The stupid insanity caused by ignorance and fear

What are we so god damn afraid of?

Really? To feel safe we have to turn away those who desperately seek the freedom that is every human's right?

Sad.
...
Sad, sad, sad.

We are no longer a great nation when we act (rashly) out of fear and only self preservation.

There are times that fear is justified, but there is no imminent threat. This is just politically motivated xenophobia.

Yet thankfully we have the law. 

The thing our true adversaries always despised most about us was our compassion and willingness to open ourselves to the world. That our nation was not one sect or one race, but an ideal that could be applied universally and would allow the for self rule.

Islam isn't our enemy. We are. Our own ignorance and the vainglory of the present President.

The things I'm trying to find research on now:

• What is this macro moment that is going on? It's clear to me that there is a a deeper human understanding of the diminishing resources available to each of us. Yet we can't have an honest conversation about it (global warming, root causes of population displacement, etc) To me much of this is a deeper resonance of the biosphere is collapsing in it's ability to support the human population - so of course now it's everyone for themselves. 

Realtime video is mightier than the sword ... and it's clear the average cop isn't smart enough to understand this.

Rodney King beating...

Yesterday I watched the video of the execution, what else you could call it I don't know, of Alton Sterling. There will surely be investigations. There will surely be an explanation, a trial, and maybe this time there will be some sort of evenhanded justice. Maybe *the system*, meaning the powers that make up our judicial system will start to account for the inherent racial prejudice in the way Police handle interactions involving african-american citizens. If not this time then soon I thought.. because soon they will wake up and will know the answer to the question:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - "Who watches the watchmen?".

The answer in this world is simple: WE ALL WATCH THE WATCHMEN.

Today we have this sad moment in Minnesota. It is just as heartbreaking though less clear as to the cops actions, but what is clear to me is that there will be no brushing this incident, or many others, under the rug as cops surely have so many times in the past.

So if the police don't know it yet - they are now living in a world where they must be much, much, much more professional. There can be no more mistakes. Every encounter must be beyond "by the book". And frankly, with law enforcement, that is how IT SHOULD BE. That is what we as a society SHOULD expect.



We have set the bar just too low for those who would aspire to be peace officers. Typically from my experience, there are some exceptional cops out there, but most are middling at best in terms of their level of professionalism. And how can we be surprised when as a society, we have basically subcontracted out a life and death professional position to a group that has reached the lowest levels of

Let me ask you - would you let a person little more than a high school diploma operate on you? Take out your tonsils? No? Why not? Because it would be fucking suicide, that's why not. Even if it's a simple operation, simple operations go wrong sometimes. And then you need someone who has a higher level of intellect, able to understand and quickly process situational information and synthesize this with rote procedure and come to reasonable and managed solutions with the best outcome for all involved. Injury or death being really bad outcomes.

With our police hiring practices that's basically what we've done. We've subcontracted it out frankly. In this stark piece of reporting from 2014 it is clear that among other things we need more educated - i.e. more professional - police force.

I've personally seen this up close. Back home after college (which I would drop out of btw), I was dating a sweet girl from the  the south side of St. Louis. Her step-father was a homicide detective. This guy was not stupid, he'd done a couple years of community college law enforcement program, but he was not a man of the world. He was not intellectually curious and rarely capable of understanding the differences in choices and options people from different parts of the city lived with. Now - this was not a beat cop - this was a homicide detective for crying out loud! His cop buddies, several of whom I got to know well, were pretty openly contemptuous of the african american part of the city (and that's putting it nicely). And on more than one occasion relayed to me, in the colorful prose of the south-city cop, that were more than willing to let those parts of town go to hell. That they saw little or no value in playing a role in creating safe, well policed spaces. Clearly this is just personal, anecdotal - but even now in NYC my interactions with the police lead me to much the same conclusion. It's a good job, that someone with a HS diploma can qualify for, and that is generally unencumbered by a need for true professionalism.

So you get the sort of policing that you pay for so to speak. And in a world where we can now have police behavior live streamed around the globe instantly - and should - we need to have a police force that can operate on that stage.

In a different time, in a different America, John F. Kennedy spoke to us as Americans of our shared responsibility and cause, asking us to rise to a great challenge and defend our experiment against all enemies foreign and domestic.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Today, we the people, and especially those of us who consider ourselves members of the Democratic party, must defend our republic. And to do that, we must help the GOP to defend itself. There are many of us - myself included - who have watched with a certain schadenfreude as the Republican Party has torn itself apart. For years the GOP has played footsie with the most puerile elements of the hard right, stoking the fires of hatred and mistrust. This has come back to haunt the Grand Old Party however, and we're all watching play out in the most macabre of carnivals.

