Summer Letters and Readings

Wait just a minute. This same group of professional Democratic Party sycophants ALREADY claimed that Clinton "protected 60 million acres" --- these same acres.

How many bites at the apple do these twits get? When will Mike "General McClellan" Francis just retire and take the rest of his loser cabal with him?

If you think this latest fund-raising Bill is going anywhere, I've got a slightly used Bridge to the 21st Century for sale.

This is unworthy of Lowbagger.org.

The reality is that many of us view New Year¹s Eve as “amateur night” and
rely on alcohol as a coping mechanism. But the more important reality is
that without alcohol I would probably not have learned the lyrics to the
”Jack Daniels” song at Roselle¹s 50th birthday party. Without alcohol, the
elders would certainly be less likely to share their oral history and wisdom
with the youth. And that would be tragic.

I do agree that going to the clinic is an opportunity one would not want to
pass on, regardless of drinking style. And I agree it is quite appropriate
for Mike to get his liver checked out and that like myself, Mike lacks a
governor between his brain and mouth at times. But when it comes to shelving
the medicine, I don¹t believe that is appropriate. Daddy needs his
medication. Do it for the children, for the kids.

You gotta unload to reload.

Derek Volkart
Ashland, Oregon

Michael Faherty

Thank you for the ode to my brother: "The Legend of Packer Bob."  You covered the Memorial well.  The photo of our brother, Norm was very good!  Would you be willing to Email me the photo of Norm?  That's so good of him, I'd like to keep a copy of it for our family files. 

I wasn't surprised that Bob had so many friends, because he's always been friendly and outgoing. I have many fond memories of my brothers and our lives in Payette, Idaho.  It was touching that so many people showed up to remember Bob. The military salute was wonderful too. Bringing Bob's ashes into the park on a pack horse, with his hat over top, made a great picture, and was very appropriate.  Who wrote the Selway poem on back of the "funeral card?"  Was it one of your staff?  It's wonderful to have your article and the Missoulian article to preserve in our family files.  Thank you.

Not only have asthmatic schoolchildren in the Eastern Seaboard suffered from deliberate weakening of clean air laws, but children from Twin Falls, Idaho to Causey, New Mexico to Bartlesville, Oklahoma have seen opportunities to see prairie grouse and sage grouse reduced by politically driven decisions to avoid protecting these formerly superabundant birds and many other flora and fauna under the Endangered Species Act.

The reign of Calamity George has been calamitous to the habitat of everything from humans to polar bears to spotted owls and the only real beneficiaries of the
Bush anti-environmental movement have been the industry lobbyists who have been hired to run agencies like foxes guarding the henhouse. The foxes have not
only guarded the henhouse, but have been actively tearing down the henhouse structure to make their friends' work of predation all the easier.

The only good news is that, unless the U.S. Constitution is altered, the Bush Administration will be over in a few years.  Will yin turn into yang? Will despair turn into hope?  Will anti-environmentalism be replaced with a new era of
desperately needed conservationism, protectionism, and restorationism (the environmental CPR recommended by the late, great David Brower)?

Make no mistake about it!  Leaving Bush behind, we will absolutely need to not only restore our environmental ethic, but we will need to undo the damage, strengthen the laws and regulations, purge the agencies, consolidate the initiative, and put into the White House a strongly committed conservationist as President.  We will need a president who will put people with strong ecological conscience in positions of power in the new administration.  We will need an
Andy Kerr in charge of the Forest Service, a George Wuerthner in charge of the BLM, a Mike Roselle as Secretary of the Interior, a Reed Noss in charge of
the Fish and Wildlife Service.

We will need to pass legislation to strengthen the Endangered Species Act, while making it fair as possible to those impacted by it.  We will need to make cleaning the environment profitable as a business practice.  We will need to make sure that businesses can no longer externalize the cost of their operations onto the consumer by avoiding the environmental costs of their operations into public funding.

We will need to fully fund conservation science and drastically improve monitoring of species, ecosystems, and impacts. 

All of this is very doable.  We need to defund the war-making machinery that puts billions of dollars into the pockets and accounts of the corporate elite and increase funding for labor-intensive cleanup, restoration, and monitoring.  A few billion dollars may buy only one aircraft carrier, but will go a very long way if diverted from naval warfare to oceanic restoration, including fisheries recovery.  A squadron of stealth fighter/bombers costs tens of millions, if
not hundreds of millions of dollars, but why do we need such weapons to fight "terrorists" without air forces whatsoever?  We can use that money to clean the air, protect birds and reduce greenhouse emissions.

After a period of calamity for the nation's environment, what a pleasure it should be to completely reverse course and start a real, prolonged period of healing and protection for our nation's environment, wildlife, human habitat, and survival
resources for all the above.  We can dwell on natural beauty, not unnatural degradation, peace and not war, ecology and not just the economy, and we can show that Calamity George was a mutant, an aberrant, and a failure. 

