Water rights - protect them or go thirsty!

We have two attempts to get at our water here in Catron County - combined, they add up to sucking almost 18 billion gallons of water from our aquifers each year.

Protect your water rights - get your protest letter out so it is received no later than close of business, Monday Dec 17, in the Office of the State Engineer of New Mexico.

For instructions go to:

www.catroncounty.net/water

DON'T DELAY!

Email notification service

I have added an email notification service to this blog (top of upper right column) so you can receive notices by email when I post to this blog.

Re: [One Still Free] New comment on FW: Wolf-Proof Shelters Go Up for School Kids .

Jess: You are so right to point out that a good number of residents of Catron County live with the danger of habituated wolves every day of their lives. I think the pit bull analogy is right on. Many people know what it is like to be unable to sleep at night worrying about some problem over which you have little to no control - it could be pit bull packs, a health issue, your job at risk, drug dealers on your corner, serial rapists or killers. Whatever it is, you worry about it day and night and it affects the quality of your life.

It is no different here with the wolves. You lay awake at night, jumping at the least sound coming from outside, rushing out the door with a flashlight to see why the horses or other animals are restless. If your dog is late coming to breakfast, you start
figuring out how to tell the kids that it's never coming back. You have to make a decision as to whether it's safe to let your child walk to school by himself because the boss says you've got to start getting to work on time, so you can't take your child to school and keep your job, too. You go over your finances in your head endlessly, trying to figure out how many more calves you can lose before you can't stay in business any more.

And you read the fictions written by people who so want the wolf program to be the way they want it to be rather than the way it is that they dismiss all your concerns as fabrications and your stomach churns and churns.

I tell you what - if my child, my horse, my dog or my anything was harmed by a wolf, I'd sue the tar out of every single organization and individual who supports the rotten wolf program and who fights improvements that are based on reality, not fiction.

Global warming is over!

Just when you thought that we were all going to drown or fry because
of global warming... here's an interesting bit of info (facts!) about
the subject.

Global Temperatures are Uncorrelated with Carbon Dioxide Trends This
Last Decade, By Joseph D'Aleo, CCM

http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/global_temperatures_are_uncorrelated_with_carbon_dioxide_trends_this_last_d/

ICECAP (International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment
Project) is an excellent site for facts, not hype, about this
planet's climate. I recommend poking through it.

FW: Wolf-Proof Shelters Go Up for School Kids

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity is quoted in an article in the Albququerque Journal by Rene Romo as saying that bus stop shelters built to protect Catron County children from the threat of wolves are a stunt "designed to get the sympathy of the public when the real concern is safety of their livestock."
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/266402nm12-02-07.htm

Has Mr. Robinson contacted the school in question to see how many of the children protected by the shelters are from livestock-owning families?  Has Mr. Romo bothered to do any research at all, or is he just writing for sensationalism, the safety of the children in question be damned?

It has always amazed me how willing people who don't live in the area in question are so fast to question the motives of those who are directly impacted by the wolf program, and to cast blame on the impacted people for the failure of the program.  Has it never occurred to anyone that if the program has not succeeded, the basic premises upon which the program is based may be faulty?  Let me remind the reader that the Mexican wolf is an experimental population, and the program is supposed to be adaptively managed - but is it?

Hardly.

Instead of a true scientific experiment in which the outcome is not pre-determined, what we have is a program whose outcome has been pre-determined and mightily defended by non-local, non-impacted groups.  Note that certain environmental groups who have most resisted adaptive management just happen to be associated with agendas which require the ousting of ranchers and others who live in and use the areas the groups have identified as "needing" to be wild, no matter that private lands and local economies are run over in the process (research "sky islands" and "rewilding" to see what groups are affiliated with the concept).  These groups use litigation, deceptive language and pseudo science to force their point of view, and somehow are accorded more credibility than the victims of this farce - the local residents - who are accused of falsehoods, as if they had some sort of weird willingness to lie about their children in order to protect livestock they have no financial interest in. 

We expect the sort of situation where programs and pogroms are forced on people to occur in countries where the citizens have no rights.  Yet here it is happening right in our own country.  Here we have eco-terrorism and unlawful taking of property and rights disguised as "environmentalism for the betterment of the planet".  What a sad situation when environmentalists would rather risk the lives of children than even admit there could be something to what we've been saying all along, down here in Mexican wolf country where you all don't live.

