I remember being there
in the library watching you
read, a specter, a ghost
of a human being, the words
barely audible in that sacred room.
You warned us of a life in which
grown men raved for their paychecks,
normal people were sent away
to spare rooms and loved ones
cried for more than we could
give or even promise. Forty years later
I still remember you, resolute horror,
fastened like a scar across my hideous eyes.

Hunters Kill for the Sheer Fun of It

Earlier today I received a comment from another irate hunter who cannot tolerate the idea that someone might despise their cruel and blood-thirsty sport.

In the comment he went on about how much he has done to “save” the wildlife and preserve their habitats. Talk about selfish and self-serving nonsense. Like many other hunters, he is like a pedophile who raises little girls, feeds them, clothes them, houses them, only so he can molest them — and then pats himself on the back for being such a good dad.

The truth is, the only reason hunters care about wildlife and the environment is that it means there will be more for them to kill.

Hunters are like pedophiles with guns. They take advantage of the helpless and those who are weaker for their own insane gratification.

Like pedophiles, hunters should be put in prison forever, locked up, and suffer the degradation from other inmates that they have caused their own victims.

No mercy for the killers.

Whenever I post these news items, I also hear the same lame arguments from hunters and the same profanity-laced comments towards me and anyone else who dares question their so-called right to play god and kill helpless animals. Unless a person lives in an environment where there is no other way to survive, hunting is not about survival or protecting the “balance of nature” within habitats. Hunting is about blood, death, fear, pain, and ego. Most of the comments are predictable, illogical, and very tiresome. Until I actual hear from a hunter who is willing to admit that they kill because it gives them a thrill and they love killing things, I do not plan to approve any other comments from hunters.

In today’s hunting story, a state trooper and hunter in Norton, Massachusetts, shot and seriously wounded an older woman who was out walking her dogs. The would-be killer this time is John Bergeron and the victim a neighbor named Cheryl Blair.

The woman’s husband, who is also a hunter, commented that Bergeron and other hunters need to be more careful about where they aim their weapons. Duh. How about they aim their guns at themselves, pull the trigger, and tell us what “sport” it is to kill?

Interesting, I think, that the trooper is not facing charges and that the “investigation is continuing.” If this guy can be so reckless and stupid, he should lose his job. Perhaps the next time he unloads his weapon “by mistake,” it will be to shoot an innocent person during a traffic stop or some other minor issue.

Here’s the story from the Associated Press -

NORTON, Mass. — The husband of a Massachusetts woman who was accidentally shot by an off-duty state trooper hunting deer after dark is questioning the trooper’s target identification.

The Boston Herald reports that the trooper apologized to the family. But the victim’s husband, also a hunter, says hunters need to pay attention and know their target.

Cheryl Blair was walking her two dogs Saturday when the trooper, John Bergeron, mistook her pets for a deer.

She is in a hospital recovering from surgery for a fractured pelvis.

Authorities say the shooting was accidental. A state police spokesman says Bergeron was properly licensed and faces no criminal charges. The investigation is continuing.

Bergeron, a neighbor of the Blairs’, did not respond to a request by the newspaper for comment.

Unfortunately, hunters who are drunk and trigger-happy don’t just take aim at other hunters. There’s a good chance that in their drunken rage they will kill your family dog or other pet.

Today we have a story in the local papers about a hunter who was ostensibly trying to kill squirrels who shot and killed some family’s pet dog. The dog bled to death.

A hunter told wardens he was hunting red squirrel in a wooded area behind the Henriksens’ home when he mistook the dog for a coyote. It’s legal to hunt red squirrels and coyotes year-round.

The Maine Warden Service says charges are likely to be filed in the coming days, but that the name of the hunter isn’t being released because the case is under investigation.

I hope that we do learn the name of this moron who mistook a dog for a coyote. All I can tell you is that if he had shot and killed my dog, he’d be facing more than “charges” from the Maine Warden Service. Perhaps some other hunter will do us a favor and put this man’s carcass in the back of a pick-up truck and drop him off in my front yard.

For locals here in Maine, the case of missing baby Ayla Reynolds continues to mystify and confuse. Comments at the web site for the Portland Press Herald run the gamut from the typical lifestyle-bashing of self-righteous Tea Party types who want to focus on the mother’s drug issues and other family problems, to those who seem solely and rightfully concerned about the safety of Ayla.

