Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Scout26 on August 02, 2012, 12:27:25 AM

Title: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Scout26 on August 02, 2012, 12:27:25 AM
I'm not sure which one of my alleged "friends"signed me up, but I'm on the daily e-mail lists for: 1) the Obama campaign (daily requests for $$$). 2)  "Causes" and "Care2" - which is a "Sign my petition for every feel-good, knee-jerk liberal cause 20somethings named Emily or Kayla can think of, no matter how stupid."  and 3) The Center for Biogical Diversity" -which firmly believes that Charles Darwin should just stop it and not let anymore species join the other 99.9999% that have gone extinct.  Oh, and it's all our fault.

Anywhoo, here's today's from the CFBD, based on Zero scientific proof and the NRA boogeyman:

Quote
Dear Scout,

Just moments ago the National Rifle Association took legal action to block the EPA from protecting wildlife and people from being poisoned by lead hunting ammunition left in the wild.

Today's legal action challenges the Center for Biological Diversity's suit, filed last month with allies, to get the EPA to finally regulate toxic lead in hunting ammunition.

These outrageous attacks need to stop. Please make an emergency gift today and help us stand up to the NRA's assault on wildlife.

As I've written to you over the past two weeks, millions of birds are needlessly poisoned every year by toxic lead ammo left in the wild, including bald eagles, swans and endangered California condors.

Under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA has the authority to stop this lead-poisoning epidemic with common-sense solutions -- but the NRA is using its muscle to throw up roadblocks to any new safeguards.

The NRA is bound and determined to keep the EPA from doing its job in protecting the millions of birds who die every year after being painfully poisoned by lead bullet fragments.

That's why we need your urgent support now with a gift to our Condor Defense Fund. Help defend the EPA's ability to regulate this deadly toxin and ensure not one more condor, swan or bald eagle is poisoned by lead bullets.

The Center has been working since 2004 to end the preventable lead poisoning of birds and reduce health risks for people eating lead-shot game.

Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death for America's ancient, critically endangered condors. Please make your gift today to stand up to the NRA and protect these extraordinary birds, along with other wildlife, threatened by lead poisoning.

We've faced this challenge before and know the NRA will stop at nothing to keep us from protecting endangered wildlife -- so we're in for a bare-knuckle fight.

Thank you for standing with us,

Fire away, so that I can fire back.
 
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: RoadKingLarry on August 02, 2012, 01:49:16 AM
Tasty, tasty condor...
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 02, 2012, 02:09:39 AM
I wonder, do these birds also eat nuts, bolts, and other pieces of metal? Haven't they evolved to the point where they can distinguish food from junk?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Jim147 on August 02, 2012, 02:24:12 AM
Maybe the birds are endangered because they are stupid.

Where is their save the Rodrigues Solitaire email?

Quote
Fire away, so that I can fire back.

Just say,  I was really disappointed that they do taste like chicken, but that is one big wishbone.

jim
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ron on August 02, 2012, 06:22:04 AM
The poisoning of condors by ingesting lead shot and bullet fragments from game animals has been pretty well established. They scavenge the remains left by hunters or the dead animals not harvested by the hunter.

They have already outlawed lead for hunting in Ca I believe, yet it has had no effect on the condor lead blood levels.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: RoadKingLarry on August 02, 2012, 08:10:27 AM
Maybe the birds are endangered because they are stupid.

Where is their save the Rodrigues Solitaire email?

Just say,  I was really disappointed that they do taste like chicken, but that is one big wishbone.

jim

I'm thinking more a cross between Spotted owl and Bald eagle.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: MechAg94 on August 02, 2012, 09:30:00 AM
The poisoning of condors by ingesting lead shot and bullet fragments from game animals has been pretty well established. They scavenge the remains left by hunters or the dead animals not harvested by the hunter.

