Outrageous Reactionary Politics – Lies – Need To Be Confronted Head-On
The outright absurdity of the extreme reactionism that continues to threaten wolves can often seem too outrageous to be real. We hope that it’s just some marginal voice and that maybe by ignoring it, it will go away.
Wolf management in the Rockies is a very real culminating crisis prompted more from the imagination of zealots than from anything we can objectively quantify. Born uniquely in the minds of men more than in the actual behavior of wolves.
Unfortunately, the crisis is real – bounties are being proposed in state legislatures, Wildlife Services considered gassing pups in dens, citizens are being encouraged to defy federal law and to kill wolves in both Idaho and Montana.
It’s lawless, it’s absurd, it’s anti-rational insofar as it’s a response to a real condition prompted by wolves’ actual behavior … But it’s perfectly rational politically – thus far it has been rewarded politically by both anti-wolfers and implicitly by some pro-wolfers’ capitulation alike – it’s a paradigm that will prevail under state management of wolves should wolf advocates lose the effort to keep wolves federally protected – because the sad truth is that in the halls of state legislatures, reason will have no voice.
Wolf-fearing ID lawmakers want emergency declared – Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Wolf-fearing lawmakers want Idaho to declare a disaster emergency that could include enlisting local law enforcement officers to help eradicate packs of the predators.
Update 4/2/11: It turns out that the language being considered is none other than the legislation we posted in February.
Read it here: Final Draft of Idaho Wolf Legislation
Update 4/4/11: The wording of the legislation is posted here: Language of the “Wolf Disaster Declaration” published.
Comments
I find it rather hard to read the article without finding it rather alarming that these government officials have these fits of hysteria over the wolves.Isn’t their a phobia for the fear of wolves like they do for spiders,arachnophobia?It’s an obsession or fixation.
It’s called stupidity.
From the Idaho Statesman:
“Rep. Judy Boyle from west-central Idaho, one of Idaho’s most active wolf opponents, told a hastily organized meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee that residents feel physically and psychologically threatened.”
Following this issue for a while, I’ve thought a lot about the balance between a genetically healthy wolf population vs hunter opportunity for ungulates, and what recourse the ranching community should have in dealing with depredation. I have sympathized with both sides on certain aspects of the wolf issue. This is coming from someone who is not a biologist and does not deal with wildlife professionally in any way.
That being said, if you are “threatened physically and psychologically” by the presence of wolves, then in my opinion, you are either a liar or a coward. I have a hard time believing that even the rural residents generally unhappy about wolves can embrace this kind of bullshit. Are you willing to sacrifice even your own dignity over the wolf issue? To pretend that you’re cowering in your own home in fear of wolves; that your children are not safe safe every time they step out the front door.
Some rurual legislators are taking things too far in the interest of political gains.
A prime example of government at its worst and unfortunately is an example of the rule rather than the exception. these reality insulated morons will pass even the most egregious legislation if it will 1) get a few more pennies of federal money, 2) get their name in the paper,and 3) prove how much more radical they are on an issue than any possible opponent will be
Idaho is an embarrassment to the country.
Don’t forget, Idaho gets $1.21 for every $1.00 in federal income tax.
The motto here is give us the money and leave us alone.
Absurdity is too kind of word, Brian. This is mass hysteria, a social disease , probably an airborne virus transmitted by projectile spittle in confined spaces ( saloons , gun shops , Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife meetings, whereever Toby Bridges is ranting. )
I have nothing against the individuals who espouse a western lifestyle, hunting and the gun culture, and I know ranchers who raise their stock well and use excellent animal husbandry to protect their bovine investment. But when they get their heads together and start feeding on one another’s wild-ass conjectures , it rapidly becomes mass hysteria and a declaration of war in the classic western tradition ( ask the Native Americans, bison , sheepherders, sodbusters, Latter Day Democrats, and of course Wolves version 1.0 ) . They go on a hyperbolic trajectory and truth is the first casualty on the ground.
If this is indeed the case, Idaho has taken over from Wyoming as the most socio-politically regressive state in the nation. I didn’t think that was possible.
I wholeheartedly agree with all statements above. They are all arguments that I, and many others, have been making for well over a decade now. It is when it hits the newspapers that others can see it but it’s been there all along. This sense of god-given-entitlement is among the first that has to go.
Fearmonger zealots of little mental capacity beyond initiating groupthink of the most dangerous type. (Seems to be the MO of groups like the toilet paperers.) And most folks in this country seem to think that the terrorists in other countries are a problem, these self-righteous assholes are more of a danger to democracy and public health, IMHO.
It floors me these comments-
“No wolves have been documented attacking humans, but the predators kill dozens or hundreds of sheep, cattle, hunting dogs and wild game including deer and elk annually”. Unbelievable- this people actually think that wolves shouldn’t kill elk and deer. The culture in the west is to not question the validity of such absurd statements. The sense of entitlement alluded to by Salle and others is truly baffling
I’m so sick of these pompous bastards… It’s like the christian doctrine of “kill anyone who isn’t ‘saved’ or belonging to our religion” mentality. Apparently they never look in the mirror to see what they really are. This type of rubbish is the real threat to our nation.
