The Brutality of Aldo Leopold

US Forest Ranger Skinning Gray Wolf
One of the Most Important Phases of Federal Game Protection—U. S. Forest Ranger Skinning Gray Wolf

In the fall of 1909 Aldo Leopold notoriously killed wolves in the Apache National Forest in Arizona, acting in his official capacity as a hunter and trapper for the newly established U.S. Forest Service. Decades later, in his 1944 essay “Thinking like a Mountain,” he described the “green fire” he recalled seeing in the eyes of one of the … Read full post

Diverse but Delusional Democrats

The results of the 2018 midterms are finally in. Democrats are claiming not only victory but a “blue wave.” A diverse group of Democrats were elected as symbols of who they are, not necessarily what they will do (or would do if they could). But while Democrats achieved a symbolic victory in taking control of the House of Representatives, the unrepresentative Senate remains firmly under the control of Trump’s Republicans. As the upper house of … Read full post

Chief Justice Roger Taney

The Ghost of Roger Taney

In his 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott case, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that anyone of African descent, whether free or slave, could never be a citizen of the United States. It took the Civil War to create a sufficient majority in Congress and state legislatures to pass an amendment to overturn this decision. The Fourteenth Amendment established the legal right now known as birthright citizenship.

A century and a half later, Trump is … Read full post

Hail Trump, Those who are about to die salute you!

Shortly after Donald Trump claimed victory in the Presidential election, the Alt-Right held a conference in Washington, DC. The Atlantic distributed a video clip of the conference showing Nazi salutes, accompanied by shouts of “Hail, Trump!” (Some heard it as “Heil, Trump.)

Alt-Right founder Richard Spencer claimed that the salutes were not Nazi salutes but “Roman salutes,” in the same vein as his keynote address at the conference, which he titled Long Live the EmperorRead full post

Protect Wolves from NM Maim and Squish

At its latest meeting the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission, not so affectionately known as Maim and Squish, voted against further reintroduction of Mexican wolves in New Mexico. This follows the previous month’s decision to expand mountain lion hunting and trapping. With leadership like Paul Kienzle, the Mountain States Legal Foundation’s vice chairman for litigation, and Elizabeth Ryan, a member of Safari Club International, the decisions by Maim and Squish did not … Read full post

Experiments with Wolves

Earlier this month the Albuquerque Journal reported that an employee of USDA Wildlife Services (WS) is being investigated for killing a Mexican wolf. The news came as the Mexican wolf recovery program reached its 15th anniversary. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which oversees the Mexican wolf program, refuses to comment.
The Mexican wolves released by FWS are wolves bred in zoos. David Parsons, the original director of the Mexican Wolf reintroduction program, decided … Read full post