Now that Mike Vick is out of jail and back in the NFL there is a lot of talk again about how much punishment he should get. My take on the situation is that he should not be punished by the NFL.Mike Vick was convicted for his crimes. He was sentenced to prison and he served his time. Mike has paid his debt to society. Did he get off with a slap on the wrist? I think he did, but that is how our judicial system works. If you don’t like the fact that the more money you have the better justice you get then change it. Get involved in your local politics and elect representatives that stand for the the same things you do. Tell your county, state, and federal reps what you want and expect from them and hold them accountable for it. If they do a good job support them. If they do not do the job you elected them for then vote them out and put some one in that will. We have all been  a part of creating this judicial system that Gave Vick such a light sentence. Lets change the system so it never happens again instead of crying about how unfair it is that he is now back in the NFL making millions of dollars a year.

I am not a fan of Mike Vick. I think he is a complete waste of Human skin. I will not be cheering for him, and probably will not even watch any game he is playing in, but I support his right to earn a living in his chosen profession. The day will come when he will have to answer for what he has done and when he stand before the pearly gates on judgement day there will be no high priced lawyers to manipulate the system to get him off easy. He will pay for his sins then.

IF you don’t think he should be playing football now then don’t watch him. Don’t buy the NFL merchandise or tickets to the games.

I keep seeing and hearing about all these actors and other Liberals pledging to serve the President. I think it is time I make my pledge clear once again. Here is my pledge.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

That is all the pledge any of us needs to make in this country.

I have been an outdoorsman my whole life. I grew up hunting and fishing. I still have the old 8mm home movie of me catching my first fish at 2 years old in Wisconsin with my Uncle Harold, Dad was running the movie camera. I have always tried to promote all aspects of the outdoor lifestyle in a positive way. I check the game department web sites for not just the state i live in, but all the states that i spend time in the outdoors in. I read the news releases. I leave comments on the issues they are requesting public comments on, and I go to public meetings when I can. I talk to my senators and congressmen about the issues relating to the outdoors and let them know my views and what I would like them to do on each of these issues. I am a member of a number of web forums that are outdoors related. i have a blog that is mostly aimed at my outdoor activities and I write recipes regularly about wild game cooking for Clique Clack Food. I also read as many outdoor blogs as I can and post replies to them and I promote many of these blogs on my own blog and through  the web forums and twitter. I spend more time on the internet promoting the outdoor lifestyle than I do actually outside enjoying it. It seems that every day our outdoor lifestyle is under attack from a new direction. There are so many environmental and animal rights groups attacking our outdoor lifestyle in the name of saving the environment or the animals and yet they have no clue what their actions, if fully implemented, would do to the very things they are trying to save.

I grew up in the heart of Western Washington logging country. Every one I knew growing up either worked in logging or in support of logging. Logging is what opened up so much beautiful timber country for everyone to enjoy. It was the logging companies that built all the roads into the mountains. Yes they built the roads so they could go in and log the timber, but after a unit was logged a new patch of timber was planted in its place. An old forest was replaced with a new young one. Trees are like any other crop. They have a finite life span. They grow, they die just like all living things on this planet. If we leave the life cycle of the forests to mother nature the cycle is very slow. It can take hundreds of years for an old forest to be replaced by a new one. If we allow logging to go in and harvest the ripe trees. Use them to produce building materials and paper for our society to use and then replace those trees taken out with new ones that cycle can be accomplished in twenty years. Should logging be monitored and controlled? Yes it should. If there is no control then the old trees will be logged off at a faster rate than the new ones can replace them. This has happened in our history and we need to properly manage the forests as the resource they are. With proper management we can create good sustainable jobs, a healthy thriving industry, and maintain quality habitat for all the forest creatures we care for.

As far as the animal rights groups that want to stop all hunting, I would really like some one that represents one of these organizations to explain to me just how they would suggest the animal populations should be managed. Hunting is the only effective management tool we have to maintain healthy and sustainable herd numbers. These groups are all quick to point out that we should be using science to manage the animals and not money. Well were do they think the money that is being spent on wildlife management is coming from? The federal government, the state governments are not spending their budget money on wildlife management. That is funding by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and tags. This billion dollar a year industry is the reason we have the vast populations of healthy wildlife in this country. Yes most states do try to maintain a trouphy hunting environment to help draw out of state hunters to their state to pursue game, but this just adds to the management of the wildlife.

