From QuiXand Ranch
QuiXand Investigators Uncover Savage Bloodsport
Right here in River City!
Folks, I’ve seen a lot of savagery in my day. As a seasoned journalist, I’ve witnessed man’s violence toward other men but at least we, as a society, have the decency to be appalled when our violent tendencies are directed at our own. After witnessing what I’ve seen, I want to know; who’s looking after the little bunnies?
I’ve edited this story to take out the most graphic sections but be advised, this is not for the faint of heart. Proceed at your own risk.
I recently met a gentleman; we’ll call him “David”. “David” is in his late forties now but he struggles to live with these memories from his youth in rural Utah.
“Well, I lived in Cinder City* in Southern Utah but our extended family lived in Tule*, about 230 miles away. The best route between the two cities is a lonely highway through high desert brush, inhabited by thousands of rabbits.”
Did you catch that folks? Thousands of rabbits. Appalling!
“David” continues. “There were so many rabbits, in fact, that the mascot for the local high school in a small town about halfway between Cinder City* and Tule* was actually ‘The Rabbits’. “
Again folks, do you hear what he’s saying? Innocent rabbits forced to endure mascot-ship!!
“Well, we used to get out on those empty back roads and fly at, like 80 and 90 miles per hour. There were so many jacks (editors note: jacks is a codeword for rabbits amongst those who practice this brutal sport.) it was pretty much impossible to make that drive without running over several jacks on each trip. You’d hear a big thud and that was it for the Easter Bunny. It was really kinda gross.”
There you have it folks, in “David’s” own words: kinda gross!!
The name of this brutal bloodsport? Driving!! Believe it or not, it’s happening right here in our own state. You may find this hard to believe but this vicious sport is legal in every state of the union and in virtually every country on earth.
All is not lost however. There is a movement in many urban areas to create automobile free zones called promenades, where only pedestrian traffic is allowed. Promenades currently comprise only a very small section of the landscape but it’s an idea whose time has come.
What can you do? Write you congressman and tell him that you want all the world to be a rabbit-safe promenade.
For more information log on to: www.kneejerkmorons.com. Let’s send a message to the “David’s” of the world that this slaughter must end.
*Not the actual name, for obvious reasons.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Lowest Form of Sensationalism
Here at the QuiXand Ranch, we breed race dogs. Whippets actually, and I probably shouldn’t say “we” because it’s really my better half that does all that. I mostly just keep the fields mowed and complain about the mess while she continues doing what we do here. My wife hates it when I brag her up but suffice it to say that some of he fastest Whippets in North America carry the QuiXand kennel name.
Dog breeding and dog racing are her passions and she has become very good at both. The racing consists of chasing a lure over a 200 yard sprint course or running around an oval track of about 300 yards, give or take. The dogs don’t much care, they just love to run. I’ll never forget the first time I saw her Whippets run; I was blown away by their Cheetah-like speed and grace. To be honest, I had no idea that dogs could do that.
There is a third sport that our dogs compete in called open field coursing and that sport involves chasing and yes, sometimes killing, jackrabbits. Recently KGO-TV in the San Francisco Bay area ran a story under the heading:
I-Team Uncovers Blood Sport In Bay Area Exclusive Investigation
By Dan Noyes
The story can be seen in its entirety at:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=3874872
Now I wasn’t born yesterday and this certainly isn’t my first experience with the sensationalistic garbage that passes for journalism these days but this piece is really over the top. They make some of the most caring animal people I’ve ever met look like a bunch of blood-thirsty lunatics. Check out the inane banter leading into the story.
I don’t want to get off on a rant here about how Enquirer-like the mainstream press has become or what a bunch of hypocritical idiots comprise the PETA leadership but suffice it to say that this is not an accurate representation of the people I know who participate in the sport. To be fair, I don’t think PETA had much to do with this story buy why pass up a chance to take a stab at those paint-throwing morons?
When I was a teenager, farmers in Idaho used to get a bunch of people together and drive all the jackrabbits they could find into a field and then form a line and walk the field clubbing them to death. Why? Because there was an overpopulation of rabbits that were destroying their livelihoods.
Now that was a barbaric practice that needed to stop and it did, though the reasons behind it were valid. But let’s not get so overly sensitive that we can’t tell the difference between animals doing what they do and clubbing baby seals in the arctic. There are things in-between, really.