Wild Born Wolves Swept Under Rug by Program Managers

Catron County ranchers report livestock predations by known
(collared) wolf packs, yet they remove the wild born wolves that
don't kill cattle and aren't habituated to humans. If this isn't an
on-purpose strategy to destroy the local cattle industry, what is
it? It sure isn't a strategy to improve the Mexican wolf program here!

"Our ranchers get blamed for everything wrong with this program",
says Laura Schneberger President of the Gila Livestock Growers Association.

"The truth is if the agencies would do an adequate job this program
would be in better shape. When my members report un-collared wolves
on their places, these agencies don't investigate and refuse to
believe them. Instead of being rewarded for allowing this wild born
wolf and who knows how many other wolves onto the Adobe ranch, these
folks are being forced to live with a pack that is slaughtering their
herds and teaching wild born wolves to prey on cattle. It is an
unmitigated, disastrous and unfair situation"

Read more at

http://thewesterner.blogspot.com/2007/11/contact-laura-schneberger-575-772-5753.html

Mexican wolf video for CNN Republican debate

Check out the videos at Wolf Crossing

http://wolfcrossing.org/2007/11/25/wolfcrossingorg-youtube-republican-debate-video/

These were created for the CNN Republican debate. There's a long
version and a short one - the short is what was submitted, with the
question "Endangered Species Act: Where Do You Stand? Which Is More
Important: Human Rights or the Rights of an Endangered
Species?" The longer version has a bit more info, but you could only
submit a 30 second video.

Wolves: the natural order of things

One issue with looking at environmental issues is that people use
selective vision. For instance, humans are actually the highest
order in the food chain of all known life on earth, yet humans are
routinely not included as part of the natural environment, as if
humans were somehow unnatural, had been introduced here by aliens
from another galaxy. I personally can't go with such things as
"seeding" by aliens (to that I say, show me the science); humans are
necessarily a species which has survived and evolved on this planet
*just like every other species*.

To consider the wolf program without consideration of *all* other
species is faulty. Wolves have evolved in areas with humans in them,
humans have evolved in areas with wolves. Wolves have had, probably
as long as they have existed, one major natural enemy:
mankind. Humans have always been a factor in most wolves lives -
consider how true wild wolves (as opposed to habituated ones) are shy
of humans. This is a sign of a wolf's understanding of the risk
humans present, a healthy, natural thing for all predators and
potential prey.

In a healthy world, in the real natural order of things, wolves
respect humans best when wolves are hunted. This makes for a safer,
more healthy and more natural situation for all.

[This is in response to Mexican wolf update on Desert Rat's
blog:

http://arizonahuntingtoday.com/desertrat/2007/11/20/mexican-wolf-update-november/]

Thought control campaign - Mexican wolves

One thing that environmental groups still do (besides file lawsuits)
is create excellent propaganda. What's amazing to me is how most of
the media just accepts that baloney as truth. I guess reporters
today don't care about facts, they just repeat what they are fed by
anyone with enough money to do the feeding.

I just came across an article about the transfer of captive bred
Mexican wolves from the Cincinnati Zoo to a wolf preservation
facility in New York State by Jim Knippenberg. Here's a quote from
the article (Cincinnati Enquirer,

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071113/NEWS01/711130371/1035/LIFE):

"The Mexican gray, a subspecies of the gray wolf, is critically
endangered, reportedly down to only seven animals in the wild in the
early 1980s. The Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, an umbrella
organization that oversees conservation efforts in about 20 zoos and
preserves including Cincinnati, captured the seven, installed them in
controlled facilities and initiated breeding programs. Today, there
are 38-50 in the wild (in the high deserts of northern Mexico and
southern Arizona), 100 more in controlled facilities and several more
ready for release into the wild."

Now what's wrong with the above? First of all, the subspecies is NOT
currently critically endangered; there are hundreds in captivity and
probably close to another hundred in the wild in in the USA, plus who
know how many still in Mexico, where these wolves are from. There
were an unknown number of wild ones in Mexico and the USA in the
1980s, when seven were captured from Mexico and brought north into
the USA (two promptly died). There is no conclusive evidence that
lands north of the US/Mexico border were other than the extreme edge
of these wolves' native Mexican range. There is no more reason for
anyone to be excited about there being no Mexican wolves here in the
wild than it would be to be excited that there are no penguins here.

