The Great Pig Hunt

In the old days in Gainesville, Bob, Fred and I spent quite a bit of time hunting. We all needed the food, and we liked to hunt. We often went out to the forest near Newberry to try our luck, but the live oak and palmetto forest of the west coast near Steinhatchee was the gold standard. For starters, the locals didn't hunt pig there because the pigs fed in the tidal flats at low tide. Locals claimed they tasted fishy. They didn't. There were lots of them around so we though it would be an easy kill. It wasn't. We went well armed. I had a 9mm pistol and a 30 cal m-1 carbine, Bob had, I think, a 410 with slugs and buckshot, and Fred had a lever action 25-20.
We got into the forest at dawn and moved slowly to the interior. Very noisy place to sneak. The floor littered with dry palm fronds and oak leaves. We were about 40 or 50 feet apart, moving in a line, and entered a thicket typical of the area. Very dense vegetation from the waist up and clear below, probably reflecting the periodic flooding. We were well inside the thicket when pigs erupted around us and scattered in all directions. They were literally running around past our legs. We all started shooting at once. Sounded like a war zone. I emptied the m-1, put the gun down, drew the 9mm (hollow points) and emptied that mag. Suddenly it got quiet. Somebody called out and we all answered in turn. No pigs got killed in the process. No blood, no squeals, no nothing.
The miracle was that none of us got shot either. I fired 13 or 14 rounds, the others probably at least that many. Very bad hunting technique, and we discussed this gambit over beer many times. Later that day we tried our luck with squirrels. I missed a few with the m-1 (probably just as well, they were hollow points too) and I don't remember what the other guys got. My dinner that night probably was something frozen.

We were successful on other occasions, including the time I shot two shrinking pigs at the same time. Another tale for another time.

Image: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tKssLCDecgQ/0.jpg

Storm Clouds on the Right

The winds of change are blowing. Political winds are blowing hard from the right. With phrases like “Take back the country” a surge of voters are falling for the ultra right premise that the Bush years were the good old days and somehow the last two have been a disaster. Back to abortion bans, back to wars we shouldn’t be in, back to tax cuts that bankrupt the nation, back to failed energy policy, back to skyrocketing health costs, back to government intrusion into private lives (illegal phone taping for example), back to suspended Habeas Corpus, back to bank failures, back to the housing bubble bursting. The list goes on and on. And still the call for “Roll back the wave of liberalism and restore sanity” goes on.
I fear there is no hope for the country when truth and logic are trumped by lies, half truths and fear mongering. The road ahead is a rough one, but we are on the right road. Going back is never the right answer. Unless, that is, you want to go back to the Clinton days. Now there was prosperity! What happened to it? It got Bush-wacked.
Image: http://www.ontheissues.org/My_Life.jpg

My Game, My Rules

This Blog is a place where my opinion trumps yours. My opinion is this: Libraries are places where reading materials of all stripes should be available to everyone. The community should not direct the content of libraries. The majority should not have the right to dictate to the minority what they can and should read. Libraries should be places where the freedom to seek and find material with different points of view is guaranteed. No vocal group, majority or minority should have the final say in content of libraries. Libraries that have a point of view should be identified as such: Library of Flat Earth; Library of Religious Intolerance; Library of Dangerous Ideas.
Anyone that wants libraries to be crafted to support certain points of view can try check out books on Democracy or Women’s Rights at the State Library of Iran. Or try to hold a protest march against the Communist Manifesto in Beijing. Get real folks. Freedom comes with some level of discomfort because it means that the opinions of others must be tolerated.
Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CENSORED.JPG

SeekFind, Jewogle I'mHalal (1)

These are the names of search engines for the pure of heart. In other words, these engines are specifically designed to filter out any information or point of view that conflicts with the beliefs of the searcher, and delivers only material that agrees with their point of view. This is a way of protecting young people from dangerous content like, oh I don’t know, maybe the Earth is round, or Evolution is a real factor in the development of life, or women have value outside of the bed or home. Or that there is more than one religion in the world that might, just might, have some core values that are correct.
Christians will get only arguments against gay marriage if they search for “gay marriage”, and a search for the “Democratic Party” yields first a site on Marxism. A quick look at I’mHalal on gay marriage got articles about the blasphemous nature of these marriages and statements that no Muslim could be involved in a gay marriage. Not surprisingly, Jewogle had the most liberal returns with some articles seemingly on both sides of the issue. Google returned lots of varying perspectives depending on what was entered.
So my point is this: Anyone that is afraid of new ideas that might contradict or even contravene their own ideas is moving in the direction of a dangerous Ideologue (Synonyms include crusader, fanatic, zealot and others) (2). This kind of thinking has led in the past and can lead in the future to unthinking racism that results in multiethnic clashes (recently remember the genocide in Rwanda, the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and the genocide currently happening in the Sudan.) Could it happen here? Damn right it could. It already is. Evidence: Qur’an burning threat in Gainesville; Mosque building in NYC; periodic burning of “black” churches; desecration Jewish graves in cemeteries. Oh yes, it can happen here. You better be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.
(Source material for this warning started with NPR and concluded with Google.)
1. http://www.seekfind.org/; http://www.jewogle.com/; www.imhalal.com/beta/
2. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideologue
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129709336

Image: http://www.liberalities.com/pics/Intolerance.PNG

Dying To Kill Ducks

I got our very early that morning, going to the “Deer Pen Chain” of ponds to shoot ring neck ducks. I only hunted with a Fox side-by-side 12 gauge, so I loaded up with 2 boxes of high brass #6 for ducks and headed out. I also always carried a few 00 buck magnums in case a pig or deer decided to commit suicide.
These ponds were wadable with chest waders, so I donned them, filled the shell pocket with a bunch of shells including the buckshot and waded. Dawn. The ring necks always flew in just before sunrise so I had to get there early and get in place. The water was a little over belly button deep, so no trouble moving slowly. Gun overhead and making progress. In place and the faint whistle of wings and BLAM somebody shoots. BLAM BLAMBLAM. Now I am shooting. One falls then another. They sink never to be seen again. Quiet. I had reloaded right after firing the last two shots and was ready. Whistle - shoot - whistle - shoot until I am out of # 6. No ducks in the bag.But, I still have the 2 buckshot shells.and the ducks still come in. Why not? There, a little to the right. Swing and FIRE. KABOOM!!! The duck explodes and I almost go over backwards. Crap. Slippery bottom (not mine, the pond you pervert). Now it’s really light and the morning fly is over so I head back, thinking later maybe I will jump a few woodies or if lucky a pig. On the way out I step in a hole and go straight down, holding the old Fox overhead. Fortunately the hole was only chin deep. Any deeper and I wouldn’t be writing this, but some old Duck somewhere would be telling about the jerk that drowned trying to kill him. But now the next problem. Waders are made to keep you dry by keeping water out. When they fill up with water they weigh a ton and don’t have a drain plug. So the only way to get out of the damn pond (with no ducks) is to drop the waders to my waste, hold them up with one hand and hold the Fox with the other and walk like a 2 year old with a pants full. The shallower the water got the lower I have to drop the waders. I finally climb out of the waders and drag the bastard feet first to shore.
That was it for me that day. Could have had a sixpak and a steak for the price of the shells, but then where would the story have been?
http://www.bigcamo.com/media/stearnsstockingfootlarge.jpg

Never Eat a Shiner

This is a continuation of the series of experiences with odd food.
I found myself living in a popup trailer in a rather scummy trailer park. Barely enough money to cover gas and serious essentials like beer, and not much left over for food. There was a small pond next to the park, and one afternoon I decided to try for a couple of brim for supper, having eaten the last hotdog for breakfast. I threw out a white popper and almost at once got a hit. Smallish brim. Keep or let go? Hmmm. Well, “he’s a fish ain’t he” as an old fisherman once told me, so I kept him (or her). After several more casts another hit. More fight. Silvery. I landed the thing, looked at it and thought “I don’t know what you are, but you are a fish.” More casts, no more fish.
After the usual beheading, gutting and scaling I got ready for supper. Yummm. Fresh fried fish and beans. The fish fried to a nice brown while the beans heated. I ate the brim first. Good but small. On to the mystery fish. Boney. Very boney. Geeze! Bifurcated bones all throughout the meat. Take a small forkful and debone it with tongue and lips. What a pain. But it tasted good and “He’s a fish, ain’t he?”
Later in describing the critter I learned it was probably a large shiner, normally used for bait, but this time the meal itself. Now the lesson here is this: unless you are very hungry and poor, never eat a shiner. While they taste OK, the bones make the effort hardly worth it. Should have hooked the shiner on a weedless hook and gone for a bass. Now that would have been a meal. Oh well. Sometime you have to fish or cut bait, and sometimes you have to fish and eat bait. And sometimes you ARE the bait. Life is funny that way.

Image: www.ksuaquaculture.org/Species/Baitfish.htm

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Ban and Burn: the way to disaster.
Ever notice the connection between banning and/or burning books and totalitarian take over? Think of these examples:

Muslims take over Egypt and order all material in the Library of Alexandria that offends Islam to be burned;
Spain and Portugal invade the Americas and destroy all the Quipu strings, the history of the indigenous people;
Hitler and his boys ban and burn Jewish and other books that are not “correct”:
Stalin destroys books that are unfavorable to his vision and rewrites history;
Fundamentalist Christians burn books that mention Evolution in a positive way.

