Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Do Gooders and Terrorists

The old saw: "What's the difference between a do gooder and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist" just couldn't be more accurate...

I am going to meander, but stay with me... I am going somewhere...

Last year we had some hysteria in our local newspaper that someone was shooting ducks with arrows, and that somebody should do something about it... as in 100k per year law enforcement personnel with a pension that will last longer than the time they spent working should go out there and find this cruel and inhuman person... did anybody do a cost/benefit analysis on ducks?

I wrote a letter to the "journalist", in which I pointed out that we have a VERY high percentage of folks with no place to call home and HUNGER here in South Florida - could it be that somebody was trying to make a meal out these ducks? I mean, they are Muscovy Ducks, aren't they? The very type whose flesh is served in the best French (and Cuban) restaurants in Miami?

You hear a great deal of B.S.! about eating local, locavores, etc... yet it is almost impossible to consume "local" meats. That is because of rules put in place by the U.S.D.A., ostensibly to protect the public from "off" meat, PRIOR TO REFRIGERATION BEING WIDELY USED!!! In fact, livestock might well be grown in one place, trucked 500 miles to be processed, and then have the meat trucked 500 miles BACK to the town that produced the livestock in the first place... all because the U.S.D.A. has made it essentially IMPOSSIBLE for a small businessman (woman) to open a slaughter and processing plant. In fact, 4 HUGE companies (all of whom are MASSIVE contributors to the Democratic party... and why not? That political party HATES small business) process about 85% of all of the meat sold at retail in the U.S., at plants that are very far away from the ultimate consumption point of the meat. Does this sound like a very sustainable, environmentally friendly way to distribute food?

Of course, nature, and markets, abhor a vacuum. Black markets will spring up... So, today in South Florida 100 of our finest and most expensive public employees fanned out over much of west Dade county with guns and badges to put a stop to the illegal slaughter of livestock. I can just see it: "Stop cutting that chicken's head off you human being, or I'll slaughter you with my service weapon."


Our local governments are extracting extreme levels of property and sales taxes to fund the pensions of folks that are hard at work making sure people have to buy their food from the RIGHT CHANNELS, but have no money to prevent people from freezing to death in their own home. Better yet, if I kill a chicken for dinner in my back yard here in Boca Raton, FL, I could be charged with a FELONY for animal cruelty BUT... if I kill a chicken in my back yard in Lebanon, TN the local police chief will be happy to share his mama's fried chicken recipe with me... so long as he's invited to dinner.

Did it ever occur to the Jag Off's in Law Enforcement to do a cost/benefit analysis on illegal slaughtering houses and freezing old men? Did they consider that MAYBE, just MAYBE, the people patronizing these illegal slaughter houses might not be able to afford meat in the quantity they require from WalMart? NAFC. Hell, 20% of Dade County is receiving Food Stamps from the government, and our charity food kitchens are unable to keep up with demand here in South Florida.

In the aftermath of WWII in Europe there was a conspicuous absence of pets. There was no dog or cat food - dogs and cats were food.

We have crossed some strange boundary here...

24 comments:

Jacob Gittes said...

Up north here in Lake Wobegon, right in the city, somebody called the police because someone was shooting ducks this fall, with shotguns!

Of course, if everyone did this, there soon wouldn't be too many ducks around in the city.
But I say let those who are hungry eat the squirrels and rabbits. We have WAY too man of those creatures. They destroy our gardens.

I've been considering trying the local squirrel myself this winter. I'll let you know this weekend how they taste.

Do you have a good squirrel recipe, Greg?

kathy said...

I have an ongoing argument with a friend who thinks I am terrible because I am offing the damn woodchucks who eat my garden every chance I get. The rational is that the woodchucks have a right to be here as much as I do and the suggestion is that I should plant food for the woodchuck to keep him out of my delicatas. The last thing I want is a better nourished, more prolific pest. My garden is not a hobby. I eat out of it year round and I am not prepared to buy shipped in food because of a rodent. This same friend traps mice. The only difference is the perceived level of "cute". Woodchucks damage crops and the holes are a menace. A pox on them.

I am going to visit my daughter in Tampa in February, just before she and her family move to Pennsylvania because the employment situation in Florida has left my son-in-law unable to support his family. They are moving in with family to share expenses and start over. 5 years ago, he made over $100,000.00 a year. This year, under $30,000.00. I am so glad I am not starting out now. When we can't keep old men from freezing in their homes but pour out sympathy for woodchucks, there is something dreadfully wrong.

Anonymous said...

You bet there is something wrong. As you know, Kathy, they no longer trap the Coyotes here in the PRM. I have to stand in the yard when I put my dog out for fear he'll be eaten. The deer population is too high because there are not enough farmers left to shoot and eat them. My niece has Lyme Disease in no small part due to the deer overpopulation. I own a build-able lot, surrounded by houses, that has been essentially taken by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because some GD snail lives on it. I wonder if the mouse and rat bait in my garage is illegal. The world has gone crazy.

