LoveToHateMe: If Cougar is offensive, I think we must change the NIC Cardinals to something that’s not offensive. Sure, the cardinal is also a bird, but a cougar is primarily a cat. What we really have to consider is that not only does the mascot “cardinal” bring the-worst-of-all-things, religion into the public school, it also brings to mind the horrible things some Catholic clergy did to children that some cardinals covered for. Not only that, the historic Catholic church was responsible for some terrible conflicts that cost thousands of lives and helped deteriorate east/west relations over hundreds of years. Having a cardinal as NIC’s mascot is terribly offensive to anyone who has any regard for these victims, not to mention its obvious religious connotations which should not be allowed at a public school. (2007 AP file photo of Vatican cardinals)

Question: Which mascots, at any level of sports, do you consider the best & worst?

A Utah school district decided not to select a cougar as the mascot of a new high school partly because school officials and some parents believed the word is disrespectful to women. Students in the Canyons School District named the cougar their top choice to become the mascot of the new Corner Canyon High School. The school is expected to open in 2013. However, district officials overrode the student vote after complaints that that the word “cougar” is offensive and derogatory towards women/Todd Starnes, Fox News. More here.

Question: Do you think Washington State should change its mascot, so it doesn't offend women?

A Wenatchee hunter has a right to be proud for his photo showing a pride of mountain lions on the Douglas County ranch where he has permission to hunt. The black and white trail-cam image, which shows EIGHT cougars in one spot (web readers click on “photos” above), has gone viral in Northwest websites and e-mail lists since he first released it to acquaintances on Christmas Day. (Complete Outdoors post & photos from Rich Landers here)

• Wildlife enthusiasts were in awe of the scene, which few people will see in their lifetimes.
• Alarmists were ready to take up arms against the lion onslaught on the Central Washington deer population.
• Skeptics assumed it was just another Internet hoax – at best just a hungry pen of cougars in a zoo.
• But a Washington Fish and Wildlife Department biologist who received a CD of this photo and all of the hunter’s remote camera cougar images raised his eyebrows and called it, “a magnificent one-time observation; not unheard of, but it’s very rare.”

Question: Which category are you in re: photo? Wildlife enthusiast? Alarmist? Skeptic?

Washington Fish and Wildlife Department biologists confirm the authenticity of this remote camera photo made in the Moses Coulee area near Soap Lake, Wash. Biologists the rare shot of eight cougars in one spot — on the carcass of a dead animal — is the result of a female cougar with a litter converging with the adult cats from her pervious litter. The woman who forwarded the photos to Fish and Wildlife biologists was not identified.

A five-year-old Cougar cheerleader in training: http://wsu-online.blogspot.com/#0

Do you know the words to your alma mater’s fight song? I thought ours was “We are the Champions.” Maybe Queen stole it?