Secrets of the City

I tried to leave this comment on his blog already, but it hasn’t gone through yet. Here’s what I would like to say to Adam.

Spring turkey season requires distinguishing a male turkey from a female turkey. Toking a one hitter and blindly shooting at movement is as irresponsible as getting intoxicated, blowing through a stop sign and running a child down crossing the street. It takes an alertness, an attention to detail and a not inconsiderable amount of skill to hunt any wild animal. A hunter is vetted by the state, in the same way you have to be licensed to safely operate a car. So if, as you point out, these guys are participating in the food chain in a more responsible, direct way than you are–why are you calling them tech-ed up bullies? How are they hypocrites? Because they’re not articulate enough to express why they’re out there in the woods on a blog? What ugly truth are you exposing here, other than your own classism?

All guilty white liberals should read the section on foraging for your own food in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Platts not happy unless he is bitching about something in this state. One wonders why he moved here in the first place.

I’m going to try not to be a retrograde asshole about this (I’m as capable of that as anything).

I dont see this particular example as having anything to do with hunting. The hunter in question is a moron. Theres no reason to believe hes not a moron in the rest of his life as well.

This is emblamtic of the battle in society between the idiots and the responsible. And the idiots need to be locked up so they dont harm themselves or others. Maybe we get to the point where there isnt enough cells to lock up the idiots, and then we’re all in trouble.

Platts column is quite tinged with the recent ‘bittergate’.

I love bitching about everything in this state, and I was born here. I agree with Adam that Anthony Klaseus should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. I just disagree with him on his approach to this issue.

Here’s how to tell a tom from a hen.

I think Platt’s rant was kind of amusing and his point about hunting being a family tradition that keeps the guys together was interesting in the context of Anthony Klaseus.

Besides, how often are you going to catch Platt publicly agreeing, in writing, with something The Guv’ner said?

A hunter is vetted by the state, in the same way you have to be licensed to safely operate a car.

Not quite. A hunter is vetted by the state in the same way you have to be vetted to go to the convenience store and buy a lottery ticket. There are no checks with regard to a hunters proficiency when they buy licenses.

Besides, the jackass who shot his kid a while back apparently never even bought a license, so the analogy doesn’t fit anyway.

You need a hunters safety certificate in many instances. I can’t articulate the rule verbatim, but I’m 39 and have always been subject to the hunters safety check. The older fellows were grandfathered in.

I had to take gun safety too. And you have to go through a background check if you’re going to buy a gun, right?

I stand corrected, I remember taking a firearms safety thing as a kid, but I don’t ever remember being asked to see certificate when I was buying my various hunting licenses.

As far as background checks go, I’m pretty sure I never went through one for any of the firearms I own. (one shotgun, one rifle, both purchased in ‘84 or ‘85)

Still, the guy didn’t buy a license, so this is all moot.

Yes, you are subject to Instacheck if you buy from an ffl, which is most professional gundealers and all retailers.

I could give a rough history of gun laws, but suffice it to say your observation is spot on. They were long guns and purchased before Instacheck was enacted.

How is the point moot? That’s one of the charges he’s facing: hunting without a license.

Which to me, makes it like most other morons who make the news tragically. Theyre living on the fringes of society, un or underemployed and engaing in illicit behavior for which they probably already have a criminal record.

Platt wants to make this about hunting though. That would be like using that guy in N Minneapolis to make some broad assumption about dog owners.

And you have to go through a background check if you’re going to buy a gun, right?

Not at a gun show, and that’s a loophole that STILL needs to be closed (that’s how the kids from Columbine bought their weapons).

I had to spend three months in high school learning how to drive. I personally think there should be something similar to be able to buy guns.

That is one of the weirdest rants I’ve read — on any subject — in a long while. I can’t believe that guy is a senior editor at mpls/st. paul mag.

I mean “But if I bring a rifle with a telescopic sight to the Metrodome, Im locked up on terrorism charges.” What. the. fuck!? kind of argument is that.

And then he says “I support peoples right to hunt”???

Weird. I’m really trying to figure out what his main point was.

I was thinking the same thing, spaceman. I read it and thought “this was not very well-thought out.” He’s usually more concise than this. I don’t know if I agree or disagree with him, because I came away from it with NO clue what his stance was on it. I think he was just having a bad day and/or a little fucked up on something when he wrote it.

