Bush begins new year by hunting quail
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| Thu, 01-01-2004 - 2:07pm |
What is it with this administration and their need to shoot birds that they don't even eat!?!?! I can understand a true hunter who hunts for food, but 'sports hunting' always has sickened me. It's not like it's 'catch & release'...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Bush%20Hunting
Thursday, January 1, 2004 · Last updated 9:29 a.m. PT
Bush begins new year by hunting quail
By DEB RIECHMANN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
FALFURRIAS, Texas -- President Bush began the new year before dawn flying to southern Texas to hunt quail.
"Happy new year to you," he said as he greeted a few people at Brooks County Airport, 60 miles south of Corpus Christi.
Those were the first words Bush has spoken in public since Dec. 22, when he talked about the terror alert following a Hanukkah menorah candle lighting ceremony at the White House.
His hunting trip with his father, George H.W. Bush, friends and members of the president's staff ran behind schedule. Rain and foggy weather forced the president to drive from his ranch in Crawford, where he spent New Year's Eve, to an airport near Waco, where he boarded one of the smaller jets in the presidential fleet that serve as Air Force One.
Foggy weather forced one of the three planes in the presidential entourage to circle the tiny airport before landing.
Emerging from his plane in a tan canvas coat, black jeans and brown boots, Bush strode across the wet tarmac to talk to a few area residents.
"Como estas?" he said, asking the Spanish-speaking residents near the Mexican border how they were doing. Apparently in campaign mode, he held and kissed a baby, then turned to mug for the cameras.
Secret Service officers stood on buildings, using binoculars to survey the flat desolate countryside, while Bush's motorcade wound past ramshackle farm buildings, windmills and cactus.
Later, the president was having lunch with his father and others, including U.S. envoy James A. Baker III, who was secretary of state in the administration of Bush's father. Baker recently returned from a lobbying trip to Asia, part of his efforts to reduce Iraq's massive foreign debts. After Baker visited Tokyo on Monday, Japan agreed to forgive most of its Iraqi debt if other major nations do so as well.
In a New Year's Day message, Bush referenced the U.S. presence in Iraq, saying America has seen "our brave men and women in uniform defend America and liberate the oppressed."
"We pray for their safety, and we are grateful for their service and the support of their families," he said.
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Renee
<> This describes all the hunters that I know, and is the type that I consider Bush to be.
Are you saying that only those who are poverty stricken should hunt? I don't think anyone could feed a family by hunting and fishing within the legal limits.
I've always considered hunting and fishing to be an experience of communing with nature and life itself--an acknowledgement of where our daily food comes from--an act that shows a respect and honor for the animal sacrifices that are consumed at our table daily.
The geometric, skinless, boneless, bloodless cuts of meat in the supermarket that allow us to forget what we are eating and ignore the acts that brought it us. I find our modern insistence on distancing ourselves from the realities of life to be, dishonest, and in some ways even disgusting and profane.
In an ideal world, I think that everyone should be familiar with hunting and fishing, and I would like to see every family to do at least once a year.
Frankly, I've never understood the 'sport' of fishing. And consider catching and releasing fish to be cruel and unnatural and akin to little boys tearing the legs off of insects.
Edited 1/1/2004 10:16:57 PM ET by wrhen
Renee
I guess I'm not following you.
I can tell.
If we agree that hunting for sport in not moral, why are you trying to even the odds and speaking about it like it's a competition between the hunter and the prey? Why is a B&A ok to hunt with, but a shotgun isn't? If you really see this as a physical battle between hunter and hunted, shouldn't the hunter forswear all weapons?
Personally, I think it's an opportunity for a group of guys to get out in nature with or without their dogs and be in it and observe it in a way that few others do, relax and have a good time with friends, and return home proudly with some game for their families to enjoy.
<>
We're not discussing Chaney. He and Bush are not one and the same. I will not argue about what Chaney did. We are speaking about Bush, and I have heard nothing about this trip or any other hunting trip that he has been on that leads me to believe he is anything other than a common weekend hunter just like thousands of others.
<>
Actually, they can. I'm sure you are aware that most poverty in this country is rural, and if there is one thing about rural low-income folks, it's that they have a shotgun and use it to supplement their family's diet.
<>
No, one family can eat a deer for an entire winter, but it doesn't feed them.