They have already outlawed lead for hunting in Ca I believe, yet it has had no effect on the condor lead blood levels.
What?  You mean no one bothered to check for other sources of lead?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 02, 2012, 11:11:04 AM
Quote
millions of birds who die every year after being painfully poisoned by lead bullet fragments

Ya think they're gonna just jump in the roasting pan by themselves  :P


I dunno about the condors, but it seems like there are more bald eagles around every year  ???  And the redtails around here are almost a plague.  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: brimic on August 02, 2012, 01:41:46 PM
Quote
millions of birds who die every year after being painfully poisoned by lead bullet fragments


I liked that quote too.
It sounds a lot like a large number pulled out of the air like Dr. Evil would do.

They make no mention of how many birds are killed by windmills- its ok to be hypocritical if another lefty institution is involved.
Also interesting is that the banning of DDT came about due to weakening of egg shells- killing bird embryos birds  is somehow a far bigger tragedy than killing humans human embryos.

Sorry if this rubs some libertarians the wrong way, but I cannot pass up an opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the left.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Phyphor on August 02, 2012, 05:49:40 PM
I'm not sure which one of my alleged "friends"signed me up, but I'm on the daily e-mail lists for: 1) the Obama campaign (daily requests for $$$). 2)  "Causes" and "Care2" - which is a "Sign my petition for every feel-good, knee-jerk liberal cause 20somethings named Emily or Kayla can think of, no matter how stupid."  and 3) The Center for Biogical Diversity" -which firmly believes that Charles Darwin should just stop it and not let anymore species join the other 99.9999% that have gone extinct.  Oh, and it's all our fault.

Anywhoo, here's today's from the CFBD, based on Zero scientific proof and the NRA boogeyman:

Fire away, so that I can fire back.
 

Hey, Scout, do you reload?  If so, mail them some bullets (not cartridges, just the bullets) along with the note: "Just doing my part, see that these are disposed of properly, mmmkay? "

Watch the hand-wringing and screaming begin.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ron on August 02, 2012, 08:50:23 PM
What?  You mean no one bothered to check for other sources of lead?

From what I've read the lead isotope detected indicates bullets as the source of lead, YMMV of course.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: lee n. field on August 02, 2012, 10:14:27 PM
From what I've read the lead isotope detected indicates bullets as the source of lead, YMMV of course.

How is bullet lead supposedly different from anyone else's lead?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ron on August 02, 2012, 10:20:49 PM
How is bullet lead supposedly different from anyone else's lead?

Just reporting to you what I've read over the years.

I guess your question leads to the next question: what other source of lead are the birds being exposed to?

Knee jerk reactions against the enviroweenies regardless of the merits of the issue just make us look like idiots of nothing more than a different kind.

Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: brimic on August 02, 2012, 10:21:35 PM
Quote
How is bullet lead supposedly different from anyone else's lead?
It contains a higher percentage of Higgs Bosons from an evil universe.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 02, 2012, 10:23:31 PM
How is bullet lead supposedly different from anyone else's lead?

Moves faster.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: French G. on August 03, 2012, 03:43:05 AM
Just reporting to you what I've read over the years.

I guess your question leads to the next question: what other source of lead are the birds being exposed to?

Knee jerk reactions against the enviroweenies regardless of the merits of the issue just make us look like idiots of nothing more than a different kind.



Exactly, there is usually a nugget a truth in there that they seize on and run wild with while ignoring other things, like the aforementioned windmills.

Yes there is other lead out there. Last I checked tho condors do not sneak up your drive at night to gnaw on your battery terminals and steal your wheel weights. They will however eat a dead animal with chunks of lead in it that a hunter deposited there.

That said, It's for the condors is also a handy excuse to ban anything we don't like. Better than "It's for the children!" Apparently easier to get more kids than condors.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ben on August 03, 2012, 09:56:20 AM
That said, It's for the condors is also a handy excuse to ban anything we don't like. Better than "It's for the children!" Apparently easier to get more kids than condors.

Yup. The California Condor has become the poster child for all kinds of environmental activity out here - from banning lead bullets and shot to prohibiting hunting, fishing, and stream access in several wild areas.

Interestingly, Turkey Vultures are thriving here. Sometimes it's just time for a species to die. Species have been going extinct for longer than humans have existed.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 03, 2012, 10:06:21 AM
Quote
Turkey Vultures are thriving [in California]

There's something poetic about that ...  =|
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: MechAg94 on August 03, 2012, 11:49:20 AM
Do Condors upchuck on you if you mess with them like vultures will? 