Not at a gun show, and that’s a loophole that STILL needs to be closed (that’s how the kids from Columbine bought their weapons).

Incorrect. For some guns Harris and Kliebold used a straw buyer who passed the instacheck. And thats against the law.

And, the instacheck must be performed by licensed dealers selling at gun shows. Can you get a gun from a private party at a gun show? Yes, but thats another deal entirely and really not what people make it out to be. If theres a conduit of guns going from legal to illegal hands out there, its in fact through straw buyers. Which is against the law, I might remind.

stevemarsh = The Nuge

All guilty white liberals should read the section on foraging for your own food in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

done…and strangely enough in the weeks following it, I had a close encounter with a wild boar and I’m foraging for morels this weekend.

He also has an issue with fishermen it seems. And while I guess hunting and fishing are similar, I don’t think the machismo he equates with hunters is the same with fishing. Or with my mom when she goes hunting, or her sister.

I just can’t believe he would risk alienating all of the hunters who read MSP.

Grote: “…I’m foraging for morels this weekend.”

Oh Grote! At our age, you either have them by now or you don’t. And if you don’t, no amount of searching can help you.

They’re spelled “morals”, by the way.

I’m not going to defend this guy’s spews, but I have often wondered how a guy hiding in camoflauge using a fake turkey whistle consideres himself a hunter. Walk around like a human, making human noises and shoot a turkey and I’ll admire it. Tricking a turkey into thinking you’re a turkey is merely outsmarting a rather stupid animal.

wild turkeys are not really that dumb actually.

I don’t find modern hunting to be particularly sporting… That said it’s pretty much a big part of Minnesota so what can you do?

I just think it’s funny when people think they’re “manly men” and some sort of successful conquerer of the wilderness when they bag a deer from their stand with a .30-06 and a high power scope.

The point that licensed hunters are required to take basic firearm safety is moot because the guy wasn’t a licensed hunter. The number of hunting accidents in Minnesota is both tragically high and remarkably low. One accident of this type is too many, but at the same time humans are prone to tragedy.

To be perfectly honest, I agree with what seems to be the point of Platt’s post, but he comes off as a jackass in how he wrote it.

Cocks, I just read the headline on Grote’s earlier post about mushrooms. I withdraw my earlier comment and ask that it be stricken from the record, m’lud.

Modern hunting is plenty sporting compared to the indiscriminate wholesale slaughter of wild game that went on during the pioneer era – winter, spring, summer, and fall. We were down to 500,000 white tailed deer in this country (theres 20 million of the damn things now). The Greater Canadian Goose was thought extinct. The Passenger pigeon was wiped out.

Beyond that, there a whole element of stalking that a successful hunt usually entails. You act like a human, and your not going to see a turkey or a deer or a duck.

Having a nice hunt is a challenge. You urbanities or otherwise unininformed who think this is about testerone are again just indulging in your own biases.

Its just like anything else. If your a golfer, you want master your clubs. A ball player, you want master your bat. A hunter, you want to master your rifle. A fisherman, you want to master your bait.

I’m not even a fisherman, and I do that!

Damn Yankees were an abortion of Nugeness…this is what I’m talkin’ about..

108, I guess I just don’t see how it’s hunting. More like “waiting and shooting”. Of course it takes skill to shoot, it also takes skill to fix your car, does that make auto repair a sport?

Bow hunting…. now that’s a different story. Having to walk around, track prey, and get them from a much shorter distance? That I can respect as being a challenge.

Granted I do admit ignorance I just don’t see how your typical tree stand deer hunt is in any way challenging or a game of skill besides making the shot itself. Mostly seems like luck and patience, to me.

You’re going to have to give some bona fides. Have you ever hunted? If you are speaking from a position of complete urban ignorance, then I can’t find your blanket perspective very credible.

Its difficult. Sitting in a stand for 10 hours, which is what successful hunters do, is difficult. I am speaking as someone whos probably to squirrely to do that. But you have to wait for them because they wont let you approach them. They spook. Youre in the in the cold, not making any noise, waiting. Its a test of perservance and execution (no pun).

