Arkansas Blog

Somewhere in all this I think Barack Obama's line about clinging to their guns and religion applies. You know maybe we should just give up and be ignorant like the rest of our fellow citizens? Looks to me about 1 in 10 Arkansans have good sense, and I might be being overly generous with that statement.

I'm hoping before the next legislative season that Obama nationalizes state government in all 50 states. Anyone got an example of the best state government in the US today? I'm predicting.....NOT.

which states are currently holding strong financially? Which are going broke?

Arkansas should be advertising their relative stability to businesses looking to relocate.

Why waste time creating a law that formally allows us to hunt and fish? I thought our government already encouraged it. Don't our rural schools still give kids a "deer day" to bag the big buck? Doesn't Game and Fish spend millions each year to insure we know it is OK to shoot Daffy or put an arrow through Bambi? Surely Sen. Faris and our legislators can find a more pressing issue to address, like lack of affordable health care, creation of jobs, consistent tax policy, ethics......... The Faris initiative makes a mockery of the system.

This stupid hunting/fishing amendment, like most of what the legislature is doing, has me ruminating on the nature of the Arkansas electorate. It's the old "chicken and egg" question. Are the people of Arkansas enamored with this silliness because they are led to it by pandering legislators or are the legislators pandering because the electorate demands it? The posts over on the open line about 1 in 10 people in Arkansas having any sense and the missive about how Rush L. lies about the number of listeners he has have contributed to my thoughts on this, too. I truly believe that the ruination of our country since the 80's can be traced to for-profit, pandering, entertainment-driven, ratings-driven, unequal time talk radio. It, by definition, will sink to the lowest common denominator. You can't entertain by trying to honestly explain complex issues; you have to have short sound bytes. It doesn't celebrate thoughtful and reasoned discourse; it simply inflames in order to hold the listener through a few more commercials and maybe to get them back the next broadcast. Conservative talk radio is simply anti-intellectual and will always dumb down any explication of problems to these inflammatory sound bytes - that are then carried into the public square by those too stupid or too lazy to think for themselves.

Heaven help us!

Someone tell me of one law or ordinance that says citizens don't have a right to hunt please? And i mean something substantive, not things like archery deer hunts inside city limits.

I have two main problems with this idea on it's face.. It seems to imply we don't currently have a right to hunt.

And it serves the typical obstructionist by emotional knee jerk action far to common in politics... just like anti homosexuality or anti immigrant initiatives are often designed to do... keep from addressing real issues.

I ran for a local office when I was still a teenager... knocked door to door... spent 50 dollars on my entire campaign in a small southern town.. a town in which I had only lived for a year. Nobody really knew me like one would think small town southerners usually insist upon.

One of my platforms was the first thing on my mind when new ordinances or whatnot were proposed is if they were needed at all... if not.. that was ample reason to vote no.

People overwhelmingly responded positively to that notion.

In short Max and the AR times team deserves an award for pointing out how many ways these losers avoid real lobby reform or meaningful legislation; all while they just make up bizarre and unnecessary boogiemen bills /amendments at every turn.

I'm a lifetime hunter and if I have a heart attack and die in the woods hunting in my old age, well I can't think of many better ways to go. That said, if these idiots put this on the ballot, they can damn well believe I will vote No.

I don't need or want to pretend like i don't already have a right to hunt. And I don't want to help idiots pretend to treat my rights in such a cavalier manner..