Politicians love the Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo. I first saw Richard Shelby 24 years ago right there at Channel-Lee Stadium when he was campaigning for the Senate. This year gubernatorial candidate Robert Bentley brought a camera crew, which is the only reason I'm posting this. It's a glimpse into what happens there.
It's time the folks at Opp moved beyond this. There's no reason they can't have an annual rattlesnake-themed festival, but sensational exploitation is no way to instill a conservation ethic in youngsters.
This stupid, embarrassing ad by a conservative group calling itself "True Republican PAC" (backed by Alabama's powerful teacher's union) flat-out equates conservatism with being anti-science, at least as far as evolution is concerned. Not all conservatives share this view, fortunately, but I suspect most of my neighbors find nothing wrong with this.
(Technically, Byrne is incorrect about evolution, as abiogenesis is the correct term for the origin of life. Evolution is the change in the inherited traits of a population over successive generations. But still...)
[Addendum: Byrne, who briefly had my respect, has now lost me with this: "As a member of the Alabama Board of Education, the record clearly shows that I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books." Reminds me of how, in former governor Fob James' (father of current candidate Tim James) appearance as chair of the State Board of Education, he "aped" the theory of evolution by slowly crossing the stage beginning in a crouch and ending erect in a widely reported incident that embarrassed more moderate Republicans. "Alabama’s lack of progress," Howell Raines wrote in the Boston Globe in June 1998, "can be linked directly to its penchant for electing buffoons." More here.]
This makes no sense. A serious wildlife violator convicted of killing bald eagles with Carbofuran in Missouri was among 17 people pardoned by President Bush today. The back story is fuzzy, but I did glean the info below from a Google cache of the Summer 1996 newsletter, The Federal Wildlife Officer. I suspect more will come to light as this is looked into more closely. This was 12 years ago, and according to the article, the rather mild sentence consisted of a $10,000 fine and a 2-year probation that expired in the Clinton administration. So, does the guy get his ten grand back now?
On February 2nd, Leslie Owen Collier of Charlestown [sic], Missouri, pled guilty to two 16 USC counts of taking bald eagles and one Title 7 count of placing a restricted use pesticide contrary to its intended purpose. Collier was sentenced to two years' probation, barred from possessing a firearm during that period, and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to FWS.
Collier had deliberately and improperly used Furedan [sic] to bait meat in order to kill animals on the property he was farming. The methods used by Collier were particularly dangerous because they presented a serious threat to many animals other than the intended targets, including humans and household pets. Among the animals killed by Collier's poisoned bait were three bald eagles, a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl, a opossum, a raccoon and seven coyotes.
Carbofuran is known to be lethal to raptors, and was probably being used by Collier to kill coyotes. A relevant paper from Journal of Wildlife Diseases is here (pdf).
...non-partisan on this blog, but this is too good not to use (as I sit here in a rented travel trailer in Leakesville Mississippi 3 hours from home awaiting B. Obama's historic speech from Denver at 8:40 PM CST on 08/28/08).
