So Joan decided she was going to grill some steaks all on her own. I was allowed to watch, but I was told to keep my comments to a minimum, and by no means was I supposed to touch anything.
This is the sort of thing that drives men crazy and makes them load up their guns and take out a room full of innocent bystanders. The grill is ours. We control outdoor cooking, and we can’t watch someone else do it without interfering.
I could be standing around watching Bobby Flay flipping burgers, and I’d still offer my opinion. He wouldn’t have a problem – he’d expect it. Every man has their own way of doing things when it comes to charring flesh over flames, and discussing the differences is part of the male bonding experience.
If I were to say, “Bobby, I think those burgers are looking good. Maybe they’re ready to be flipped,” nobody’s feelings would be hurt. He wouldn’t think that I was criticizing his cooking abilities, or that I was calling him fat. He wouldn’t burst into tears, run inside, and lock himself in the bathroom until I apologized and agreed to take him to the mall in Missoula for a little shopping spree.
So when Joan left the steaks on too long, I didn’t say a word. I knew they were going to be as juicy and delicious as a bowl full of sand, but I kept my mouth shut. I felt as helpless as a calf who’d been roped and bulldogged and who was about to be made into a steer.
I could fix this. I could make it better if only somebody would let me. I had to turn away to hide my frustration.
That got me to thinking.
Now I know how the National Guard troops that are assigned to the Mexican border feel.
President Obama announced last weeks that 1,200 National Guard are being sent to our southern border. At first folks thought, “Great, the federal government is finally doing something to stem the flow of illegal immigrants pouring into this country like vodka down Lindsay Lohan’s throat.”
But then the administration explained that while the Guard will be providing support, they won’t be helping the Border Patrol arrest illegal immigrants. They’ll be watching the border from remote surveillance points, analyzing intelligence coming in from other entities, and passing that information on to agents in the field.
By doing this the President said, “They can relieve border guards so that the border guards then can be in charge of law enforcement in those areas.”
US Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual assured Mexican journalists that the National Guard will not be on the front lines and won’t interacting with people crossing the border. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quick to point out, “It’s not about immigration. It’s about the flow of certain things coming in this direction.”
I reckon by “things” he means drugs.
But according to T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents 17,000 agents, folks shouldn’t be surprised if the extra help doesn’t have much of an impact. He said, "They shouldn't expect that the announcement of up to 1,200 National Guard members will send a shock wave of fear in the cartels and that they will start playing nice."
All of this is going on at the same time that the Department of Homeland Security is telling Texas law enforcement authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected Somali man that they believe is trying to enter the country from Mexico. He’s said to be a member of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.
Apparently, a whole bunch of these Al Shabaab guys have been coming into the country lately. Court documents that were recently unsealed accuse a Texas man of smuggling hundreds of Somalis through Brazil, South America and Mexico into the United States. Many of these illegal immigrants are suspected of having ties with Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia that’s aligned with Al-Qaeda.
Foxnews.com reports that according to law enforcement officials, Mexican smugglers are coaching Middle Easterners in how to look more Hispanic. In villages throughout northern Mexico, they’re being taught how to dress, how to act, and how to speak Spanish.
Despite this, Obama’s being very careful not to do anything to upset his good buddy President Calderon of Mexico. He knows that if we were to actually secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws, and stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border, then Mexican citizens couldn’t get their US taxpayer funded health care and education.
And if that happened, Calderon would stop coming to the White House barbeques.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Opportunism Knocking
So me and Joan headed down the winding dirt road until we came across a group of cars parked on either side. I pulled off as far as I could, and we got out. I grabbed the cooler, and Joan got the chips and dip.
We walked a short way, crossed over a bridge with only a few missing planks, and arrived at a group of picnic tables. It was time for Cap’n Billy’s annual spring cookout and drunk-fest.
Each year my pal Cap’n Billy throws a party to celebrate the sun, good friends, and bad behavior. He told me that last year on the morning of the third day, he went out to his front porch and told the stragglers that they needed to find someplace else to pass out for a while.