But we must, in the true spirit of adulthood and patriotism, put aside this feeling of glee. (Yes, I know the Republicans would likely not do this for us... but that doesn't make it any less the right thing to do. )

As such - for all 5 of my readers - I call on all Democrats everywhere to support John Kasich. He is the one Republican that I think Dems could work with and who would be an honest and decent partner in contest with our own nominee.

If you are in a state with an open nomination process - please go and vote for him. If your state is a closed primary or caucus - please make a small donation to his campaign.

I cannot abide by Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio is clearly a puppet of certain monied special interests.

Democrats for Kasich !!!

https://johnkasich.com/

The Animal Family

I've read "The Animal Family" to my daughter a few times. It's the story of a lone hunter living in a wood at the edge of the sea. In it he befriends a mermaid who describes to him the essence of nature's eat and be eaten ethos to him:

The only things the mermaid was afraid of was big sharks and killer whales. "They kill us if they catch us," she told him. But she was afraid of them in a matter-of-fact, indifferent way, and said that none of her people really thought about them or hated them. "Why should we?" she said. "They eat us the way we eat fish. The fish don't hate us. They swim next to us when they know we're not hungry, and when we're hungry they get away from us if they can. Everything lives on everything.

"Everything lives on everything" indeed.

The balance that nature has handed us - had handed us perhaps - is so terribly threatened now. As hunters I hope that part of our understanding is to act to rebalance the the natural order. As such here are a few things I plan to try and do in 2016.  

• Eat invasive species!
• http://eattheinvaders.org/
• http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/g844/5-invasive-species-you-should-be-eating/
• Donate the proceeds...
• http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8351.html
• Take up fishing:
• http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/invasivespecies/

Summer Meditations

Note: I wrote the following during the summer of 2012. I'm posting it now because I've never known how to end it. But now it's done. And so this is how it should have ended after all.

This has been a summer of rebirth and reconnection for me. I've reached the end of what I hope will be the most personally painful episode in my life. Over the last two years I've had to fight for the custody of my child, and through patient and what I hope were caring efforts, I've won everything I set out to in terms of protecting our relationship. At the same time this struggle has created many casualties along the way. The relationship with my daughter's mother has been strained of course and my daughter has had to grow, endure, and learn to comprehend the world through two parents at war. This is perhaps an innocence most sadly lost. I had so wished it would never have ended that way, but not everything is within our control. The buck doesn't always walk into the clearing, with the wind in your face and the dawn behind you. I have lost years of my own life (priceless), wasted tens of thousands of dollars (stupid) and considerable momentum towards pursuing my personal goals. Most importantly perhaps is that I was finally forced to give up on a relationship that was, perhaps, my last great chance at love as the poets wrote of it.

I don't know if that gets across what an empty, lonely, frightened place I've lived in for the last several years - and the sense of loss I feel coming out of it - but I know I am coming out of it as I'm beginning to let it go. The pain, the victimhood, the sadness. It's all going away, and I am free again.

Why am I talking about this here? This is where I talk about "hunting", right? For me this is about the quest. The quest to find myself, my place in nature, and balance all of that in some imperfect but personally fulfilling way. This summer I've made a number of very journeys that are part of this healing experience - most important of those is the beach.

Teaching the tools, and do it yourself goodness

it's been awhile. it's not like there is anyone out there reading this... if you are, out there, please leave a comment. (but,,, not you mom ;)

anyway, i took the daughter to see "brave" this past week. she loved it. for myself, i could only think of how much i had enjoyed, and still enjoy, disney's "robin hood" and how that had always placed a kernel of as far as archery was concerned.

so... i made junia a bow out of some sticks from riverside park and three arrows with wine corks as tips. this was not complicated, but i did it with her. showed her what i was looking at when i picked out the different branches and twigs. explained the reasons for each part, let her have some input on little things. when we were done it worked great. it fires about 2 feet and has helped her to understand the complicated, yet sublime tools of the trade.

 she wants to come train with me now in august. it makes me wish i could make my own, i guess the only things stopping me is time of coures. it also makes me want to start working
with a longbow... though i'm not quite crazy yet.

one thing though. she still wants me to promise not to kill a deer. i think that's a good thing overall.

juina hunting the ever elusive honey bear

The persistence of the San people

This is from the BBC series 'The life of mammals'. My god, the persistence hunt, how incredible. Think about this, chasing an elk through the woods this way.






More about the San people...