Next, there currently are 38-50 *collared* Mexican wolves in the wild
in central western New Mexico and eastern Arizona plus an unknown
number of uncollared wolves ( all descendents of those five surviving
wolves from 1980). This information is readily available in the form
of monthly reports online from US Fish & Wildlife (note that
uncollared wolves are only counted once a year, so very little is
known about the numbers). To my knowledge no one is counting wolves
in Mexico itself; maybe Mr. Knippenberg could provide some source for
that info.

Finally, the Mexican wolf program, which routinely handles wolves in
the program and exposes them to human sight, sound and smell (e.g.
zoo and other captive wolf facilities) is creating problem wolves,
ensuring that when they are released into the wild that these wolves
have no fear of humans (they become habituated to humans in
captivity). Hence in places like New Mexico and Arizona we see
increasing numbers of problems with wolves killing pets, stalking
humans and slaughtering livestock. What happens to these wolves with
no fear of humans? They are hazed, are shot with rubber bullets,
routinely and repeatedly trapped (with leg traps, a painful and
traumatic process) - this is the Mexican wolf program doing these
things by the way. Then the wolves are transported to captivity, fed
by humans (and given health exams, vaccinations, collars). They are
then often separated from pack members, released into new places in
the wild to have to relearn where the water is, the hunting is, and
to forge a new place in a new pack. To "help", the program often
temporarily feeds these wolves dumped into the wild meat made from
domestic animals (horses), so that the when they find a horse in a
corral, they know that they've found dinner - starting the cycle all
over again.

A wolf which is so habituated it was sleeping in people's yards and
urinating on vehicle wheels like the family dogs do, has been found
to have spent over one third of its life in captivity or other
proximity to humans - the poor thing was probably lonely for
humans. This is typical of the wolf program and what the program
creates is problem wolves, not wild wolves. Dumping captive raised
wolves into the wild isn't all that different from dumping pet dogs
alongside the road. I've never understood why PETA, of which I am
not a member has not looked carefully at this routine torture and
abuse of animals.

I'm sorry to have picked on Mr. Knippenberg, for he is just one of
many, but it is really starting to get irritating to read these
un-researched articles which purport to tell the truth but really
just perpetuate the propaganda machine of environmental
groups. People who actually care about wolves tell the truth. But
of course, there's no profit in that.

Dec 5 Mexican wolf public scoping meeting in Glenwood

Dec 5 Mexican wolf public scoping meeting in Glenwood
Glenwood Community Center
5:00 - 9:00 pm

US Fish and Wildlife Service will hold a public scoping meeting in
Glenwood on December 5 as part of a rule change process that will
determine the future of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.

Why your participation is important: background and current situation

Since its inception, the Mexican wolf program has been responsive
only to non-local environmental groups and has ignored the damage to
local families, businesses and issues. These groups have used their
large financial assets to twist the truth about the program, and have
resorted to what amounts to malicious litigation to get their way.

The wolf program has a policy of routine handling of wolves. In some
cases, "wild" wolves have been handled - trapped, examined, given
shots, collared, fed by humans - for more than one third of their
lives. Wolf and other canine experts know that this extensive
handling causes habituation (loss of fear of humans), and habituated
predators - not just wolves but bears, mountain lions, etc - are
problem predators. Essentially all the complaints of local citizens
come about because the wolves are not wild, but habituated to humans.

Mexican gray wolves are not critical to our local natural
environment. These wolves originally came from the Mexican desert -
they never were high altitude forest animals. It is true that a
healthy wolf population would keep elk and deer herds healthy and
balanced, however healthy wolves are never habituated wolves. At
this time, the wolves in the Mexican wolf program kill elk calves and
domestic animals for the sport of it, not for food.

Mexican wolves are not even endangered. Hundreds of these wolves -
all genetically related - live in zoos around the country, where they
are part of a breeding program to build the population. And contrary
to reports of dwindling wolf populations in the wild, it should be
pointed out that the "official" wolf counts omit the dozens of
uncollared wolves which are living and breeding in and near the wolf
recovery area.

This rule change is our opportunity to improve the program and shift
the Fish and Wildlife Service's focus where it needs to be: the
creation of a truly wild wolf population which is not coddled, fed
and protected, but subject to the same laws of survival as any wild
animal. Mexican wolves have the right to survive and thrive, but not
as anything other than fully wild animals and not at the high cost to
humans and wolves due to the way the program is run today.