There were hamburgers and hotdogs straight off the grill, every kind of side dish and dessert you could imagine, and plenty of cold beer. A pack of dogs patrolled around the tables, scooping up any morsels that found their way to the ground. When I set my beer down for a minute, a chocolate lab puppy rushed over and lapped it up.
As the sun dipped below the mountaintops, a campfire was lit. A late arriver walked up and shook Cap’n Billy’s hand. He grabbed a beer and started introducing himself to folks. When he got to me, he must’ve figured that he’d met most of the people there, because he stopped to have a conversation.
“I’m one of Cap’n Billy’s neighbors,” he told me. “I was drinking in a bar in Darby, and they told me I’d better go home ‘cause I can’t afford another DUI.”
“That sounds like good advice,” I said.
“But then I saw all these cars parked on the side of the road, and it looked like a party. I thought that I should check it out. It’s OK if I drink up here ‘cause the Darby Marshal don’t ever come up this way.”
“I guess the cops don’t come up here unless somebody gets shot,” I suggested.
He said, “Only if somebody calls them.”
That got me to thinking.
Folks in Western Montana don’t take kindly to the government getting involved in their affairs. They’re an independent lot, and they take care of their own business. It seems to me that maybe people in other parts of the country are starting to feel that way too.
Last week there were three Senate primary races that continued the trend of voters being fed up with incumbents in Washington. Senator Bennett of Utah and Representative Mollohan of West Virginia had failed the week before to secure a spot on the November ballot.
Usually, keeping a Senate seat is a sure thing unless the press has uncovered your extramarital affair. But things are different this year, and voters are saying they’ve had enough of the same old crap.
Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was forced into a runoff, although polls show that neither she nor her rival will win the general election against the Republican candidate. The funny thing is if you saw any of her campaign ads, you’d swear she was an Obama-hating, anti-stimulus Republican.
In the Kentucky Republican primary, Trey Grayson, who was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was whupped by Rand Paul who was backed by the Tea Party. Of course he’ll never win the general election as long as he keeps saying that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went too far. By the way, Paul is the son of the ever-entertaining (former) Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
And in Pennsylvania, one of the country’s most prominent opportunists Democrat/Republican/Democrat Arlen Specter, a five term Senator, lost his primary race even though he had the “full support” of both President Obama and Vice President Biden. You might recall that Specter switched parties last year because he didn’t think he could win the Republican primary. Guess what…voters saw right through that piece of insincere baloney and decided to boot him out.
What happened last week was a good start, and hopefully more of the filth, both Republican and Democrat, will be washed from the streets of Washington this fall. The only problem is that the guys who are being elected as replacements are still politicians. They’re just younger, fresher versions of the ones we’re all sick of. Once they get to the Capitol, they’re going to open their deep pockets to the same lobbyists and special interests.
Until we, as responsible citizens, take the time to get involved and get educated, we’ll be faced with the same opportunism that we’ve grown accustomed to. In elementary school, when they teach the Pledge of Allegiance, they should also teach the words to The Who song Won’t Get Fooled Again.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
We walked a short way, crossed over a bridge with only a few missing planks, and arrived at a group of picnic tables. It was time for Cap’n Billy’s annual spring cookout and drunk-fest.
Each year my pal Cap’n Billy throws a party to celebrate the sun, good friends, and bad behavior. He told me that last year on the morning of the third day, he went out to his front porch and told the stragglers that they needed to find someplace else to pass out for a while.
There were hamburgers and hotdogs straight off the grill, every kind of side dish and dessert you could imagine, and plenty of cold beer. A pack of dogs patrolled around the tables, scooping up any morsels that found their way to the ground. When I set my beer down for a minute, a chocolate lab puppy rushed over and lapped it up.