Regards,

Coal Guy

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Pub:

Forget the society wide justification "if everybody did this"... our local governments are broke, and are unable to feed our local populations... should we spend thousands to prevent some guy from whacking out a duck for lunch if he has nothing to eat?

I don't KNOW that that is what happened here, but it seemed to me as plausible as the theory promulgated in the newspaper - that there was a serial duck murderer on the lose...

Kathy:

I saw your cameo on the History Channel! Great stuff!

The dragnet of 100 Law Enforcement was brought to bear by 1 g-d forsaken do gooder... My point is that if we have this many Law Enforcement personnel waiting around for something to do, we should reduce head count and tax extractions.

Or... let the do gooders pay for it.

Donal Lang said...

Sounds like both ducks AND Florida need new social programs!

kathy said...

Florida will need new social programs if the horror of the earthquake sends thousands of new refugees to the shores of the states when the dust settles.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Donal: ROFL

Anonymous said...

Greg,

You have often talked about the "distractions" we are led to pay attention to, and how we have taken our eye off the ball. This is just more of the same. Totally mis-placed priorities.

Regards,

Coal Guy

bureaucrat said...

I'm not gonna touch this one. :) You animal killers can debate it. I appreciate my Tyson "chicken-in-a-box" when I'm in the mood.

P.S. there's a nice little article on the ASPO-USA site on the continuing decrease of oil production in Mexico.

Anonymous said...

More than law enforcement, it's the legislature's problem. They pass these ridiculous edicts. Law enforcement is probably much less interested in catching duck poachers than getting the wild animals at PETA off their backs.

Regards,

Coal Guy

bureaucrat said...

And we're still overflowing in oil products (from today, the 13th) ....

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Bearish supply data dogged shares of petroleum producers and refiners on Wednesday, as gasoline supplies turned in their largest one-week gain since March 2008.

Crude-oil stockpiles increased by 3.7 million barrels to 331 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 8, about double the analyst forecast for a rise of 1.9 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts.

Gasoline inventories rose by about 1.7%, the largest jump in nearly two years, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Bur:

I would be SHORT oil futures if I had a written guarantee from the good Lord that no one is going to bomb Iran.

Demand for Oil is terrible; ergo, the economy is very, very weak, probably much weaker than the market has discounted for.

I no bull on most commodities at the moment.. especially oil. Of course, if I am wrong.... I am gone

bureaucrat said...

Hey that's kinda musical ...

Meet a guy named Hong, and if you're wrong, smoke a bong, sing a song, go long, be strong and shoot a fawn, throw the IRS off your lawn, and you are gone. :)

bureaucrat said...

Nobody is going to bomb Iran. Never has there been a more miserable excuse for humanity than the Iranians. They can't do anything right -- never have. They can't even throw a good revolution. The world will leave them in their own gravy.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Coal Guy

Law Enforcement's agenda is the continuation and expansion of their budget.

No more, no less.

Jacob Gittes said...

Greg,
Could you comment on this article,which is extremely optimistic about future oil supplies?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34770285/ns/business-oil_and_energy//

tweell said...

My uncles got a visit from the boys in blue, the wrong person heard that they were distributing 'free range goat meat' to folks in need. Deer there are starving from overpopulation, people are hungry, but we can't have Bambi shot, you know!

askmes said...

Greg is right, much easier in TN, heck, it is legal to hunt in subdivisions in most towns. I'm not a hunter though; must be those years I spent getting soft in Boca...

Dan said...

Got a new Golden Retriever yesterday. 268 days until Duck Season!

bureaucrat said...

Why don't you pick on someone your own size? Hunt bears, minus the rifle. :)

Dan said...

In my state you have to, we only have an archery season for bears.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

We waste incredible resources enforcing laws with VERY VERY VERY expensive (overpaid) public servants, laws that are not justified in the first place.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Tweel:

Good for your uncles.

There is a nice lady in her 70's we in Tennessee that lives in a poor rural community about 2 hours outside Nashville that provides chicken, beef, pork and goat for needy members of her church. I know this because we give her our excess roosters and billy goats.

When I told her she was probably breaking the law she told me:

"What are they going to do? Put an old lady like me in jail for feeding people that don't have enough to eat? F**k 'em!" In her Southern drawl...

I have known her for several years and have never, ever heard her use any profanity - never mind the "F-bomb".

You gotta love a little civil disobedience...

Anonymous said...

Bambi carries deer ticks that spread lyme disease. Culling the deer population is a public health service. Tastes good too.

John Stossel had a show on about Crony Capitalism on the other day. It talked about big corporations bringing favorable regulation upon themselves to deter competition. The meat industry does it. GS does it. GE does it. The telecom companies do it. It's the new American Fascism. That's why big business is so happy to fund Democrats who publicly hate them and privately love them. They regulate in the name of the little guy for the benefit of the fat cats. That's why we are experiencing no-hope, no-change S.O.S. Not that the Republicans haven't done their share...

Regards,

Coal Guy