So a guy lets loose 56 exotic animals, including lions, tigers, grizzlies, and wolves in Zanesville, Ohio, near Columbus.  This no joke.  This is a true story.  He kept extremely dangerous animals.  At home!  In a cage!  Bengal flippin’ tigers!

So the guy lets them loose, cuts the cages to keep anyone from getting them back into the cages, and kills himself.  The whole story is nuts.

Do we need further proof of what I have been pointing out about responsibility for one another: that this isn’t just about taking personal responsibility?  Terry Thompson thought he was being responsible as he cared for all of these wild animals like pets.  Turns out “whackjob” is more like it.  And yes, his neighbors should have been, let’s just say, a little more invested in making sure this guy understood that Bengal flippin’ tigers are dangerous!  But this is it.  This is why we have government and regulations.  This is why it isn’t some free-for-all wild west world in suburbia.  Because without them, we get grizzlies on our back patios and lions sniffing at our doors!  And this isn’t hyperbole!  This happened Tuesday night!  In flippin’ Ohio!

When we don’t take collective responsibility, we are leaving our own safety in the hands of crazies to be responsible on their own–and without our help.  I have argued that your right to eat peanuts is treated as more important under the law today than my daughter’s very right to survive.  Your right to have a gun is treated as more important under the law today than my right not to be shot by you–accident or no.  And even though I don’t know where the rabbit hole goes when I argue for liberty from the tyranny of how another person expresses their liberty, I think we can all agree on this: we shouldn’t have Bengal flippin’ tigers in our homes.  If you can’t agree with that without some caveat, I can’t even begin to tell you what’s wrong with this country.