In your comments, please tell the Fish and Wildlife Service to:

* Not change the classification from "experimental, non-essential"
to "experimental, essential" or "endangered" - there is no reason to
give wolves more protection (which causes habituation) but much
reason to make wolves stronger by forcing them to live natural
lives. Adding more protection will never make wolves wild.
* Eliminate restrictions to wolf dispersal and movements but provide
more rights for human self-protection; reduce or eliminate fines and
penalties for doing so. A truly wild animal will not be near enough
to humans to be killed by them, and a non-wild wolf should not be
part of the program.
* Cease release of any wolves which have ever been handled by
humans. Remove all wolves from the wild which have been handled by
humans and which exhibit signs of habituation or which engage in
livestock depredation.
* Never relocate, translocated or re-release any wolf to the wild
which has exhibited any habituation behavior or has killed any
domestic animals.
* Resolve livestock-wolf and pet-wolf conflicts in ways that are
fair to the humans who bear the economic and emotional costs of
domestic animal losses.
* Cease any supplemental feeding of the wolves by the wolf program;
such feeding just teaches the wolves to be human-dependant, it causes
habituation and since the meat from domestic animals is used for such
supplemental feeding, it introduces and familiarizes the taste of
domestic animals to wolves.
* Revise the Recovery Plan. Utilize real science and include
assessment of the impacts on affected human population as required by law.
* Place no cap on the number of wolves in the wild population,
however allow humans to protect themselves, their families, their
pets and other domestic animals without penalty. A wolf which
habituates human use areas is not a wild wolf, and needs to be
removed from the wild population before it teaches pack members and
its young this bad behavior.
* Provide no increase in boundaries of the Mexican wolf population
until it is proven that all current problems have been resolved.

The deadline for comments is December 31, 2007

Comments can be hand-delivered at the open house or submitted by USPS
or email. Be sure to include "Attn: Mexican Gray Wolf NEPA Scoping",
your full name and your return address in your message.

USPS
Brian Millsap, State Administrator
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office
2105 Osuna NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113

Email
R2FWE_AL@fws.gov

Note: Other meeting dates and locations can be found at

http://www.mexicanwolfeis.org/

Mexican wolves: The full truth

On his blog, Ralph Maughan "reports" that the
number of elk in the part of New Mexico where the
Mexican wolves have become reestablished has
increased.
[http://wolves.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/report-despite-mexican-wolves-elk-ok/#comment-45232].
Note that while Dr. Maughan is a specialist in
natural resource and environmental policies and
politics, he is not a biologist. Like many
people involved with policies and politics who
have an agenda to push, it is convenient to tell
only part of the story, allowing it to pass for the full truth.

Dr. Maughn "reported" that the number of elk in
the Mexican wolf restoration program area has
increased and that the number of wolves is
"trivial — only 59 in the entire recovery area..."

I am not a biologist either, but I believe in
telling the full story if I'm going to tell any story at all. So, I replied:

1. The method used to count elk this time is
different from the method used before. While it
is *possible* that the number of elk has actually
increased, your readers should be aware it is
also possible that rather the efficiency of
counting has increased, and therefore that there
may in fact be fewer elk than in prior years.

2. The number of wolves is not trivial - it is
merely unknown. There are 59 *collared* wolves in
the wolf recovery area. There are an unknown
number of uncollared wolves. Your readers should
be aware that it is *possible* that the wolf
restoration program is wildly successful in terms
of numbers of wolves in the wild.

Habituated wolves: A sign of induced abnormal behavior

It appears to me that habituation of Mexican wolves is a direct product of the wolf program management itself. Few people who wildly support the program and who dismiss the protests of the local people (the ones who are actually affected and whose opinions on the issues should carry more weight) have a clue what habituation entails and how dangerous habituation of a predator is.

Most people are not aware that wolf pups born in the wild are generally caught up and brought into captivity to be examined, have DNA samples taken, are given vaccinations and, when old enough, collars. They are fed by humans while in captivity. All this happens during the most impressionable period of a wolf's life.

Then, periodically wolves are trapped in the wild and are brought back to captivity to be reexamined, get more vaccinations and have their collar batteries replaced.

Of course wolves are fed by humans while in captivity - they do not have the opportunity to hunt at that time. Because canines have a sense of smell thousands of times stronger than humans it is unreasonable to expect that a wolf would not smell human scent on the food it is given in captivity and thereby come to associate the smell of humans with food [note: a dog has more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose, while humans have only 5 million].