In hunting circles bow hunters are in fact the over testosteroned maniacs (and I say that with all respect. I can’t do it), but mastery of the rifle or shotgun is not much lesser a skill. When I was a novice, I missed most of the time. I have 25 consecutive years under my belt now, now I dont misidentify or miss.

If its that easy, most people would have success the first time out. Most people dont.

cdiggity, A lot of people enjoy spending time challenging themselves by doing auto repair — and yeah, half the sport of NASCAR is about the pit crew getting it right. So, yes I suppose it does. Do we identify with them or understand why they enjoy it, maybe not . . .

And well, for most of us, being patient is a challenge . . .

weirdos

The only morally acceptable way to take down a deer is if you build your own longbow. And tan your own saddle. Hiyo, Bambi!

I just think it’s funny when people think they’re “manly men” and some sort of successful conquerer of the wilderness when they bag a deer from their stand with a .30-06 and a high power scope.

Do you really think this is what people get out of hunting? I’ve been deer hunting for over 20 years (with a .30-06 and a high power scope) and I’ve never heard anyone indicate that they felt like more of a man or a conquerer of anything, just because they killed a deer.

By the way, if you have the chance to watch PBS’s The Everlasting Stream, I highly recommend it — I happened upon it one night and found it extremely engrossing; couldn’t change the channel.

Platt should definitely watch it.

I just like the relatively cheap very flavorful meat. I hate the stupid waiting and the cold, I could be wasting time on the internet…

Re the auto repair analogy.

I have had occasion to think a lot about what people are into, what their pursuits are, because prioritizing what I do with my free time is a important. I have an old lady and some rugrats that consume most of my time. What is or is not a sport is not that important to me. Except softball, I know thats not a sport and not suitable for people over 12. And any man who engages in it is kidding themselves.

But I digress&

Hunting is directly analogy to golf, bowling, rec sports, antiquing, building classic cars. They are pursuits, and I dont question what people get out of them that satisfies whatever box on Mazlovs hierarchy of needs. I just know people get out of them what they do, and what they get out is most often proportional to what they put in.

Bow hunting…. now that’s a different story. Having to walk around, track prey, and get them from a much shorter distance? That I can respect as being a challenge.As a bow hunter for the last 29 yrs I have never “walked around” or “tracked prey”. The most sucessful approach for me has always been concealment and waiting for the right opportunity. I know of no bowhunters who walk around stalking game.

support peoples right to hunt; and when they consume what they kill, theyre better than I, who lives off the depravity of the commercial meat industry. But lets stop kidding ourselves about why people hunt and do away with the romantic fairy stories about hunters and hunting

I have an idea he should go up north this weekend stop at the first bar in a small town and tell them how he feels about hunting and fishing. He writes for a shit magazine that covers a want a be city. Oh boy some urban editor has an opinion on hunting and fishing, I guess he knows a lot about that issue. It is his elitist limousine liberal attitude that get to me.

In all fairness, Platt is more likely to be a Prius or a Volvo liberal.

I just think it’s funny when people think they’re “manly men” and some sort of successful conquerer of the wilderness when they bag a deer from their stand with a .30-06 and a high power scope.

Bitter men who cling to their guns and religion?

That’s just a joke. Needed to say that because it eems people are bit sensitive around here these days.

I shoot targets. Which is patently unfair, because they can’t defend themselves, but just hang there and look doeful. Or terroristful, depening on the target I purchased.

In all fairness, Platt is more likely to be a Prius or a Volvo liberal.

Ah you might be on to something, maybe a Saab driver, one that makes shit for money but drives some old piece of shit Saab and thinks he has something special. This guy is the ultimate ass wipe. I never have thought of the his magazine as real journalism.

He drives a BMW station wagon. It’s nice. Somewhere in between demure appreciation of German engineering and too busy taking the kids to t-ball practice to read poetry.

Fuck you and the Dodge Durango you rode in on, swandog. I’ve never thought of you as an real mnspeak voice. At least bud jr. distinguishes himself with a unique gift for counter-intuitive racism. You’re just an averageish moron. I think Adam is guilty of stereotyping the blaze orange set, but calling him an ass wipe for driving a Saab that he doesn’t own is just as douchebaggy.

BTW, no hunter will ever have the big brass balls this guy has, no matter how big his gun is.