found himself the most hated man on the internet this week. Zimbabwe’s environmental minister is calling for Palmer’s extradition. The US government has opened an investigation.

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1nLI6ql05zwnX02d8CogjNbqLkBMq99&w=640] But the most outrageous outrage came from right-wingers who were beside themselves that an African lion’s death drew attention away from their efforts to bring down Planned Parenthood with deceptively edited, and possibly illegal, videos. The right-wing tweetosphere, including some presidential hopefuls, got their choir robes in a twist.  

That wasn’t all.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1nLI6ql05zErqcaLemu_4gqoM3Unv4a&w=640]

Too bad for the right-wingers that nearly two-thirds of Americans still want to fund Planned Parenthood, even after the right’s failed video “sting” operation. Maybe they should stop this line of questioning before someone points out that the hunting club that suspended Palmer has given money to lots of Republicans.

Perhaps a better question is: Why aren’t people as outraged over Sandra Bland’s death as Cecil the Lion? Or Sam Dubose? Or Raynette Turner? Or Kindra Chapman? Or Joyce Curnell? Or Ralinka Jones? Or Freddie Gray?

Here’s the rest of the best of the worst in wingnuttery this week:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1nLI6ql05yDaNT8B-y5g-bOHRqPS9Aj&w=640]

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