Just when you thought PETA couldn't get any more bizarre...

Cam Edwards has a Townhall column about how the PETA folks are opposing the New Jersey black bear hunt, but also relates the story of animal rights extremists successfully blackmailing a research animal farm to quit raising guinea pigs. The question is no longer "how low will they stoop," the question is whether there are any limits to their depravity.

Speaking of limits...when is the hunting season and what are the bag limits on PETA members?

A real-life Celebrity Death Match between PETA and Ted "Kill 'em and Grill 'em" Nugent is long overdue.

Videogame boneheads

I've gotta admit...I've never seen the XBox 360 except in advertisements in print and video. I never saw one on Black Friday, never saw one on its release day and haven't even seen any floor examples at any store I've visited.

What I have seen, however, are lots of accessories. Lots of games, add-ons, remote controls, hard drives and carrying cases, but no consoles. For people who are paid to be smart, the corporate planners, who put effort into getting the accessories out in time for Christmas but neglected the consoles, are doing a poor job of earning their money. Without the base product in their hands, consumers have no reason to buy the accessories filling the retail shelves. It'd be sort of like buying some fuzzy dice to hang on the mirror of your non-existent car. You're burning customer goodwill and killing sales of not only 360 accessories, but also regular XBox accessories for the holiday season (who wants to buy more regular XBox stuff when the 360 has been released...allegedly...anecdotally...mythically.)

It makes no sense. I understand that Microsoft wanted to beat the new Sony and Nintendo console releases, but why wouldn't you pour all your resources into console manufacture and leave accessories to be filled later? Maybe the release date just kinda snuck up on them?

With three weeks of shopping time before Christmas, and Ebay prices skyrocketing to two or even three times retail price, a lot of people are betting Microsoft is going to tank on filling orders for the holiday season. That's a shame, because NumberOneSon wants the console for Christmas, but I'm a little skeptical I'm going to be able to find one.

One thing's for sure - I'm not going to buy the accessories before I have the console in hand.

Taxidermist: "Is that a mule deer?"

I just dropped the caped head of the buck I shot Monday off at the taxidermist. His response - "is that a mule deer?" He followed that up with a lot of "wow, that is cool" comments about the atypical rack. The taxidermist, North Coast Taxidermy in Perry (within easy sight of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant cooling towers) came highly recommended by friends and neighbors. He said he hopes to have the deer done by late summer or September.

Good buck on opening day

I watched a lot of deer come and go this morning before killing a nice atypical 8-point at about 11:30 a.m. He came in with two does and a button buck. The does winded me in the swirling winds this morning and their nevousness forced me to take a front presentation shot on the buck. The bullet went in just to the right of the base of the neck, clipping off the vessels at the top of the heart, and dropped the big boy after a 40-yard run. Being Ohio, this means my buck hunting is over for the year. I still have doe tags, however... I checked the deer in at Gander Mountain and found their game-checking business had been slow to that point. One employee estimated they were down about 80 percent from opening day last year.

The buck's right horn is a fairly typical 5 point. The left side headgear, however, actually is made up of two main beams. The one to the back has one point and extends about a foot above the deer's head. The one to the front is a simple fork, also extending about a foot over the deer's head. The spread's about 22 inches. His bust will eventually decorate our family room.

5 a.m. at WalMart or "if you have to ask if this looks like a hooker dress, there's no way Dad is buying it."

Black Friday...5 a.m....Wal-Mart.

It just doesn't get any better than that, does it?

Braving the blowing, snow-blind 18-degree day after Thanksgiving, our clan loaded into the van and headed out for the biggest shopping day of the year (groan.) We had a 6-member pack, including my wife and daughter, father-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew. First on the list was a trip to Circuit City to try to get one of the $199 laptops advertised. Apparently the weather was no deterrent as we pulled into the parking lot to find 500 people standing in line in the blowing snow...next on the list was Best Buy, which had a similar line.

We regrouped, found a 5 a.m. "Shopper's Breakfast Bar," and reviewed our options. Wal-Mart was nearby, though no one could remember anything from their flyer. Rested and with our optimism restored through copious quantities of corned beef hash, we went to Wal-Mart.

There, we found the store less crowded than expected, though there were probably 500 people in line at the layaway counter, many with multiple carts in tow. I checked out sporting goods...no good deals on firearms/ammunition. I also checked out electronics...no good deals on remaining computers and no XBox 360s. I was ready to go.

