Lex Anteinternet: National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall

Lex Anteinternet: National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall: When I become President, every golf course in the United States will be grazing land. Same thing with shopping malls. National Park Service ...

National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall

When I become President, every golf course in the United States will be grazing land.

Same thing with shopping malls.

National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall

I know how to play golf, but I don't golf.  It's boring and sanitized.  The kind of sport for people who want to go outside, but fear the outside, or are hopelessly urban.  Granted, that's not the fault of all of the hopelessly urban, and that's the place for golf.

Golf is one of those sports that's underwent an evolution in my mind when I was quite young.  I won't say that is rational or correct. 

My mother was a first rate golfer.  My father didn't golf at all.  None of the men I knew when very young golfed, and when I came to know some that did, as I aged, they were men who didn't do the things, or didn't do them to the same extent, as the men I knew.  Golfing men didn't hunt much, they didn't fish much, they were going to be found at brandings.  They all tended to be from the upper upper middle class, or the lower wealthy.  In my mind, they were effeminized as they were playing what seemed to me to be an effeminate sport.

That view of golf hasn't changed much for me and indeed its been reenforced as I've grown older.  I know that there are some really manly men that golf, but I don't know very many.  Of guy's guys that I know that golf, there's one really nice guy I know who does, and that somehow fits him.  He's a computer guy.  And there's one that's just too out of shape to do anything else, and you can be pretty out of shape and play golf if you use a cart.

I don't think, actually, that these feelings are as unique as a person might think.  At one point in time lawyers were associated with golf (not anymore) and some golfed as they felt they had to.  This was particularly the case with new lawyers.  I've known at least two new lawyers who golfed as they thought that's what lawyers did.  Interestingly, of those two lawyers, I know a third person, a woman, who insists that one is "gay" just by her observations of him, even though he's been a married man for years.  Maybe the golfing was too effeminizing.

In a weird sort of way, Donald Trump emphasized this a couple of years ago when he simply gushed over his probably totally fictional observations of the size of Arnold Palmer's penis.

Seriously?

Oddly enough, golf was definitely associated with lesbianism at one time.  This was the case for decades, and in some ways it cuts against what I'm noting here.  As a sport, it was a sport that women could participate in and do very well as professionals, and so perhaps, maybe, women who were sort of masculine in their internal inclinations participated at a higher rate that would have simply existed in the general population.

I can't say much for golf. 

Golf also seems to me to be the ultimate boring urban upper middle class excuse for a sport, at least at one time.  Manly men might shoot hoops, or go play flag football, or something, but at one time towns and real estate developers but in golf courses as it was the default sport for aging white people.

Tennis is the other urban sport, or was.  It's joined by basketball and pickle ball in that category.  The thing is, however, that to play any of those sports well, you really need to be in shape.  The same kind of guy that can really drive a tennis ball over the net can drive a baseball right down the field at lethal speed..

Supposedly golf has declined in popularity in recent decades, and its notable that at the same time the demographics of the country are changing.  Golf was heavily racist at one time and indeed it was more recently than a person might imagine, although there have been some really notable Hispanic and Black golfers.  Golf is apparently of Scottish origin, where it would have been pretty darned manly, so its an import of the British Isles.  People from other cultures don't really have any roots in it, and for that matter, lots of European Americans don't.  Shooting was the sport for Germans, and competitive shooting, like polo, was a major military sport.  Shooting was, and in fact is, a major civilian sport in many parts of the country.  Basketball is an American sport, as is baseball, and both were played by rural and lower middle class demographics at first.  Basketball is particularly interesting this way as it comes from farming country with bitter winters, so its a good indoor sport for a lot of pretty athletic people.

Football is actually of British origin, but the origin is from the British lower class and it reflects that origin to this day.  Hunting is a male human universal, which recent anthropology suggest had more female participation in antiquity than previously imagined.

Gardening, hunting, shooting, walking, running and nearly anything just seems to have more merit that golf.  But it hangs on in the minds of the elderly, a game of privilege from their youth.

So that a bloated old man with money would choose to wreck things for golf, makes sense.  People tend to hang on to the era in which they were young, and the wealthy have more of an ability to do that than other people.  The super wealthy have the ability to afflict that on everyone else.

Going Feral: New provision in Senate budget bill could put Wyoming public lands up for sale.

Going Feral: New provision in Senate budget bill could put Wyom...: New provision in Senate budget bill could put Wyoming public lands up for sale : Land sales would raise federal revenue and open up parcels ...

Frankly, for Wyomingites in general, and more specifically for the users of public lands (hunters, fishermen, outdoor recreationist, ranchers), this ought to be it in regard to political support.

If anyone of our three Congressional reps vote for this, they shouldn't receive our votes after this. 

Lex Anteinternet: Rediscovering the obvious: Diet and hunting, fishing and gardening

Lex Anteinternet: Rediscovering the obvious: Diet and hunting, fish...: 

Rediscovering the obvious: Diet and hunting, fishing and gardening

For those who follow dietary trends, the current in vogue diet is the "Paley\o Diet".  And for those who take the National Geographic, you are aware that they've been running a semi scary series of articles on food in the 21st Century.

Elk hunter in northwest Wyoming, first decade of the 20th Century. For many in this region, this scene could have been taken any October.

The National Geographic articles have been inspired by the scare that's existed since at least the early 1970s that the planet is about to run out of food, although that particular article isn't really on that topic.  Quite frankly, and as well explored by an earlier National Geographic article, there's small chance of this indeed.  If anything, production agriculture has so vastly increased the global food supply that there's an overabundance of food and most fears of this type are very poorly placed.  Production agriculture, in fact, has hardly touched Africa and there's vast potential there, although not without vast cultural cost at the same time.

That's not what this article addresses, however. Rather, it addresses something that has been so obvious to me for decades that it not fits into one of those "geez, I wish I'd thought of marketing that way back when. . . " categories.

That is, human beings are evolved to eat a diet that we ate in our aboriginal state, for the most part, which we could still largely do.  Failing to do so has all sorts of negative health impacts.

Now, I am very well aware that this idea, which is an obvious truth, runs counter to the whole peak of the vegan trend, but that entire trend is one that is basically neopaganistic and hateful of nature.  We are part of nature, are evolved to eat a natural diet, and that diet was a wild one.

 Deer hunters with camp, early 20th Century.

So, hence the paleo diet trend, which I've largely ignored  A better study of this was presented by the National Geographic.

And what did the National Geographic discover? Well, people in their native states are hunter gatherers, with the emphasis on hunters. They eat a lot of vegetative material, but mostly because they're left with little choice.  When they don't have meat, it's because they can't find it, and they crave it.  If meat is abundant, their diet is heavy in it.  If it isn't, they feel deprived and make do with what they can find.

 Don't have the time, or perhaps energy to pursue deer or elk, or whatever.  Well, poultry lovers, perhaps you should try something a little more wild. Women hunters with pheasants.  Pheasant taste better than chicken any day.  For those who worry, moreover, about mass poultry production and how chickens are killed and raised, these pheasants enjoyed a wild bird life and generally when they're culled, they go from that to processed, so to speak, instantly.

And, as we now are increasing learning (and which I've known for decades) a natural diet of that type, with what you could locally hunt, is the best thing for you.

Now, as folks around here know I'm a fan of agriculture, and indeed I own beef cattle (although I'd live off of deer, elk and antelope if my wife, who is more of a beef fan, would allow).  And agriculture does have a peculiar role here.  

 Female pheasant hunter, 1960s, Colorado.

Agriculture is, or can be, the enemy of the wild in that it's allowed, as has long been known, civilization to rise.  Only the production of surplus foods can sustain urban development and our type of civilization, even though farmers and ranchers are often shunned by the people who depend upon them 100% in cities.  This has long been known, and some cultural anthropologist in fact make a big deal out of it and sort of smugly argue that all production agriculture is the enemy of the wild.

