I must admit that as I read into the story in today's L.A. Times California section about a midnight raid by "duck freedom fighters," I kept waiting for the punch line. Twelve hundred freelance words -- and four liberated ducks -- later, it never came. Animal rights is a serious story, fine. Swiping four ducks out of 1,500 from a Sonoma foie gras maker's shed -- and he doesn't even notice they are gone -- cries out for a little whimsy. Or at least skepticism about the "cause." Something.