Hunter or hunted? You make the call

It’s about time someone finally figured this one out. And, thanks to modern technology, we now know something everyone suspected for a very long time. Grizzly bears do in fact hunt the hunters who think they are hunting them, at least the U.S. Geological Survey seems to bear that out.

How do you ask?

No, they don’t romp around in the woods looking for stray Yogi’s with hunter caps and rifles, they merely do what thousands of holiday travelers have been doing for years. They attach a GPS tracking device on a collar. Then, they get a few naïve hunters to carry a similar tracker with them when they head into the woods and the rest is just like watching a game of Pacman, or if you prefer, Pacbear.

This whole thing was worked out at Grand Teton National Park where the USGS loaded eight grizzly bears with GPS collars. They then got a few suckers, er I mean hunters, to agree to carry GPS trackers with them when they went into the woods to hunt. No one was really surprised that some of these bears picked up on the hunters and followed from afar, well at least 100 yards away. The bears were even clever enough to stay downwind of the hunters, masking their own odor and keeping the hunters in front—where they wanted them.

In their review of the tracking patterns, the USGS said it was pretty obvious what the bears were up to. Just like the infamous Yogi bear, these local grizzlies were out for a free lunch. No, they weren’t necessarily going after the hunters per se. But they had learned that often where the hunters go there is a chance at a free dinner.

“Hey BooBoo boy, let’s go get some free Elk carcass.”

What the hunters opt to leave behind, Elk are after all rather large animals of the deer species, like the gut pile and hooves and such left over bones the bears like to eat. In its essence, it’s a win-win situation. Of course, most of these hunters don’t realize the bears are actually tracking them.

I wonder what their thoughts are now that they know the bears are following closely behind. But according to the USGS that is exactly what bears do. They are opportunists when it comes to haute cuisine, they don’t so much care where the next comes from, but they do want to eat.

There are in fact accounts of bears stealing salmon from fishermen, and an occasional story about large bears stealing an elk or moose that some hunter actually killed. Bears, and especially those of the Grizzly variety, are one of the largest predators around. While they are more than happy to eat berries, grasses, and nuts; they also enjoy gut piles, other people’s kills, and dumpster diving – when it comes to that.

The USGS data also showed that these bears are more like Yogi than one might assume. One of the bears apparently got tired while tracking one hunter. He found himself a nice place in the shade and took a nap. Now, how they know he was napping I am not so sure, perhaps the bear took a selfie? But nonetheless, after an hour of non-movement, the GPS indicated the bear got up and went back to following the hunter’s track.

The USGS swears that no hunters were injured during their experiment. There were also no reports of Grizzly bears with GPS collars being killed. Money well spent, I guess we found out something that most hunters suspected for a long time.

Marrying Manson, or Chucky's Pre-Nup

My first thought when I read about Chucky Manson’s plans to marry a 26-year old moron was what would that pre-nup look like? My second thought was who would even think about marrying Manson? That’s marrying Manson, not the rock group Marilyn Manson.

In my circles, I have heard he is not the marrying kind. Let’s not dig too deeply into my circles, but when I first started dating my wife of 27 years, Jackie Person (then), I had to pass her hidden check list.

What is a hidden check list you ask? Well, it’s really pretty simple: 1. He has a job; 2. He has a car; 3. He has his own place to stay. Voila! Pass the test and you are a viable candidate for a, to use the current term, BF.

So, how does the likes of Manson fit into that scheme? Well, he does have a place to stay. It may not be his own place to stay, but it does provide “three hots and cot,” so to speak. Of course, he has a few roommates and he is sort of a loner, despite being cooped up with a bunch of ne’er-do-wells. Oh, and lest we forget, he is a convicted mass murderer.

But I guess for some marrying a mass murderer beats hooking up with some of the derelict boys on the street. I am certain there are a few out there who are just as scary as Chuck.

But still, if you want a nice quick cheap thrill all you have to do is post a line on FaceBook about wanting to hook up with some of those ISIS hotties. If you don’t get over to Iraq or Syria quickly enough you will get a visit from the Feds. And if you do get over there, I am certain that relationship will go out with a bang. Literally.