But in fact, as the National Geographic explores, agriculture can exist and does exist in a blurry line with hunting and gathering in those societies.  Nearly all, but not all, hunter gather societies are actually small farm, hunting, and gathering societies.  That's been obvious for millennia, but is generally ignored.

 Rabbit hunter, early 20th Century.  Rabbit taste nearly identical to chicken, and is the leanest meat on the planet.  It's so lean, in fact, you can't survive on a diet of it alone.  In many nations, domestic rabbit is a common table item.  It oddly isn't in the U.S., but there's no good reason for that. Wild rabbit taste like chicken and can be used anywhere chicken is.

Okay, so what's all this have to do with diet?

Just this.  While it puts me in the category of food campaigners, a wild diet is the best diet, and some direct relationship with your food is vastly superior to none.  People who sit around extolling vegetarianism or veganism are largely allowed to do that on the backs of farmers who are supporting their pagainistic anti natural dietary beliefs.  People who have a direct relationship with consumption and understand it (the two not necessarily being the same) tend to feel differently.

 Trout fishing in the Catskills.  Fishing is really fish hunting, and I've always thought that people who try to make a distinction between hunting and fishing are fooling themselves.  For that matter, anyone who eats fish, poultry or meat and doesn't think that they'd personally hunt or fish is really fooling themselves anyhow.  While on this, I'll also note that I truly find the modern emphasis on "catch and release" a bit bizarre.

Even now, in the 21st Century, many of us could have that direct relationship.  Most urbanites have the room to plant a garden (and yes, I've done so in the past but haven't the past several years, so I'm being a bit hypocritical).  And hunting is on the rise in the United States.  Taking some of your food in the field, either by hunting or fishing, is to be encouraged, and not only has the benefit of giving you a diet that somewhat replicates the one you are evolved to actually eat, but it gives you a lot of exercise as well.  Indeed, something non hunters don't appreciate is that the actual work in hunting involved can be quite intensive, and usually really dedicated hunters in the west try to stay in shape for that reason.  For those who can't do that, a direct relationship with your beef supplier, or pork supplier, or poultry supplier, is nearly always possible.  The cow in our freezer has always been the trendy "grass fed" beef just because of that sort of, but of course it's one of our own that's a "volunteer" having determined to retire from calf raising.

 World War One vintage poster campaigning for War Gardens, which the U.S. encouraged to be planted in towns and cities.

 World War Two photograph of a Victory Garden being planted.  This fellow had such a big yard (its in a town) that he's acquired a tractor to do it.

 School Gardens probably passed away about the time this poster was made during World War One, but there's plenty of space in most urban areas for yard gardening.

There's no down side to any of this, and we can only hope that this trend continues in the future, with more hunting, gathering and planting, on their own.  Shoot, most urban areas are so darned boring in real terms, the benefits can hardly cease.

Deer hunter bringing in a deer on skies. The uninitiated will think, "oh surely, that's the far distant past". Well, not always.  I haven't hunted deer on skies, but I have hunted snowshoe hares on skies many times.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. State Shooting Complex

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: SF169 would create a state shooting complex.

SENATE FILE NO. SF0169

State shooting complex task force.

Sponsored by: Senator(s) Hicks, Kinskey, Kolb and Salazar and Representative(s) Burkhart, Chadwick, Haroldson, Larson, JT, Niemiec, O'Hearn, Washut, Western and Wylie

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to the administration of government; creating the state shooting complex development and oversight task force; providing duties of the task force; requiring reports; creating the state shooting complex account; providing appropriations; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  

(a)  There is created the state shooting complex development and oversight task force to consist of the following members:

(i)  The governor or his designee;

(ii)  The director of the Wyoming game and fish department or his designee;

(iii)  The director of the department of state parks and cultural resources or his designee;

(iv)  The director of the department of tourism or his designee;

(v)  Two (2) members representing firearm, archery or firearm accessory manufacturing companies in Wyoming, appointed by the governor;

(vi)  One (1) member of the public representing a shooting sports organization that has representation in Wyoming, appointed by the governor;

(vii)  One (1) member of the public representing a hunting or wildlife conservation organization that is headquartered in Wyoming or that has an active chapter in Wyoming, appointed by the governor;

(viii)  Two (2) members of the Wyoming house of representatives, appointed by the speaker of the house. The speaker of the house shall designate a co‑chairman of the task force;

(ix)  Two (2) members of the Wyoming senate, appointed by the president of the senate. The president of the senate shall designate a co‑chairman of the task force.