The net result has been that the Grand Course, which was to be held in a couple of weeks, has been cancelled and the sport is virtually dead, at least for now. The Grand course is the culmination of an entire season of hunting by at least 175 dogs that participate in the sport. They compete all season long for the right to contend in the Grand Course and earn the title of being the best at what they were born to do.
Meanwhile, I’m amazed at the morons who jump on the outcry bandwagon. No wonder we have such a bunch of crooks running this country when American are so easily led by the nose. It seems that “outcry” is what we Americans do best.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if “outcry” could be replaced in this country by rational debate and thoughtful discourse? Maybe we could look into things a little, ask a few questions and do a little research before we jump on the “outcry” bandwagon. Just start with a few baby steps like logging onto Wikipedia once in a while. I know, you may say I’m a dreamer...
Who knows what that could lead to? Maybe one day we could have an opinion about the actions of our Government without being singled out as disloyal and un-American. Maybe we’d find our collective conscience instead of the knee-jerk crying-out that currently passes for a conscience.
Would I like to be a Jackrabbit being pursued by a Whippet? Not on your life. But I wouldn’t much want to be a deer in a hunter’s crosshairs or a cow or a pig on your dinner plate either.
Dog breeding and dog racing are her passions and she has become very good at both. The racing consists of chasing a lure over a 200 yard sprint course or running around an oval track of about 300 yards, give or take. The dogs don’t much care, they just love to run. I’ll never forget the first time I saw her Whippets run; I was blown away by their Cheetah-like speed and grace. To be honest, I had no idea that dogs could do that.
There is a third sport that our dogs compete in called open field coursing and that sport involves chasing and yes, sometimes killing, jackrabbits. Recently KGO-TV in the San Francisco Bay area ran a story under the heading:
I-Team Uncovers Blood Sport In Bay Area Exclusive Investigation
By Dan Noyes
The story can be seen in its entirety at:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=3874872
Now I wasn’t born yesterday and this certainly isn’t my first experience with the sensationalistic garbage that passes for journalism these days but this piece is really over the top. They make some of the most caring animal people I’ve ever met look like a bunch of blood-thirsty lunatics. Check out the inane banter leading into the story.
I don’t want to get off on a rant here about how Enquirer-like the mainstream press has become or what a bunch of hypocritical idiots comprise the PETA leadership but suffice it to say that this is not an accurate representation of the people I know who participate in the sport. To be fair, I don’t think PETA had much to do with this story buy why pass up a chance to take a stab at those paint-throwing morons?
When I was a teenager, farmers in Idaho used to get a bunch of people together and drive all the jackrabbits they could find into a field and then form a line and walk the field clubbing them to death. Why? Because there was an overpopulation of rabbits that were destroying their livelihoods.
Now that was a barbaric practice that needed to stop and it did, though the reasons behind it were valid. But let’s not get so overly sensitive that we can’t tell the difference between animals doing what they do and clubbing baby seals in the arctic. There are things in-between, really.
The net result has been that the Grand Course, which was to be held in a couple of weeks, has been cancelled and the sport is virtually dead, at least for now. The Grand course is the culmination of an entire season of hunting by at least 175 dogs that participate in the sport. They compete all season long for the right to contend in the Grand Course and earn the title of being the best at what they were born to do.
Meanwhile, I’m amazed at the morons who jump on the outcry bandwagon. No wonder we have such a bunch of crooks running this country when American are so easily led by the nose. It seems that “outcry” is what we Americans do best.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if “outcry” could be replaced in this country by rational debate and thoughtful discourse? Maybe we could look into things a little, ask a few questions and do a little research before we jump on the “outcry” bandwagon. Just start with a few baby steps like logging onto Wikipedia once in a while. I know, you may say I’m a dreamer...
Who knows what that could lead to? Maybe one day we could have an opinion about the actions of our Government without being singled out as disloyal and un-American. Maybe we’d find our collective conscience instead of the knee-jerk crying-out that currently passes for a conscience.
Would I like to be a Jackrabbit being pursued by a Whippet? Not on your life. But I wouldn’t much want to be a deer in a hunter’s crosshairs or a cow or a pig on your dinner plate either.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Happy or Not?
I’ve got writers block. Having recently found myself with some extra time on my hands, I’ve decided to concentrate on finishing the book that I’ve been half-heartedly working on for more years than I want consider. It feels good to be back at it and its moving along nicely, thank you. I’m getting pretty excited at the prospect of actually finishing a first draft. Those poor characters deserved better than to have their lives left hanging in limbo all this time.
No, my writers bock doesn’t have to do with the book, I’m glad to say, but with this little exercise in self expression, this blog thing. Every time I sit down to write a post I draw a total blank. Like I said in my first post, I’m very opinionated, so you’d think it wouldn’t be so hard. But it is.
I suspect that I may have reached that pinnacle of cynicism where, despite my strong beliefs in my correct opinions, I’m quite certain that no one really cares. Moreover, it is beyond impossible to change someone else’s opinion because they, like me, are married to them. And the things I’m so passionate about are the same things that people dig in the most about: politics and religion.
It seems that those are subjects where reason and rational thought get squeezed out of the picture by a real determination to hang on to your beliefs no matter what. And facts? They’re always in dispute in those arenas because no matter what you believe, there is someone spouting some pseudo-fact that will back up pretty much any ridiculous idea.
A friend once tried to convince me that it’s okay to believe anything you want, whether it’s true or not. I understand her point in that it really doesn’t matter that much what is or isn’t true because the world will just keep on spinning and people will do what they do and nothing really matters and what if it did. (Thanks to John Mellencamp for that line.)
“Do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?” she kept asking, since apparently those two concepts are well known to be mutually exclusive?
But back to my original point. Before this silly oil war started, I forwarded some information to pretty much everyone in my address book as to what I thought was an intelligent and worthwhile way to peacefully tell our government that we didn’t want to die to make Exxon (who just posted the largest quarterly profit in the entire history of the friggin’ world!) or Halliburton richer.
The shit storm that followed blew my mind! My friends and family are all nice, reasonable, rational people. They wouldn’t be my friends if they weren’t and my family is made up of some of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. So how could they not see the truth of what I was telling them?
A friend started a message board where he posted all the message traffic and responses from the people I’d originally messaged plus a bunch of people that they forwarded to. I heatedly defended my absolutely correct position for a while until the futility of it all really began to sink in.
The war went forward and nobody’s mind was changed. If anything, people just entrenched themselves deeper in their positions and a lot of hard feelings pointing a lot of different directions resulted.
So, you tell me, dear reader, would you rather be happy or would you rather be right?
No, my writers bock doesn’t have to do with the book, I’m glad to say, but with this little exercise in self expression, this blog thing. Every time I sit down to write a post I draw a total blank. Like I said in my first post, I’m very opinionated, so you’d think it wouldn’t be so hard. But it is.
I suspect that I may have reached that pinnacle of cynicism where, despite my strong beliefs in my correct opinions, I’m quite certain that no one really cares. Moreover, it is beyond impossible to change someone else’s opinion because they, like me, are married to them. And the things I’m so passionate about are the same things that people dig in the most about: politics and religion.
It seems that those are subjects where reason and rational thought get squeezed out of the picture by a real determination to hang on to your beliefs no matter what. And facts? They’re always in dispute in those arenas because no matter what you believe, there is someone spouting some pseudo-fact that will back up pretty much any ridiculous idea.
A friend once tried to convince me that it’s okay to believe anything you want, whether it’s true or not. I understand her point in that it really doesn’t matter that much what is or isn’t true because the world will just keep on spinning and people will do what they do and nothing really matters and what if it did. (Thanks to John Mellencamp for that line.)
“Do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?” she kept asking, since apparently those two concepts are well known to be mutually exclusive?
But back to my original point. Before this silly oil war started, I forwarded some information to pretty much everyone in my address book as to what I thought was an intelligent and worthwhile way to peacefully tell our government that we didn’t want to die to make Exxon (who just posted the largest quarterly profit in the entire history of the friggin’ world!) or Halliburton richer.
The shit storm that followed blew my mind! My friends and family are all nice, reasonable, rational people. They wouldn’t be my friends if they weren’t and my family is made up of some of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. So how could they not see the truth of what I was telling them?
A friend started a message board where he posted all the message traffic and responses from the people I’d originally messaged plus a bunch of people that they forwarded to. I heatedly defended my absolutely correct position for a while until the futility of it all really began to sink in.
The war went forward and nobody’s mind was changed. If anything, people just entrenched themselves deeper in their positions and a lot of hard feelings pointing a lot of different directions resulted.
So, you tell me, dear reader, would you rather be happy or would you rather be right?
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