ThinkingAfield.org

By Juliet Eilperin and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 20, 2009; Page A09

A federal judge yesterday blocked a last-minute rule enacted by President George W. Bush allowing visitors to national parks to carry concealed weapons.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. The Justice Department had sought to block the injunction against the controversial rule…

Click on the title for the complete story.

By Justin McDaniel of the NRA

Last week, the National Park Service (NPS) issued a statement saying that it intended to eliminate the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle in its parks by the end of 2010. Now, after heavy criticism from NRA and other hunting and fishing groups, NPS has backpedaled on its anti-lead announcement, saying Wednesday that the ban only applies to NPS employees and authorized agents of the park service…

Click on the title for more.

UBC professor and author Stanley Coren says dogs work better than Prozac, a prescription antidepressant– and that’s no exaggeration.

According to a study published recently in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, the positive effects of having a familiar, friendly dog close by include lowered blood pressure, slowed heartbeat and more relaxed muscles–all signs of reduced stress.

Click on the title for more.

A West Virginia man has been buried in his pickup truck wearing his camo hunting clothes with his .243 Remington rifle and his favorite pocket knife. Who says you can’t take it with you!

Click on the title for the complete story.

BELLEVUE, WA – A revelation by the Washington Times that President Barack Obama is trying to quietly end the armed pilot program, making air travel more vulnerable to terrorist attack, should outrage travelers, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“The Washington Times nailed it,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who proposed arming pilots just hours after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and championed the armed pilot program. “ What Obama is doing is risking public safety, as the newspaper put it, ‘in the name of an anti-gun ideology’.”

The newspaper reported in its Tuesday edition that President Obama is “quietly ending the federal firearms program” by diverting some $2 million from the training program to hire “supervisory” staff, whose job, it appears, will be to harass armed pilots through unnecessary field inspections.

“How dare the president, or anybody in his administration, take measures to erode the safety of air travelers,” Gottlieb questioned. “The armed pilot program provides a guaranteed level of security to the public. There may or may not be an air marshal aboard every airplane, but there is definitely a pilot in the cockpit.

“We trust commercial airline pilots with $500 million aircraft,” he continued. “We can certainly trust them with $500 pistols to defend those planes, and th e lives of their passengers.

“Certain individuals have never liked the armed pilot program,” Gottlieb acknowledged. “These anti-gun, anti-self-defense bureaucrats seem more interested in their own power, and protecting their little empires, than they are in protecting the public. And now, Obama is catering to their anti-gun bigotry.”

Call the White House at (202) 456-1111, or send a comment by visiting www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

Click on the title to read Michigan House Bill 4198 aimed at regulating rules for deer and elk feeding through year 2016.

March 9, 2009

Contact Steve Schmitt 517 336-5030 Mary Dettloff 517-335-3012

TB Prevalence Increases Slightly in Deer Herd in Core Area of
Infection

The incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in the deer herd in the core
area of infection in northeastern Lower Michigan – Deer Management Unit
452 – increased slightly in 2008, the Department of Natural Resources
announced last week at the Natural Resources Commission meeting.

DMU 452, which is located in Montmorency, Alpena, Oscoda and Alcona
counties, saw the incidence in deer testing positive for TB increase to
1.8 percent from 1.4 percent in 2007. Although the incidence is still
declining over the long term, the trend for rate of infection during the
last six years is only changing slightly on an annual basis.

“We have brought the prevalence of TB down from 1995, but it appears
to be stabilizing at this level during recent years,” explained DNR
Wildlife Veterinarian Steve Schmitt. “We may have lowered it as far as
we can with our current strategy.”

The DNR’s strategy has been to ban feeding and baiting in the
northeastern Lower Peninsula and to reduce the deer herd, by
liberalizing the availability of antlerless deer licenses. The bait and
feed ban has been extended to include the entire Lower Peninsula
following the discovery of a deer with chronic wasting disease in a
privately-owned deer herd in Kent County last August.

Overall, the DNR tested 16,260 deer for TB in 2008. Of those, 36 were
positive. Among TB-positive deer, 34 came from the four-county area, one
from Presque Isle County and one from Iosco County.

Intensive testing in Shiawassee County, where a TB-positive deer was
found in 2007, and six surrounding counties did not turn up any
TB-positive deer, Schmitt said.

By Glen Wunderlich
March 10, 2009

The Obama administration is sure making progress but in what direction? Obama himself has articulated what a fiscal mess he inherited and admittedly finds himself in quite a hole. But, his answer appears to be to keep digging and eventually we’ll all come out on the other side and be happy once again. There’s got to be a better way!

Not surprisingly he still commands a lot of support. And, why not? Look at his appointments, who are ever in his debt for being rescued from manipulative positions as Washington lobbyists. No doubt Obama has kept many promises – misguided as they are. However, he sure forgot the one about not having any lobbyists on his team.

Moreover, just how loyal might those guilty of tax evasion be for not only being forgiven for their “mistakes”, but rewarded with the highest political positions in the nation? I’d say plenty. And, what about Speaker Pelosi who vowed to clean up the dirty politics. That wouldn’t be a lie; I’m sure they’d just call it a mistake. I mean, everybody makes them, don’t they?

Obama also receives staunch support from those with their hands out – and, that crowd is growing by the day.

In the end, Obama will not be judged by his good intentions; rather, he’ll be judged by the results he achieves. Those with outstretched hands will judge him well; those carrying the load will despise him, as Obama and his supporting cast of robber barrons extract more from the working people he claims to favor.

Although Republicans have stood against his plans, they’ve stood for nothing. The spineless leaders of the right have yet to find the courage to stand for conservatism – the principles that made this country the greatest nation in the world, and not the least of which principle is smaller government.

When conservatives finally get their voice, they’ll have a difficult time unseating the “Great Provider”. But, it can only be done with a vision that rewards hard work instead of a system that pays people not to work.

It’s simple enough but it will take more guts than anyone is currently displaying.

Tracy Hanson of Washington D.C. was denied a permit for her handgun that was the wrong color.

There is no question that the D.C. bureaucrats have no intention of upholding last year’s Supreme Court decision that permits citizens to possess handguns typically used for self defense.

Another lawsuit has been filed.

The complete story can be found by clicking on the title.

Fairfax, Va. – On Monday, March 9, the U.S. Supreme Court denied consideration of New York City and Washington, D.C. lawsuits, New York v. Beretta and Lawson v. Beretta, respectively, that tried to hold American gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of criminals. The Court ‘s order leaves standing a pair of decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and District of Columbia Court of Appeals, both of which found that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), enacted in 2005, prevents these types of lawsuits against lawful firearms manufacturers and dealers.

“Big city mayors conceived these lawsuits to try and litigate American gun manufacturers – who President Roosevelt referred to as “the arsenal of democracy” – out of business,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “NRA has always believed the courts would agree with Congress that the PLCAA rightfully stops these reckless and politically motivated lawsuits.”

In 2000, New York City, Washington, D.C. and several individual plaintiffs sued gun manufacturers, based on the idea that although they manufactured a legal product, forcing them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees just to prove their innocence in court would drive them into bankruptcy. In addition to being based on a bogus legal theory, these lawsuits endangered American armed forces and law enforcement. During congressional debate over the PLCAA, the Department of Defense agreed with the NRA that bankrupting U.S. gun makers and making us dependent on foreign countries like France, Russia or China for small arms is a threat to America’s domestic and international security.

“We are pleased that the courts have recognized the misguided intent of these lawsuits,” concluded Cox. ” America’s law-abiding firearms manufacturers must be protected from reckless suits that have no legal merit.”