Wild wolves have natural fear of humans, but wolves in captivity for any length of time, particularly cubs, are going to lose that fear simply through constant proximity. Between association of human scent with food and loss of fear through proximity wolves become habituated to humans. Every Mexican wolf so far that has been a source of problems has been extensively handled by humans - the wolf program management itself.

The Mexican wolf program has set itself up for failure, and the ones who suffer the most from this mismanagement are the humans in wolf country and the wolves themselves. Is there some valid reason why the non-habituated, non-problem, truly wild wolves out there just can’t be left alone to propagate this gray wolf subspecies? Is there no way to stop the madness of the program’s creating habituated wolves and turning them loose to get into trouble?

Does anyone with any rational mind really think it natural for wild wolves to leave the millions of acres of wild lands to sleep on people’s lawns and defecate on people’s porches? We aren’t seeing the creation of a healthy Mexican wolf population, folks, we’re seeing a sick circus disguised as benevolent protection of species.

News Release: Habituated Wolves Are Dangerous Wolves

CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman

Contact: Ed Wehrheim, Catron County Chairman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phone 505.533.6423
Email: ccmanager@gilanet.com

HABITUATED WOLVES ARE DANGEROUS WOLVES
Catron County Presses FWS on Habituated Wolves

RESERVE, N.M. A recent inquest determined that Kenton Carnegie had been killed by wolves two years ago in Ontario, Canada. On October 11 of this year, the Catron County Commission sent a letter to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notifying him of the County's findings of imminent danger and a demand for permanent removal of a male Mexican wolf from the Durango pack. The wolf had, at that time, been documented as frequenting two homes, one twenty-one times and another seven times over the course of a few months.

In its letter to Dr. Tuggle, the County cited the "10J Rule",a part of the Endangered Species Act which applies to the experimental, non-essential Mexican wolf population. This rule provides guidance for management of the Mexican wolf program and definitions of what constitutes a problem wolf. The County pointed out that the wolf in question met four of the five possible identifiers (only one is required for a wolf to be so identified). According to the 10J Rule, a problem wolf can be removed from the wild by the wolf program before it performs some action which may require, by the same Rule, that the wolf be destroyed.

However, in his October 27 letter of reply, Dr. Tuggle chose to disagree with the County's findings, stating that the wolf's actions did not constitute problem behavior, and further stated that the behaviors exhibited by the wolf would be best dealt with via "aversive conditioning methods", stating that the measures had been proven to be successful.

During the ten days that these methods were employed by authorities, the wolf returned to one of the homes five times.

"Dr. Tuggle seems to think the wolf's being documented at homes 28 times is normal wolf behavior," said Catron County's Wolf Interaction Investigator, Jess Carey. "He thinks it is acceptable for a family to have to live with people on their property on a daily basis, hazing the wolves away to protect the family."

According to a recent report by Dr. Valerius Geist, a Canadian biologist, becoming used to and not afraid of humans is one of the final steps before a wolf starts seeing humans as prey. Dr. Geist consulted wolf experts from around the world and identified seven stages of wolf habituation leading to attacks on humans.

"It appears that Dr. Tuggle is content that wolves in Catron County are displaying the exact behavior displayed by wolves that killed and ate Kenton Carnegie," said Ed Wehrheim, Chairman of the Catron County Commission. "We have a serious problem of escalating habituated behavior here. We told Dr. Tuggle very clearly of the evidence we have that the wolf is habituated and therefore a problem wolf. We invited him to come down here and examine our evidence. Our documentation includes three videos that were taken of wolves in people's yards, taken from their living room window. A habituated wolf is a dangerous wolf and we need to get these habituated wolves out of the our county so they are no longer threatening our people."

In a reply letter to Dr. Tuggle from the County, Wehrheim stated "the County has taken no action in order to give you time to do your job. However, we can wait no longer."
Commissioner Wehrheim stated that the County will take measures to protect its citizens, acting under the Catron County Wolf Protection Ordinance.

"It is the moral and legal responsibility of the Catron County Commission, first and foremost, to protect the safety, health and welfare of the residents of Catron County," the letter concludes.

# # #

There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win.

