TIME FOR DENIAL IS OVER

By JIM BEERS


I. From Fox News: WASHINGTON -- Carol Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be his climate czarina, served until last summer as a
member of a socialist organization whose mission is to enact progressive government policies, including toward environmental concerns like climate
change. Browner's name and biography have been scrubbed from the Web site of socialist International, the umbrella group for 170 "social democratic,
socialist and labor parties" in 55 countries. But a photo of Browner speaking in Greece to the group's Congress on June 30 remained in the site's
archives. II. From The Center for Consumer Freedom:
Forget about the income tax-challenged Treasury Secretary nominee or the conflict of interest controversy at the State Department. The most
outrageous Obama appointee just might be Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who's flying under everyone's radar and into a job that hardly
anyone has ever heard of.
Cass Sunstein is slated to run the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He's going to be America's chief "regulatory czar".
How radical? Sunstein supports making sport hunting illegal, and completely phasing out the consumption of meat. He's also in favor of giving animals
the legal right to sue people.
Here's what Sunstein wrote in his 2004 book, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions:
"[A]nimals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives ... Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be
represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian-like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients' behalf."
III. From the Humane Society Legislative Fund (the Lobbying arm of HSUS):
A. "Senate confirmation hearings are in full swing this week for President-elect Obama's Cabinet choices." "Dog and cat2Obama's nominees will
almost certainly be confirmed by the Senate, and will assume their new posts shortly after the inauguration."
(Question, which "Cabinet choices" are "Dog and cat2Obama nominees" and what is their mission?)
B. "The Agriculture Department must improve enforcement at slaughter plants, puppy mills, research laboratories, and wild animal exhibits, and
crack down on abusive practices such as animal fighting, horse soring, and puppy imports. It should apply basic humane slaughter protections to poultry
so that nine billion birds per year have a merciful death, and finalize its pending rule to prohibit the slaughter of downed cows who (Author Note-"that")
are too sick or injured to stand up. The agency should work to stop the export of horses for slaughter in other countries, and should shift the
focus of its Wildlife Services program to effective nonlethal methods rather than the use of aerial gunning, cruel traps, and toxic poisons."
(Comments - Why does" enforcement at slaughter plants, puppy mills, research laboratories, and wild animal exhibits" need improvement? Where will "more" funding come from in these times, AIG? Raise your hand if you want to pay more for chicken so that they can have a death that HSUS defines as
"merciful"? Animals in and from dog raising businesses and research laboratories are private property, there is not nor should there be any
Federal role in their operation. Like "wild animal exhibits" jurisdiction and regulation lies Constitutionally with State and Local governments
employing and protecting COMMUNITY STANDARDS. Similarly, animal fighting and horse "soring" are matters of private property and community standards under the regulatory jurisprudence of State and Local governments, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. There is NO GOOD REASON for the Federal government to entertain a ban on horse exports. Other than health reasons that should be perfectly amenable to quarantine and veterinary medicine, importing puppies should not be a matter for Federal concern. So "Wildlife Services" should employ "nonlethal methods rather than the use of aerial gunning, cruel traps, and toxic poisons": those means are ineffective and would be strongly disagreed with by New Yorkers and passengers in and near that recent airline crash in the Hudson River thanks to unmanaged Canada geese. We need "more" and persistent "lethal animal controls", not less, if we are to live and prosper in these United States.)
C. "The Interior Department must renew and restore its commitment to the Endangered Species Act, and work to protect listed species and their
habitat. It should reject attempts by trophy hunters to reopen the import of heads and hides from threatened polar bears, and should list the entire
species of chimpanzees as endangered, bringing an end to their use in research. The agency should also revamp its Wild Horse and Burro Program,
and broader use of immunocontraception and otheralternatives to rounding up wild horses and holding them in pens at taxpayer expense."
(Comments - If the Department of the Interior does any more with the ESA, we might as well all move to Canada. Polar bears are no more "threatened" than whitetail deer: they would benefit from managed hunting and Northern indigenous people would benefit economically from such hunting and the
trophies should have never been stopped. Chimpanzee "retirement" at Federal expense and "ending their use in research" (an important medical necessity) are imaginings of radical animal rights factions that should have never been given consideration and such authorization by Federal lawmaking particularly
in these economically depressed times. Chimpanzees are neither endangered nor threatened. "Immunocontraception" is useless, a waste of government
money, ineffective, and merely a smokescreen to stop the absolutely necessary lethal control of such animals as wild horses, deer, elk, burros,
geese, etc. that otherwise denude both wild and domestic plant communities and compete for forage and space with other human needs. Wild horses, like wild burros, California bighorn sheep, wolves, and other such species should have never been taken from State jurisdiction and management to be placed
under Federal auspices and non-management.)
D. "The Environmental Protection Agency must ensure that factory farm emissions are not exempt from federal environmental laws, including new laws
addressing climate change. It must also invest in promising alternatives to animal testing that offer more rapid, efficient screening of pesticides and
other chemicals."