As the sun dipped below the mountaintops, a campfire was lit. A late arriver walked up and shook Cap’n Billy’s hand. He grabbed a beer and started introducing himself to folks. When he got to me, he must’ve figured that he’d met most of the people there, because he stopped to have a conversation.
“I’m one of Cap’n Billy’s neighbors,” he told me. “I was drinking in a bar in Darby, and they told me I’d better go home ‘cause I can’t afford another DUI.”
“That sounds like good advice,” I said.
“But then I saw all these cars parked on the side of the road, and it looked like a party. I thought that I should check it out. It’s OK if I drink up here ‘cause the Darby Marshal don’t ever come up this way.”
“I guess the cops don’t come up here unless somebody gets shot,” I suggested.
He said, “Only if somebody calls them.”
That got me to thinking.
Folks in Western Montana don’t take kindly to the government getting involved in their affairs. They’re an independent lot, and they take care of their own business. It seems to me that maybe people in other parts of the country are starting to feel that way too.
Last week there were three Senate primary races that continued the trend of voters being fed up with incumbents in Washington. Senator Bennett of Utah and Representative Mollohan of West Virginia had failed the week before to secure a spot on the November ballot.
Usually, keeping a Senate seat is a sure thing unless the press has uncovered your extramarital affair. But things are different this year, and voters are saying they’ve had enough of the same old crap.
Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was forced into a runoff, although polls show that neither she nor her rival will win the general election against the Republican candidate. The funny thing is if you saw any of her campaign ads, you’d swear she was an Obama-hating, anti-stimulus Republican.
In the Kentucky Republican primary, Trey Grayson, who was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was whupped by Rand Paul who was backed by the Tea Party. Of course he’ll never win the general election as long as he keeps saying that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went too far. By the way, Paul is the son of the ever-entertaining (former) Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
And in Pennsylvania, one of the country’s most prominent opportunists Democrat/Republican/Democrat Arlen Specter, a five term Senator, lost his primary race even though he had the “full support” of both President Obama and Vice President Biden. You might recall that Specter switched parties last year because he didn’t think he could win the Republican primary. Guess what…voters saw right through that piece of insincere baloney and decided to boot him out.
What happened last week was a good start, and hopefully more of the filth, both Republican and Democrat, will be washed from the streets of Washington this fall. The only problem is that the guys who are being elected as replacements are still politicians. They’re just younger, fresher versions of the ones we’re all sick of. Once they get to the Capitol, they’re going to open their deep pockets to the same lobbyists and special interests.
Until we, as responsible citizens, take the time to get involved and get educated, we’ll be faced with the same opportunism that we’ve grown accustomed to. In elementary school, when they teach the Pledge of Allegiance, they should also teach the words to The Who song Won’t Get Fooled Again.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Monday, May 17, 2010
A Little TLC
So it was a beautiful morning for a hike. The temperature was in the mid 40’s, and it was bright and sunny. The forest was green from the recent rains.
I went up the canyon along an old logging road, heading to an overlook that I knew would have a gorgeous view of the canyon and the valley beyond. The trail I was following gets a lot of traffic from hunters in the fall and horseback riders on the weekends, but at this time of year, I’m usually the only one on it during the middle of the week.
As I neared the overlook, I could hear low voices and occasional laughter. Somebody else was enjoying my spot on this fine morning. No problem; there’s plenty of room to share.
To get to the view, you’ve got to leave the logging road and take a short trail over a ridge. As I topped the ridge, a familiar odor wafted around my head. In my younger days I was frequently surrounded by the smell of marijuana smoke, and I can still recognize it when I come across it.
There was a young couple sitting on a boulder, admiring the scenery, and toking on a joint. I thought it was a little early for potheads to be out and about, but I figured they were on vacation, in love, and looking for a place to get away. They were startled to see me but didn’t make an effort to conceal their actions.
My first thought was, that’s illegal. But then I remembered that President Obama has changed our country’s stance on the use of illicit substances. We no longer look at the drug trade as a criminal problem so much as it’s a public health issue.
That got me to thinking.
Here in Montana the use of marijuana for medical purposes was legalized by the state legislature. As a patient you are allowed to grow up to six plants for personal consumption, or you can have a caregiver provide it for you.
Certain caregivers have so many patients that they’ve had to open stores to accommodate all of their business. Judging by the number of stores, there’s a significant portion of the population suffering from debilitating medical conditions.
The state does little to regulate this budding industry. There’re no standards for quality, purity, or potency. They’re leaving it up to local governments to figure out how to treat the stores for zoning purposes. And when it comes to the source of all this pot, their policy is don’t ask, don’t tell.
I know folks who rely on medical marijuana to get through the day. They tell me it’s the only thing, short of heavy doses of opiates, that alleviates the pain enough so that they can live normal lives. I’m happy for them that they’re no longer criminals for trying to ease their chronic condition.
On the other hand, I think the current system is too easy to abuse. It seems to me that the supply of medical marijuana that’s currently available far exceeds what I would’ve guessed to be the demand for legal uses. I’m not saying that anybody’s breaking the law because I don’t know. The trouble is I don’t think anybody knows because there’s not enough regulation.
Here in Ravalli County, five men were recently arrested on charges relating to the theft of drugs and other items from the John Stone Foundation, a marijuana dispensary in Stevensville. One of the guys, Beau Miller, allegedly stole the stuff. The other 4 guys, one of which was the owner of the store, allegedly beat Miller with baseball bats, a flashlight, and an axe handle.
At some point during the fight, Miller pulled out a pistol. Shots were fired, but nobody got hit, and the gun was wrestled away.
Miller managed to get away and run to a nearby house. The homeowner called 911, and sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene. Miller was bleeding heavily from two large lacerations in his head.
Now I can understand that Miller would appreciate the public health aspects of the situation, especially when he got 15 staples in his head to close one of his wounds, but it sounds to me like this was mainly criminal behavior. Who would’ve thought that trouble could come from allowing folks to sell dope from a store in a strip center along the highway?
In keeping with Obama’s new policies, perhaps all that these gentlemen need is some counseling, medication, and time for rehab. A little TLC (or is it THC) goes a long way.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
I went up the canyon along an old logging road, heading to an overlook that I knew would have a gorgeous view of the canyon and the valley beyond. The trail I was following gets a lot of traffic from hunters in the fall and horseback riders on the weekends, but at this time of year, I’m usually the only one on it during the middle of the week.
As I neared the overlook, I could hear low voices and occasional laughter. Somebody else was enjoying my spot on this fine morning. No problem; there’s plenty of room to share.
To get to the view, you’ve got to leave the logging road and take a short trail over a ridge. As I topped the ridge, a familiar odor wafted around my head. In my younger days I was frequently surrounded by the smell of marijuana smoke, and I can still recognize it when I come across it.
There was a young couple sitting on a boulder, admiring the scenery, and toking on a joint. I thought it was a little early for potheads to be out and about, but I figured they were on vacation, in love, and looking for a place to get away. They were startled to see me but didn’t make an effort to conceal their actions.
My first thought was, that’s illegal. But then I remembered that President Obama has changed our country’s stance on the use of illicit substances. We no longer look at the drug trade as a criminal problem so much as it’s a public health issue.
That got me to thinking.
Here in Montana the use of marijuana for medical purposes was legalized by the state legislature. As a patient you are allowed to grow up to six plants for personal consumption, or you can have a caregiver provide it for you.
Certain caregivers have so many patients that they’ve had to open stores to accommodate all of their business. Judging by the number of stores, there’s a significant portion of the population suffering from debilitating medical conditions.
The state does little to regulate this budding industry. There’re no standards for quality, purity, or potency. They’re leaving it up to local governments to figure out how to treat the stores for zoning purposes. And when it comes to the source of all this pot, their policy is don’t ask, don’t tell.