I have long resented the fact that I can't call myself an environmentalist any more. I have no desire to be boxed in with those new "environmentalist" who, with their well-funded new-think, have convinced most people that homo sapiens, rather than cockroaches, are now the lowest form of life on the planet, and that the whole planet
would be better off if homo sapiens were just exterminated. These extremist greens somehow have forgotten that humans evolved on the same planet, and that *real* environmentalism would include *all* species - not just non-human species.

These NTEs (New-Think Evironmentalists) have made environmentalism a faith-based movement that ignores science. Their guilt-based evangelism has gained them immense funding, and their tactics range from litigation to acts of terrorism. Notice that, like other fanatical faith-based movements, there doesn't seem to be any practice of the faith itself: NTEs don't actually practice any environmentalism, they just proselytize about it. And interestingly enough, they all seem to hold themselves apart from the rest of us low-life homo sapiens types - they get to remain here on the new, improved version of Earth while we get exterminated.

An interesting collection of extremist "green" thought is at The Antisocialist.

http://the-antisocialist.com/2007/10/27/more-words-of-wisdom-from-those-just-trying-to-save-the-planet/#comment-1181

Mexican wolf - reality vs propaganda

An excellent article appears at WolfCrossing.org on the reality of what is actually happening on-the-ground in Mexican wolf reintroduction country vs the propaganda put out by pro-wolf people who don't have a clue but do have lots of money to promote their non-reality based viewpoint and to litigate when their viewpoint is challenged. I highly recommend reading this article.

http://wolfcrossing.org/blog/2007/10/27/defenders-perspective-far-cry-from-real-life/

There is a link in the middle of the article for still images (PDF format) from videos taken of wolves in one Catron County resident's yard.

Richardson green at expense of rural New Mexicans

On Wed. Oct 24 "Blogging Bill", a blog put
together by the staff of the Santa Fe Reporter,
posted "There's Something About Bill::Political
Animals", subtitled "If dogs could vote, they
might pick Bill", by Dave
Mass.

http://sfrblogsbill.blogspot.com/2007/10/theres-something-about-bill-political.html

Mr. Mass must be kidding. Only city dogs would
vote for Bill! New Mexico's rural dogs know that
because Bill doesn't give a hoot about rural
dogs, or rural dogs' owners, their lives are in
constant jeopardy. Bill doesn't care that rural
dogs (and cats, horses and other animals owned by
rural New Mexicans) are being killed by Mexican
wolves - he says "wolves play a critical role in
maintaining balanced ecosystems" but like most
big-dollar, high-litigation environmental groups,
Bill apparently doesn't include human or domestic
animal species in our ecosystems.

Where exactly did humans evolve, then - another
planet? Are we not part of the
ecosystem? Haven't all species of wild animals
on this planet shared the environment with
domestic animals for the last ten thousand years
and with humans for longer than the Mexican wolf "species" has existed?

The instances of Richardson's "animals rights"
stance in Mr. Mass' article illustrate one
important point: Bill is appealing to potential
non-New Mexico voters while ignoring rural New
Mexicans (just like he has as governor).

New Mexico is not a large population state. It
is not possible for a governor here to miss the
pleas for relief from oppressive environmental
decisions which have arisen from litigation and
not-so-subtle pressures by highly-funded
non-local environmental groups and which inflict
a disproportionate burden on rural residents.

Richardson emphasizes diplomacy in many of his
public appearances. His diplomacy with respect
to rural environmentalism seems to be of the sort
that cats use: Bury the shit by scratching a
little fresh smelling soil over it. Maybe a
plant will grow there someday… or more likely,
maybe the shit will poison the soil and kill the
plants nearby. A vote for Richardson is a vote
for green at the expense of an important segment of our culture.

Donate rice, improve your brain.

At www.freerice.com you can play a word game and improve your brain while doing good for others. Each time you choose a correct definition for a word, 10 grains of rice gets donated to the UN World Food Program.

Do they actually count the grains? How much of the rice actually gets to people who really need it? Don't know, but on my first round, I donated 160 grains of rice before not getting "plumbism". I'm not telling you the answer - you have to do this yourself.

Global warming: Human Guilt or Natural Event?

Ice core sampling demonstrates that large, rapid, global climactic change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is climactic stasis. Climactic stasis is wishful thinking by humans, not environmental reality.

Radiocarbon dating of bones and analysis of soils and plant matter shows that Aleutian climate was mild 3500 years ago, and in the 10th century, Greenland's climate, and presumably that of the Arctic nearby, was considerably warmer than today.

