The thing I like least about "sports" ,other than the parents, are the glorification and incitement of violence and humiliation. After all, competition is another name for war; to win, to kill, to defeat is glorious. To lose is death, humiliation, shame and dishonor. Call hunting what you want, I call it the root evil of our civilization, an act that is extended to our militaristic impulses. Come on, an AK-47 vs. a smart 2000 pound bomb? Where's the sport in that? A high powered rifle against a wolf? How do you cook that "game"? Only a true coward kills with utter impunity. Kill or be killed, the ultimate irony, the mandate of the ignorant to the ignorant. MC


NY Times Outposts
September 1, 2009, 10:13 pm
Hunting Wolves, and Men
Timothy Egan

They started hunting gray wolves in the high reaches of the Rocky Mountains on Tuesday, the first time in years that people have been allowed to shoot for sport this genetic cousin of man’s best friend.

For those who hate wolves and long for the era when they were wiped off the map, and for those who welcomed back this call of the wild, the last few days have revealed some dark feelings in the changing West — and some strength of character as well.

A Republican candidate for governor of Idaho, Rex Rammell, was at a political barbecue last week when somebody brought up the tags used by wolf hunters, and then made a reference to killing the president of the United States.

“Obama tags?” Rammell replied, to laughter, according to an account in The Times-News of Twin Falls. “We’d buy some of those.”

In the Idaho of the past, jokes about shooting a president could sometimes be dismissed without consequence. Indeed, the comment was buried in an initial news story about the gathering, and Rammell sloughed it off later, saying on his Web site that “Obama hunting tags was just a joke! Everyone knows Idaho has no jurisdiction to issue tags in Washington, D.C.”

Continued:

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/hunting-wolves-and-men/