I know folks who rely on medical marijuana to get through the day. They tell me it’s the only thing, short of heavy doses of opiates, that alleviates the pain enough so that they can live normal lives. I’m happy for them that they’re no longer criminals for trying to ease their chronic condition.
On the other hand, I think the current system is too easy to abuse. It seems to me that the supply of medical marijuana that’s currently available far exceeds what I would’ve guessed to be the demand for legal uses. I’m not saying that anybody’s breaking the law because I don’t know. The trouble is I don’t think anybody knows because there’s not enough regulation.
Here in Ravalli County, five men were recently arrested on charges relating to the theft of drugs and other items from the John Stone Foundation, a marijuana dispensary in Stevensville. One of the guys, Beau Miller, allegedly stole the stuff. The other 4 guys, one of which was the owner of the store, allegedly beat Miller with baseball bats, a flashlight, and an axe handle.
At some point during the fight, Miller pulled out a pistol. Shots were fired, but nobody got hit, and the gun was wrestled away.
Miller managed to get away and run to a nearby house. The homeowner called 911, and sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene. Miller was bleeding heavily from two large lacerations in his head.
Now I can understand that Miller would appreciate the public health aspects of the situation, especially when he got 15 staples in his head to close one of his wounds, but it sounds to me like this was mainly criminal behavior. Who would’ve thought that trouble could come from allowing folks to sell dope from a store in a strip center along the highway?
In keeping with Obama’s new policies, perhaps all that these gentlemen need is some counseling, medication, and time for rehab. A little TLC (or is it THC) goes a long way.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Unfriended
So just when I thought I was going to land the 17-inch cutthroat, my line went slack, and the newly liberated trout disappeared under a nearby brush pile. It was enough to ruin a guy’s day.
My pal Stinky Pete had called me up that morning and said, “Let’s go fishing.”
He didn’t need to say anything more than that. I grabbed my gear and met him at the Wally Crawford access. He brought his raft, and we went up and put in at the Darby Bridge.
The weather’s been typical for springtime in the northern Rockies. In other words – completely unpredictable. With a series of weather systems moving through the area, the fishing’s been pretty spotty, but if you hit it right, you can get into some good fish.
Me and Stinky didn’t hit it right.
We were fishing with big, black-butt skwala patterns that were Stinky’s own design. According to him, most folks don’t get the body color right, but he’d found the perfect match. Behind those we were dropping March browns.
“Your arms are going to get pulled right out of their sockets from all the fish tugging on your line,” he told me.
We spent most of the day commenting on the scenery and how nice it was to be out on the river. We told ourselves, “The fishing may not be great, but it beats the heck out of being in the office.”
That’s true, but it sucks compared to catching fish.
We had a few little ones come up and bite at our flies, but most of them were so small that they got scared by the size of our bugs and turned away.
Around 2 in the afternoon, I finally got a nice fish to bite. He had plenty of fight in him, and we wrestled for a bit. I thought I had him tired out, and I was trying to lead him into the net that Stinky was holding.
Suddenly, the trout jerked his head downstream. There was too much pressure on my line to absorb the shock and my leader snapped. That’s when my line went slack, and my day was ruined.
Stinky laughed, and using the latest social networking lingo, he said, “You’ve just been unfriended.”
That got me to thinking.
As a so-called “blogger” of sorts, I’m supposed to know all about social networking stuff, but I don’t know squat. I guess that sort of thing could be helpful for attracting more readers. But I’m not sure how useful it’d be, or if it’d be worth all the trouble.
I’ve been thinking about getting a Facebook page, and I keep asking myself, do I really need more friends?
I know a lot of folks use sites like Facebook and MySpace to stay in touch with buddies, share pictures and stories, and some even use it to talk with clients. But it seems to me that these sites cause a lot of problems too.
There are plenty of stories of cyber-bullying, pedophiles finding targets, and inappropriate photos of young girls getting posted. Just ask John Stossel. Teenagers social lives’ have been ruined, folks have lost their jobs, and people have committed suicide because of things posted on these innocent websites.
