One solution to gun control advocacy.
Upon further reflection, Mr. Warren’s commentary reminds me of that relatively common sub-species among urban bureaucrats and academia who, with straight faces, declare there is “no future in agriculture”.
To them I can only say this – the transition of rural farm economy from food to fuel production can’t happen fast enough.
Yup, I’ve been saying this for years.
There really are people that really believe that meat originates at the supermarket. And who will decry hunting as barbaric then dine on fine white veal.
The mans got a good point. These naive urban eco-nuts are gaining control and passing laws that ignore reality. I really would like to take an eco-tourist out on a bear hunt sometime. I hunt bears for the meat, and it’s been my experience that some bears have no fear of humans. Of the last four bears I’ve killed, two of them were running at me. I suppose that if I were an eco-tourist, I’d have thought they just wanted me to pet them…
I’m having second thoughts about taking an eco-nut with me. I don’t know if it would be ethical to shoot the bear before letting the eco-nut try petting…
Take a bow Jeff, that one was for you!
I was recently doing a lot of hiking in the national parks in the rockies.
Guns are banned but bear spray wasn’t. Faced with a Grizzly, I’d prefer the gun I didn’t have to the bear spray I did.
If some halfwit leftard want to get themselves killed, I’m all in favour of it. What I’m not in favour of is the same leftard halfwit getting me killed…
“Our own experience, in Canada and throughout the West, has been, that as a democratic polity urbanizes, the people and therefore the politics become increasingly batty, owing chiefly, I think, to the insulation of urban people from the basic facts of life.”
Testify, my brother!
“as a democratic polity urbanizes, the people and therefore the politics become increasingly batty, owing chiefly, I think, to the insulation of urban people from the basic facts of life.”
Is he saying that urban people are batty because they don’t know much about rural people? Do rural people have a monopoly on “the basic facts of life?” And aren’t rural people equally ignorant of urbanites? In a few generations it won’t matter, because the rural population will have shrunk into oblivion. Then “batty” ideas will be “the basic facts of life” for everyone.
Our own experience, in Canada and throughout the West, has been, that as a democratic polity urbanizes, the people and therefore the politics become increasingly batty, owing chiefly, I think, to the insulation of urban people from the basic facts of life.
The demographics support this, look at all of the lefty moonbats concentrated in the urban centers of our coastal blue states. Their experience with nature is so limited, an organized nature hike in a city park at best. The realities of agriculture are lost on them too. Their absolute removal from the realites of food chain breds the myths they create. They shield their off-spring from unpleasantries of where their meat comes from. Pesticides have saved humanity from famine and malaria. No thought given to that reality in their organic utopia. Foraging for food for a few months would straighten out their minds.
I forget the name of the lame bear advocate that got up close and personal unarmed few years back and was mauled to death in Alaska, another dimwitted eco-groupie Darwin award winner. The poor dope was ironically probably lathered with mosquito repellent at the time of his demise. Dumb.
Do rural people have a monopoly on “the basic facts of life?”
You bet they do, having lived in both worlds.
Survival Factoid #23: When coming face to face with a Grizzly Bear and without a weapon remember this: You do not have to be able to outrun the bear… just the guy next to you.
Survival Factoid #23: When coming face to face with a Grizzly Bear and without a weapon remember this: You do not have to be able to outrun the bear… just the guy next to you.
Survival Factoid #23: When coming face to face with a Grizzly Bear and without a weapon remember this: You do not have to be able to outrun the bear… just the guy next to you.
Mark,
Slowly now. The basic facts of life can be roughly translated to the laws of nature. As in, life cycles, nature, etc.
The eco-leftards don’t seem to be able to look at nature and see it for what it is. Nature is not a teddybear. Animals are not toys. Nature is nasty, brutal and short and western society’s comfortable, insulated cities shield foolish, naive leftards from this reality.
The beauty of nature doesn’t mean it is kind or just or benign. An animal will kill you for any number of reasons. They don’t care about your feelings or your politics. They won’t spare you cause you watched Al Gore’s movie.
Our own experience, in Canada and throughout the West, has been, that as a democratic polity urbanizes, the people and therefore the politics become increasingly batty, owing chiefly, I think, to the insulation of urban people from the basic facts of life.
An additional truth is that urbanization makes men more effeminate.
Do rural people have a monopoly on “the basic facts of life?”
Until it’s common place for the average urban dweller to be directly involved in killing something with their own hands, the answer is, and will remain, yes.
