I am a conservative, in case you couldn't tell. But to be more specific, and perhaps for the sake of clarity, I'm a paleo-conservative. Old school. You know, the kind of guy that believes the federal government should follow its Constitution (as it was written, not as it has been interpreted).
As you know, the Constitution was written to limit the federal government, not give it license to do whatever it wants. So with all of this in mind, some of my comments decrying trust in what federal wildlife agencies are up to should make sense.
My comments yesterday on Idaho's caribou situation should be taken in that light. Believe me, I am all for the caribou. I want to see the caribou flourish like the lichen on the north facing side of a 400 year old hemlock. I think they're pretty cool animals, and I hope they can make a home here.
With that said, why in the world would I trust a federal government who is blatantly inept at managing just about everything (see today's national debt)? Does over $15 trillion in debt sound like a bunch of managers with common sense? At some point, Uncle Sam, you have to realize you're out of money. My money. Our money.
But this sort of blatant disregard for simple math ( -$15 trillion = bankrupt ) trickles down in such a way as to make matters worse. The feds determined that the caribou in Idaho need 375,000 acres of "critical habitat" - a designation that puts a wide ribbon of red tape around any land in which the feds might have any control. Which is pretty much all of the land in the Selkirks.
The feds don't have the money to do this sort of thing, but for them it's easy to spend what you don't have. Unfortunately, the folks who make an income from that land will not be able to print up money to supplement their losses. When citizens print up money that has no backing, it's called counterfeiting - a serious crime. The feds, on the other hand, have this nice sounding institution called the Federal Reserve that prints fiat money for them. It's not hard to see the double standard here, but for some reason most Americans let it pass high over their heads in the clouds of ignorance.
Simply put, the feds are administering an Endangered Species Act that they have zero money to do, and zero Constitutional authority to do. And with the caribou in Idaho they propose to make 375,000 acres of land a no-touch zone for those citizens who might otherwise profit off of the land - local economies.
But what about conservationism then? Am I not serious about conserving caribou? Of course. But the first step is to get the idiots overseeing the current conservation efforts out of the way.
~ J. Bunch
