I thought this exchange was funny; Maher tries to compare #Weinergate to a pigeon shoot (doves in this case). Yes, sending photos of your Johnson to all sorts of women while your wife at work is just like hunting birds! (Which are usually not just for sport but are eaten. In fact, young pigeon is a French delicacy.)

By his own logic, Maher is guilty by association for going to the grocery store to purchase any animal products. He doesn’t get a pass just because he didn’t kill the animals himself.

My family hunts and I’ve yet to see a bird shoot where the birds were disabled from flying or shot while in cages; it sort of misses the entire point of the hunt, which is to land as many birds with as few shots as possible once they’re mechanically released from a cage. Perhaps Maher is thinking of a turkey shoot; I’ve known of some that tether the turkeys to hay bales for the archers.

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I have a love-hate relationship with the Daily Mail. Some days they really get it and other days, not so much. Aside from them using a ridiculously Photoshopped Palin photo in this piece for which they should immediately apologize and remove, the author did Giles right and presented the story of a self-empowered woman and her love of the hunt.

That the author managed to write an entire piece without coming off as gunophobes was refreshing.

‘The shoulder is the perfect place for a shot. It breaks them down, severing major arteries and hopefully puncturing the lungs,’ she explained nonchalantly.

‘I remember feeling exhilarated as the hog buckled and hit the floor. I reloaded, and placed three more rounds in him, making sure he was dead. It was such a rush!’

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A post entitled “Can Alinsky’s Tactics Work on the Right?  Should They?” by Christian Hartsock in Big Journalism, along with local battles between ultra- conservatives and other conservatives over using Alinsky’s tactics to further the cause, brings to light that the matter of “factioning” (breaking apart into rival groups) has become a concern.

As an engaged Republican on the inside of politics for more than a decade now, I have seen pro-life activists faction and thus kill good bills for the sake of credit.  I have seen primary candidates lie about other candidates in order to win races they should not have won.  I have seen one person’s opinion smack down another conservative’s attempt to do right over side issues irrelevant to the goal.  This never produces real winners, and forces duplication of efforts for conservatives fighting the good fight.

The good news is that if conservatives are clashing, that means that the natural law of division is engaging, because there are enough conservatives to fight over how to defeat the left.  That is a convenience reserved only for groups that are strong, and winning. (more…)

The worldwide population of polar bears has doubled in the past thirty years. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the gist of a report by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released on January 30, 2008:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.”

Better yet, let’s listen to a scientist who has been studying polar bears for the past thirty years, both as an academic and as the Canadian government’s director of wildlife research in its most important polar bear habitat, and who is widely regarded as the world’s top authority on the creatures. Here’s Canadian scientist Dr. Mitchell Taylor’s take on the matter: (more…)