Free Republic

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday column. Note that if you go to his columns in the Boston Herald, look for "Go Behind the Scenes with Howie Carr" to see videos he recorded.

Hunters purchased nearly 2,600 wolf licenses Monday, the first day they went on sale in Montana. The sales occurred on the same day U.S. District Judge Mike Molloy of Missoula heard arguments from animal rights and environmental groups seeking to block hunts in Idaho and Montana. Idaho's hunt started Tuesday as Molloy took the arguments under consideration. the slower sales — compared to the 4,000 sold on the first day licenses were available in Idaho — might have been due to the uncertainty of the court decision. If the hunt is halted before the season starts, holders will be refunded...

Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge are encouraging hunters to voluntarily use non-lead ammunition during the upcoming elk and bison seasons. The park and refuge issued a joint release Thursday saying lead is an environmental toxin that can poison animals that eat carcasses shot with lead bullets. Officials say studies have found that lead levels increase in ravens and eagles

LONDON (AFP) - Some 77 million documents dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries and including the ancestors of David Beckham and Britney Spears are to go online, under a service launched Thursday. The archives from the London Historical Records feature details of around 165 million of the British capital's citizens over the centuries, including head of state Oliver Cromwell and poet William Blake. Around 250,000 records are currently available, with all 77 million uploaded by 2011. The final collection will include parish and workhouse records, electoral rolls, wills, land tax records and school reports. Tracing the family history...

I wrote recently about the forcible citizen disarmament lobby's desire to ban .50 caliber rifles. In that piece, I pointed out that if such a ban were ever implemented, the gun prohibitionists would soon discover that a sniper limited to a .499 caliber rifle would not be seriously hampered by the loss of 1/1000th of an inch of bullet diameter, leading, no doubt, to calls for the banning of that caliber as well. Of course, a .498 caliber rifle would not really be noticeably less capable . . . etc. The disarmament lobby considers it bad form for gun rights...

The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners told agency staff last week to employ the help of sport hunters and contract employees from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services for the state wildlife department's new "program of intensive, sustained predator reduction." Ken Mayer, director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said his agency would use science to figure out the number of lions to be killed in areas where the predators have been found to adversely affect deer numbers. The state's deer population fell from 240,000 in 1988 to 108,000 in 2008, while its current lion population ranges from 1,500 to...

I understand it when the idolatrous PETA people who worship jackrabbits over Jesus get their panties in a wad over hunting. I expect it, I like it and—truth be told—I’d really miss it if they did not pop a blood vein in their forehead when smacked with the facts. However, lately I’ve been getting hate mail and weird looks from “Christians” who ardently believe that God, Jesus, Moses, John, Paul, George and Ringo (I know, they get them confused) are, supposedly, vehemently opposed to hunting animals (they’re right about McCartney). I have even had some sassy Christians say that fishing...

German boar hunters are reporting one of their best seasons since World War II as moderate weather and plentiful food have led to a wild pig population boom. The German Hunters' Association said Wednesday between April 2007 and March 2008 hunters killed 477,500 wild boar - 66 percent more than the previous year.

Gun enthusiasts are stocking up on firearms out of fears that a Democrat-led administration will result in tougher gun control. Last month, as polls showed a Barack Obama lead, background checks for gun purchases jumped by 108,000 compared with October 2007 — a 15 percent increase — according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gun sales as of Oct. 26 were up 8 percent for the year. Jerry Sharr said gun and ammunition sales have increased significantly since October. “It’s usually been hunters and homeowners,” said Mr. Sharr, owner of Jerry’s Guns & Shooting Range in Maryville, Mo. The variety...

The answer lies with parents, who can now train their 10- and 11-year-olds how to shoot wild game.Dennis Erickson has hunted game as varied as white-tailed deer and ruffed grouse for 30 years. Gun safety is important to him. He's never had an accident and never intends to. So when Erickson, of Wyoming, Minn., accompanied his 11-year-old son, Drew into the woods before dawn Oct. 11 on the first day of the state's early antlerless season -- with Drew toting a 12-gauge Remington pump shotgun outfitted with a rifled slug barrel -- the elder Erickson was confident he could guide...