Ice-free summers in the Arctic occur approximately every 70 years according to some Russian sources. The Northwest Passage has been open numerous times in the past 100 years. Roald Amundson navigated it in 1903-06. The 104' wooden ship St. Roch sailed through twice in the early 1940s. The Coast Guard ship the USS Storis did it in 1955. There are quite a few other accounts of navigation of the Northwest Passage in the last century, so many that it is actually relatively commonplace. That the Northwest Passage was considered for so long to be a myth is likely due to the mini-ice age from the 16th through the mid 19th centuries rather than because it never existed. That it is open now is simply not that unusual, except in the short-sighted eyes of human memory.

To attribute global climate changes to human impacts on the environment without consideration of the geologic reality of climate change is more an economic tool for those who benefit from such scares than scientific fact.

Mandatory Almond Pasteurization is WRONG!!!

It seems that, as of September 2007, raw almonds from CA and maybe elsewhere will no longer be "truly raw" due to a mandate passed by the USDA, FDA and the California Almond Board which says that all almonds including organic must be pasteurized.

Apparently pasteurized almonds available in the marketplace will still be labeled as raw almonds. Is this the goofiest thing you ever heard of? How can something be considered raw if it has been pasturized? Do you really want to be eating pasturized (dead) nuts and seeds? Isn't this fraudulent? Are you willing to give up your food freedom choices?

Information is available at the following link:Action Plan and Pasteurization - Frequently Asked Questions

Petition:
Mandatory Almond Pasteurization is WRONG!!!

Forced medical care - more control by government!

Here's one for you: Our government apparently thinks it's OK to force medical care even when you're healthy!

Article by Thomas Cowles II
September 12, 2007

There is a developing story from California that involves a mother with a 17 year old child who HAD melanoma. The mother, chose to go against her allopathic (conventional) doctor's orders (to have surgery and chemotherapy) - and instead try advanced natural medicine first - since she understood that supporting the body's ability to heal is more effective than destroying it as chemotherapy does.

Not surprisingly this approach worked! This young man is now CANCER FREE!! However, the allopathic doctor is insisting that the child must have chemotheray as well as surgery, which the mother refuses to have her child undergo. Interestingly, doctor, the allopathic doctor's unnecessary treatments will be compensated by the insurer or state, while the holistic strategies that actually worked are not eligible for coverage.

The Department of Child Services was called and her son was taken away from her and put in foster care. The DCS claimed she failed to properly care for her child. Note here: the advanced methods which worked are being defined as "child abuse" while the doctor's assault (which is what we call touching someone against their will) is supported by the power of the state. Is this Health Freedom?

Next, the mother was put in jail for 5 days in maximum security and suffered injuries in the neck and arm from jailers. Her child is still in foster care, where he was forcibly vaccinated. Disgusted yet? It gets worse...

The case is pending in Dependency Court in Orange County where the Judge is soon to rule whether her son will be ordered to have surgery and chemotherapy.

This 17 year old near-adult does NOT want to undergo chemotherapy or surgery and was forcefully vaccinated while in state custody. We support this brave young man and his clear thinking mother in their struggle to preserve his freedom. In doing so, they are struggling to preserve ours.

We will be reporting on the result of a court decision as it unfolds, perhaps as early as later today. The mother will also be sharing her story in a follow-up email shortly. At this moment, she has been barred by the court from discussing her case publicly. Not only is her son's Health Freedom under assault in this case, so is her Freedom of Speech.

Please forward this email widely. If a Civil Rights Attorney would be willing to advise in this matter, please reply via email.

The family is in desperate need of support and legal assistance. The Natural Solutions Foundation http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=193 is taking this threat to our collective Health Freedom and our Freedom of Speech very seriously. The Foundation will continue to assist and are building a network of natural physicians, Constitutional lawyers and other experts to be ready to act as "amicus curiae" - Friends of the Court - in similar cases. If you can help us fund or staff our Health Freedom Posse, please reply via email. Remember that your donations key to these battles!

Dr. Laibow has pledged to interrupt her travels to be present for this hearing but, because this is a juvenile case, she and all other outsiders are barred from attending these proceedings. However, the minute the outcome is known we will inform you on this threat to our Health Freedom. Watch for the next email in this unfolding story. This may mean that you will get another email as early as later today.

The Natural Solutions Foundation will be there for your freedoms and assisting this brave mother and son as they pursue legal redress for the assaults the State of California has made on their Health Freedom.

