To All Who Shall See These Presents...

Greetings.

Since I just got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, US Marine Corps Reserve, I thought I'd invite you to a virtual wetting-down (now in progress)...

Buy Belevedere instead of Grey Goose, and support the Poles. Buy any good scotch, and support the Brits.

What I Learned From Hurricane Katrina

Having been inundated by the surge of media coverage on the year since Katrina, I'm sure you're tired of it. But perhaps not. Here's my little commentary on What I Learned From Hurricane Katrina:

1. Don't live anywhere that is below sea level and in close proximity to the sea.

2. Don't live anywhere that is below sea level and in close proximity to the sea AND is prone to violent tropical storms.

3. If you ignore 1 & 2, be prepared to GTFO and fend for yourself.

4. Make sure your state and local authorities are not corrupt and incompetent.

5. If your state and local authorities are corrupt and incompetent, and you know it, don't expect them to become suddenly clean and efficient and save you in your hour of need. See #3 above.

6. If all else fails and you are stuck in a natural disaster that hits your home that is below sea level and in close proximity to the sea, and you had no plan to fend for yourself, and your famously corrupt and incompetent state and local authorities left you high and dry-- sorry, LOW AND DROWNED-- don't make the same mistakes over again.

And don't demand that the rest of the country bail you out indefinitely. Help you out, yes, and do everything we can to alleviate your suffering and get you back on your feet. But listen to you complain while you make the same mistakes over again? Sorry. No can do.

Sound harsh? Sorry, it probably is.

Small Farms and Hunting, Pt 2

Following what I wrote a short while ago about the need to preserve small farms and the role that hunting can play in that effort, I see in the September 06 American Hunter an article that helps make my point: Will the Average American Hunter be Fenced Out?

At the rate we're going, it looks like YES.

The author makes the point that as land values rise, small holdings are bought up by developers or rich urbanites, neither one of whom is hunter-friendly. A self-compounding problem is created: green space is destroyed, game loses habitat, hunting is further marginalized. The rich are free to hunt their larger holdings, if they choose, but many do not. Game loses again because there is no hunting.

I wonder how we stop it.

I want to raise my son in that traditional lifestyle but we don't own land. The Va Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries has provided some good public hunting lands nearby, but those don't fill the demand fully. What I want is a small place to hunt close by, where we form a friendship and a partnership with a landowner, where we are welcomed as stewards of the land and the game, and where he and I both take an active role in preserving natural land and older ways in an increasingly urban setting.