My comment on the lead was that I figured no one had bothered to actually do any research for sources of lead.  It could come indirectly from lead ingested by animals they eat also.  Sort of like some of the spotted owl stuff.  I heard the original counts of them were badly flawed and understated.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: longeyes on August 03, 2012, 03:06:08 PM
Actually, if they're serious about those big numbers they should be marching against industrial animal slaughter, and ALL become hunters of wild game.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 03, 2012, 10:13:50 PM
Quote
Sort of like some of the spotted owl stuff.  I heard the original counts of them were badly flawed and understated.

When loggers found spotted owl nests in second growth timber, the biologists would not come out to check on it.

So the loggers had to finally resume work and destroy the nests, because "spotted owls don't nest in second growth timber"  ;/
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: ArfinGreebly on August 04, 2012, 01:26:43 AM


Tire weights!

Damn.  I knew something was eating those things.

I no sooner get balanced, than I wind up losing a weight somewhere, and all this time I thought it was just bumpy roads.

 =D
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on August 04, 2012, 05:25:36 PM
How is bullet lead supposedly different from anyone else's lead?

they can differentiate between different alloys 
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 04, 2012, 05:32:09 PM
I'm not sure where all this bullet riddled meat is supposed to be lying around, unless it's from shoot'n scoot poachers  =|
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: charby on August 04, 2012, 06:20:46 PM
I'm not sure where all this bullet riddled meat is supposed to be lying around, unless it's from shoot'n scoot poachers  =|

Bullet fragments in gut piles. Actually what I have read about the California Condor is that compared to other birds it does not take very much lead to kill them.

Protecting animals and the environment, usually leads to better living conditions for Homo Sapiens. I really don't want to live in some toxic wasteland because someone screamed there are too many regulations and we need to get rid of the EPA.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: lee n. field on August 04, 2012, 07:56:24 PM
they can differentiate between different alloys  

The word used was "isotope".  And, somehow, bullet lead is supposed to be a different isotope (atomic weight) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_lead) from lead used for other things?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Phyphor on August 04, 2012, 08:02:21 PM
True that, and a California Condor is certainly a sight to see in flight, IRL.....
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 04, 2012, 09:41:12 PM
Quote
Actually what I have read about the California Condor is that compared to other birds it does not take very much lead to kill them.

But they fly so high and fast that it takes a lot of lead to hit them  :lol:
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: charby on August 04, 2012, 10:50:10 PM
But they fly so high and fast that it takes a lot of lead to hit them  :lol:

Actually I think the shooting of these giant birds is what almost wiped them out. There used to be a giant condor of the east coast but they were killed to extiction.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: zxcvbob on August 04, 2012, 10:54:56 PM
Actually I think the shooting of these giant birds is what almost wiped them out. There used to be a giant condor of the east coast but they were killed to extiction.

I think their primary food supply is gone (beached whales.)  What else would a buzzard that big that lives on the Pacific coast eat?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ben on August 04, 2012, 10:59:56 PM
Actually I think the shooting of these giant birds is what almost wiped them out. There used to be a giant condor of the east coast but they were killed to extiction.

It's really more due to habitat loss than anything else, and the fact that they are a bit more specialized than similar birds they compete with, like the aforementioned Turkey Vulture. The Turkey Vultures exist in the same habitat as the condors, but can also adapt to many other environments. I'll, for instance, see Turkey Vultures dining on a Sea Lion carcass when I run at the beach.  The condors stick to the backcountry mountains, and limited terrain therein, which is why the lead ban for hunting out here is tied to specific regions considered condor habitat (though there is a call for a statewide lead ban, but that is not condor specific). The California Condor has actually been declining since the end of the last ice age.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Phyphor on August 04, 2012, 11:00:11 PM
Hippies.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: TommyGunn on August 04, 2012, 11:12:24 PM
Bullet fragments in gut piles. Actually what I have read about the California Condor is that compared to other birds it does not take very much lead to kill them.

Protecting animals and the environment, usually leads to better living conditions for Homo Sapiens. I really don't want to live in some toxic wasteland because someone screamed there are too many regulations and we need to get rid of the EPA.

That's not going to happen because of hunters' bullets.
Anyway the EPA needs to be seriously reigned-in.  Perhaps not abolished but certainly hog-tied.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: charby on August 04, 2012, 11:13:27 PM
I did a little reading and yes the condors declined when the North American Megafauna dies out after the last ice age, but they are attributing the almost extinction of the California Condor due to poaching and poisoning of varmits.

I have also read that the extiction of the North American megafauna due to hunting activities of the early Native Americans. Native Americans pretty much wiped out much of the large game in North America and turned to agriculture until European settlement happend and killed 16 out of 17 Native Americans with disease. Some of the early European explorers mention in their journals about seeing agriculture as far as the eye can see in modern day Tennessee but when Danial Boone crossed over 200 years later he saw nothing but forests, a lot of trees can grow in 200 years.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: charby on August 04, 2012, 11:13:57 PM
That's not going to happen because of hunters' bullets.
Anyway the EPA needs to be seriously reigned-in.  Perhaps not abolished but certainly hog-tied.

Why?
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: TommyGunn on August 04, 2012, 11:23:44 PM
Why?
If you're refering to hunters' bullets I seriously doubt there's enough of them out there to be a serious problem to the environment.
If you're refering to the EPA it's grown into an overbloated intrusive monster that wants to regulate ridiculous things to ridiculous degrees. 
A great deal has been accomplished over the past 50 years in cleaning up the environment and I think to some degree the EPA is a victim of this success. Instead of responding "yeah! We did it! We have cleaned a lot of cr@p up!" they've simply redoubled their reach.   
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: erictank on August 05, 2012, 05:06:07 AM
The word used was "isotope".  And, somehow, bullet lead is supposed to be a different isotope (atomic weight) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_lead) from lead used for other things?

Given the number of reloaders who melt down wheel weights, I find that... unlikely.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ron on August 05, 2012, 08:49:23 AM
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/california_condor_lead.shtml

http://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/condors-and-lead.html

It must just be a big conspiracy to get us poor little gun owners  ;/

Using a head in the sand approach is just asking for the worst possible outcome for us. Instead of working to be part of the solution, in good faith, we become the "enemy".
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: mtnbkr on August 05, 2012, 09:09:03 AM
Given the number of reloaders who melt down wheel weights, I find that... unlikely.

Bullet casters are a small minority among shooters.

Chris
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Ron on August 05, 2012, 09:20:52 AM
Just to be clear, I'm not throwing in with the OMG ban lead ammunition11!! crowd.

What I'm saying is that condors are being poisoned by lead, potentially by carcasses and gut piles left by hunters.

If the hunting, firearm enthusiast and second amendment crowd doesn't become involved in finding a solution(s), a lead ammunition ban is a probability.

 

 
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 05, 2012, 10:56:56 AM
Just to be clear, I'm not throwing in with the OMG ban lead ammunition11!! crowd.

What I'm saying is that condors are being poisoned by lead, potentially by carcasses and gut piles left by hunters.

If the hunting, firearm enthusiast and second amendment crowd doesn't become involved in finding a solution(s), a lead ammunition ban is a probability.

 

 

Well, how about introducing wolves to California to eat the gut piles before the condors can get to them  ???

We've got plenty of extra wolves in Montana  ;)
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: kgbsquirrel on August 06, 2012, 06:29:36 AM
Why doesn't California just pass a law banning Condors from eating gut piles left by hunters?  [popcorn]
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: seeker_two on August 06, 2012, 08:40:54 AM
Why?

Research how the EPA is forcing power generation plants to close due to unachievable air quality regs. Make sure to wrap your head tightly in duct tape to prevent exploding first.....
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: brimic on August 06, 2012, 02:46:51 PM
Quote
Actually I think the shooting of these giant birds is what almost wiped them out. There used to be a giant condor of the east coast but they were killed to extiction.