Traveler Misses Rocky Mountain Summer Lowbag Lifestyle
Poor Lowbagger  has been side-stepped for nice summer days, cold beer at the Iron horse, nice money tips' from clueless farang rafters, hot nights at charlies served with fresh cripsy chicken wings, clean rivers with cold water, Ole’s coffee in the wee hours of the morning, long dusty mountain trails, bright stars that criss-cross the sky while you lay in open meadows with the fresh aroma of elk poo drops, long hour drives to Yellowstone to visit and laugh with Mom and Howie, long hours spent in our public lands wondering about a vehicle that broke down with Lewis & Clark painted on the side of it, relaxing evening dinners in peoples' back yards watching the Dogs run around chasing and sniffing each-other, listening and trying to understand how Darwinism has failed by allowing Jimmy to live and use natural resources with out giving anything back to the planet.  Yes, I know the excitements of the Western lifestyles that occupy your time. This is something that haunts me in Bangkok. I am feeling a little out of my bio-sphere at this moment. 

Toast one for me, and publish my article.

I am uncertain that having Hopper direct it would have been a good thing
after hearing that he was going to speak in favor of George W. Bush at his
second inauguration (he was later disinvited). Would he have given us a
negative portrayal of our most famous literary environmental saboteurs, or
would Hopper's allegiance to Bush, if it still exists after being snubbed,
have been set aside for the making of the movie. And is Woody going to play
a role in it? Can you give us an update on the status of this film or just
make something up to make me feel better?

They need to hurry up with the movie. The FBI field agents are restless and
tired of harassing legitimate environmental non-profits. Plus, the state
needs to spend some more counter-terrorism dollars.

Morning Dew
Oregon

Isn't it great that we're building trust with the Forest Service? Reminds me of those kind souls trying to rehabilitate violent sexual predators.

For 100 years, the Forest Service priority has been the same: subsidized commodity production, not conservation.  What is the cost to taxpayers?  Why are all participants EVST graduates?  Which foundations fund this Hollywood Dream, and why?  Aren't conventional conservation efforts marginalized for being too extreme, compared to these flashy new academic gymnastics?  Is Ovando "urban?"

Can Democrats breathe easier?  Now that's fundable!

Because of selective collaboration, does the public no longer need to be informed/involved -- until the decision has already been made?  Now that we know about the process ("Process-Process"), how about an article explaining the ecological, economic and legal implications?  For balance, how about a not-so-sure-about-this voice in the news, if it is news at all.  Jobs, jobs, jobs, is what I see, not much else to brag about here.

San Diego, CA

Here, things are just fine, although it gets tiring being a damfighter-for-hire. Tomorrow, I´m going down South for a meeting on Uruguay River dams, then to the Amazon for a meeting on the aluminum industry and its energy gluttony, then to Mato Grosso for a meeting on plans to cover the continent with roads, industrial waterways, dams and soybeans.

 I figure I´m nearing retirement age, but since I can´t afford to retire, and have a little kid, Gabriel, I’ll probably be wrestling with recalcitrant NGOs well into my 70’s. Just today, Selma was trying to figure out why her apple tort didn’t come out like yours.

Hope to see you down this way sometime. Take care of your foot, and stick to the waltz!

Best,

Eat this, Watson.

Patrick Moore

Since the late 1980s, the environmental movement has lost its way, abandoning science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism. I left Greenpeace after 15 years as a founding member. Today, we're faced with environmental policies that ignore science and result in increased risk to human health and ecology. To borrow from the vernacular, how sick is that?
Genetic enhancement: Activists persist in their zero-tolerance campaign against genetically enhanced food, yet there is no evidence of harm to human health or the environment. Genetically enhanced crops reduce chemical pesticides, boost yield and reduce soil erosion. Enriched with Vitamin A, golden rice could prevent blindness in 500,000 children every year in Asia and Africa if activists would stop blocking its introduction.

The prognosis: Activists' zero-tolerance, fear-mongering campaigns could ultimately prevent a cure for Vitamin A deficiency blindness, deplete wild salmon stocks, decrease the safety of health care, deprive developing nations of clean electricity, stop renewable wind energy, block a solution to global warming and contribute to deforestation. How sick is that?

Co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, Ph.D is chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver, Canada.

Well beat me with a feather until I bleed. This is an opinion piece by you. So it's in the S.F. Examiner. As Shania Twain said, "that don't impress me much. I've had opinion pieces in Newsweek, The Vancouver Sun, The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Big frigging deal. Just what is it you want me to eat?

In this puff piece for corporate America you say that environmentalists do not consult with scientists. Baloney Pat, absolute baloney. I can assure you that the Sierra Club, NRDC, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd all back up our policies with science. Are you saying that E.O, Wilson, Paul Erhlich, David Lavigne, Roger Payne, David Suzuki, just to name a few examples are not credible scientists?

Paul, Let’s plan a get together in LA with Richard Dean Anderson. We can talk about our strategies to fight the empire and protect nature. I suspect he knows the gutsier Hollywood crowd. It would be fun to come down and see you. We can talk about an intensive 25 year campaign to promote “EARTH ECONOMICS” i.e. ecologize capitalism or find some post-capital markets system that doesn’t make people’s eyes roll.

I’ll contact him if you want, but don’t have any contact info. Do you?

P.S. I’m glad you are on pathological Patrick’s ass, I try to avoid the schmuck.

P.S.S. Roselle is still no-good!