Now there’s a new danger from social networking…divorce. According to The Sunday Mail, a newspaper in Queensland Australia, “Marriage counselors claim sites like Facebook are contributing to separations and divorce as bored 40 and 50-somethings try to reconnect with childhood sweethearts.”
Websites can’t cause folks to cheat. If a person is going to have an affair, they’ll find a way to do it. But talking through the internet might be easier to hide than using the phone or meeting in person.
The Sunday Mail went on to say, “British divorce firm Divorce-Online said Facebook was cited in one-fifth of the divorce petitions it processed last year.”
There’s no shortage of divorce websites. They make it fast, easy and inexpensive to kick your spouse to the curb. Facebook may be causing marital strife, but maybe online divorce services contribute to the problem, as well.
Nowadays you can have an affair, get a divorce, and get married again without leaving the comfort of your La-Z-Boy recliner. That’s not the sort of social networking that I need to get involved with.
Getting rejected by a trout is a painful experience, but when you get an e-mail from your spouse telling you it’s over, that’s the ultimate form of being unfriended.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
My pal Stinky Pete had called me up that morning and said, “Let’s go fishing.”
He didn’t need to say anything more than that. I grabbed my gear and met him at the Wally Crawford access. He brought his raft, and we went up and put in at the Darby Bridge.
The weather’s been typical for springtime in the northern Rockies. In other words – completely unpredictable. With a series of weather systems moving through the area, the fishing’s been pretty spotty, but if you hit it right, you can get into some good fish.
Me and Stinky didn’t hit it right.
We were fishing with big, black-butt skwala patterns that were Stinky’s own design. According to him, most folks don’t get the body color right, but he’d found the perfect match. Behind those we were dropping March browns.
“Your arms are going to get pulled right out of their sockets from all the fish tugging on your line,” he told me.
We spent most of the day commenting on the scenery and how nice it was to be out on the river. We told ourselves, “The fishing may not be great, but it beats the heck out of being in the office.”
That’s true, but it sucks compared to catching fish.
We had a few little ones come up and bite at our flies, but most of them were so small that they got scared by the size of our bugs and turned away.
Around 2 in the afternoon, I finally got a nice fish to bite. He had plenty of fight in him, and we wrestled for a bit. I thought I had him tired out, and I was trying to lead him into the net that Stinky was holding.
Suddenly, the trout jerked his head downstream. There was too much pressure on my line to absorb the shock and my leader snapped. That’s when my line went slack, and my day was ruined.
Stinky laughed, and using the latest social networking lingo, he said, “You’ve just been unfriended.”
That got me to thinking.
As a so-called “blogger” of sorts, I’m supposed to know all about social networking stuff, but I don’t know squat. I guess that sort of thing could be helpful for attracting more readers. But I’m not sure how useful it’d be, or if it’d be worth all the trouble.
I’ve been thinking about getting a Facebook page, and I keep asking myself, do I really need more friends?
I know a lot of folks use sites like Facebook and MySpace to stay in touch with buddies, share pictures and stories, and some even use it to talk with clients. But it seems to me that these sites cause a lot of problems too.
There are plenty of stories of cyber-bullying, pedophiles finding targets, and inappropriate photos of young girls getting posted. Just ask John Stossel. Teenagers social lives’ have been ruined, folks have lost their jobs, and people have committed suicide because of things posted on these innocent websites.
Now there’s a new danger from social networking…divorce. According to The Sunday Mail, a newspaper in Queensland Australia, “Marriage counselors claim sites like Facebook are contributing to separations and divorce as bored 40 and 50-somethings try to reconnect with childhood sweethearts.”
Websites can’t cause folks to cheat. If a person is going to have an affair, they’ll find a way to do it. But talking through the internet might be easier to hide than using the phone or meeting in person.
The Sunday Mail went on to say, “British divorce firm Divorce-Online said Facebook was cited in one-fifth of the divorce petitions it processed last year.”