On the other hand, my closest encounter with a whole pack of hungry carnivores came in a Phoenix city park. Luckily Phoenix is in Arizona, so I was much better armed than the coyotes who interrupted my evening stroll. Seems they wanted to have a go at my dog, but decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Coyotes in Phoenix regularly eat pets. They rarely mess with humans. Now, if I could only get the deer around my place to have the same respect…
Kate, I killed a raccoon with my helmet once, does that count? ~:D
I shot a rattlesnake in the fenced part of my New Mexico yard once. It was as much to keep my dog safe. They have no natural fear of them. I killed a rabbit accidently with a stone there too, I threw a warning and against all odds hit it.
Before that I was a city dweller armed only with mouse traps.
“…owing chiefly, I think, to the insulation of urban people from the basic facts of life.”
Hence the signs at Waterton telling people that mule deer are not like Bambi and will attack you. Their hooves are sharp and they bite, especially with a fawn in tow.
A relative working there relayed the story of a grizz who killed a deer in the town site. The eco-tourists were upset and asked the park attendant to “make it stop.”
It’s the Disneyfied view of nature.
The irony for urbanites, especially in Toronto (but qually available in most other large cities) raw nature lives right with them. In Toronto, the preserve is at Jane and Finch. This, in varying degrees, is what is over the fence and off in the bush of the rural dweller.
“naïve urban people who believe themselves competent to vote even on the laws of nature”
Wishful thinking raised to new heights…I wish he was exaggerating, but he is not. It’s even worse in the insulated academic environment.
En passant, this certainly explains global climate alarmism…
If you’re interested, I have seen a wild rabbit out in the backyard recently, and have heard credible rumours about a coyote taking a nighttime stroll down the street. Raccoons are a familiar sight to me, and I’ve not only seen big limbs fall off from trees, but I’ve also had to dispose of tree-fall waste (branches) myself.
Where do I live, you ask? Suburban Toronto. There are hints of the “green future” in this brief tale – and yes, I include the coyote in the hint bag. Perhaps some eco-joker will throw a few beavers into the Don River in the near future.
Regarding the tree waste: back in the aulden days, the unlucky property owner would’ve decided the tree itself was rotten and out would come the chainsaw, as would turf rolls later. Rather than blame the restrictive by-laws now in place, it is considered green-polite to blame the climate. It’s ironic that, in greenie suburbia, the climate is now considered more of a movable object than City Hall is.
Environmentalists should demonstrate some responsibility and ensure their Birkenstocks can be digested by the poor little grizzly bears, it would be tragic if one of these bears became constipated due to the negligence of a self centred ‘environmentalist’.
Despite being born and raised in the city, I’m fully aware meat doesn’t originate from the supermarket. It comes from the meat factory.
There’s your answer to expanding the decline of large predators…feed ’em dipshit PC touristas…solves their prey species problem and helps Darwin iron out the spike in mental defectives who have survived natural selection…let’s get those safaris booked now !!
How about the “So Close to Nature You Can Smell It Tour” “Enjoy the Last of the Fall Colours as You Become One with Nature.” Chain ’em out with bait pail for the bears….
Leftards are disconnected from reality, period. Any reality. If civilisation were ever to come to a grinding halt due to a natural or otherwise disaster, they would be the first of the herd to be culled, all the while mumbling “this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening”.
I have yet to meet an NDP voter who has a grasp on real life.
A word of caution to unarmed envirotourists wishing to hike through bear country in order to commune with nature:
Hikers are advised wear noisy little bells
on their clothing so as not to startle bears that
aren’t expecting them.
Hikers also advised to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear.
It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Hikers should learn to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings.
Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have noisy little bells in them and smell like pepper.
Those that claim that guns are not necessary have not been attacked by vicious wild animals and have never had to deal with pests that steal produce out of their gardens or livestock from their stables and chicken coops. The only way I would get close to a grizzly is with either a M1 Garand or a Marlin 1895 Guide gun in 45-70. It really boggles my mind when people say they want to go up to a bear and pet it, especially with all those horror stories of bear attacks that are so well known. It was pretty much the same mistake Timothy Treadwell made, and he deserves to be listed as a Darwin award winner for getting too close to those animals. I would recomment Bear Attacks: The Deadly truth by James Gary Shelton for additional reading as well.
Okay Bruce, you owe me a new keyboard. I guffawed my ice tea all over this one.