I heard an author, David Sirota, in an interview the other day. His new book; “Back to Our Future” describes how the 1980’s has shaped our cultural mindset that has fomented into the insanity of political and cultural though-processes of today. Here’s the interview:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/
He explains why the national mindset has come to foolish decision-making results which imply that guns/wars solve problems and why many think that the federal government can’t do anything or do anything right.
I’ll be reading that one next. But, how is this problem dealt with now that insanity – like this story shows – is the norm?
Salle,
Have you read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” where everyone is made mediocre after the Constitution is amended to make people equal (not in money, but mediocre in strength, intelligence, vision, hearing, etc.)? The law is enforced by the Handicapper General.
This seems to be the direction the elites in Idaho are going. If you do anything well, you are made the object of suspicion, dislike, and the state government will try to put obstacles in your way.
Keep them stupid, and the Old West elites that run the place have have their soft beds kept nice and fluffy.
I’m beginning to think that, with all the cuts to education in particular, these whack-jobs will come up with laws that make it illegal to be smarter than the idiots who get elected by way of corporate funding. It’s just a matter of time.
Plato was right:
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
Which is exactly why education is one of the generally under-funded and first to get the budget ax issues. Moreover, by constantly appealing to people’s innate fears it is easier to stay in power control the agenda and keep the populace under control.
Why educate the surplus population? There won’t be any jobs for them anyway. You don’t need no education to mow the lawns of the corporate masters. Teach ’em to handle an M16 or send ’em to prison.
See my comment above about the science fiction story Harrison Bergeron.
Actually Ralph,
I see it looking more like a cross-breed of 1984 and Animal Farm.
But to answer your question, no I haven’t read it but it’s on my list now.
S.
Add just a bit of Fahrenheit 451 to the above two.
Salle, it’s interesting you mention education. If these officials spent put half of this energy into improving education instead of pissing and moaning about wolves these areas would have some of the best schools in the nation. The same could be said if they spent this much energy trying to create jobs.
Yup.
…are they kidding? I don’t even know how to fathom this level of ignorance. It kills me to see wolves used as a scapegoat for poachers and ranchers. When are people going to realize that predators are crucial to ecosystems?
I am exceptionally disappointed in the Defenders and all the other groups that pulled out of the fight. Of what is everyone so afraid? Has stepping on the toes of those that oppose you become so politically incorrect that people aren’t even willing to stand up for anything anymore? The settlement to which they came is a joke, and if these psychotic politicians actually succeed in getting this nonsense passed, we can kiss wolves goodbye.
Update 4/2/11: It turns out that the language being considered is none other than the legislation we posted in February.
Read it here: Final Draft of Idaho Wolf Legislation
Just me or is there a whole lot of “deleting” going on in that legislation?
In Idaho, that’s standard procedure… head-in-the-sand-logic. If their education deconstruction legislation continues nobody will be able to read what they do and then they won’t have to waste so much energy and ink.
It seems to me that in many places of the proposed legislation “cow” could be sustituted for “wolf”. Maybe it’s time to place a bounty on the cattle that are destroying our public lands and reducing forage for our big game herds.
This is such bs. These people will say or do anything to demonize wolves. They are fear-mongering and they tried this last year if everyone remembers.
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Resolution seeks ‘emergency’ reduction in wolves in the state
Feb. 15, 2010 2:44 p.m.
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2010/feb/15/resolution-seeks-emergency-reduction-wolves-state/
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I posted on the 4.7 million dog bites/22 fatal maulings annually. I don’t want to demonize dogs, god knows I’m a dog lover but somebody has to counter this insanity. Hunters kill 100 people a year in the US and Canada in accidents plus another 1000 people are shot in hunting accidents every year. Cows kill 20 people a year on average. Wildlife Vehicle Accidents claim another 200 lives every year and thousands more injured. The numbers are up from Sept. through December, during hunting season, when deer are most panicked.
Wolves, in one hundred years, just two human fatalities in North America and none in the lower 48. And even those were controversial with no eye witnesses. It took them two years of vacillating in the Canadian case to decide if it was bears or wolves.
So instead of talking about the 4 million dog bites every year, they’re cowering in their homes over wild wolves they probably will never see in their lifetime? We really have to make a concerted effort to challenge this stuff and not just let it slide. Wolves deserve better then this and the entire situation is getting crazier by the day.
I agree with Ralph (and most everyone else here) in that this idiocy needs to be confronted. I think, though, that the ones spewing the BS have a bigger microphone than the ones who don’t. Since many of the people are either politicians or are part of a government agency (say the Fish & Game Dept) their voice is much more likely to get play in the press. Moreover, since many regard these folks as authority figures, those not overly familiar with the issue at hand will tend to buy in to what the “authority” says. This is especially true when fear tactics are employed.
It turns out that I was wrong about the language contained in the declaration. Not the same as that we published in February.