Because this is a juvenile case we will not be permitted to attend hearings. However, we will know the outcome immediately following and will keep you informed on this threat to our Health Freedom. And we will be there for you when this brave mother and son pursue legal redress for this assault on their Health Freedom.

We agree strongly with Dr. Ron Paul's recent statement, "The government should never have the power to require immunizations or vaccinations." If you haven't done so, please sign the petition: Support Ron Paul's Health Freedom Protection Act, H.R. 2117 and forward to all your family and friends to do the same!

Please do what you can to support the Natural Solution Foundation's efforts by making a generous donation. Your generous support makes this and all of our other outreach efforts possible.

We are all invested in this fight. Each of us will be effected by it's outcome. Each of us can make a difference!

Thank you Freedom Fighters!


Thomas Cowles II
Media Director, Natural Solutions Foundation
healthfreedom@cowlesmedia.com

Mexican wolves

I won't hide the fact that I'm pretty darn unhappy with the Mexican wolf "reintroduction" program. There's so many falsehoods being passed around out there that it is pitiful.

Most of the people who are pro-wolf (but who don't live in Mexican wolf country) are automatically pro-"reintroduction" program. They don't have a clue how the program is run, and they believe the propaganda out there that the locals who have to submit to the program - at very high personal cost (that's out of their own bank accounts, gentle reader) - are all anti-wolf.

Ain't so. People here in Mexican wolf country are anti-program, not anti-wolf. So when you start bashing people who are protesting this program (and they aren't all ranchers, contrary to what the propaganda tells you), you might stop a moment and ask yourself this: Where did you get the info that forms your belief? From shiny magazines with lots of money behind them? Or from the source, the people who are living with this program?

Are Environmentalists in Favor of Anything?

Dam the Salmon
By Shikha Dalmia
From the Wall Street Journal Friday, June 08, 2007
Printed in full at http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2007/06/are-environmentalists-in-favor-of.html

Al Gore has been hectoring Americans to pare back their lifestyles to fight global warming. But if Mr. Gore wants us to rethink our priorities in the face of this mother of all environmental threats, surely he has convinced his fellow greens to rethink theirs, right?Wrong. If their opposition to the Klamath hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest is any indication, the greens, it appears, are just as unwilling to sacrifice their pet causes as a Texas rancher is to sacrifice his pickup truck. If anything, the radicalization of the environmental movement is the bigger obstacle to addressing global warming than the allegedly gluttonous American way of life. . . .These dams provide cheap, renewable energy to 70,000 homes in Oregon and California. Replacing this energy with natural gas -- the cleanest fossil-fuel source -- would still pump 473,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This is roughly equal to the annual emissions of 102,000 cars.Given this alternative, one would think that environmentalists would form a human shield around the dams to protect them. Instead, they have been fighting tooth-and-nail to tear them down because the dams stand in the way of migrating salmon. Environmentalists don't even let many states, including California, count hydro as renewable. . . .Their opposition to nuclear energy is well known. Wind power? Two years ago the Center for Biological Diversity sued California's Altamont Pass Wind Farm for obstructing and shredding migrating birds. ("Cuisinarts of the sky" is what many greens call wind farms.) Solar? Worldwatch Institute's Christopher Flavin has been decidedly lukewarm about solar farms because they involve placing acres of mirrors in pristine desert habitat. The Sierra Club and Wilderness Society once testified before Congress to keep California's Mojave Desert -- one of the prime solar sites in the country -- off limits to all development. Geothermal energy? They are unlikely to get enviro blessings, because some of the best sites are located on protected federal lands.

Anyone feel like a BANANA?

One Still Free

You know, these days I'm pretty amazed at life. It's a bizarre world out there, if you read what's being said on blogs and in the news. I really am a lazy person in my heart and soul but I can't ignore the BS that people pass off as fact. It burns me that people will believe just about anything these days, which is incredible considering that we have the most powerful research tool that has ever existed on this planet at our fingertips, the web, which could be easily used to verify anything.

But no. People would rather believe the urban legends/hoaxes the receive via email and then pass them on to hundreds of their closest friends. People would rather believe everything they read in print, particularly when it comes in expensive, shiny magazines. They'd rather believe big PR campaigns then the small voices of victims.
People would rather believe what they're fed to believe rather than what they've checked out for themselves.

Well heck, then I'll just feed some belief systems too.

Heh, heh, heh.