Nature's Balance, Right?

Much has been written about the "endangered" Mountain Caribou, including the one in this morning's spokesman-Review, written by James Hagengruber.

Caribou...Cougars... Cougars...Caribou.

Joe Scott, of Bellingham, Washington, as mentioned in the above article, bemoans Canada's policy change, to give up trying to introduce Mountain Caribou into areas that they don't naturally prosper. Namly, the areas bordering Canada and Idaho, in the Selkirk range.

I'm wondering if Joe was in the forefront of the activists campaign of a few years ago, banning the use of dogs in hunting Cougars, and advocating natural selection.

Well, Joe, you've just been batted over the head with a dash of reality. Protection and reintroduction of predators does not bode well for the less hardy species or traditional victims.

You can't have it both ways, pal! Either give up on the artificial introduction of Wolves, Grizzlies and Cougars, or wave bye-bye to Caribou, deer and Elk.

Methinks you have been hoisted on your own petard...

Oh, and by the way, the Selkirk Caribou reside in Idaho. Police your own area, please. We have our own wackos without having to import any from a neighboring State...

My Time Out

For those of you that missed me this week, I've just been busy with my wind-up week at Silverwood. I am fine. To the female person that left a message re: my blog on my cheap answering machine, please e-mail me.

My hearing disability causes me to not hear certain tone ranges, which include the higher voices of the ladies. I've been told it was due to me ingoring my wives during all those years of marriage. I'm at hhuseland@aol.com. No comment on the cause of the hearing loss.

I will be back this week-end with more unsolicited comments about damn near everything. Hang on to your seats, folks.

Navy Base

In a recent inquiry by a local spy, I was asked,"What does the Navy REALLY do at their base in Bayview"?

I thought everyone knew that! It's a support base for the underwater city and U.N. arms factory bubble city between Lakeview and Bayview, Idaho.

You've seen the black helicopters, right? You know, the ones that are going to invade us through Canada? Right there... Flying Saucers? Right there...

The demise of the Blueback fishery? Food for the aliens working beneath the deep waters of South Lake Pend Oreille! Oh, and of course the secret underwater gold mine. I hope I've answered your question, Stebbijo...Oops! Now I guess you're out of the closet, dear...

Spokane Transit Authority

The Transit Authority in Spokane Washington, is typically known by the acronym STA. I didn't feel comfortable titling this blog with STA for fear someone would think it was contracted by unprotected sex.

Today, in the Spokesman-Review, was an editorial about STA. It was one of hundreds over the years. I finally got tired of hearing poor me stories about this abortion.

STA doesn't do well because they are unable or unwilling to separate the two primary goals of public transportation. The first, run it as a business and apply supply and demand principles.

The second, the welfare aspect.

It is all well and good to help underemployed and those more unfortunate than us get to work and the doctor, grocery shopping, etc.

What I am seeing here is that the STA has low ridership. That means that there is more service than the demand calls for.

While helping the needy is a positive thing, it is not the job of Public Transportation to be a welfare agency. If we need to subsidize, have the proper welfare agencies issue bus passes or reduced fare tickets, paid for by the welfare system, not the Bus Company.

As to low ridership, there are two obvious conclusions drawn here. If the transit authority is running buses that are not needed, then cut service. If featherbedding is the issue, if keeping a pre-ordained level of service is the goal, then back to applying good business principles.

Many people will not ride public transportation because of fear for their personal safety. There are some pretty cruddy people that ride this tax supported company.

Clean up your act, STA, then talk to us...

Random Thoughts

I am blessed. So many of you have sent me warm fuzzies, that I'm pressed to wonder why I didn't think of getting cancer sooner. You're all great.

I do, however have one disappointment to share with you...In accessing Cis's blog, there before my eyes, mocking me was her stats.

No! No! Not those kind of stats...I learned that she has 16 Grandchildren. That ties her with me, although, heh! heh! I have THREE Great-grandchildren. On the other hand, I've never been a Mother.