(b)  Any vacancy in the task force shall be filled in the same manner as members are appointed under subsection (a) of this section.

(c)  The task force shall:

(i)  Develop a framework for the selection of a location for the Wyoming state shooting complex;

(ii)  Review other shooting facilities in the region and develop preliminary specifications, plans and features for the Wyoming state shooting complex;

(iii)  Develop a request for proposals so that local governments, private sector entities or a combination of both may submit proposals to be considered for the location of the Wyoming state shooting complex;

(iv)  Make recommendations for the development, location and administrative structure of the Wyoming state shooting complex to the governor, the joint appropriations committee and the joint travel, recreation, wildlife and cultural resources interim committee.

(d)  Not later than October 1 of each year the task force shall report to the governor, the joint appropriations committee and the joint travel, recreation, wildlife and cultural resources interim committee on the activities of the task force under this section.

(e)  The legislative members of the task force shall receive compensation, per diem and travel expenses in the manner and amount prescribed by W.S. 28‑5‑101. Task force members who are not legislators and are not state employees shall receive the compensation, per diem and mileage paid to members of the Wyoming legislature under W.S. 28‑5‑101.

(f)  The task force shall be staffed by the legislative service office.

(g)  The task force shall terminate June 30, 2026.

Section 2.  

(a)  There is appropriated forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00) from the general fund to the governor's office to pay compensation, mileage and per diem for nonlegislative members of the task force. This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2026. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2026.

(b)  There is appropriated forty‑five thousand dollars ($45,000.00) from the general fund to the legislative service office to pay for salary, mileage and per diem of legislative members appointed to the task force. This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2026. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2026.

Section 3.  

(a)  There is appropriated the following amounts from any unexpended, unobligated funds in the following accounts to the state shooting complex account, which is hereby created:

(i)  Five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) ARPD;

(ii)  Two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000.00) from the Wyoming tourism reserve and projects account;

(iii)  Six hundred twenty‑five thousand dollars ($625,000.00) from the game and fish fund. This amount is intended as the required match to obtain federal Pittman‑Robertson funds or other federal funds to the extent federal funds are available for a Wyoming state shooting complex. This appropriation is conditioned upon a match of funds in the ratio of one dollar ($1.00) of appropriated game and fish funds to not less than three dollars ($3.00) of federal funds.

(b)  The amounts appropriated under subsection (a) of this section to the state shooting complex account shall only be expended through additional action of the legislature for the siting and construction of the Wyoming state shooting complex. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose. Any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining in the account shall revert to the accounts from which they were appropriated, unless otherwise provided, on June 30, 2026.

(c)  As used in this section, "ARPD" means American Rescue Plan Act direct funds, which are any unexpended, unobligated funds received by the state of Wyoming through the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund established under section 602 of title VI of the federal Social Security Act, as created by section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, P.L. 117‑2. "ARPD" shall not include expenditures authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, P.L. 117‑2, section 602(c)(1)(C) for revenue replacement for the provision of government services to the extent of the state of Wyoming's reduction in revenue.

Section 4.  This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Mountain Lion Chasing Season

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: 

Senate File 178 would create a mountain lion chasing season:

The commission is directed and empowered:

(xxxiii)  To establish and regulate resident and nonresident mountain lion pursuit seasons. During a mountain lion pursuit season, a person may use dogs to pursue a mountain lion but no mountain lion shall be killed or captured.

I'm a hunter, but I find this item exceedingly odd.