There’s no shortage of divorce websites. They make it fast, easy and inexpensive to kick your spouse to the curb. Facebook may be causing marital strife, but maybe online divorce services contribute to the problem, as well.
Nowadays you can have an affair, get a divorce, and get married again without leaving the comfort of your La-Z-Boy recliner. That’s not the sort of social networking that I need to get involved with.
Getting rejected by a trout is a painful experience, but when you get an e-mail from your spouse telling you it’s over, that’s the ultimate form of being unfriended.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Species Profiling
So even though it was raining, snowing, windy and nasty, it’s springtime and I was going to have a barbeque. I smoked a few racks of ribs and grilled some flank steak and corn, and Joan made salad and potatoes.
The whole gang showed up, and we pretended not to notice the cold weather while we huddled around the fire, drinking beer and swapping fish stories.
After the required amount of fermented grain goodness had been consumed, the conversation focused on the qualities associated with the different species of trout. Everyone had a favorite, and they wanted the rest of us to know exactly why their choice was the best.
John the Baptist, whose name is John but who isn’t Baptist, started the whole mess by saying, “You know…I like to catch brook trout. There’s so few of them in the Bitterroot that when you catch one, you get a real sense of accomplishment. Plus, they look so different from all the others. I think they’re cool.”
Big Al said, “If you think rare is cool, then bull trout are the best fish to catch. Now that’s an accomplishment, and they grow to be humongous.”
“Bull trout aren’t even trout,” Stinky Pete replied. “They’re misnamed. And if you’re going to go after bulls or brookies, you might as well try catching lake trout, or barracuda for that matter. You’ll have just as much luck finding those in the Bitterroot.
“Brown trout are your best chance to catch a big fish in this river. There are plenty of them, but they’re smart. You’ve got to know what you’re doing if you’re going to land a big brownie on a dry fly.”
Nick Dixon said, “Cutthroat trout are the true indigenous fish to this area. As such, there’s a certain nobility to catching a wild cutt in its native waters. There’s a connection to history and to your natural surroundings that you can’t get with other species.”
“Dude, cutthroats are idiots,” replied Hippie Dave. “They’ll bite anything, and they don’t put up much of a fight. Pound for pound the best type of trout is a rainbow. They get big, and they’re the strongest swimmers. None of the others jump like a rainbow either. There’s no question that they’re the best…end of story, man.”
“All of those are stereotypes,” I said. “Each species has certain tendencies, but an individual trout is going to act based on instinct and its natural abilities. I’ve seen brownies jump, cutts fight like heck, and rainbows dive for the bottom. The best trout is the one on the end of my line. Y’all are engaging in species profiling.”
That got me to thinking.
Racial profiling has become a hot topic lately. In case you’ve been in a drunken stupor for the past couple of weeks and just sobered up, the state of Arizona passed a law that says police are required to make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person that they reasonably suspect is in this country illegally.
Why do we have to pass laws making it illegal to commit crimes that are already on the books? They’re called illegal aliens because they’re here unlawfully. The new Arizona law doesn’t do much more than give state and local law enforcement officials the same rights and responsibilities as federal officials when it comes to immigration issues.
Critics say that this will lead to cops harassing folks because of their appearance and skin color. They say it will be like Nazi Germany. They describe scenes like in the movies where SS officers are searching a trainload of passengers saying, “Let me see your papers. Your papers appear to be out of order. You will come with us.”
I imagine that Arizona law enforcement officials would need more than the way somebody looks to be reasonably suspicious of their citizenship status. If a cop stops a truck that’s crossing the desert in 115 degree heat with 40 scared, dehydrated people who don’t speak English in the un-air conditioned trailer, then he might want to find out a little bit about their immigration status.
President Obama called the legislation “misguided.” Liberal pundits have declared it unconstitutional. I’m sure the courts will determine that it unfairly targets a particular segment of the population.