<>
That's very commendable, but if you are including this example to illustrate how hunting can be used to sustain poor folks, you are overlooking the fact that it's cheaper to buy produce than to grow it yourself. Gardeners will tell you that they grow their own for the taste or health benefits or to be self-sufficient, but not to save money, and that often, they are paying more for the priviledge of growing their own.
I don't know enough about the costs of raising chickens to know if that is a money saver, but I would suspect that with the low price of chicken & all the sales that are common, they aren't. Chicken feed ain't chicken feed, you know, and you have to feed your chickens for quite a while before you can make them food. I'd again guess that your friends are raising chickens for the fresh taste that isn't available with cheap frozen ones, for health reasons, or because it's important to them to be self-sufficient.
I'd also be curious to know if they process the venison themselves which would certainly save some money, but it is a nasty job.
<>
You're not getting my point about how the experience of stalking, killing, & cleaning your own food relates to picking up a lump of ground something at Safeway.
<>
That's very wise. I however, have seen too many Americans who refuse to handle raw meat, or won't eat chicken or beef unless the bone is removed, or will go hungry rather than eat a fish with it's head still on, or are grossed out when visiting other countries that sell live animals on the street to take home & slaughter, or by dead ones hanging in shop windows to think that you are typical.
Although ours no longer does, many cultures traditionally thank God for their food and especially for the animal sacrifice that they are about to eat which imbues dinner with a spiritual significance and grace, that most of us have lost, and which I think, we glimpse when we eat wild fish and game.
<>
Fish are physically hurt and tramautized by being caught. That they will eventually heal does not diminish the cruelty of the act.
Renee
>>The geometric, skinless, boneless, bloodless cuts of meat in the supermarket that allow us to forget what we are eating and ignore the acts that brought it us. I find our modern insistence on distancing ourselves from the realities of life to be, dishonest, and in some ways even disgusting and profane. <<
However, not on this:
>>In an ideal world, I think that everyone should be familiar with hunting and fishing, and I would like to see every family to do at least once a year. <<
If we agree that hunting for sport in not moral, why are you trying to even the odds and speaking about it like it's a competition between the hunter and the prey? Why is a B&A ok to hunt with, but a shotgun isn't? If you really see this as a physical battle between hunter and hunted, shouldn't the hunter forswear all weapons?
Fine by me!
Why is the life of a pheasant so much more important than the life of a domesticated chicken? I know people who eat game but who will not eat slaughtered animals because they think modern farming and ranching techniques are inhumane, and they prefer to know that their food lived a 'happy and free' life. As much as I disagree with that position, I can understand it a lot better than yours. The fate of nearly all wild animals is to be killed and eaten by a predator, and being shot is a much better way to go than most animals in the wild will experience.
I never said that killing something was relaxing. A hunting trip is more than a few minutes of shooting guns.
Perhaps some of the miscommunication we are having here is because it sounds like you think all violence is bad while I don't.
<>
Poverty is predonimantly rural, but it isn't visible the way that urban poverty is, so many people have a sqewed perception. You said most people in poverty couldn't afford to hunt which is not true.
Also, we're getting off the subject, but as far as raising produce and animals to feed a poor family as a way to save money, I still don't buy it. In that context, we are not talking about growing artichokes & asparagus & 'designer foods,' and iceberg lettuce, spinach, greens, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and onions cannot be grown for less money than they cost in the supermarket. That's why all those frugal living gurus who tell you to gring your own wheat for flour and recycle your old pantyhose into Christmas gifts, don't tell you to grow your own pototatoes. By the time you factor in seeds, water, fertilizer, top dressing, environmental protection, & disease & pest control most gardeners don't see a cost savings in their food budget unless they are used to buying organic which is not something that many poor rural families do.
<>
Are they used to buying organic free range chickens & eggs, or catching Tyson when it's on sale?
<>
Perhaps to you, but I've run across many who are happy to eat it as long as they don't have to think about where it comes from or handle it raw.
<< we thank the animals...that gave themselves for our survival before every meal (if possible).>>
That's also part of the traditions that I mentioned, and I am always heartened to hear that they are being continued.
Renee
I just really don't get why you think it's awful for people to hunt if they intend to eat what they catch.
That's because I differentiate between hunting for 'sport' and hunting out of necessity.
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