(Note: "Factory farms", like ""puppy mills", "horse-soring", and "trophy hunting" are emotional descriptions of "farms", "dog breeders", "horse
owners" and "hunters" intended to tingle the emotions of those who do not enjoy these pastimes, know few others if any that do, and would like to see
them done away with AS LONG AS IT NEVER DIRECTLY AFFECTS THEM. This last point is a foolish assumption that, like pacifists assurances in 1930's
Europe concerning Hitler's benign intentions proved to be disastrously wrong. There are no reliable alternatives to animal testing, much less some
"silver bullet" that is "more rapid" and "efficient".)
E. "The Commerce and State Departments must make the protection of marine mammals and ocean life a priority both domestically and internationally,
working to stop commercial whaling, seal hunts, shark finning, dolphin drive fisheries, and other abusive practices."
(Note: Why "must" we "protect" marine mammals like whales and seals that compete with us for the salmon and cod and other prized commercial fish that
these same people want to "protect" from fishermen by declaring "Marine Sanctuaries" and fishing season closures that they blame on "over fishing"?
Managing their numbers and distribution is simply common sense. Seals (that decimate commercial fisheries and lobsters like sea otters decimate conch
fisheries) like whales benefit from management, harvest, and use: it gives them value, collects data, and creates a fishery that is far more invested
in their future than Central Park "mavens" providing "feel-good" support to such agendas and organizations. Why is a "dolphin drive" "abusive? UN
enforcement of prohibitions against "shark-finning" on the High Seas should be sufficient. Federal enforcement against "shark finning" in OUR
International Waters is a minor matter and inshore waters should be under the jurisdiction of concerned States.)
F. The Health and Human Services Department must expedite the retirement of all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries, honor and maintain its
moratorium on breeding chimps for research, and work to phase out use of chimps in invasive experiments."
(See comments above under C. Using chimps saves lives and expedites drug availability by using the species most closely related to Homo sapiens,
otherwise known as you and me.)
G. "The Justice Department must begin collecting data on animal cruelty crimes as a separate offense category in federal databases, so that law
enforcement officials can analyze the trends and connections with other violence. The agency should also enforce the longstanding federal law
limiting long-distance transport of farm animals to 28 hours or less, and create a new Animal Protection Division to ensure strong enforcement of
animal protection laws."
(Comment - Interstate commerce aspects of animal transport should not be conducted by Federal officials based solely on the animals but primarily on
the effects of such regulation on state commerce and the welfare of rural economies, farms, and the national interest; these all being the reason for
a Constitution that authorized limited Federal powers over interstate commerce. Animal cruelty "crimes" lie in the eye of the beholder. Any
regulation in this area should remain limited to Local enforcement of community standards and State protection of that right from Federal
intrusions and meddling by members of certain urban communities in the affairs of their neighbors. Animal use is NOT, I REPEAT NOT, related to
other violence anymore than urban kids that never hunted or grew up with guns killing other urban kids is due to guns. This is a waste of Federal
funding but even more disturbing, a growing intrusion of Federal power over private property, State government, Local control, Community Standards, and
the rights of all citizens eventually.)
H. "The White House should appoint an Animal Protection Liaison to help coordinate animal welfare concerns (policy issues, regulations, and
positions on legislation) that cut across many different federal agencies." (See Item II. Above. His name is Cass Sunstein.)
A similar chronology could be composed at this time about the coming gun controllers and their agenda from the President-elect and his Chief of Staff
on down to the pro-abortion (actually anti-life) appointees from Planned Parenthood. While the Inauguration is planned to please us all (a "gay" sex
advocate Episcopal Bishop and a "Biblical" pastor opposed to "gay" marriage on the same stage) it is no longer a smokescreen. When this animal "rights"
agenda, and gun control agenda, and "available-everywhere and subsidized abortion/euthanasia" agenda, and "gay" marriage and "gays" in the military
and schools agenda get underway; who will stand up to it? Not the Congress or an electorate scared about the economy and looking to Washington like
Russians looking to Moscow. Maybe the Supreme Court will stand for awhile but given a retirement or two the Senate and President will put on new
Justice's that will make Justice Ginsburg seem like a conservative and tip the Court from Court to rubber stamp.
This animal "rights" tsunami is in reality a forced (by government) imposition of religious beliefs on all non-believers. I could compare it to Sharia law in Moslem countries but it compares equally well with the history of pacifism over the last 100 years. Pacifism describes war as always wrong, like animal ownership, use and management. All those making war, like all those owning and using animals, must be shown to be wrong without exception and this is accomplished by making "war crimes" far worse than the crimes of those doing evil and ends in the logic of pacifism serving evil rather than good. In this milieu of lies and distortions found in both pacifism and animal "rights" we would do well to heed the observation of GK Chesterton regarding pacifists in the midst of WWI. "One of life's unfortunate realities is that those who know the truth are often less inclined to make sure it triumphs than those whose entire world view will collapse if the lies they believe are discredited."
The time for denying that things are about to get bad is past. It seems trite but true to say that at no time in my life has the domestic peril been
as great and therefore at no time have we ever needed as much to pull together and fight to make "sure" that "truth" triumphs. For at least the
next two years we will need all the cooperation and help we can get. This last means looking to trappers and gamefowl breeders as well as hunters and
ranchers and dog breeders if we are to survive.
by Jim Beers 17 January 2009