Nature takes care of most of these problems where they sometimes occur. A wolf is considered not very highly by most folks and a moose can be a significant source of food for many of this states people. Wolves are hunted in many parts of the US mainly because of cattle and sheep, and this is only an extension of the practice.

You know--clean, articulate, used to get a little coverage on this site?

I have posted a letter about Sarah Pallin on my blog. I found it in the Washington Independent. It is too lenghthy to clutter up Salon with. Please click on Deeply Imbeeded below to read it.

This woman should not be anywhere near the Whitehouse!

Denial is a powerful thing. I have seen pictures posted of Palin in an airplaine, scoped weapon in hand, taking aim. Perhaps those pictures have gotten harder to find now. She has commented widely in the past on her pleasure at the kill and perhaps those quotes are also harder to find. I'm sure that you won't see them sprinkled abundantly in any papers in Texas. Palin's reputation has preceded her among members of conservation groups like Defenders of Wildlife who have been frantically writing letters and signing petitions for several years now. She was already a monster before the rest of the country ever got the news. If you aren't aware of that, obviously you aren't a wildlife advocate or conservationist.

I have pasted it on my environmental blog. Click on Deeply Imbedded if you are interested.

This issue alone is enough to disqualify Sarah Palin, because it goes directly to her character. This is a cruel woman who spouts baloney about being a Christian from her mouth, while with her hands she shoots exhausted wolves from airplanes (she also supports the killing of wolf puppies in their den).

Palin and those like her do not kill wolves to eat them. Instead, they kill wolves because wolves eat caribou and other animals that people like Palin enjoy shooting. In other words, wolves reduce the number of living targets for bloodthirsty people like Sarah Palin, and that is something that this phony Christian Palin cannot and will not allow. God's creatures are meant to be shot to death, in her twisted worldview.

Sarah Palin is a sadist. Is this the kind of person we want as a political leader?

Congratulate your pictures editor. It is a seriously effective picture, that gets right down to the heart of the article. For those who see the picture and are disgusted and upset - that is kind of the point.

with absolutely no regard for the sanctity of life, who cares nothing about the suffering of others (human or non-human).

Haven't we had enough of the irrational, anti-science, anti-intelligence and anti-environment insane Christian fanatics by now? Please?

Having this woman one 72 year old man's heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the country scares the absolute hell out of me.

"And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL."

And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and

he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL."

And the seargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Yes, Salon. Now that McWeirdo and Moose Lodge Bitch are up 10 (!) points in the Gallup poll, you and the rest of the left media need to start reporting some stories with diverse content. You mean Palin has no skeletons worth exposing?? That woman has liar written all over her face. As disgusting as this hunting issue may be, this type of thing is not going to get the ear of Joe and Jane Blow. AncientAssyrian is right, they don't give a shit. I don't know where Bullwinkle is, but let him take care of Palin's hunitng issues. In the mean time get the swift boat out and run these motherf*ckers over.

goes Osama Obama, ready to pluck names from tombstones for Hillary in '12, a la Daley Senior for JFK in '60.

And even if it were, I might not like it..which in some ways is a comment on Sara Palin's aesthetics itself.

I've lived in Alaska a number of times over the last 20 years, even for a while in Wasilla under Palin's administration, and aside from the improbably fact that she's been selected as McCain's running mate, there's not much special about her, and the position on regarding predators and prey populations is rather typical of the mentality of lots of Alaskans..the simple straight line connection between animals that eat other animals and their populations. It is human nature and it IS scientific...some scientists will support her in particular if they share the same goals: lots of hunting for the swarms of guns, snowmobiles and combat fishing enthusiasts that moved-up to Alaska specifically for that and who now all but controll the state through their fundamentalist church led voting blocks in the Anchorage bowl and the MatSu valley.

Keep in mind that these simple straight-line relationships in the complex systems of predator/prey are rarely all that simple no matter how many would like to see it be so, including scientists..after all, it's hard to argue that lots of wolves and bears must eat something. Of course many who read this will see a similarly straight line connection with CO2 and warming, another controversial insistence on interpreting a straight line interpretation of a very complex system, but that's a different rant.

As typical with these kinds of situations, the truth, if "truth" is actually the word (perhaps "reality" is a better word...though not the reality as in "reality TV")..the reality is that approaches like these can be simulatneously right and wrong.

We do seee a conflation of disgust at the idea of shooting from air, along with shooting wolves at all, and with any kind of hunting or even eating meat. In fact there may be times when either predator or prey over-run their resources and it's not a pretty sight either. Shooting from air, while unfair in a sportsmanship point of view, is undoubtedly a lot less cruel and a lot quicker, than many of the alternatives, including the kinds of death that wolves typically experience in their wild setting and certainly in the alternatives that hunters and trappers have in mind no matter how sportsmanlike it may seem to us on the sidelines.

To me the issue of shooting from the air should really be a question of what exactly one is trying to accomplish and not about whether we find it cruel or unsportsmanlike. Increasing the number of big prey animals seems like a good idea, but from the point of view of many alaskans there simply can't be too many and doing the lord's work is a way of saying that they want it to be convenient.