See, .gov should have banned lead shot centuries ago. If its difficult to kill a canadian giant with steel shot, it'll be almost impossible to bag a condor with it.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: ArfinGreebly on August 06, 2012, 06:00:44 PM

See, .gov should have banned lead shot centuries ago. If its difficult to kill a canadian giant with steel shot, it'll be almost impossible to bag a condor with it.

Ah'm tellin' you, boy, THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW!
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: seeker_two on August 06, 2012, 07:48:35 PM
If the gov't would just make extinction illegal, the condors wouldn't have a choice.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: charby on August 06, 2012, 10:28:55 PM
See, .gov should have banned lead shot centuries ago. If its difficult to kill a canadian giant with steel shot, it'll be almost impossible to bag a condor with it.

I have no problem killing Canada goose with 3.5" BB steel shot, they drop like rocks when shot over decoys.

Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: RoadKingLarry on August 06, 2012, 11:41:11 PM
I have no problem killing Canada goose with 3.5" BB steel shot, they drop like rocks when shot over decoys.



So do the condors  =D
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: brimic on August 07, 2012, 11:12:25 AM
Quote
I have no problem killing Canada goose with 3.5" BB steel shot, they drop like rocks when shot over decoys.
Dekes are the key, you have to have them in close.
Most of the goose hunting in my part of the state is in what is known as the 'Horicon zone' which has a lot of refuges. Geese are smart and know where the refuges are and get educated really quick as to where the refuge lines are. Hunting on public land usually involves lining up near the refuge line and pass shooting geese. Ducks can be easily be taken with steel, but most people use tungsten/hevi-shot or other other alternatives to steel when hunting geese.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 07, 2012, 11:50:43 AM
So what kind of decoy would one use for condors  ???

A fake gut pile, perhaps...?   =D
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: RoadKingLarry on August 07, 2012, 04:46:40 PM
So what kind of decoy would one use for condors  ???

A fake gut pile, perhaps...?   =D

Don't forget the lead garnish
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Tallpine on August 07, 2012, 05:20:53 PM
Don't forget the lead garnish

The condors have grown used to the taste.  They won't eat it otherwise.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 08, 2012, 03:04:43 AM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082199/
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: mtnbkr on August 08, 2012, 10:32:41 AM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082199/

Ugh.  I remember that movie when it came out.  That makes me sad for a variety of reasons.

Chris
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: roo_ster on August 08, 2012, 12:37:42 PM
charby:

The EPA has instituted particulate requirements that can never be met by some cities, ever.  They have not ever met those standards and will never meet those standards.  And by "not ever," I mean "before the advent of the written word, let alone diesel exhaust."  If one lives in an arid or semi-arid area, silt, dust, etc blowing about will do the trick quite nicely.  As will wildfires from hundreds of miles away.

Also, they dump these new standards into old indices, like the Air Quality Index and fiddle with the requirements, making the index less useful by jacking everything up one more level.

Then, the EPA wants to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.

I could go on, with the numerous enforcement outrages, but any rational look at the EPA will come to the conclusion that it is out of control.

Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: brimic on August 08, 2012, 12:55:28 PM


The EPA has instituted particulate requirements that can never be met by some cities, ever.  They have not ever met those standards and will never meet those standards.  And by "not ever," I mean "before the advent of the written word, let alone diesel exhaust."  If one lives in an arid or semi-arid area, silt, dust, etc blowing about will do the trick quite nicely.  As will wildfires from hundreds of miles away.




Case in point: The SE 1/5th or so of WI has to line up at the DMV test stations wasting enormous amounts of money and time in the process because of Clean Air Act standards. Almost all of this area meets standards, but there is one test station in the very SE corner of our state that gives failing results due to pollution that is blown in from Chicago and Gary Indiana. Manufacturers are harmed even more by the junk science involved.
Title: Re: Tracking the "Other" side.
Post by: zxcvbob on August 08, 2012, 12:58:06 PM
So what kind of decoy would one use for condors  ???

A fake gut pile, perhaps...?   =D

You can buy those at Spencer's.