Nobody needs to hunt anymore, and the rural lifestyle that supports it has been diminishing, so this seems like a natural evolution:
Hunters remain a powerful force in American society, as evidenced by the presidential candidates who routinely pay them homage, but their ranks are shrinking dramatically and wildlife agencies worry increasingly about the loss of sorely needed license-fee revenue.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -- from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
I trust all of you understand some of the reasons reports of the "poverty" rate must be viewed with skepticism. For one thing, they reflect only income; things like food stamps and other government benefits aren't counted -- neither are stock dividends, for that matter. For another, those classified as poor in this country today have material comforts the rich in our past didn't have and the relatively well-off in other countries still don't.
A veteran of the Iraq war calls for a return of the draft:
A deferment draft, however, is a different story, and ultimately counterproductive because of the acrimony it breeds. By allowing the fortunate and, often, most talented to stay home, those who are drafted feel less important than what they are asked to die for. At the end of the day, it was this bitterness that helped fuel the massive antiwar movement that pushed Nixon to end the draft in
Richard Jewell, the security guard who should have been a hero but was labeled a terrorist, has died at 44:
The Jewell episode led to soul-searching among news organizations about the use of unattributed or anonymously sourced information. His very name became shorthand for a person accused of wrongdoing in the media based on scanty information.
We can be ghouls:
The report that Owen Wilson, the 38-year-old comic actor known for his easygoing demeanor, had attempted suicide was shocking and sobering for both fans and the industry. And it left many people wondering how this sensitive situation will affect the in-demand actor's workload.
How it will affect his workload? He tried to kill himself.
The ghoul of legend fed on human flesh, specializing in robbing graveyards of corpses.
But sleep is the leisure activity:
Americans who log long hours on the job find the time for leisure and other activities by cutting down on sleep, a study reports today.
The best kind of laughter is the self-deprecating kind, when we acknowledge our foibles and limitations and weaknesses and are willing to laugh at ourselves. That brings us closer to an appreciation of the human condition -- we are then able to understand those faults in others. The worst kind of humor is directed at those "others" -- the people who are not like us and are thus deserving of our scorn and derision. We don't have to understand anything, except that we are better than them. Such laughter says more about us than the people we laugh at.
Too many people think we are a pure democracy instead of a republic, that our legislators should just vote the way we want them to vote. As wrong as that is, it would seem a good idea for those in government to at least know what we think. But Florida has a different idea:
TALLAHASSEE - Florida elections officials will begin enforcing a law which changes the state's "rules of political engagement": campaigns can't ask voters about the issues.
Should the drinking age be lowered?
An increasing number of college officials are arguing that current drinking laws have failed. Instead of keeping students away from alcohol, they argue, the laws simply drive underage drinking underground and toward unsafe extremes.