Okay Bruce, you owe me a new keyboard. I guffawed my ice tea all over this one.
Okay Bruce, you owe me a new keyboard. I guffawed my ice tea all over this one.
I think the article makes valid points about the naivety of many people who lack any real connection with nature. Without any appreciation for terrain, weather, water or simple hazards let alone any idea of what wildlife are present there are a lot of people who think they can just go.
I’ve observed numerous incidents of near fatal encounters between cocoon bred and hive raised fools and the natural environment that highlight this very thing.
The whole thing about the no guns idea is based on ignorance not respect, knowledge or intelligence.
If you need any examples of how little respect for nature the modern urbanite has just go look into day hikers who up the trail in Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain dressed in shorts T-shirts and wearing sandals on their feet. More than one has got stuck after dark, lost/injured or died of falling and exposure on a simple walking path on the edge of a major urban area.
Not suggesting that guns are needed in this or most other environments but rather some small amount of sense.
As for more rugged environments.. if the guides carry guns they do it for a reason!
Hey “Caveman”, are you that guy from the Boston Pizza commercials? Re: “If civilisation were ever to come to a grinding halt due to a natural or otherwise disaster, they would be the first of the herd to be culled, all the while mumbling “this can’t be happening”
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. If civilization comes to a grinding halt it’ll be a bad day for most of us. I’ll bet Cavemen do ok though.
Until that day, I’ll continue to enjoy nature – in high definition on my big screen plasma TV, while drinking beer. It’s almost like being there, only without the bugs. We have a big tree out front of the condo. The great outdoors. I can see it from my balcony.
How times have changed. When I worked in Nahanni National park some 30 years ago, the park guides would very strongly recommend that visitors brought a rifle with them. We had a few rifles in the camp but never took them with us as we had enough to carry already before we loaded up with plant and soil samples.
Now, whenever I go out in the bush I make sure I pack a rifle along. I like the M1 Garand as it will handle most anything I might run into, but it gets a bit heavy to carry by the end of the day. I’ve spent a lot of time in remote areas and never had a problem with a bear but I want to have the necessary tools to deal with a bear should one finally decide to attack me after all these years.
I don’t particularly care whether the farm economy is food or fuel or titivation, what can’t happen fast enough is getting these ag parasites off the public teat.
Bruce
Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a while.
Thank goodness a lot of non-common sense capitalists live in the cities, creating real wealth and paying taxes so that the common sense rural lifestyle can be continued through government subsidies. Here in Alberta, for example, the government apparently provides more money to individual farmers (through subsidies and other income support programs) than it does to welfare recipients. Rural municipalities get more than fair share too, in terms of income redistribution from governments as well as representatives in the legislature. And you can have that common sense champion from rural Alberta we have for a Premier – an indecisive rube if there ever was one.
As for converting farms from food production to fuel production, its just a matter of which gives the biggest subsidy to the producer. I say bring in the subsidized food products from Europe and the USA and let their taxpayers subsidize cheaper food for all of us.
And, yeah, I’ve seen enough farms in my day to know where food comes from (and what to watch out for when walking around). I need toilet paper daily, too, but I don’t really care where it comes from or how its made either.
Let’s not forget, oh rural ones, who originally created and voted in the CCF and NDP in Saskatchewan. It wasn’t the city folk….
The best bear protection I know is a sawed-off 12 gauge auto loader(18 inch barrel, keep it legal). With a 5 or 6 pellet buckshot shell first, a shotgun slug second and another 5 or 6 pellet buckshot shell last. Never had to use it yet, but its light,easy to carry and I never camp or hike without it! I go were there are not too many national parks close by.
‘capitalists live in the cities, creating real wealth and paying taxes’
Hey Mad Eye, I’ve been in all the cities in Alberta and I don’t recall seeing any oil or gas wells in the cities. Didn’t see any oilsands in them either.
How do youse big ciddy guys create all your ‘real wealth’?
“With a 5 or 6 pellet buckshot shell first”
You’re playing with your life.
3″ slugs or stay home.
You got me, rockyt. But wait a minute, where did all that money come from — you know, those billions of dollars to build the various plants and drill the wells — couldn’t have come from big ciddy investment houses (pension funds, insurance companies, stock exchanges and bond markets and all those sorts of places). And those engineers that crowd many of the office buildings in Calgary, the refineries in Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, the oilfield manufacturing in Red Deer and Edmonton (and all kinds of other places), they create no wealth at all. And those employees who build and operate those oilsands plants, just where do they happen to live?
