In the spirit of bipartisanship...

[quarter23cd]

I

[sweetheart-mine]

FYI - I haven't gotten that evasive goat yet but I will... I will.

must be a swift little sleeper.

[NightOfJoy]

Although I'm not technically "against" hunting, I certainly don't understand why someone would want to do it. I understand the arguments "for" but still fail to understand how or why it's enjoyable to someone.

 

That said, hunting for food is a completely different situation in my eyes than "hunting for sport".

 

For myself, hunting (and fishing) is a way to stay/feel connected to nature. I am participating in an act that human beings have been involved in since.....well, since cavemen figured out that animals taste pretty good. A successful hunt results in healthy meat (no additives, hormones, whatever) that you cant get at your local grocery. As long as I treat nature respectfully and use what I harvest, I think its an honorable act. It may be tough to understand, but killing and cleaning an animal and eating it is real-it doesnt get anymore real than that-there is a circle of life/death present that most folks dont particpate in anymore. Dont get me wrong though-I'm no rabid Ted Nugent NRA type of hunter-matter of fact I have an active distaste for those types-I just dont get gun nuts (my theory is they have small penis syndrome). I'll go out a couple times a year-if I harvest, great. If not, I still get a lot of satisfaction from being out there. When it comes to fishing, I let go about 99% of what I catch. Normally, I keep enough fish for a couple meals for the family per year.

[austrya]

the husband of a friend of mine has been an avid hunter and gun lover all his life. she explains to me that at the core of his hunting desire is "self-reliance." does that make sense to anyone?

 

Sure, same reason a lot of people grow a garden and raise their own livestock. Except maybe he doesn't live in a place or have the resources to raise his own livestock.

[Good Old Neon]

the husband of a friend of mine has been an avid hunter and gun lover all his life. she explains to me that at the core of his hunting desire is "self-reliance." does that make sense to anyone?

 

Not unless growing my own tomatoes on my back deck also makes me all hunter-manly and self-reliant.

[bobbob1313]

I've always liked Patton's idea of war:

 

2 men in the desert, 2 handguns, whoever wins wins the war.

[quarter23cd]

Not unless growing my own tomatoes on my back deck also makes me all hunter-manly and self-reliant.

The cucumbers I grew in my backyard this summer tasted like crap, so dressed up in full camo and blasted the crap out of them in the dead of night from the safety of my neighbor's yard.

[viatroy]

I'm a cynic. Idealism doesn't exist in the real world.

 

 

Being an idealist is fairly frustrating, I admit.

 

I've always liked Patton's idea of war:

 

2 men in the desert, 2 handguns, whoever wins wins the war.

 

 

woah! B2, we agree on something.

[NightOfJoy]

the husband of a friend of mine has been an avid hunter and gun lover all his life. she explains to me that at the core of his hunting desire is "self-reliance." does that make sense to anyone?

 

Sure. What would most people do if civilization broke down? Where would they get their food if the supply chain for food distribution no longer existed? I know a guy whos family eats no meat from stores, ONLY deer and elk from his hunts and he's awful proud about it.

[austrya]

Sure. What would most people do if civilization broke down? Where would they get their food if the supply chain for food distribution no longer existed? I know a guy whos family eats no meat from stores, ONLY deer and elk from his hunts and he's awful proud about it.

 

When we were kids my dad was laid off most of a summer and my mom was a stay at home mom. Needless to say, money was really tight and between the garden and the fish my dad caught, we ate pretty well.

[quarter23cd]

Sure. What would most people do if civilization broke down?

See, I think the "what if civilization broke down?" argument is one that gets most people to stare at them like they are space aliens. I think most people would be envisioning this post-apocalyptic type landscape and in the back of their minds thinking "Wow.....psycho."

 

On the other hand, the example of supply lines breaking down is entirely reasonable. Katrina did a great job at showing how fragile the infrastructure can be. Being able to raise/catch/whatever your own food is potentially a pretty useful skill to have, I guess.

[sweetheart-mine]

This is the document that got me started taking another look at 9/11, since the neocons who developed the Bush Doctrine basically called for it to happen. That US foreign policy class last spring really derailed me, or opened my eyes. Or both.

yes, i followed a rather short internet trail to it -- there it was, for all the world to see if people would just look -- in march of '03, during the run-up to the invasion. i was really shocked by this document and the history leading up to it, and barely slept for weeks. not to be melodramatic but only realistic: life was never the same after that.

[sweetheart-mine]

"small penis"?

ah ha -- just what i've been trying not to suspect for twenty years.

[Mrs. Peel]

I

[sweetheart-mine]

Sure, same reason a lot of people grow a garden and raise their own livestock. Except maybe he doesn't live in a place or have the resources to raise his own livestock.

actually, as of six years ago, he does live in a place where he could raise his own livestock. but then he wouldn't have enough reason to use his gun collection, i reckon.

[quarter23cd]

My husband wrote a song for one of his bands that has been stuck in my head ever since we started talking about this. The chorus goes something like "I want to see a hunter carved up like a piece of meat, I want to see a hunter with a hook right through his cheek, I want to see a hunter strapped to the hood of a car, I want to see a hunter's bravery when he's unarmed"......

Don't worry, he's harmless.

Heh, I've been thinking about that song throughout this discussion, too. Tell Al I'm all about the bear-spray...honest!

[sweetheart-mine]

I've always liked Patton's idea of war:

 

2 men in the desert, 2 handguns, whoever wins wins the war.

well this does it. bobbob for president!

[NightOfJoy]

Being able to raise/catch/whatever your own food is potentially a pretty useful skill to have, I guess.

 

Its healthy too. I'm going to triple the size of my garden next year.......and ask Santa for canning materials in anticipation of a bumper crop in 09.

[Mrs. Peel]

Put that venison burger down, right now. I can see you.

[sweetheart-mine]

The cucumbers I grew in my backyard this summer tasted like crap, so dressed up in full camo and blasted the crap out of them in the dead of night from the safety of my neighbor's yard.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

I've always liked Patton's idea of war:

 

2 men in the desert, 2 handguns, whoever wins wins the war.

 

 

100% agreed. I believe there would be no war if we made the leaders fight it out amongst themselves.

[Mrs. Peel]

I had a modest veggie garden this year, but the bugs ate most of my squash plants. So I drowned them with Raid, because killing bugs doesn't count.

 

 

Actually, I can't bring myself to kill bugs, so I picked them off one by one and threw them in my neighbor's yard, and bought some bug netting for next year's garden.

 

 

Ikol, I'm so sorry I veered this thing so far off track.

[Sir Stewart]

Sounds like Rocky at the end of Rocky IV.

[sweetheart-mine]

Sure. What would most people do if civilization broke down? Where would they get their food if the supply chain for food distribution no longer existed? I know a guy whos family eats no meat from stores, ONLY deer and elk from his hunts and he's awful proud about it.

IF civilization broke down and there was no other way to eat meat, people who want or need meat would learn to hunt in a hurry.

[Mrs. Peel]

IF civilization broke down and there was no other way to eat meat, people who want or need meat would learn to hunt in a hurry.

 

 

Sure, just look at Tony Bourdain. He picked it up pretty quickly.