VOTE FOR HUNTING AND WILDLIFE, NOT THE NRA
Hunters, Look Beyond the End of Your Gun Barrel
Has anybody heard that we have a big election coming up? And that in the wake of the historic Scalia opinion in the D.C. v. Heller case, gun rights might be a big issue in the campaign, especially in key western "swing states" such as Colorado, Montana and New Mexico?
Republicans obviously believe they can win these and other western states on the gun issue alone. But I think most hunters can see beyond the end of their gun barrels.
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WHERE IS THE HOUSE BILL?
Congress Needs to Walk the Talk on Recreation Fees
On June 18, finally, Congress started seriously looking into the runaway recreational fee charging policy of federal agencies, primarily the U.S. Forest Service (FS), but it's still just talk. We've had enough of that, so let's just spike this pay-for-play policy, which is at best an extreme stretch of the legal authority given agencies by Congress--"given," sort of, I should say, since our elected leaders never even debated it or voted on it.
Even though it's moving at glacier speed, we at least have the Baucus-Crapo Bill, S. 2438, introduced in the Senate to spike the Recreation Access Tax. This is clearly a bipartisan issue, ripe for election-year politics. Now, we need a sponsor for a similar bill in the House.
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Ernesto's, Free Pizza No More
Bend Loses Best Happy-Hour Venue
The first time I was told Ernesto’s Italian Restaurant in Bend dished out free pizza during Happy Hour so long as one ordered a cocktail that costs more than $3 my response was this: Can I order two?
My friend and informant of the free pizza nodded that indeed, you could.
“Hell,” he said, “you can order as many drinks as you want. So long as you don’t pass out or blackout and start smashing things.”
Well, dear reader, the free pizza is no more. Ernesto’s officially closed for business this week.
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Fire Sparkes Near Bend
Fire Season Arrives In Oregon
Despite hundreds of inches of precipitation dropping in the Cascades already this year, fire season has officially arrived in Oregon.
More than a thousand lightening strikes since the weekend have bolted Oregon’s fire season into reality, sparking several blazes near Bend.
The Tumalo Creek Fire, burning just north of Bend, has already charred more than twenty acres and forced several evacuations. The fire was 60 percent contained as of Monday.
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Jeopaaaardy!
Talk Like A Pirate Day Inventor Defeated On Jeopardy
There are only three people in the world, who if they appeared as contestants on Jeopardy!, would I wish for them to fail miserably. That list, in no particular order, would include the following: Jared the Subway mascot; James Dobson the evangelist guru; and Oregon’s own John Baur, the inventor of Talk Like A Pirate Day.
A sanction of my Jeopardy! contestant loserdom was fulfilled Thursday night when Baur appeared on the greatest game show ever created. And although Baur was neither crushed nor maimed on the program, Baur did lose, providing me with a great sense of comfort. In fact, I slept better last night than I have in a month.
I first reported on the dreaded Talk Like A Pirate Day last September when the annual “holiday” came around. In case you were wondering how I felt about the holiday, allow me to sum it up real brief like: It’s the stupidest thing ever conjured by a human brain.
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COMMENTS WORTH REPEATING
Guns and the Most Controversial Nonprofit of Them All
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. What is the Most Controversial Nonprofit Organization of Them All?
Can we agree that it is the National Rifle Association?
Fervently supported by millions of gun owners, but bitterly criticized by its detractors, including many hunters who feel the gun group elects anti-hunting politicians who vote consistently against the protecting wildlife habitat. Critics think the NRA stands for Not Really an Ally or National Republican Army.
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Notes From The Summer Tour
Finding Glitter And Doom With Tom Waits
My thoughts haven’t been clear these past few days. It’s not the exposure to an excess of sunlight, or the lingering flavors of barley and hops each morning that are clouding my brain cells. What are swimming through my thoughts are the following lyrics from the Tom Waits song “Lucinda”:
"I thought I'd broke loose of Lucinda
The rain returned and so did the wind
I was standing outside the Whitehorse
Oh but I was afraid to go in"
After following Tom Waits on the first three nights of his current “Glitter and Doom” tour, I have found it a staggering impossibility to shake those strange lyrics from my thought process.
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Donation Will Go To Oregon State University
Wife Of Late “Crocodile Hunter” To Visit Oregon For OSU Donation
The wife of the late Steve Irwin - more popularly known as the “Crocodile Hunter” – is scheduled to visit Oregon this week to announce a donation to Oregon State University for whale research.
Irwin’s widow, Terri, is expected to arrive to Oregon within the next several days to make the donation announcement. Terri is a native of Eugene.
Several members of the Irwin family are expected to sign an agreement with Oregon State's Marine Mammal Institute on Wednesday to fund the humpback whale research projects that will gather information on the threatened marine mammal species.
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WE WON'T CHANGE UNTIL WE HAVE TO
$5 Gas: The Pain Before the Gain
We're all feeling Pump Pain, and who among us doesn't think that $5 gas is around the corner? I'm writing as fast as I can, in fact, so I can get this column posted before I have to fill up my pickup truck again, if I can afford it.
And thinking that perhaps $5 gas is just what we need.
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housing in the west
Your Stories of Mortgage WoeWe want to know, and tell, your stories of mortgage troubles; of upstanding, perhaps, or questionable lenders; and of your trials and tribulations in the housing markets of the Mountain West, from Colorado and Utah to Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and the eastern reaches of Oregon and Washington. We have a lot in common across this region, and we can learn from each other.
If you don't feel comfortable posting your comments below this post, feel free to email me privately at , and I'll be in touch with you shortly. And while you're at it, keep your eye on NewWest.Net and sign up for our new quarterly news magazine at www.newwest.net/magazine. We're doing our best to cut through the rhetoric, the rosy projections from the real estate organizations and the rest of the hard-spun blather to bring you news that's grounded in actual facts.
Thanks.
Bob Struckman
New West magazine editor
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