Strange times we live in...

...when the Bad Guys become the Good Guys.

I'm not putting a link up to it, but by now you've probably at least heard about the "puppy tossing" video that's been all over the place. If not, to summarize: A young-ish looking blonde woman in what has apparently been identified as Bosnia is seen throwing a bucketful of newborn-looking live puppies into a river. Overhand, one at a time, with great force and having a big "wheeee!" laugh over it. Just... awful, awful stuff.

Anyway, no one knows precisely who she is (or who shot/uploaded the video) but that won't last - she's currently being "hunted down" by a worldwide network from users of the infamous message board 4Chan. You may recall that earlier in the month 4Chan turned it's hivemind-esque detective skills toward running down an attempted cat-killer, also caught-on-tape, in the UK... and succeeded - the woman in question was essentially harrassed straight into protective-custody.

Watching 4Chan transition from self-described "internet hate machine" to animal rights do-gooders has been... surreal, to say the least - it's like if S.P.E.C.T.E.R. suddenly turned their attention from World Conquest to World Hunger - especially because the methodology is so consistent: What's the difference between being a "civic-minded hero" and a "bully?" The choice of target. But, hey, they're gettin' the job done, after a fashion; and at least until the fun of being treated like cyber-superheroes wears off and they revert back to formula I'm not too uncomfortable with the idea of 4Chan as a force for good.

What's LESS easy to wrap my head around are feelings of respect - or, at least, non-hatred - for Michael Bay, who according to the DailyMail has ALSO joined this particular fight, offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the puppy-flinger's indentification.

So... now I have to like 4Chan and the director of "The Island?" Stupid human-capacity-for-redemption...

All kidding aside, I've actually heard quite a bit that Bay's redeeming feature is that he's a BIG animal lover and supporter of animal charities - he's supposed to have given his Bar Mitzvah money away to California animal shelters as a kid.

Well, alright. Fine. Michael, I guess you're a decent guy after all. Everything but "Bad Boys 2" is still terrible, though ;)

EDIT: Before anyone brings it up... NO, I don't in fact think it's at all "interesting," sad or somehow wrong to be more worked-up about stuff like this than it is about the people starving in Darfur or wherever the mass-suffering region du-jour is right now.

UPDATE: Apparently, they got her. 4Chan bags another one.