I'm finding that other than I can't stray more than, say, 30 feet from the nearest restroom, the after effects, so far, have been negligible. I still see the Sun come up, read good books, visit with my friends on-line, and rant.

That reminds me. Since DFO has become a recovering flame-thrower, someone has to take up the slack. Finding nobody more qualified, I have nominated myself.

If one considers, where else can you find unassailable opinions that are right on almost always...Well, sometimes...Would you believe once in awhile!

As we float innocently toward the week-end, I will discover some nefarious plot against mankind to expose. Until then...Adios, my friends.

After Effects

As they say, "you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs". This is also true when using radiation as a cancer treatment.

The collateral damage, as they would say in military circles occurs when radioactivity reaches healthy tissue and damages or destroys it.

I'm told I can expect to feel very lethargic for three to four weeks. This may be due to the 5 times I had to get up last night. That's bound to cause sleep deprivation.

Oh well, being lazy is something I'm pretty good at anyway...

I'm still working at the park, handling uniform turn-in and inventory, but should be free to loaf by the end of next week. I just hope I can hold out that long. I may not feel very creative for awhile, but keep checking the blog. I'll try to write something, if for no other reason than to let everyone know I'm alright...

Hanging in there, Herb!

Pearl Harbor

I have witnessed three sneak attacks during my lifetime.

The first, when I was only three years old, was Pearl Harbor, the sneak attack by the Japanese. More than two thousand Naval and Military personnel were killed during that attack.

The second, was the attack on civilians by Moslems. Unable to form effective armies, Arab extremists (read the Koran encouraged) resort to terrorism. The attack on the World Trade Center killed 2726 innocent people.

The third, is on going. It is the attack on the current administration by left wing radicals, including,it seems the majority of the written press. While liberating two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing a new life to the Kurds, we have lost a total of 2139 lives.

Put into perspective, we lost 386,744 Military and Naval lives in World War two.

We lost 54,246 to death in Korea.

Vietnam deaths totaled 58,152.

All of these deaths were severe blows to the families affected. Still, American Patriots flocked to the banner of freedom...

I can't minimize the 2139 casualties in Iraq. All deaths are a tragedy. What I am attempting to do here is put this all into perspective.

Have we lost the will to defend freedom, or is it just that our media bends the news to reflect their own prejudices.

I am getting old, and maybe it's time. I don't like the direction this country of opportunity is taking. It has always been a statistical certainty that sooner or later the have not's, and underachievers would become the majority, and change this Country irretrevably to something that will resemble the decline of Rome.

I am saddened deeply.

The Bottom Line

It's done. After two plus hours in the stirrups, sixty two radio-active seeds reside in my prostate. I suddenly realized, while undergoing this giant indignity, that I was finally seeing the world from a Woman's point of view.

While I certainly hope that my next crisis is passing away at 90 while peacefully sleeping, (post-coital, of course) I'm glad I had it done. The nice thing about this treatment option, is that it's a one shot thing. No follow-up, except PSA tests to record the demise of the cancer cells.

I drove over to Seattle, in a friend's car. He figured, rightly that I wouldn't feel much like driving, so I played tour guide, while John Wirst, my chauffeur rubber necked. The procedure was done by the Veterans Administration Hospital there. The Doctor, a famous author, Radiologist and UW professor was Kent Wallner.

When I asked what the cost of the treatment would be in a private facility, I was told $30,000 to $45,000. Next time you hear any criticism of the patient care at VA, send them to me!

I'm home, my bottom is sore and it's wonderful to have this over with. Thank you all for caring...

Herb

Comments

Dave Oliveria writes in his on-line column "Huckleberries" that he encourages comments. That started me thinking about my blog. We need comments. When I write something that I am really proud of, and receive no comments, I feel like nobody is out there.

If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody there, does it make a sound? That's what it feels like when readers go away without letting us know they were there.

I'll be out of town for a few days, as my cancer treatment is in Seattle at the V.A.
I'm getting brackytherapy, which is the implantation of radioactive seeds into the prostate. I'm expecting a full recovery without any serious complications.

I'll be back with a full report, well, maybe an abridged report, on the whole experience.

