Killing Iraqis is like hunting bears.

A decade ago one of our suppliers paid my way to hunt bears in Alberta Canada. I had no idea what it was about but I went along. I learned two things. First of all, hunting bears is a sick sport. Secondly, I do not like the taste of bear meat.

A friend sent me this article today from the NY Times. It seems that snipers in our military use the same sick methods utilized by Canadian guides in killing bears. This is how it works. You set out bait and wait in a tree stand or other protected area until the bear or Iraqi comes along to take the bait and then you shoot him. There is no warning, just a simple execution. For bears the enticement is a bucket of slop wired to a tree. The bucket has a few holes drilled in it so the the goop can drip out slowly. The bucket is filled on a regular basis for several weeks before the season opens. The bear may come along every day expecting to be fed. For Iraqis it can be weapons or booby trapped artillary rounds placed by our military. Of course only insurgents would try and pick up a 155mm howitzwer round or an abandoned AK rfile.

The moral of the story is if you are an Iraqi never pick up an AK that looks abandoned, neither an artillary round, and if you are a bear trust me, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

I regret I 'engaged' a bear in Canada. Engage is a military euphemism for killing.

No Republicans allowed!

This is an accurate rendering of the Noyo King. It is a 25’ design by marine architect and boat builder Sam Devlin. I bought the plans more than a year ago and almost gave up the idea of building one but recently my brother moved back to Utah and now lives next door. He is willing to help me construct it. I have about 6 months before I can start laying it out in my garage though. It is constructed largely of marine plywood and hardwoods covered with epoxy and glass fiber. Six months will give me enough time to complete all of the household carpentry projects ordered by the Home Secretary.

I think I can recruit a few more shipwrights to assist and the construction should not take us more than a year. The first cruises will be in Utah. I would like to go to Lake Powell and drive it up to the mouth of Dark Canyon for some camping and hiking. Following successful shake down cruises in Utah we will trailer it to Northern CA where it will be dipped in Salt water at Noyo Harbor. For any landlubbers Noyo Harbor is in Ft. Bragg CA on the Mendocino Coast. That means it is about three and a half hours driving time by car from San Francisco.

Persons with experience in boatbuilding, navigation, piloting, fishing and cooking may apply immediately.

He runs like the wind...

He is 13, Hispanic, and does pretty well at the junior high running the mile. His first week running he came in 5th place. He might have done better but his feet hurt. The only shoes he has are a pair his mother bought him for every day use. They look fine but they are not running shoes. There is no arch support, just flat bottom insides. The next week he borrowed a pair of more typical athletic shoes from a friend and moved up to 3rd place behind two ninth graders. The shoes were better but they were not as good as they could be. Saturday we were at a service project doing yard work for one of the older members of our Hispanic congregation. I asked how the running was progressing and after getting a full report suggested we visit Famous Footwear and look at their selection. He has never tried on any Nikes or Brooks. The Nikes felt good and a pair looked really 'cool', but he saw a pair of Asics on display for $94.00. I suggested he try them on as he was reluctant. "Wow", he says, "like walking on air."

This week he runs again and I think he will run on air -- maybe first place.

The Fancher Murders, 150 years ago today...

“At first light, gunfire ripped through the morning calm, raining fire on the camp. A child who survived the attack later wrote. “Our party was just sitting down to breakfast of quail and cottontail rabbits when a shot rang out from a nearby gully and one of the children toppled over, hit by the bullet.” The deadly barrage struck down between 10 and 15 victims, killing seven of them…” so goes the account from Will Bagley’s 2002 book, “Blood of the Prophets”.

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the very sad and despicable event of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The finger of blame for the murders of the members of the Fancher party has been pointed from the least to the highest in Mormondom. Only one participant was ever tried and executed for the crimes committed by Southern Utah Mormons and Indian helpers. Now the descendents of John Doyle Lee want to raise money to buy the statue of Lee, which has been languishing at a sculptor’s gallery for more than three years, and move it to a historical site honoring him and other early pioneers according to a Tribune article. The thought of that at best is an ill conceived and inappropriate one.

It was the eyewitness testimony of an adopted Indian son of Apostle Jacob Hamblin that would put Lee before a firing squad and into his coffin. Albert Hamblin, from the vantage of a nearby tree top, saw him shoot at point blank range two young women deemed 'too beautiful' to kill by the Paiutes.

The truth of the matter likely will not be fully discovered and understood in spite of the several books published to date about this episode in Mormon History. Insider Richard Turley’s book will not be out until next year. Whether or not guilt is assigned to the hierarchy of the leadership of the faithful is a matter for personal introspection and interpretation. History records that a number of inflammatory speeches were made by President Brigham Young and especially senior Apostle George A. Smith throughout the territory. These speeches fanned the hysteria and hostility toward all outsiders, mobocrats and Missourians in particular. The Fanchers were neither. Parley Pratt's death in Arkansas added to the fires of hatred toward outsiders. He being the latest victim of a Gentile. In truth Parley had taken the man's wife after converting her. Legend has it that Apostle Smith advised the Saints in Parowan to plant fruit trees in their public square and that 'bones made good fertilizer', reportedly saying, “As for the cursed mobocrats, I can think of nothing better that they could do than feed a tree in Zion.”

For those descendents of the Fancher and Baker party the murder of your ancestors 150 years ago is not forgotten on this day. We must not forget what happened at Mountain Meadows.