Unfortunately, we also had women in our entourage with their genetic inability to instantly identify whether a store possessed anything worth buying until they had thoroughly checked each and every item. My wife and her sister, addicts of the "What No To Wear" genre of television, were shopping for their mother (who wisely remained at home.) My daughter, age 10 but going on 21, was shopping for clothes to land her a guest spot on Jerry Springer ("I am a Preteen Streetwalker.")

Canned response to wife "yes, that color's nice." Canned response to daughter "if you have to ask if this looks like hooker clothes, it is." Score: Dad 1, Hooker Clothes 0.

And so the morning went...no great buys were snatched up, though I did manage to sneak away from the clothes shopping frenzy to get to Gander Mountain and get some of that new and overpriced ($59 pants, $39 shirts) Under Armour long underwear everyone's raving about. I was worried about a cold opening morning Monday for deer season, though recent forecasts are calling for a high of 64 degrees and rain.

I guess the bulk of our holiday shopping, as usual, will be carried out in the dwindling moments before Christmas Eve.

Less than a week until gun season

It's less than a week until deer gun season here in the good old Buckeye State. It's my favorite time of the year...better than Christmas.

Though I've had good success in archery season this year, my real love is gun season.

Since Ohio is a shotgun-only state, I'm left with a choice between a few guns for opening day. I've got a scoped Remington 1100 that shoots 3-4" groups at 100 yards, a Marlin bolt action slug gun and an 11-pound H&R "Super Slugger," also complete with scope. I think the weighty one is the most accurate (with the rifled barrel drilled from a 10-gauge barrel blank) but I like the idea of the quick followup shots from the 1100. The synthetic-stocked 1100 is also a lot lighter to carry the 3/4 mile back to my stand.

I like the new Winchester Partition Gold slugs, though at $11 for a box of 5, they're a little pricey. You can't argue with a Partition bullet and 1900 fps from a shotgun slug, though. It also makes you wonder how Ohio can persist in this shotgun-only lunacy - you're allowed to use shotgun slugs going 1900 fps, muzzleloaders which are clocking 2700 fps, but are prohibited from using rifles (many of which are under those speeds.) Of course my own favorite deer rifle, a stainless, wood-stocked Weatherby Mark V in .257 Weatherby, is checking in at around 4,000 fps.

Time to clean the guns and pack the gear bag - deer season opens Monday.

This will be under the Christmas tree

I found something on Amazon that will definitely be under the Christmas tree at our house. I'm not sure whether it will be coming from the web or from a trip to the local Wal-Mart...the Dec. 20 release date seems to be cutting shipping a little too close for my comfort.

Woo-hoo! Great weekend in the Buckeye State!

If you're an Ohio sports fan (as I am,) this was a great weekend.

First the Cleveland Cavaliers extended their winning streak to seven with a comeback win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.

On Saturday, nearly every Ohio television was switched on as the Ohio State Buckeyes scored the winning touchdown in Ann Arbor over arch-rival Michigan with 24 seconds to go. Though we spent three years in Ann Arbor and my daughter was born at the University of Michigan Hospital, my loyalties are firmly behind the "Scarlet and Gray."

And on Sunday, my beloved Browns turned in their best performance of the season, throttling Miami 22-0. The Bengals lost to the Colts, but I was never able to generate much fan enthusiasm for the Bengals, despite spending seven years working at various newspapers in Cincinnati.

Life is good.

There is no problem so bad it can not be made worse by lawyers

The bird flu is pretty bad stuff.

If it succeeds in mutating to pass from birds to human and then from human to human, we're going to have a real problem. Starting from a population-rich center like China, the flu will have a huge pool of infectees to burn through before we can bring in under control. Wholesale vaccination will be our firewall against the potential threat.

But not if the lawyers have their way. According to an article in Thursday's Washington Post, the trial lawyers and their Democrat allies are fighting against provisions in a bird flu defense bill that would indemnify vaccine makers against lawsuits arising from their manufacture and administration of the bird flu vaccine. Sen. Ted Kennedy, corpulent champion of the little guy and well-known lifeguard, noted "it's cynical to claim that this is what's needed to deal with avian flu."

Perhaps Sen. Kennedy can explain why vaccines are no longer produced in quantity in the United States? Can anyone say low profit margin and huge liability concerns? I knew you could!