The list goes on and on. It seems that the easiest way to control a people is to remove their sense of history and replace it with your own, and control what they read. Look at the last 50 or so years in this country. The list of the 100 most commonly challenged books is very long and includes such titles as “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London and “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Shocked? How about the Harry Potter series and the Clan of the Cave Bear series (officially “Earths Children”)? Why these fun series? Or “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston and “The New Joy of Gay Sex” by Charles Silverstein and Felice Picano? Yes, somebody wants these and thousands of others banned.
It turns out the nearly everything that has been written is on some bodies list to be banned or burned. The way to counter this is to find all the banned books you can and read them. See why someone doesn’t want you to know something. You will quickly find the thinking of bigots and extremists out to control the agenda of us all, and sometimes for sinister purposes.

Banned Books Week is September 25−October 2, 2010. Go ahead and make your day: Read a banned book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-commonly_challenged_books_in_the_United_States
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sungazing/galleries/72157622581205178/

UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!! Thank you Log Cabin Republicans

What? Not the ACLU?
Whatever is the world coming to? It looks like millions of conservatives who decry liberals as “card carrying members of the ACLU” will have a new mantra. Yes indeed. “Card carrying members of the Log Cabin Republicans.” I like the sound of that.
The issue is easy. In 2004 the Log Cabin Republicans sought an injunction to ban the implementation of “don’t ask don’t tell” arguing it has no effect on readiness and drives highly qualified personnel out of military service. (1) This is a liberal agenda if I ever saw one, and these LCRs are gay and lesbian Republicans (don’t ask me why any GLBTQ would EVER be a Republican). John Boehner and his boys must be writhing in angst over the outcome of this suit. A federal judge has declared the policy UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!! My god, we will all die in our sleep or have our dipsticks fall off as a result of this activist liberal (probably feminist and lesbian) judges’ decision.
The beauty of this is that the very group that supports the agenda of the Republican Party has finally bitten the hand that strokes them. I know, the suit started in 2004, and who knows how they feel now. Maybe elated. Maybe embarrassed. Maybe most of them forgot they had sued. But sue they did, and got a stunning LIBERAL decision.
And about time too. Anyone with half a brain could see this policy was wrong and mean-spirited. A half-assed compromise. Well, hopefully it is gone. But don’t count the bigoted Republicans out yet, though. There are probably countless more appeals to come. Meanwhile the LCRs still send checks to the RNC and cuddle up with the likes of Boehner at fund raisers. Time the LCRs came out again and declared themselves Democrats or Indies or maybe Intellegents.


1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129763013&sc=nl&cc=brk-20100909-2215
Image: thespiritofthelaw.blogspot.com/2009/09/us-rec...

Burn a Holy Book for Christ

The “Dove World Outlook Center” in Gainesville (Florida) is planning to burn a Koran (sic) on 9/11 to support their radical view that Islam is a religion of the devil. There are so many things wrong with this that the mind boggles. First and most obviously the only devil in this picture is the pastor of the “church”. A nutcase with about 50 followers.
Islam is an Abrahamic religion like Christianity. The holy book, the Qur’an, is as important to millions of Muslims as the Bible is to Christians. And it is subjected to much false interpretation, as is the Bible. Much has been said and written about the terrible things Muslims do to themselves and others in the name of Islam, but the religion itself does not support these deeds.
Burning any book is as lame a way to protest as is flag burning. It only ignites a rage in the “believers “of whatever symbol is being burned, and more trouble follows. Burning a Holy Book is a bad idea in any context, but burning a Qur’an is guaranteed to get mobs of Muslims whipped up into a killing frenzy and innocent Americans and other non-Muslims, soldiers and civilians, will pay the price. Not the pastor and congregation of the DWOC.
The only question that need be asked is the now-famous “WWJD”? Damn sure not burn anything. I wonder if the DWOCers have ever actually sat down and thought about Jesus and what He would do. I seriously doubt it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
Image: http://www.doveworld.org/

Toto the Magnificent!!

This is about toilets, so if you are not up to the task of straight talk maybe you better pass on this one.
Years ago we moved into an old farmhouse that had a toilet with the tank bolted to the wall. This was an early 1900’s era fixture and glazed into the porcelain was the name: “Standard Ejecto”. And boy did it eject. We called it “Ejecto the Magnificent”. Only once in 25 years did it fail. Since then we suffered through 4 Kohler units that would fail to perform if you tried to flush a gnat. Terrible action considering the reputation of the company.
What to do? Ahhh, the internet!! And after some deep digging the solution emerged: the best rated unit on the market, hands down, was the Toto “Drake”. Best rating in all categories. I ordered the ADA version and installed it last month and WOW!! What a beauty. I think you could flush a small cow without getting out the plunger. And on only 0.75 gallons of water. How the HELL do they do that? You know what? I don’t know and I don’t care. What I know is the plunger is lonely in the garage and I am a very happy camper. (I know, it doesn’t take much to make some people happy, does it?)
Image: www.midvalleyplumbing.com/toto_toilet.htm