It wasn’t the city folk….
Posted by: Mad Eye Moody at August 8, 2007 9:11 PM
No,but it is the city folk who keeps electing these fools.
3″ slug for a Grizz? No way. I live in Southern Alberta. Here only a 45/70 govt. will do to take down those monsters.
Slugs for Griz??
Unless you get within 10 feet there’s No penetration dears….. that will get you killed!
Anyway the point was that the Nurse Nanny’s want to dictate that no Guides or other tour members are going to be carrying or using guns as I read it!
Another point the article gets around to is that the same ignorant naivety that leads urban dwellers to fear guns lead them to believe that nature itself holds no risk for them.
The ultimate point is that these same kind of deluded fools are making decisions that affect the rest of us without having any perspective whatsoever of the consequences.
I’d add that that for the most part they don’t give a shit either!!
eh………you get the idea
“Another point the article gets around to is that the same ignorant naivety that leads urban dwellers to fear guns lead them to believe that nature itself holds no risk for them.”
(OMMAG, 11:46PM)
I’m thinking they might want to take a stroll along the riverbank of the South Saskatchewan, right through the heart of Saskatoon, alone, around dawn; there have been 2 or 3 cougar sightings in the last couple months, I believe, just a short way from the U. of S.
I’m pretty sure a degree in sociology would frighten away those big cats… who needs a rifle?
Gee Doug, I live in Southwestern Alberta and would take the .73 calibre slug with the 1875 feet per second muzzle velocity over the .45 calibre 1350 fps ‘Government’ round any day.
Ommag, my line in the sand is 20ft. Much more and you’re poaching.
What would happen if one of the eco-wackos ever ran into a grizzly bear a mountian lion or a wolf what would their reacting be? I dont know but the aniamsls reaction would be SOUPS ON
There are two primary industries: Mining and farming.
Modern society (at least the urban sector) has long since forgotten that it relies on the two primary industries for its survival. Both are kept at a minimum level of economic return on investment – just enough that the food and commodities supplies do not disappear entirely.
One can live without metals and minerals for an indefinite time. Living without food is a different matter.
The bumper sticker proclaiming “If you eat you are involved in agriculture” should be on every city bus.
Farm subsidies came about as governments avoided potential political problems that accompany rising food prices. The rise in food prices – due largely to bureaucratic interference of one kind or another – was disguised through taxation for everyone and everything, and returning some (small) portion to farmers as subsidies, to maintain a minimum return – enough to keep them producing food on a reasonably consistent and continuous basis. The ‘population’ continues to pay less than the cost of production of many items in the supermarket, but the short-fall is extracted in the form of taxes – so we pay the full cost plus a premium for the ‘supply management.’ The subsidies become ridiculous when farmers are paid NOT to grow certain crops – or butter is stored in unending accumulations. Marketing Boards go to great lengths to ensure their continued existence and do well in that regard, in spite of the inefficiency and inertia they introduce to the market.
Mining, on the other hand is allowed to boom and bust with only occasional financial ‘assistance’, perhaps in periodic recognition of the job multiplier effect (~12X). There is little general harm when the mining cycle is at a low, except the loss of expertise that comes with the necessity of finding alternative more secure employment.
My youngest daughter came home from school one day and said, “Dad, I’ve got a good one for you. The teacher was describing how to milk a cow. The kid at the next desk was grossed-out. She interrupted the lesson with ‘Yuk! How primitive! I’m glad that milk comes from the 7-11 now’”.
In the last 60 years Canada has gone from a rural society with over half the population on the land to the present condition with ~6% being classed as rural and that number is attained only through the convention of considering all villages with less than 5,000 inhabitants ‘rural’. It is not surprising that there is a general lack of understanding of Reality – in all its forms. A population raised on the left-wing CBC cartoons such as “The Racoons” is understandably ill-prepared to deal with real domesticated or wild animals physically or mentally.
Homer, I have to go out to pick up something for dinner.
Steak?
Mmmm, money’s too tight for steak.
Steak?
Mmmmm, suuuuuuure…steak (rolls eyes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i0X_PK7K6A
It seems ‘off-topic’ when discussing morons, but are there any handguns that would be useful for bear? Rifles/shotguns can be a pain to pack and carry. Handguns work well on drug dealing ‘pillars of the community/honour students’ in Toronto, just not sure about bear.