One question that comes up frequently concerns Ayla Reynolds’ paternal grandparents. On her mother’s side, her grandfather has been a frequent and outspoken advocate for his grand-daughter. The mother, Trista Reynolds, and other family members on that side of the family have also given interviews. We have heard absolutely nothing from Ayla’s paternal grandparents, and almost as little from her father, Justin DiPietro.

As we saw during the Casey Anthony trial, grandparents are not an aloof, objective group of bystanders but frequently are deeply enmeshed in relationships with their children and their spouses, as well as in the lives of their grandchildren. So it is not unreasonable to wonder why we have not heard from Ayla’s paternal grandparents. Not only have we not heard from them, the media has barely mentioned them, if at all.

It does not help that Justin has been AWOL from the media. He has said nothing publicly but has released two written statements through the Waterville, Maine, police department. In his latest statement, which was issued yesterday,  he says he is “innocent” and has been laying low only to keep from feeding the media frenzy about the case.

Fair enough, up to a point.

The truth is, what might have seemed a private family matter in years past is now a very public, community concern. In today’s media-saturated world, the line between public and private is not only blurred, it barely exists. And public interest in this case is not mere voyeurism. There is some of that, but I think people are genuinely concerned and emotionally involved when something like this happens to a child like Ayla.

So it makes sense when we wonder about her grandparents, where they are, what their relationship is like with the little girl, her parents, and the rest of her extended family. If Justin felt anguish at the thought that Ayla was going to be taken from him and sent to live with a mother with an addiction problem, it is not unreasonable to wonder if his parents – Ayla’s grandparents – stepped in to “rescue” this child.

Eventually, the public will have answers. Until then, we are all left to wonder: What do the grandparents know? Where are they during this crisis? Do they have Ayla?

♥

If you have any information about Ayla’s grandparents or family on Justin’s side, please feel free to post it in a comment below or email me at rake@hillaryclintonquarterly.com

According to a news release issued by the agency, the company was fined $335,000 to settle the suit. The agency determined that Resource Residential fired older workers and hired younger, less expensive employees to save money and create a more “youthful image” for its properties.

Below is the news release announcing the ruling by the EEOC.

ATLANTA – Resource Real Estate Management, Inc., doing business as Resource Residential, will pay $335,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

The EEOC charged that Resource Residential, a property management corporation that manages over 12,000 units at multi-family properties in at least 15 states, including four properties in the Savannah, Ga., area, unlawfully subjected three management-level employees, ages 53, 60 and 64, to discrimination by firing them because of their ages and subsequently hiring 14 employees under the age of 40 to support its effort to create a younger image.

Such alleged conduct violates Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The EEOC filed suit in September 2010 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

The consent decree settling the suit, in addition to the monetary relief of $335,000, includes provisions for equal employment opportunity training, reporting, and anti-discrimination postings. In the suit and consent decree, Resource Residential denied any liability or wrongdoing.

“We are glad to see this matter settled without protracted litigation,” said Bernice Williams-Kimbrough, director of the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “Employers should expect that whenever an employee’s civil rights are violated, the EEOC will protect those rights.”

“Not only is age discrimination plainly illegal, it’s unjustifiable and bad for business,” said Robert Dawkins, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “This resolution is another step toward eradicating the practice of wasting talent simply because of age.”

Up in Belgrade, Maine, a hunter was up in a tree with his muzzle loader when he either fell asleep, got too drunk, or suffered some kind of medical crisis. The end result was a trip to the local hospital with a broken hip and broken back.

The good news is that whatever he was aiming to kill got away to live another day.

Could this be God’s way of telling men to stop the slaughter?

Or maybe it is just karma.

Hunters Kill for the Sheer Fun of It

It seems that every week there is another news story about a Maine hunter who either shoots himself, shoots a friend, shoots a stranger, or simply perishes in the act of trying to kill a helpless, innocent animal.

Today there is news of a hunter whose dead body was found in the northern woods.

Sad is it might seem, at least there is one less neanderthal hunter acting out his childish killing fantasies.

How presidential, Newt.

One person, at least, decided that the real stench wasn’t coming from the protesters, but from the disgraced former Speaker of the House.

Here’s Mika Brzezinski this morning reacting to Newt’s latest bomb: