space cadet "journalism"
the headline: Once-hated gray wolf thrives in the US Rockies, by judith crosson. bad enough. what follows the headline is even more of that magic style of reporting where you make the “news” whatever you want it to be.
Seeking to reintroduce an animal that had been an icon of the West even though it was reviled by ranchers, the Clinton administration 10 years ago this month released gray wolves imported from Canada into Yellowstone with great fanfare. The following year they introduced more into nearby Idaho.
well, honey crosson, having just come from idaho, i can tell you that your article is fluffernutter.
for days i and my hunting compadres walked (mostly separately) over the idaho mountains, seeing wolf tracks in abundance on the roads and the backcountry trails. with most of us residing out of state, we spent combined thousands on permits and tags to hunt deer and elk that have been zapped from the areas now stalked by wolves. i was able to stay longer, but 4 experienced hunters returned home with nothing.
what’s this i see in another article? hmmmm:
The rule also allows the states more authority to kill wolves that are negatively affecting big game herds. Idaho Fish and Game Director Steve Huffaker said that has been a problem with deer and elk herds in the upper Clearwater region.“There are not enough calves surviving to replace what is being lost to depredation,” Huffaker said. “Once a population is down to a certain point it doesn’t take much pressure to keep it suppressed.”
no shit. the tyrannical federal government which presumes, with no constitutional authority, to control wildlife within each state, has wrecked the hunting experience. yet idaho continues to sell paperwork that does nothing but protect you from marauding game wardens while you’re out on your rifle-toting nature walks. the only reason i saw anything was because i drove my ass 50 miles away over a couple of treacherous mountain passes, and had the good fortune of being befriended by one of the best hunters in the state. otherwise, it would’ve been a $400 bath for paperwork alone, courtesy of pontificating bureaucrats. the government interference, in more ways than i can begin to document, runs down and back through the heart of what should be the freest part of this country.
succeed or bust — my “opportunity cost” idaho buck
“once-hated” gray wolf, judith? you haven’t been to any bars in northern idaho to learn from the locals the 3 S’s of wolf interaction (shoot, shovel, and shut up). they hate those bastards with enough passion to make bumper stickers about the problem. importing canadian wolves into idaho and montana was an act of pure paternalism by people who won’t look past their pointy-headed need to save a world they don’t even live in.
MYOB shall be the whole of the law.
January 6th, 2005 at 22:19
Heh. “MYOB shall be the whole of the law.” I like that… do I detect a Crowleyan note there?
I happen to like wolves, but grok the harm done by “pointy-headed” environmental engineers who love to cause trouble in other people’s back yards. All the same, I’d pass on shooting a buck myself. I sure hate to think about all those poor wolves likely to face an eventual starvation diet, thanks to do-gooders who do what they will without consulting natural law or considering long-term consequences. Yes, I can conjure sympathies for frustrated hunters too… when the circle of life becomes a circle of strife, I smell trouble, if not a bureaucrat – but with concerned citizens like these, who needs bureaucrats? Animals have rights not to be forcibly imported into hostile territory, and it seems shameful to enlist them in a battle they can only lose to fight for an alien cause, and for armchair warriors at that.
There is no right side… only a circle, IMO, and linear thinking doesn’t handle curves very well.
>^v^<
January 7th, 2005 at 03:41
cat, is it any wonder we love ya? yep, i like wolves too. interesting how state intervention has me pissed off at ‘em. you’re damn straight about the curves, btw.
gotta admit that a modicum of self-satisfaction entered my head when that “MYOB” line appeared on the page. was so happy with it that i googled for originality (as original as a bastardized quote can be). alas, i was not the first. ; ) zanoni silverknife may have been.