A vaccine is something which is given to everyone, but typically only in one series. Thus, since everyone takes the vaccine, government has an interest in seeing that the price remains low (leading to low profit margins.) There is no continuing usage. And since vaccines are somewhat dangerous to produce and administer, America's rabid lawsuit culture makes this country the last place on Earth for vaccine companies to flourish.

So 20 people per million will have a bad outcome from the polio vaccine? "Those vaccine companies KNEW, and yet they continued," the trial lawyers shout. In their perfect world, humans are like cars - with clearcut problems and solutions. There exists the perfect solution for each health problem, their paid experts will testify, and all bad outcomes can be traced to malpractice on the part of physicians or drug companies (one might cynically observe that this is because they have the deep pockets.)

I've got news for them: Despite the bit in our Declaration of Independence about all men being created equal, there's a lot of variation in the human beast; And what works for one member of our varied species, may kill another member.

Now I'm sorry if I'm suggesting the welfare line for thousands of trial lawyers, but their livelihood is costing this country dearly. Fear of lawsuits causes physicians to routinely overtest, over admit and over monitor patients. How much would be saved by ordering the tests, admissions and office visits which are warranted, and omitting those done in the interest of CYA? Goodbye Medicare problems, hello budget surplus!

So now companies are loathe to produce something in the U.S. which may save the lives of millions, but produce bad outcomes in a few. And the trial lawyers are there beating upon their breasts and tearing their hair out in sympathy for the plight of the potentially-downtrodden with their dual treasure troves of billable hours and huge settlements.

Here's a wakeup call: Not every medication will work for every person, in the same way, every time. It's time to pull the parasitic trial lawyers from the vaccine companies and let the companies do their best to safeguard America from the threat of the Bird Flu and subsequent dangers. Put on your big boy pants, legislators, and stay the course in the face of these lawyerly theatrics...don't help them pull America down.

Resolving to be more bloggerific!

I used to write a lot.

When I was a reporter, it was nothing for me to crank out4-5 stories of 750 words or more, completed from multiple-sourced interviews, for an issue of the daily paper. I could write (and probably still can) a complete game summary with quotes and stats from a sporting event in under half an hour.

So why have I been neglecting this blog?

There's no reason. Or perhaps a better explanation is...there's no compelling reason to keep it up. I'm not sure how many people visit, though I've never been a link whore creeling for attention. I do it for me...to keep my writing skills from atrophy. It takes a backseat to any number of things...duties around the farm, hitting the woods during hunting season, chauferring the family. If I get lazy and miss a few days, who's going to notice?

What's one less voice shouting into the wind?

The insignificance of this page in the wider internet world is daunting, but it's also somewhat comforting. No one is hanging on my every word. There are no legions of letter writers from every side of every issue ready ready to dip their quills in their inkwells and roast me over the fire for some perceived slight (though farther up the blog-circle of life, this is patently not the case - good reason to be smal and unnoticed.) I can write what I want, when I want, as often as I want, in my pajamas if I want.. It's tremendously liberating.

I like to write...always have...but when writing became a job and a daily grind, it lost some of its allure. Now I can write for me.

And I resolve to be more dedicated in churning it out. I resolve to write something every day during which I have access to a computer...something not merely linking someone else's work. It's like going back to the gym...once you start using those muscles, it's hard to imagine a day without a workout.

I'm back.

Nice overview by Steven Den Beste and Tiderhawk

I just finished reading an overview/outline of our pursuit of the Global War on Terrorism updated by Tigerhawk from an older outline by the nearly-prescient Steven Den Beste. The outline clearly presents a logical strategy in battling Islamofascism and is thankfully free of the historic revisionism so much in vogue lately.

Read it all...it's worth it.

C'mon, Dubya, France needs help!

All I want to know is: When are Bush and FEMA going to get off their duffs and send some guardsmen to help out France? How long is he going to wait and how much must the poor Peugots and Renaults suffer?

You know, I've gotta wonder if it's a Francophobia thing...New Orleans = French Creole, France = well, France. Could be the Big 3 automakers are behind this too...think of the market for cars after the smoke dies down! I'm sure Halliburton also has it's money-hungry talons firmly gripping the strings of the poor, misguided puppets rioting in the Paris suburbs.

Dubya lied! Cars were fried!