Still, back to the Manson marriage thing. Why would anyone provide a license? What purpose would this marriage serve? Not even thinking about how someone might consummate the marriage. And then, there’s the whole devil spawn issue we would have to deal with.

Any way you look at it, monsters exist. Manson is merely one. But his previous actions disclude him from normal society. Do you suppose he regrets his swastika tattoo? Do you really believe a guy who was responsible for the Tate-LaBianca murders could somehow be salvaged?

There’s a reason they locked him up. Let him stay locked up. He terrorized half of California, and his “kids” were nothing less than demons. It’s even more amazing to me that he didn’t receive the death penalty. I know he would have here in good old Virginia, or in Florida, and especially in Texas.

So it seems this woman, Elaine Burton, has spent the last nine years trying to exonerate Manson. Exonerate!? Here are a bunch of synonyms for exonerate: absolve, acquit, vindicate, forgive, pardon, exculpate, clear, and free. Which one do you think fits best when it comes to talking about Manson?

None!

Ms. Burton must have some serious issues to think that any of those words apply to Manson. He has not changed very much, methinks. He was manipulative back in the day and has shown a tendency to continue to manipulate whatever he can; for my money he would love nothing more than to be back in the 70s.

Where will it end? Same sex marriage, interspecies relationships, and now the Manson Family nuptials. Man, it makes me want to move to Oregon.

Voter Malaise Leads Colonial Heights

While the rest of the state and country was deeply engaged in election battles, the City of Colonial Heights had no such problems. There were no challengers for any seats in either the City Council or the School Board races.

That I suppose explains the lack of local signage. But it calls into question just how much the public is concerned about what happens in the city.

Is it really just candidate malaise, or is it just a major indifference among the voters? If we take a closer look at the election results, we can see that Mayor C. Scott Davis garnered the most votes, with 3,287 in the City Council race. On the other hand, both John E. Piotrowski and John T. Wood earned 400 fewer votes. What should we read into the fact that at least 400 people opted to vote for only one candidate?

Even if you remove the nearly 200 write-ins, you still have 200 people who opted not to exercise their extra voting privileges. In truth, the lack of a vote for the others improves the chances of the person you do vote for. In other words, a null vote to the other candidates carries as much weight as yes vote for the candidate of your choice. In effect, you get to vote twice, or thrice, for your candidate.

Even the School Board election had its share of abstainers. Mike Yates pulled in a massive 3524 votes, which was 200 more than Davis pulled in for City Council. In an uncontested race, Krishan Agrawal netted 2740 votes and secured the vacant seat. There were 93 write-in votes for School board.

I wonder where those other voters went?

It would seem to me, given that difference in voter counts, that somewhere in Colonial Heights there are a bunch of people who did not care to vote for some of the candidates in these races. Perhaps that means there is room for a new candidate, someone who has new ideas to try to move the city forward?

On the other hand, perhaps it means that the voters in Colonial Heights are happy with their representatives. I know I cast my votes, and somewhere in the mix all of my permitted votes were registered. After all, one can’t complain if one doesn’t take part in the election.

There are lots of people out in the world and in our community that like to raise a ruckus when city council or the school board does something they don’t like. Most, I like to believe, are law abiding, God fearing, voters. But for many that’s not true. Unfortunately, there are people who simply live to rail at the state of politics in general and local politics in particular while not bothering to vote.

They would like to be seen as players. But if you fail to vote you’re not really in the game. So what are we to think about the disparity in the number of voters who actually cast ballots?

Maybe the bigger problem is that no one came out to challenge any of the people seeking office. There were just enough candidates for the open positions, and for that reason not one of the candidates opted to purchase signs to announce their candidacy. Not needed so why spend the money.

I agree with that.

But what I would rather have seen is some other potential candidates stepping into the arena. We like to think of our elected officials as being battle hardened from the election process, but this time around there wasn’t much to the process.