I have never met a hunter that wanted to kill every last member of a species, nor have i ever met a logger that wanted to cut down every last tree. Those of us that live an outdoor lifestyle are the true conservationists. We want to maintain healthy forests and healthy  populations of wildlife to continue our lifestyle. Our society has gotten so polarized over the years by our two party political system that we no longer work together as a group to solve a problem ,but try to fight each other over our beliefs. I am as guilty of this as any one else. I have spent too much time ranting against the likes of PETA and Earth First rather than tryingto engage them and work with them to resolve our differences and find common ground that we can work together to improve our society and our planet.

Until we can set aside our difference and focus on the common ground we will never get past this adversarial relationship we have with those that do not live our lifestyle. This will ensure that the battles will continue and the politicians will be able to maintain their power over our country. We as American citizens need to stop this fighting. We need to come together and work together to do what is right for everyone.

If we all pull together we can save the environment, the animals, the country and our planet. If we can not pull together then that task will be left up to what ever political party is in power and their primary goal will be to  save their political power.

It is time we stop fighting and band together. It is time we tell our government leaders enough is enough. We hired you to do a specific job. If you can not do that job then we will fire you and give the job to someone that will.

I try to keep politics out of my posts here. I really want this blog to be more about my adventures in my daily life and not a platform for my political beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, I have many opinions on politics and I am not  afraid to share them, but I have other outlets on the internet for that. I am posting this because this article on Arlen Specter from CNN bugged me. Specter says that he left the Republican party for the Democrat party because the G.O.P. is becoming too conservative. Specter has told his story for changing parties several times and every time it is different. Arlen Specter was voted into office by citizens of the state of Pensilvania. Because he does not feel he can win another election as a Republican he turned his back on the citizens that voted for him to change party for a better chance to keep his job after the next election.  Arlen instead of changing parties, why don’t you try doing the job you were hired to do, for the people that hired you? Arlen Specter lied to the people to get elected. He has now come to realize that those same people are pissed about it and want him gone. I know that the ONE is very pleased with this switch, but I hope that all of the citizens in pennsilvania recognize what a snake he is and send him packing. Both parties are now so corrupt and out of touch with the people of this country that we all need to say ENOUGH! We want our country back. It is time that we remind both parties that their primary focus is to serve US. They were hired by the people of the United States of America to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. They were not hired to do what is best to keep their party in power. I emplore every citizen of this country to get involved in the next election. Demand that the candidates for every office give real answer  to questions about their policies and not politician double speak. Hold them to those campaign promises and above all hold them accountable to the Constitution. If we do not stand up and demand that we STOP SPENDING MONEY WE DO NOT HAVE!! that we SECURE OUR BORDERS and that we STOP EXPORTING JOBS OVERSEAS!

So my question is, do we have to wait for the Somali Pirates to carry out this threat before we act? Is the threat enough to get our government to act?

I was looking through the post on the forums over at Talk Hunting and one of the members posted this link to Hunters against PETA I recomend that if you are at all interested in the outdoors you check out both sites.

Jeff

I saw this interesting article about the new tobacco tax increase today. I would like someone to tell me why tobacco users have to pay for the childrens healthcare.  That is what this huge tax increase is for. Are tobacco users the only ones that have children? I don’t think so. I think the tax money should go back to the tobacco users to pay for nicotine replacement products to help them kick their addiction to tobacco.

Yesterday March 31, 2009 the UnitedsStates House of Representitives passed a national service bill. This bill will cost the tax payers of this country 6 BILLION dollars over the  next five years to pay people to do voluteer work. Is it really volunteer work if you are getting paid to do it?  Why do we need to pay people to volunteer?  During the campaign it was said that Obama would make sure we were engaged in the service of our country. Is there some ammendment in this bill that will make volunteering for national service mandatory?

Jeff