I understand that illegal aliens provide much needed cheap labor. In exchange they get paid, they get tax-payer funded indigent medical care, and their children get educated in our public schools. They don’t pay taxes.
The point is illegal immigrants are breaking the law, which makes them criminals. I don’t believe that it’s misguided or unconstitutional to want our federal laws enforced. And if the feds won’t do it, then I guess it’s up to local governments to pick up the slack.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
The whole gang showed up, and we pretended not to notice the cold weather while we huddled around the fire, drinking beer and swapping fish stories.
After the required amount of fermented grain goodness had been consumed, the conversation focused on the qualities associated with the different species of trout. Everyone had a favorite, and they wanted the rest of us to know exactly why their choice was the best.
John the Baptist, whose name is John but who isn’t Baptist, started the whole mess by saying, “You know…I like to catch brook trout. There’s so few of them in the Bitterroot that when you catch one, you get a real sense of accomplishment. Plus, they look so different from all the others. I think they’re cool.”
Big Al said, “If you think rare is cool, then bull trout are the best fish to catch. Now that’s an accomplishment, and they grow to be humongous.”
“Bull trout aren’t even trout,” Stinky Pete replied. “They’re misnamed. And if you’re going to go after bulls or brookies, you might as well try catching lake trout, or barracuda for that matter. You’ll have just as much luck finding those in the Bitterroot.
“Brown trout are your best chance to catch a big fish in this river. There are plenty of them, but they’re smart. You’ve got to know what you’re doing if you’re going to land a big brownie on a dry fly.”
Nick Dixon said, “Cutthroat trout are the true indigenous fish to this area. As such, there’s a certain nobility to catching a wild cutt in its native waters. There’s a connection to history and to your natural surroundings that you can’t get with other species.”
“Dude, cutthroats are idiots,” replied Hippie Dave. “They’ll bite anything, and they don’t put up much of a fight. Pound for pound the best type of trout is a rainbow. They get big, and they’re the strongest swimmers. None of the others jump like a rainbow either. There’s no question that they’re the best…end of story, man.”
“All of those are stereotypes,” I said. “Each species has certain tendencies, but an individual trout is going to act based on instinct and its natural abilities. I’ve seen brownies jump, cutts fight like heck, and rainbows dive for the bottom. The best trout is the one on the end of my line. Y’all are engaging in species profiling.”
That got me to thinking.
Racial profiling has become a hot topic lately. In case you’ve been in a drunken stupor for the past couple of weeks and just sobered up, the state of Arizona passed a law that says police are required to make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person that they reasonably suspect is in this country illegally.
Why do we have to pass laws making it illegal to commit crimes that are already on the books? They’re called illegal aliens because they’re here unlawfully. The new Arizona law doesn’t do much more than give state and local law enforcement officials the same rights and responsibilities as federal officials when it comes to immigration issues.
Critics say that this will lead to cops harassing folks because of their appearance and skin color. They say it will be like Nazi Germany. They describe scenes like in the movies where SS officers are searching a trainload of passengers saying, “Let me see your papers. Your papers appear to be out of order. You will come with us.”
I imagine that Arizona law enforcement officials would need more than the way somebody looks to be reasonably suspicious of their citizenship status. If a cop stops a truck that’s crossing the desert in 115 degree heat with 40 scared, dehydrated people who don’t speak English in the un-air conditioned trailer, then he might want to find out a little bit about their immigration status.
President Obama called the legislation “misguided.” Liberal pundits have declared it unconstitutional. I’m sure the courts will determine that it unfairly targets a particular segment of the population.
I understand that illegal aliens provide much needed cheap labor. In exchange they get paid, they get tax-payer funded indigent medical care, and their children get educated in our public schools. They don’t pay taxes.
The point is illegal immigrants are breaking the law, which makes them criminals. I don’t believe that it’s misguided or unconstitutional to want our federal laws enforced. And if the feds won’t do it, then I guess it’s up to local governments to pick up the slack.
I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.
Copyright 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
