Updated Hunting Tally

As most if not all of you know, I killed a 16 point buck on October 18, 2009. This is the latest in the body count of the 09'-10' season. This Saturday is opening weekend for ducks and geese so the kill count should begin to rise as we hopefully have a great year at Ackerman Outfitters.

Organa's Record is Exemplary

Last week, Calvin's weekly student newspaper, The Chimes, filled up some whitespace with this facetious news brief:

Princess called to apologize for ‘hurtful’ comments

Leia Organa, candidate for Chief of State of the Rebel Alliance, came under fire Tuesday, once again accused of making “insensitive” and “elitist” comments.

Organa, formerly the princess of Alderaan, reportedly claimed that nerf herders were “stuck up,” “half-witted” and “scruffy-looking” in an offhand conversation with newly commissioned Rebel officer Capt. Han Solo.

“This just shows, once again, that Princess Leia is completely out of touch with the working classes,” said Taarek Bel’noor, president of the Fennessa Nerf Herding Council. “Her comments are especially hurtful, considering Alderaan was the birthplace of nerfs.”

This is the second major public relations snafu for Organa in the last week. On Sunday, the princess made an official visit to Kashyyyk and apologized to the Wookie ambassador for comparing his species to “walking carpet[s].”

According to the latest polls, Organa trails incumbent Mon Mothma by 14 percentage points.

In response, I wrote this letter to the editor. We'll see if it gets published.

Organa's Record Exemplary

I would like to express my deep displeasure at the underhanded mischaracterizations of Princess Leia Organa in last week's Chimes. In this time of galactic upheaval and uncertainty, Organa is providing the Rebellion with the visionary leadership that will bring liberty from the Empire's machinations. We all know the sacrifices that the Princess has made for the sake of her cause, giving up a life of privilege on Alderaan and her position as an Imperial Senator to fight in the trenches for the cause of freedom. In light of her track record, the Chimes' backhanded attack on the Princess is disgraceful in this time of crisis. Now is not the time to play petty semantic games, but to unite and work tirelessly for the overthrow of the Emperor's corrupt regime.

More Gang Violence

http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=114730&provider=top

The Public Option Dies

Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee voted not to include a public health care option in the health care reform bill that they will present to the full Senate.

From Slate:

As the liberal watchdog Media Matters pointed out, more Americans believe in the existence of UFOs (34 percent, according to a 2007 Associated Press poll) than oppose the public option (26 percent, according to a recent New York Times poll). Even among Republicans, opposition to the public option (42 percent) is outweighed by support (47 percent). Polls consistently find that the public option is more popular than health reform itself.

Sufjan Stevens

I was able to attend a Sufjan Stevens show last night in Champaign. He played a bunch of his new stuff, which is really different than what he's put out before but also really, really good. Something to look forward to. Unfortunately I didn't record any of the new songs (they're all pretty long and you can find them on YouTube if you're interested) but I did record Casimir Pulaski Day. Enjoy.

Weeds in the Wheat

I am stealing this from David Dark's blog. This is David Bazan, formerly of Pedro the Lion, singing "Weeds in the Wheat."

And here is an article about Bazan's music.
Long, but highly recommended.

Hunting Tally

October 1 marks the true beginning of hunting season with the opener of Whitetail deer archery season. As fall progresses I will be giving updates of the current harvest of various game species. Stay tuned in as the body count rises.

Current counts

Blake : 1 16 pt. Whitetail Deer
1 Eastern wild turkey
4 Canada geese
11 Mourning doves

Dr. Tom: 1 Eastern wild turkey
4 Canada geese

B3: 1 Eastern wild turkey

Grishnov Krantz: 4-6 Mourning doves

Joe:

Tomtomtomtomtomtomtomtom:

Populist Reactionaries Descend on Washington with Sharpies and Screen Printers

If you have watched the news at all in the past few days, you have surely seen numerous images of protesters at the National Mall in Washington, DC. You might recall that these protests were promoted by Glenn Beck on his popular evening show on Fox News, and in general expressed reactionary sentiments opposing the Obama Administration. Good. Yes, for the very fact that they were protesting, I commend them. One of the things I lament about the United States is that it has a weak tradition of spontaneous democratic demonstrations. It is a rarity in America to seen people demonstrating at all, in contrast to some European societies, where protest is a normal mechanism of the democratic process.

The multiplicity of political ideologies represented at the 9/12 protests was remarkable. From the borderline anarchists, to the radical libertarians ("Ayn Rand was right!"), to vaguely apocalyptic Christians ("Only God Can Save Us Now”), the protest represented a thorough cross section of the right half of American polity. A good many of the protesters had something approximately constructive to say. They were making an argument, and proposed some sort of solution, albeit in a polemical, bumper-sticker sort of way.