BAY COUNTY -- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says gun sales have tripled since the election of Barack Obama because people fear Obama will tighten gun restrictions. Michigan gun shop owner Glenn Duncan says he's seen a sales spike too, "in the last two weeks, the owner of Duncan's Outdoor Shop in Bay City says sales have doubled. They're (buyers) worried if they don't buy them not they won't be able to get them." Senator Barack Obama does support a ban on carrying concealed weapons and a ban on assault weapons. Duncan tells NBC25 that scares hunters...

The National Rifle Association is endorsing Republican presidential nominee John McCain despite differences with the Arizona senator on gun-show rules and campaign finance restrictions. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and the chairman of the NRA's political action committee planned stops Thursday in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada to talk about the move. LaPierre said the two agree on many issues important to the group. "He's cast more than 60 votes in the Senate in support of the Second Amendment," LaPierre said. The NRA's Political Victory Fund has spent more than $2.3 million opposing Democratic nominee Barack Obama. The chairman...

American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA, a front for anti-Second Amendment entities) is running an ad in Pennsylvania that says Obama supports the rights of hunters and shooters. “The Democrats and Gun Control” from the Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120839466717921537.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries] exposes Obama for the liar he is. As a state senate candidate in 1996, Mr. Obama endorsed a complete ban on all handguns in a questionnaire. The Obama campaign has claimed he “never saw or approved the questionnaire,” and that an aide filled it out incorrectly. But a few weeks ago, Politico.com found an amended version of the questionnaire [http://www.politico.com/static/PPM43_080328_obama_iviquestionaire_091096.html]. It...

WASHINGTON, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) announced the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on a national conference call this morning organized by the Obama for President campaign. AHSA President Ray Schoenke made the following statement in his endorsement of Senator Obama: ...As a gun rights organization we have not come to this decision lightly. We were formed two years ago because our research shows that millions of gun owners wanted a change. They not only wanted an organization that would protect their gun rights but an organization that was also committed to the protection...

Oregon's 550,000 hunters and anglers spend $1.1 billion annually...the ripple effect at $1.8 billion annually. Oregon ranks No. 25 among all states in terms of total spending. Texas is No. 1 at $6.6 billion, and Florida placed second, $4.8 billion. On the national level, 34 million sportsmen...spent more than $76 billion in 2006, supporting 1.6 million jobs...

Bob Heckman of Quakake took the second-heaviest black bear — a 628-pound boar — registered during last week’s three-day, statewide season, according to information compiled by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. His bear is second in weight to a 712-pound boar ...

<p>IF there are any pol iticians out there who believe hunt ers and anglers do not exercise their voting rights, just look to New Jersey. Garden State sportsmen and women showed their political clout on Election Day by throwing out two incumbent lawmakers who repeatedly attacked the state's hunting traditions.</p>

Public release date: 12-Nov-2007 Contact: Carl Marziali marziali@usc.edu 213-219-6347 University of Southern California Human ancestors: more gatherers than hunters? Early humans may have dug potato-like foods with tools, say anthropologists from USC, UC San Diego and UW-Madison Chimpanzees crave roots and tubers even when food is plentiful above ground, according to a new study that raises questions about the relative importance of meat for brain evolution. Appearing online the week of Nov. 12 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study documents a novel use of tools by chimps to dig for tubers...

Mammoth hunters' camp site found in Russia's Far East 13:02 | 12/ 11/ 2007 KHABAROVSK, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - Archaeologists have found a 15,000 year-old hunters' camp site from the Paleolithic era near Lake Evoron in Russia's Far East, a source in the Khabarovsk archaeology museum said on Monday. "The site dates back to the end of the Ice Age, a period which is poorly studied" Andrei Malyavin, chief of the museum's archaeology department said. "That is why any new site from this period is a discovery in itself." The site, found during a 2007 archaeological expedition to Lake...

Number of hunters falls, worrying some By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer Sun Sep 2, 4:53 PM ET 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. New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 — from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky...