Don's Tuesday column

             THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   5/14/2013

The snow, train, wolves, liars & thugs

Your local Tea Party Patriots continue to host weekly presentations on topics of wide interest. Last week, we watched a riveting video of the devastation to both range animals and wildlife brought about by the deceptive and poorly-thought-out reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park and their predictable spread throughout the region. This week, there will be some folks from the coast to talk about the train route they are advocating over and through the Coast Range. I recommend you come and hear their case for what could be a huge boost to the north state’s economy, 6 PM at the Westside Grange.

Anyone who knows us knows that Barbara and I spend every day we can from Thanksgiving to Memorial Day snow skiing on Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. Nothing bad to say about the many Tahoe area resorts; locally, Mt. Shasta has a fine ski and board park, but the lateness of arriving snow, as well as the early end of their snow pack in April, spurred us to acquire property in Bend. Many folks from California to Washington have similar second homes there for when the ski bug bites.

I write that just to get around to registering a bit of remorse that the season ends, either when the lifts stop running or when the snow turns to dirty, sloppy slush with no meteorological hope for fresh, white stuff to replenish it. To have to admit that legs that are used to 30,000 vertical feet on a good day, lasting hours before giving out, that those same legs get humbled by less than 10,000 feet of pushing heavy slush around—well, all things come to an end.

However, with spring comes the warming and greening of the forests as the snow recedes; the mosquitoes will come and go as the lakes welcome our little inflatable boat and motor. Bluegrass festivals beckon; the Columbia Gorge and its many spectacular waterfalls invite; the famous Spruce Goose, that huge and cavernous plane built by Howard Hughes for military transport during WW II (but never used due to the war ending), in McMinnville will remind us of Hughes’ accomplishments. We both have a connection to the plane: I worked for a catering company in Los Angeles at the pre-public-opening party, and went into and stood on the flight deck, looking down into the cavernous cargo area and the wings in which a man could easily stand upright. Barbara’s dad actually saw the Spruce Goose fly on its maiden and only flight in the Long Beach harbor. We will engage in our annual clam chowder taste test in the Newport, OR, area. Once on the road, my columns and blog posts at “Polecat News and Views” (DonPolson.blogspot.com) will, hopefully, continue uninterrupted, wireless Internet service allowing.

The aforementioned wolf problem in the northern Rocky Mountains bears further comment. You can purchase the video, “Crying Wolf,” at “vimeo.com/kingjd”; I couldn’t actually watch it online, however. Some items I remember from the Tea Party viewing: News reports have pointed to a wolf, OR-7 I think, wandering around either side of the OR/CA border, in response to which Tehama County’s supervisors have registered objections to giving any preferred status to the animal. The usual enviro-liberal activists in Sacramento have advocated for designation of wolf “habitat” in our state, a ludicrous and threatening (to private property) step.

The wolf population in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming has grown to nearly 2,000; every wolf destroys up to dozens of wild (elk or bighorn sheep) or cattle or sheep per day; destroy, not consume, because they leave partly eaten and mutilated corpses in their wake. The toll is such that game hunting is being abandoned in Montana; sheep and cattle ranchers are being driven to insolvency. Wolves were rightfully hunted to near extinction for good reason: only in the absence of wolves can human industry and sport thrive. Montana is taking steps to increase the hunting allowances for landowners and others; let’s hope they can carry through in the face of the enviro-and-wildlife extremists that irrationally push in favor of animals and nature over humans.

Brief observations on the growing scandal over the September 11 terror attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya (go to DonPolson.blogspot.com and use the “Libya” label to find out what few in the news media have been eager to tell you): We know of the facts surrounding the denial of increased security, even the lowering of the protective force, making the Obama State Dept. and others fully responsible for the deaths. We know of four separate decisions to not send any help, from Tripoli, Italy or America, the Tripoli efforts (told to “stand down”) being certain to have prevented some of the deaths and injuries. We know of the factual fabrications, the bald-faced lies, repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by Obama, Clinton, Rice and others. The cover-up going on to this day should bring about demotions, even impeachment, of any Secretary of State or President of any party. Powerlineblog.com and HughHewitt.com have all of the developments in real time and archived.

The deeply troubling revelations relating to the scandalous, anti-Constitutional and quasi-despotic use of the IRS to target Tea Party Patriots and other conservative group needs far more space than this column has left. The news media seems to smell such a Nixonian level of political retribution, and shredding of citizens’ protection from same, that this should only get bigger; more to come.