Palin derangement syndrome + anti-hunting attitude = fruitcake

[Scout26]

Watching the relevant part of episode 4, I don't like it either, for a completely different reason.  Sarah shot at a caribou on a ridge with no visual of what's beyond the ridge.  

More then likey MAMBA*





*with apologies to the Colonial British who coined the acronym for Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa. 

[Perd Hapley]

Are you Palin supporters so in love with her that you don't care whether her Alaskan sportswoman persona is fake?  If this were a liberal going on a hunting trip everyone would be all over it, finding the most minuscule flaws in technique and safety rule violations.

Are Palin detractors so manic that they would abuse their powers to post in the political forum when it was closed? Or is that just tyme?

Oh. Looks like an honest mistake from both sides. Sorry.


The answer to the question, probably, is that most of Palin's supporters weren't watching the stupid show. I know I didn't.

[Monkeyleg]

Are Palin detractors so manic that they would abuse their powers to post in the political forum when it was closed? Or is that just tyme?

There wasn't any abuse, Fistful. One member requested that this thread be opened again, since Politics was re-opened after New Years. I didn't see any reason why this thread should continue to be locked.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

There wasn't any abuse, Fistful. One member requested that this thread be opened again, since Politics was re-opened after New Years. I didn't see any reason why this thread should continue to be locked.

Tyme posted the day the politics forum was locked down. Doubtless to oppress Fistful. 

[Monkeyleg]

Tyme posted the day the politics forum was locked down.

I just looked, and you're right. Sneaky SOB, isn't he?

[Perd Hapley]

So did he post before or after the forum was closed?

[sanglant]

after, was while i was trying to edit a post.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

After. Since he's an admin, the moratorium didn't effect him, so he didn't notice it. 

[Scout26]

Just for you Fistful: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q58nTiZrJ0

[Perd Hapley]

After. Since he's an admin, the moratorium didn't effect him, so he didn't notice it. 

If that is so, I shall retract my statement. Gladly. Twas a little disconcerting that no one else objected. 

[roo_ster]

If that is so, I shall retract my statement. Gladly. Twas a little disconcerting that no one else objected. 

Well, a large plurality if the voices in my head were right there with you.

[tyme]

I may at times be a communist sympathizer, but I don't like one-sided arguments and would never abuse forum capabilities to get in the last word.

I didn't delete my Xmas eve post because I had noticed my error far too late, well after mtnbkr had posted and closed the thread.  I also figured the thread would be reopened eventually, or else I would have deleted my post anyway no matter how many people had already read it.

Fistful, I'm sorry, but you do realize that it's your fault I didn't notice the forum was closed, right?  I hadn't watched the TV show until this thread piqued my interest in it.

@gunsmith, is scouting out areas from a plane (hours earlier at least) really an acceptable alternative for knowing what's beyond your target, even if it is the Alaskan wilderness?  Regardless of how unlikely it is that anyone was beyond the ridge, there could have been, and based on the topography a bullet going over that ridge might land several ridges over, in an area that wouldn't even be visible from the ridge that caribou was on.

[Perd Hapley]

Oh, OK. Consider my post redacted.

[Scout26]

Tyme have you ever been to Alaska ??

[tyme]

No.  Is knowing what's beyond your target not a reasonable safety precaution in Alaska because the probability of hitting something important is so low?

[Monkeyleg]

No.  Is knowing what's beyond your target not a reasonable safety precaution in Alaska because the probability of hitting something important is so low?

Well, you could hit Russia if you shot out your kitchen window.

[roo_ster]

No.  Is knowing what's beyond your target not a reasonable safety precaution in Alaska because the probability of hitting something important is so low?

I am mostly a "Four Rules All the Time, for Everybody" kinda guy.  But, things out West are a little different.  There are some places where there is NOBODY for a LONG, LONG WAYS.  Meaning, "beyond any ballistic trajectory produced by any cartridge gun."  Makes rural Iowa seem kinda crowded.

I would not have made such a shot most places, unless the locals thought it within the bounds of safety and local custom.  And that is what I think can override the backstop rule.  I'd have to have both fact (population densities), reason (densities so low as to round to zero), and local practices on the side of letting that particular rule slide.  I have much respect for Cooper and his Rules have served me well.  But I have not made a god out of him and he did not get the Four off Mount Sinai, written with the finger of God.









Even the "less than one person per square mile" doesn't capture Alaska's lack of humans.

[Monkeyleg]

Roo_ster definitely gets points for reply research.

[AJ Dual]

And for a further sense of scale if Alaska were set with a fair average of it's southern extremities in Texas,  the northern tip would be in South Dakota/Wyoming or Minnesota.

http://www.usmarshals.gov/district/ak/images/alaska-small.gif

Were it independent, Alaska would be the 18th largest country in the world by square miles/kilometers/area.
 
My understanding about the number of shots Sarah took was that her relative fell on his rifle, ruined the scope's zero. Once she was handed a different rifle, she made the shot on the first try.

[CNYCacher]

Seward's home is a 3 minute walk from here.  Auburn is kind of proud of Alaska.

[tyme]

I'm not faulting her for missing.  Obviously using a rifle that hadn't had its scope jarred out of alignment would be a plus, but that wasn't her fault, and she might have missed even with a sighted-in rifle.

Unusual, unexpected events happen.  The four rules were not handed down by God, but they exist so that in the worst case, not just in the average case, nobody gets hurt.  In the worst case, Palin might have hit someone, picked up a negligent homicide conviction, and would have been finished as the right-wing's media darling.  If that had happened, would it have been worth it just to get a clip of a caribou silhouetted against the sky as she took several shots?

How many people do you think watched that episode and didn't consider the backstop issue?  The risk that she might have killed someone is entirely Palin's problem, but beyond that it sets a bad example.

There are some places where there is NOBODY for a LONG, LONG WAYS

There is PROBABLY nobody for miles, but that doesn't change the fact that if there happens to be someone out there, and you hit them, you've committed a crime, and that's what the backstop awareness rule is designed to prevent.

It wouldn't even have to be a human out there.  What if she'd hit and wounded another animal, leaving it in agony for hours or days before it died?  And she probably wouldn't have even known.  For all we know, that could have happened.

[gunsmith]

plus there is editing,  probably makes for uninteresting TV to show them applying the four rules each and every shot. I'm sure they knew no one was there, other parts of the show where they are using guns they have made the safety points so I'm guessing the part where they glassed the outback was edited out for time/interesting show considerations.

[Monkeyleg]

plus there is editing,  probably makes for uninteresting TV to show them applying the four rules each and every shot. I'm sure they knew no one was there, other parts of the show where they are using guns they have made the safety points so I'm guessing the part where they glassed the outback was edited out for time/interesting show considerations.

Good point. I'm sure the producers aren't keen on being sued for negligence.

[tyme]

So the theory is that there was a lookout -- downrange (!) -- making sure nobody else was downrange?  Or is the theory that they had a helicopter surveilling the area at the time?

[Monkeyleg]

No, Tyme, my theory is that Sarah Palin is an absolute fake, that she knows nothing about hunting or camping or even raising children, that she's just a creation of the Republican Party (or even the Tea Party). Maybe she's just a hologram.