The Wandering Minstrel

Whether you hunt or not, California gun owners and enthusiasts should get involved in this issue. The phony environmental assholes don’t want to save any freaking critters - they want to prohibit guns. Period. What really tweaks me is that hunters and sportsmen are probably better stewards of the environment than either CBD or the Sierra Club.

Via the NRA/ILA:

Hunting Threatened In Mojave National Preserve

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), in concert with the Sierra Club and other anti-hunting organizations, has filed a petition with the California Fish and Game Commission to ban most hunting in the Mojave National Preserve, including rabbit and varmint hunting. What hunting remains (resident game birds, deer, and bighorn sheep) would be restricted. The “Petition for Rulemaking Regarding Hunting in the Mojave National Preserve” blames hunters for the declining population of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the state’s Endangered Species Act. CBD filed a similar petition in 2003, but the Commission did not act on it. The Commission will likely consider the CBD’s petition next week and could schedule a hearing on it early next year.

The petition contains the flimsiest of evidence that hunting in the Preserve is the cause or even a contributing factor of the decline in the tortoise population. Contrarily, statistics confirm that vehicular traffic and increased tourism within the designated critical habitat of the tortoise have increased substantially since 1994 when the Preserve was established. Those activities are believed to be the leading causes of tortoise mortality. Further, there is sufficient research to suggest that predation by ravens and coyotes is also taking its toll on this protected species. The objective of the petition is not to protect and enhance the tortoise population; rather it is an attempt by this coalition of anti-hunting organizations to permanently ban hunting from the Mojave National Preserve. CBD was behind the ban imposed on the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game within the range of the California condor. Earlier this year, CBD attempted unsuccessfully to extend that ban to all game species.

Please take a few minutes to write a letter requesting that the Commission deny the petition and address and mail it to:

John Carlson, Jr., Executive Director

California Fish and Game Commission

1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320

Sacramento, CA 95814

fgc@fgc.ca.gov

Hunters are continually being harassed with restrictions on hunting and access to hunting areas for reasons not based on science. Please do not let CBD impose their pseudo science on those who hunt in the Mojave National Preserve.

Californians interested in stopping the thinly veiled attempts at gun grabbing, should either write a letter or email the link above.

This graphic is a depiction of some very interesting data obtained from a source in the United Kingdom. The data were prepared by taking the interest shown by internet hits divided by the extent to which the Mainstream Media are covering contemporary news events. The bigger the pie slice, the less the media think you should know about a story.

It should be obvious from this chart that the MSM really doesn’t want you to know about the climate scandal.

Taken from a post on the other weblog. I should point out that the list of topics above were measured in the UK and have a definite Euro-bias.

Visit the other site to read about what inspired this chart.

The Better Half and I were out and about today. On our way home, we spotted this gross polluter motoring down the road. Somehow, I seriously doubt that this P.O.S. Ford Ranger passed the safety and emissions tests that Taxifornia requires.

What really pisses me off is that he may be perfectly legal under insane California law:

Statute § 44017. Cost limitations; Repair cost waiver; Failure to pass visible smoke test

(e) (1) No repair cost waiver shall be issued where a motor vehicle has failed the visible smoke test created by the department pursuant to Section 44012.1, unless paragraph (2) applies, or the vehicle is owned by a low-income person, as defined in Section 44062.1 in which case the repair cost limit applicable pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 44017.1 shall apply.
(2) By January 1, 2008, the department shall adopt regulations allowing a repair cost waiver, with the repair cost limit specified in subdivision (a), where a motor vehicle has failed the visible smoke test component of a smog check inspection, for individuals under economic hardship but who do not meet the definition of low-income person, as defined in Section 44062.1. The regulations shall make eligible for the waiver those individuals whose household means fall below the level necessary to achieve a modest standard of living without assistance from public programs. The department shall consult authoritative information sources including, but not limited to, the United States Census Bureau, the Department of Finance, and the California Budget Project.

This isn’t the one-standard-applies-to-all California where I grew up.

Now, I could have reported this vehicle to the California EPA Air Resources Board where they have an on-line form. When I read what would be done as a result of my report, I said “Why bother?”

The owner of the vehicle will be sent a courtesy letter.

Thank you for helping improve air quality!

Right.

. . . with a refreshing Poopcicle.

Imaged by The Better Half last winter in Northern Arizona. Some careless pet owner left this to freeze overnight in the campground.

Update: Welcome 2A Roundup Readers . . .

Michael Barone wrote in May on two topics dear to liberals: gun control and climate change (formerly global warming except the globe isn’t warming so they changed the buzzwords). Since May, the Obimanation’s poll numbers have fallen well below the 60 percent approval mentioned in the article, thanks to cap and trade and the health monster.

Image: conservative pundit, Michael Barone.

Many years ago, political scientists came up with a theory that elites lead public opinion. And on some issues, they clearly do. But on some issues, they don’t. Two examples of the latter phenomenon are conspicuous at a time when Barack Obama enjoys the approval of more than 60 percent of Americans and Democrats have won thumping majorities in two elections in a row. One is global warming. The other is gun control. On both issues, the elites of academe, the media and big business have been solidly on one side for years. But on both, the American public has been moving in the other direction.

Over the past decade, the Gallup organization has been asking Americans whether the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated or generally correct. From 1998 to 2007, except for the run-up to the 2004 election, they said it was generally serious by roughly a 2-1 margin — 66 to 30 percent in 2006, for example. But in March 2009, that margin slipped to only 57 to 41 percent, with two-thirds of Republicans and nearly half of independents saying concern is exaggerated.

[snip]

On guns, Gallup has been testing opinion for many years on one extreme proposal that is the goal, usually unstated, of many gun-control advocates: banning the possession of handguns. Support was 60 percent in 1960 and 49 percent in 1965. It was as high as 43 percent in the early 1990s, before the Clinton Congress passed the so-called assault weapons ban. In March 2007, it had fallen to 29 percent — a minority, almost a fringe position. In the early 1990s, Gallup found that Americans, by a 2-1 margin, favored stricter gun sale laws over less strict ones or keeping them the same. By fall 2008, they were evenly split.

And the numbers continue to trend in the wrong direction for gun grabbers and greenbats alike. See the rest of Barone’s article here.