If only…

Dear Editor,

I am fascinated by the fact that Marc Cooke, Co President West, National Wolfwatchers Coalition, states, without any doubt, “a shot in the air could have frightened both pups off his property immediately.”

He was referring to the two wolf pups in the Hamilton area that were shot while apparently eyeballing some sheep.

Maybe Marc should turn his talents for seeing the future to the government, the stock market, or curing cancer?

If persons unnamed had left “mother nature” alone and not reintroduced wolves into the Bitterroot, these two pups, and several of their family members might still be alive, where they were!

If the wolves had been left where they were, I think that maybe we all would be happier, including the two pups!

Jerry Schuler

Victor

 

Species reintroduction
Dear Editor,
Predator reintroduction in the Bitterroot Valley left me wondering why wolves were chosen. We never had them here before, so they were truly ‘introduced’, not ‘reintroduced’. If reintroduction were the criterion, why didn’t the Feds reintroduce a more dramatic predator, like the dinosaur? Dinosaurs had a much earlier presence in Montana than wolves; in fact, Montana boasts the most productive dinosaur fossil beds found anywhere in America.
Let’s see, what’s a good candidate to reintroduce from the broad selection of dinosaurs to choose from? First, it must definitely not be a plant eater. The liberal ‘wolf reintroduction’ crowd in New York and San Francisco would demand something more vicious and rapacious, a creature that would deliver a blood sport spectacle akin to the Roman Coliseum. Non-resident liberal environmentalists seem to envision Montana as an unfenced rural landscape resembling ‘Jurassic Park’, with huge bloodthirsty predators relentlessly devouring elk, deer, ranchers, FWP employees and other hapless creatures; a great plot for a movie, but didn’t Hollywood already produce one?
I think I might have just the candidate critter. With a little modern genetic engineering, we should be able to turn out a couple prototypes in no time. Of course, these reproductions must be able to breed prolifically, otherwise how could their numbers increase rapidly enough to pose a credible threat to the Bitterroot Valley’s human and animal inhabitants? After all, we’re looking for something to outclass the wolf, elevating predator drama to a whole new level.
I found just the creature to adopt, but you won’t believe it. It’s the lowly domestic chicken. Have you ever seen a chicken without feathers? It’s a perfect double for Utahraptor, the largest Cretaceous period raptor. 16 to 23 feet long, the feathered Utahraptor weighed about one ton. It hunted in packs and made short work of defenseless plant eaters. It would seem to exhibit all the qualities that environmentalists are seeking.
I’ll bet you didn’t know that today’s chicken embryo still sports a 15-vertebra tail like the Utahraptor, until it absorbs all but the last 3 before hatching. The chicken’s four-toed clawed foot also duplicates a raptor’s. Perhaps only a simple steroid regimen would be needed to increase the chickens’ size. It worked for Hulk Hogan, so it’s worth a try. If chickens ever get wind of this plan, McDonalds’ chicken nuggets will become only a memory.
Glenn Kimball
Corvallis

We need a leader
Dear Editor,

Suspicions confirmed! Obama, in a political e-mail to supporters asking them to watch his speech on the economy next week, is quoted as saying: “It’s been a long time since Congress was focused on what the American people need them to be focused on. I know that you’re frustrated by that. I am, too.” His statement clearly confirms either or both of two things:
1. He thinks his supporters are naive enough to believe that he shouldn’t be leading, or
2. He thinks he is not responsible to lead!
Shoot, there I go again – I forgot that he likes to lead from behind – as he did in Libya! One forgets that if you lead from behind, you can’t be held directly responsible!
All rationally thinking Americans know that it has been, and still is, appropriate for him to focus on the economy. But all his previous attempts have been disastrous flops, resulting in unbridled spending and a debt ceiling increase fiasco! I’m not holding my breath waiting for any startling ideas he will espouse on 8 September that won‘t pass the smell test. Who, but a flaming liberal, is willing to waste time watching him!
Americans, let‘s face it, we need a true leader – not a “behinder!” Vote responsibly next year.
Jerry Haslip

Victor

 

Mismanagement continues

Dear Editor,

As we all can see or rather can’t see because of all the thick smoke and ashes, we are surrounded by fires. More of the “Let Burn Policy” originated by the Bush administration. We have had extremely dry weather and yet the Forest Service insists on lighting what they call “prescribed” burns, or “controlled” burns.

Always ending up out of control. The fire in the Sapphires was a lightning strike but it could have been put out at the beginning and now it is seriously out of control. You know, if all the Forest Service can do is start fires and watch them burn, the taxpayers can do the same thing for a heck of a lot cheaper. The smoke is at the very hazardous level and has been that way for weeks and will continue to do so with the inevitable inversion in this valley. Since the year 2000 we have had fires every year, there is too darn much money to be made just to have these fires and do nothing.

K. Gervais

Corvallis

 

Attacks on Williams unwarranted

Dear Editor,

Mr. Landry’s bellicose attacks on Gene Williams’ letters to the Ravalli Republic is completely unwarranted. Mr. Williams is one of the most astute and intelligent persons I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. In other words he truly “has a handle on this subject”! Because of this ability, over many months he has been attacked and vilified by the progressive academic milieu, and others of their ilk. Rick needs to get a dictionary and sort out the definitions of Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, et al, instead of hysterically hyperventilating about a fellow American’s attempts to put things in proper perspective.

The Department of Homeland Security’s opinions? What a joke. They’re in the same category as the big lie about “global warming.” Mr. Landry equates the likes of the Tea Party, NRA, Republicans (all right of center) as nut cases or dangerous extremists.

His sweeping transmogrification of the aforementioned Americans is a vicious lie. I haven’t heard of a single one in this group who has murdered a person in or out of the USA, beheaded a human by sawing the head off with a butcher knife, forced any American woman to wear a burkha, or stoned them for committing adultery, ad nauseum. That classification belongs to the Muslim Jihadists – the most dangerous terrorists in the world!

Bruce S. King

Hamilton

 

Support for Wounded Warriors

Dear Editor,
On this 9/11 day of remembrance I again knew the horror and heartbreak of that series of events as it crushed me and broke my heart.
Of all the information shared today, one number really jumped out at me and that is 2,800,000. Since the attack that killed nearly 3,000 citizens and changed the life of Americans worldwide, 2.8 million men and women have voluntarily served us, the people of the United States of America, in overseas deployment with the sole purpose of keeping us safe at home and our freedom alive for future generations.
My next emotion was shame. I watched throughout the day as TV ads for the Wounded Warrior Project played asking for we the people to send funds or to volunteer for this organization. Wounded Warriors is solely here to offer all of the assistance our wounded warriors and their families need when they come home from battle, often without limbs or with life altering head wounds. The fact that we need organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project is appalling to me. Where the heck are our priorities when we do not demand full and proper support for those who unselfishly sacrifice for us on a daily basis yet turn the other way or even support purely politically driven personal crusades for power by way of our tax dollars?
What is wrong with us when we allow the abuse and misuse of our tax dollars to provide unlimited funding for special interest groups all the while always underfunding our military and our veterans? How can we the people of this country allow groups like Earth Liberation Front (ELF), Earth Liberation Army (ELA), Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resource Defense Fund, the Wilderness Society, the over 100 other environmental groups and of course the Friends of the Bitterroot to receive multimillions of tax dollars year after year to pay for litigation. Litigation designed not to win or lose but to tie up our natural resources not just from commercial development and jobs but from multiple access by all Americans. Who else gets paid on both ends of litigation? Who else has used the ESA as a source for unlimited funding to pad lawyers’ pockets?
This is a huge ponzi scheme by a few getting rich off of a movement that has no reality in truth. We offer a tight fisted pay to our active military that is so low their families receive food stamps to survive. Our government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms, and that’s just in the lawsuits tracked so far. The actual figure is far greater. These suits are not about protecting people, animals, the environment. They are simply to make money for the law firms behind the organizations.
It is documented that between 2000 and 2009, three tax-exempt, non-profit environmental groups — Western Watersheds Project, Forest Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity — filed more than 700 cases against the federal government.
Worse, these suits have ranchers and other citizens being forced to expend millions of their own money to intervene or participate in these lawsuits to protect their way of life when they have no chance of the same attorney-fee recovery if they prevail.
How is it we can be comfortable sending our volunteer army to daily risk life and limb, who sacrifice their future so that selfish, irresponsible groups with agendas so dishonest as to be criminal are free to rape and pillage the rights and future of the rest of us?
How do we look ourselves in the mirror, enjoying daily the freedom to choose our day’s activities when we have our military personnel facing adversity of such extremes that each day’s survival is the biggest question?
Please for every penny you give to any other organization or cause, match it or double it to the Wounded Warrior Project. When you go to the polls in Nov. of 2012 vote for those candidates that stand for our Constitution, our Freedom, our Military and Veterans! Make sure their votes match their rhetoric.
Our local contact and super caring citizen for Wounded Warriors is Rudy Smith, 961-4988.
Suzy Foss
Hamilton