The Supreme Court

Many people that I meet in my daily life, when asked about their opinion regarding Harriet Miers appointment to the Supreme Court simply don't care. They either shrug their shoulders, saying "it doesn't have anything to do with me," or think it's some Mo-town music thing.

They are wrong. What happens in the next few weeks may effect everyone in very material ways. The next Justice appointed and confirmed will possibly bring about the largest swing in the high court since the ill begotten appointment of Earl Warren.

For several years now, the left wing feminist movement has held on to the "right" of abortion as a given. It hasn't always been that way. Prior the the activist Warren Court, abortion was illegal everywhere in this country. In my opinion, with perhaps a couple exceptions, it should still be. Killing our young is an animal response to stress.

In the old days, prior to legalizing this abhorrent act, it is true that many illegal back alley abortions killed and/or maimed expectant mothers. We now have modern day birth control. Something that we didn't have back then. We will very soon have approval of the "morning after pill". That should take care of rape cases, and some incest as well.

This year and with this appointment of a charismatic Christian woman,the high court will probably at the very least choose to limit abortion to very few circumstances.

We may see a shift from the welfare programs of the past, where we have multi- generational dependence on Government support. A shift back to values, something that many of our youth in these times doesn't seem to have.

Our society is imploding from lack of purpose and moral values. A few changes wouldn't hurt.

President Bush may be smarter that you think...

Editorials, plus and minus

I read each and every editorial in our hometown Spokesman-Review. Most are pushing extreme positions, and almost always are they politically correct.

Well, once in a while a real good one comes along. One did last Sunday. In an editorial that started out about Roberts and the Supreme Court, Andres Martinez of the Los Angeles Times hit a grand-slam.

When asked in hearings whether he would favor the "little guy or the big guy", Roberts replied, who ever is right...

Andres went on to explore the whole subject. He pointed out that targets that are unpopular, such as Tobacco Companies,Accounting Companies and such. Following Enron and other large corruption cases, the Feds went after the accountants. Smoking is more and more unpopular, so burn the companies that make them by using RICO, which is obviously not designed for this.

On the other hand, the Agriculture Department is subsidizing the tobacco growers.
Andres points out that while it is popular to go after unpopular industries, (Big Oil) because voters like that, it's bad law...

I like a guy that swims against the current and tells it like it is!

The Spokesman-Review

I've been musing about my blog, and blogging in general lately. Most of the inspiration for my stuff comes from articles and editorials in the S/R. Not only that, but Dave Oliveria of Spokesman-review.com/blogs/nhb, started most of us in this area, inspired us, then taught us how. When we actually do something interesting, he features it in his, the master of blogs. I wanted to take time out here to say thank you.

Sunday's paper was not an exception. The most hilarious piece was where the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has authorized the killing of an entire pack of re-introduced wolves. You know, the ones that are highly protected? Heavy fines for killing them? Well it turns out that these wolves are killing cows.

Duh!! It has become clear that what is lacking in the protection program is classes on English, the written language. If we had only the foresight to write "COW" on both sides of our livestock, we could, after teaching the wolves how to read, solve the problem.

Or maybe what we need here is a wolf class on discipline. You know, hey wolfy, deer and elk or O.K. but stay away from out cows and sheep! If a wild animal is given the choice between a Rib-eye steak or hamburger it will probably not be able to make the distinction between the right and wrong of it.

If we are going to re-introduce predator species that have disappeared from our forests, we have to first remember why they disappeared. We killed them because we couldn't co-exist with them. The wolves and Grizzlies killed livestock and folks back then. It was war. Survival. Now, we have environmentalists living in places like San Francisco in high rise apartments telling us what is good for the wilderness.

Have you noticed they don't ask us here in North Idaho our opinion? I invite these enviro-nazis to take up hiking and camping...Say on and around Bernard Peak here on the South end of Lake Pend Oreille. (pronounced pond oray) We have a resident Grizzly Bear for you to play with. Invite him to lunch! Or be lunch!

Be our guests. We'd love to have you.