Did Jane Goodall violate Federal law??

It's generally illegal in the US to possess raptor feathers. (Or "parts", as the law calls them.) But in this clip, the presenter displays a photo of Jane Goodall in possession of a condor feather. The last time I looked, Ms. Goodall wasn't an American Indian, and thus wouldn't be allowed to possess a raptor feather.

The speaker in this clip is Cindy Margulis of the Oakland Zoo...

On a side note, I gotta give Ms. Margulis props for a passionate, if illogical, presentation. Her assertions fly in the face of scientific data, and some of the sentences make no sense whatsoever, but she does an excellent job of presenting her point of view. The do-it-for-the-children argument she resorts to leaves me flat, but I'm sure that her audience ate it up.

Tony Canales on lead isotope ratios

No, the whole condor thing ain't over yet...

At the 10-12-2007 meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission, Tony refuted the argument that lead found in condors can only come from lead. He documents at least three other sources of environmental lead that matches the range of isotopic ratios found in the birds.



Ironically, one of the sources of lead that can explain the lead in the condors' blood is one of the first environmental issues addressed in California: Hydraulic mining. You fans of Pale Rider will remember that the LaHood mining operation in the film was a hydraulic mine. Hydraulic mining was banned in the State following complaints from farmers that the runoff was harming their fields. It turns out that the runoff is still having an effect on the environment.

Heller isn't the only gun case out there...

The suit filed by the State of Wyoming against the BATFE is moving ahead. This suit attempts to bring some sanity back into the Lautenberg Amendment. This provision of Federal law permanently bans firearms ownership by those with a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. If that conviction is expunged from a person's record, they may own firearms again. The BATFE is attempting to dictate to the States what "expunge" means.

House Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper, said he believes some people
convicted of abuse should be barred from gun ownership, but that the
state law was appropriate in giving courts latitude to weigh each
individual case.

“If it was a domestic violence thing where a family went
a little too far in defining their opinions to each other, should an
individual be held for life never to hunt in the state of Wyoming
again? I think that's probably going a little too far,” Cohee
said.

The NRA and other Pro-RKBA groups have files briefs on behalf of Wyoming supporting their case.

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A liberal's lament: The NRA might be right after all

Professor Jonathan Turley finds himself in the uncomfortable position of admitting that the NRA's interpretation of "the Voldemort amendment" might be right after all. In an OP-Ed piece in USA-TODAY, Turley writes...

Like many academics, I was happy to blissfully ignore the Second
Amendment. It did not fit neatly into my socially liberal agenda. Yet,
two related cases could now force liberals into a crisis of conscience.

He refers, of course, to Heller and its parent case, Parker. Like other liberals before him, Turley noticed that one cannot engage in a fanciful reading of the 2nd Amendment without putting the rest of the Bill or Rights in peril.

Principle is a terrible thing, because it demands not what is convenient but what is right. It is hard to read the Second Amendment and not honestly conclude that the Framers intended gun ownership to be an individual right.

If only more liberals were more principled.

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They say conservatives are just liberals who got mugged

Mike Thomas, writing in the Orlando Sun, wasn't necessarily mugged; but, as a journalist he's seen enough people who were mugged or worse. Enough so that he's finding that his "liberal belief in gun control is getting wobbly". He's come to the realization that the police, how ever much they'd like to, can't be there to protect you 24/7. (I wonder how he'd react to the knowledge that they can't be held liable for that either.)

Mr. Thomas still has a ways to go. He still buys into gun-grabber mythology about "assault weapons" and "cop-killer bullets". But he's also noticed that the gun-grabber prediction of a "Wild West bloodbath" after Florida pass concealed carry in the 1980s didn't pan out. " Responsible gun owners don't use guns irresponsibly. Go figure."

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