Post by cougar on Jan 19, 2005 2:20:37 GMT -5
I am not a Beretta handgun.
I am not a Mercury automobile.
I am not a variety of Kodiak Chewing Tobacco!
I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a Brigham Young University student or faculty member or employee. (BYU is operated by the very conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka the Mormons, and their school mascot is Cosmo, the Cougar.)
I'm just me, Cougar, living here in northern Utah.
I have a few guns, and I'm partial to the designs of another Utah citizen, firearms inventor .John Moses Browning. I prefer to never reveal exactly what I own and in what quantities, including ammunition, but I will say that my favorite handgun is my Ruger GP 100, blued, 4" barrel, adjustable sights. A Browning design handgun comes in second place by a tiny margin.
My other two hobbies are photography and hiking. I like to get outdoors as much as possible. I don't spend much time online. I am employed at a job that I mostly enjoy and which allows me to apply my creativity.
The right to keep and bear arms is important to me and self defense is about so much more than just me protecting myself. A nation in which the good people possess the ability to counter evil force with overwhelming force of their own is a nation in which the more sensitive, the artistic, the natural people among us may live with greater safety and freedom of expression. Probably the one thing worse than being a helpless victim would be for one to be a helpless bystander, who might have prevented evil, if only one had the means to do so.
Although Utah has a great deal of open hunting land, I don't hunt. I don't have any problem with _most_ hunting, but some forms of hunting do seem very wasteful or lacking in sporting value. Unless they are a detriment to agricultural production, what is the benefit of shooting jack rabbits or coyotes? Some humans allow their dogs to chase bear and wild cats into trees or other dead ends, then they come along and shoot the cornered animal. In our modern world, is this supposed to prove the physical and mental virtue of the human?
Now let me leave you with some prose written by Utah naturalist author Terry Tempest Williams.
"The canyons of southern Utah are giving birth to the Coyote Clan--hundreds, maybe even thousands of individuals who are quietly subversive on behalf of the land. And they are infiltrating our neighborhoods in the most respectable ways, with their long bushy tail tucked discreetly inside their pants or beneath their skirts.
Members of the Clan are not easily identified, but there are clues. You can see it in their eyes. They are joyful and they are fierce. They can cry louder and laugh harder than anyone on the planet. And they have enormous range.
The Coyote Clan is a raucous bunch: they have drunk from desert potholes and belched forth toads. They tell stories with such virtuosity that you'll swear you have been in the presence of preachers.
The Coyote Clan is also serene. They can float on their backs down the length of any river or lose entire afternoons in the contemplation of stone.
Members of the Clan court risk and will dance on slickrock as flash floods erode the ground beneath their feet. It doesn't matter. They understand the earth re-creates itself day after day..."
(author Terry Tempest Williams, from her "Eulogy for Edward Abbey") see www.windovertheearth.com/MWilliams.html
And you don't have to be a ‘yote to be a member of the clan.
Cougar
I am not a Mercury automobile.
I am not a variety of Kodiak Chewing Tobacco!
I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a Brigham Young University student or faculty member or employee. (BYU is operated by the very conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka the Mormons, and their school mascot is Cosmo, the Cougar.)
I'm just me, Cougar, living here in northern Utah.
I have a few guns, and I'm partial to the designs of another Utah citizen, firearms inventor .John Moses Browning. I prefer to never reveal exactly what I own and in what quantities, including ammunition, but I will say that my favorite handgun is my Ruger GP 100, blued, 4" barrel, adjustable sights. A Browning design handgun comes in second place by a tiny margin.
My other two hobbies are photography and hiking. I like to get outdoors as much as possible. I don't spend much time online. I am employed at a job that I mostly enjoy and which allows me to apply my creativity.
The right to keep and bear arms is important to me and self defense is about so much more than just me protecting myself. A nation in which the good people possess the ability to counter evil force with overwhelming force of their own is a nation in which the more sensitive, the artistic, the natural people among us may live with greater safety and freedom of expression. Probably the one thing worse than being a helpless victim would be for one to be a helpless bystander, who might have prevented evil, if only one had the means to do so.
Although Utah has a great deal of open hunting land, I don't hunt. I don't have any problem with _most_ hunting, but some forms of hunting do seem very wasteful or lacking in sporting value. Unless they are a detriment to agricultural production, what is the benefit of shooting jack rabbits or coyotes? Some humans allow their dogs to chase bear and wild cats into trees or other dead ends, then they come along and shoot the cornered animal. In our modern world, is this supposed to prove the physical and mental virtue of the human?
Now let me leave you with some prose written by Utah naturalist author Terry Tempest Williams.
"The canyons of southern Utah are giving birth to the Coyote Clan--hundreds, maybe even thousands of individuals who are quietly subversive on behalf of the land. And they are infiltrating our neighborhoods in the most respectable ways, with their long bushy tail tucked discreetly inside their pants or beneath their skirts.
Members of the Clan are not easily identified, but there are clues. You can see it in their eyes. They are joyful and they are fierce. They can cry louder and laugh harder than anyone on the planet. And they have enormous range.
The Coyote Clan is a raucous bunch: they have drunk from desert potholes and belched forth toads. They tell stories with such virtuosity that you'll swear you have been in the presence of preachers.
The Coyote Clan is also serene. They can float on their backs down the length of any river or lose entire afternoons in the contemplation of stone.
Members of the Clan court risk and will dance on slickrock as flash floods erode the ground beneath their feet. It doesn't matter. They understand the earth re-creates itself day after day..."
(author Terry Tempest Williams, from her "Eulogy for Edward Abbey") see www.windovertheearth.com/MWilliams.html
And you don't have to be a ‘yote to be a member of the clan.
Cougar
BTW... what is a "'yote"? 