What was saddening, however, was the large proportion of signage at the protest that could be best described as “hate mongering.” The favored devices of this group were vulgarized Obama campaign portraits and malapropism of the political vernacular. For example, it seems that roughly half of the protesters believed Obama to be a socialist, while an equal proportion deemed him a fascist, despite the oppositional locations of these two ideologies on the political spectrum. I realize that this is confusing, especially since Mussolini began his career as a socialist journalist, and Hitler's party was poorly named the National Socialist German Worker's Party, but nonetheless, the use of fascism and socialism as interchangeable terminology is an indicator of the cheap populism drove many of these protesters to Washington and an ineloquent expression of the urgency of the current situation in the eyes of right wing radicals.

Overwhelmingly, the protesters identified Obama as unamerican, or foreign. Predictably, the media's use of the term "Czar" to refer to Obama's personal advisors has been a stumbling block for many in the Beck camp. It seems that some have believed this term to be referring to a new administrative post in the style of 19th century Russian absolute monarchy. Attempts to associate Obama with Muslim radicals ("ali Bama"), or to question his very nationality ("Where's the birth certificate?") were also widespread at the 9/12 protests. The strict Manichean divide between what is seen to be Good and Evil, Obama and “True America,” is frightening. True America is one that is capitalist, rural, white and patriarchal. It will rewrite history to prove its authenticity, and it will allow no middle ground in its struggle to protect an illusory status quo. This no-compromise attitude is what propelled the French Revolution into chaos and brought German crowds to a frenzy on the Night of Broken Glass. This line of thought is what should be making people nervous, not the moderate social democratic policies of the administration.

Early Goose Season

This past Saturday I had the privilege of participating in the early Canada goose season. This season was started as a means to provide some form of control over the resident goose population. The term "resident goose" implies that the geese in question remain in Illinois or wherever else they are throughout the winter and do not migrate. This behavior change is caused by the abundance of food that can be found in Illinois mainly in the form of waste grain left in the fields from harvest along with the recent tendency towards mild winters in the Midwest. As long as there is some form of open water in addition to food nearby, geese will stay through the winter. This can lead to overpopulation problems along with habitat degradation in the areas where they are living.

So as I said, the early goose season was started to control this resident population of geese. The season runs from September 1 - 15 with the limit of geese being 5 per person per day and a total possession limit of 10. Originally the limit was 2, same as regular goose season, but that was not putting a big enough dent in the population so it was bumped to 5.

Anyways, last saturday my uncle Mike, his friend Dave, Dr. Tom, and myself set up a dozen decoys in a recently harvested oat field that had alfalfa growing in it and recently spread manure on it. My uncle had seen geese using the field and sure enough at 6:45 the first flock came in, landing just outside of the decoys. After deciding it was time to shoot something we opened up on them, dropping 3 or 4 out of that flock. After retreiving our birds we did not have to wait long before more flocks of geese started landing in the field. Another advantage of the early goose season is that the geese are dumber than a box of rocks. At one point there were 40-60 geese that had landed in the field and while we were shooting at others flying overhead, these geese just sat there and watched their kin fall from the sky without even a honk of concern. Being as most of these geese were just hatched this spring, once we would shoot a few out of a flock, all we had to do was make a few come back calls and the geese would turn around and fly back over us to be shot at again.

At the end of the morning we finished out with 17 geese for the freezer, we should have limited out completly but we were a little rusty from last season. All in all it was a fantastic hunt and I feel blessed that I have these opportunities in life.

Suck it PETA.

22:51

"But Jesus said, 'No more of this!' And he touched his ear and healed him." ~Luke 22:51

The incident of Peter slicing off the high priest's servant's ear is mentioned in all four gospels.

Presumably, the authors of the gospels thought that Jesus' right hand man taking a swipe at someone's head with a sword was an event unusual enough to mention.

However, Jesus healing the man who came to take him to his death is mentioned only by Luke, the author noted for his attention to minute detail.

Could it be that the authors of the gospels saw this as so commonplace, so in line with the character of our Christ that it wasn't seen as worth noting?

It's as if Matthew, Mark, and John collectively think: "Of course the Lord healed him. Of course he reattaches the ear of his enemy in front of the mob sent to arrest him. Of course he loved and had compassion on this servant of the high priest...what was his name again? He even loved the high priest's servant. He even loved the man standing with his betrayer. He even loved this Malchus. Of course he healed him! Don't you know Jesus?"

"Duh."

A moment so enormously "small" it had to be picked up and placed down in history by Luke.

Do you know this Jesus?