THE SHORT TRUTH ABOUT WAR

Jim,

All war is class war. The rich men start them and the poor men die in them.

Thanks,

Larry Lindenberger

St.Louis,Mo.

LIBERALS & POPULATION

Hi Jim, I'm probably too late to make it into the feedback for next issue, but that's OK. I just wanted to let you know that I thought the issue of the Zephyr that just came to my doorstep is the best one I've ever read. Which is ironic-- normally I somewhat ignore any articles in the Zephyr that don't pertain directly to Canyon Country and Moab. Or at the very least they're the last ones I read. I mostly read the Zephyr to stay up on Moab-area happenings (good and bad) and to enjoy your rantings. However, this issue was incredible-- I read it in one sitting, despite the lack of directly Moab-related material. I generally consider myself a "leftist"-type. I hold my nose and vote Democrat to keep the right out of power; I have typically liberal friends with liberal ideals; and I occaisionally dabble in activism of this-or-that sort. However, it sickens me how so-called "liberals" become completely paralyzed to all rational thought and discussion when the topic of immigration comes up. They don't want to lose their liberal-cred by seeming xenophobic or bigoted. It's not xenophobia! It's not bigotry! It's common sense! We're destroying our country, exhausting it's resources, and it's not because we're having too many babies (as much as the good people of Utah may be trying). I'm sick of hearing people refer to Abbey's "unfortunate views on immigration". Most of the happy-go-lucky-outdoor-loving-liberal-set (of whom I am a card-carrying member) simply can't juxtapose Abbey's gorgeous naturalist prose with his idealist, yet pragmatic, politics. But damn it all, by the time we get to 600 million we won't be able to enjoy the country that prose deals with because it'll be completely covered with uranium mines, pipelines, potash plants, aerial tramways, and oh yes... happy-go-lucky-outdoor-lovers. Keep up the good work. Patrick Donnelly Yucca Valley, CA

FROM THE AUTHOR OF ‘THE POPULATION FIX’

Jim Stiles: I visited www.CanyonCountryZephyr.com to read Kathleene Parker's excellent piece "Day of 300 Million"--and thank you for running it--but discovered much more, including your "Take It Or Leave It" article about population growth. Great work!!! Thank you so much for doing your part to get people thinking...and talking. And, yes, you have my permission to use--or abuse--any part of this email you choose. Edward C. Hartman,

Author of The Population Fix: Breaking America's Addiction To Population Growth www.ThePopulationFix.com

MORE ON POPULATION

Dear Jim, Huzzah! The October-November issue of the Zephyr provided a tremendous breath of fresh air for me, with its hard-hitting, impassioned prose and logic on the population crisis. Disney's First Law indeed!! I am a long-standing member of Zero Population Growth (now known as The Population Connection), and served on its national board for several years, so the obvious connection between population growth and many of our worst problems has always been foremost in my thoughts. Thank you for leading out on this crucial set of issues. One oft-overlooked aspect of population growth is its effect on the political stability of a region. To my understanding, the ethnic cleansing during the Balkan War of the 90's was triggered, at least in part, by the differential growth rates of the Muslim and Christian populations in the area. The Muslim groups had much larger families than the non-Muslims, and they expanded rapidly, causing much resentment among their neighbors. Overcrowding and competition for scarce resources will cause many more such conflicts in coming years. Keep up the good work! Rich Shanteau Holladay, Utah YET ANOTHER MAHBU CONVERT Hi Jim, Sign me up as a Friend of MAHBU. I live in the Old West, Veguita, and work in the New West, Albuquerque. I have seen all the different sides in all the different people you discuss, and there are good and bad points to each. Thanks for the great article.

Ted Hodoba

New Mexico

HERB RINGER’S B-17 PHOTO

Editor: The picture of an airplane you said looks like a B-17 -- -- posted online at... http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/april-may2003/herb-reno.htm -- it IS a B-17 Flying Fortress -- just a very early version, circa 1935-1940, before they did away with the side blisters, and added a tailgun position, and a much larger vertical tail (B-17E model). This style looks similar to the B-17's that were approaching Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck, Dec. 7, 1941. A flight of them was expected from the West Coast, so when a radar operator (radar was new and primitive in those days) called the base and reported signals showing a large radar return approaching the island, the base people dismissed it as probably the arriving B-17s. OOPS. Few of these early models were built. The B-17s we're normally familiar with are much different in appearance. For examples, see: About 20 of these early models were used by the British in bombing German naval bases, before we entered the war. However, various defects in equipment, crews tactics and strategy resulted in little success. Later missions, after the U.S. entered with war with the B-17E through B-17G, were -- well, legendary successes. For pix of various versions, and details, see: http://aerofiles.com/_boe.html

R. Harris

RE: SILVER BULLETS

Dear Editor

Ref: Silver Bullets Vol 18 No 5 "Passport and Corporate Ties"

I camped for sometime with a well experinced campground host. He informed me that "Recreation Recource Management" as created by some past heads of the USFS and the BLM.

Also: I tried to use a big USFS camp ground on the Mogollon Rim. It was staffed with people wearing Forest Ranger Greens, round hats and Volunteer Badges. The main roads were paved. Reservations were needed for all the good spaces some paved. They were filled with big diesel pusher rigs or big trailers with a 30K "Pick Up" truck.

With inquiry I found that a number of poor spaces were available to the what would be considered trailer trash campers off by themselves. Reservations were needed for all the good spaces used by the big dollar rigs.

I have my doubts if the "Fourteen Day" limit rule was in effect.

In my view this is a near private campground paid for with taxpayers money for the profit of "Recreation Resource Management".

Ralph "Andy" Drollinger

ABOUT MELVIN DUMMAR

Dear Jim,

I was fascinated by your comments on Melvin Dummar in the October/November issue. We live in Rangely, CO, and when we first moved here we got our TV from Salt Lake City. For a time, even after we got Denver channels, we still got KSL, but this has been some time ago, at least 15 years, I'm sure. One of the Salt Lake stations once reported a story about another man a lot like Melvin, who lived in the boonies of Nevada and had never heard of Howard Hughes. As I remember, someone finally told him the Melvin and Howard story, and he said almost exactly the same thing had happened to him--he found an old man wandering along a deserted highway and drove him to Vegas. I can't remember how much the man paid him if anything. I've believed Melvin's story for years--that will just included too many things Melvin couldn't have dreamed up, and God knows Howard was crazy enough to do just about anything. And rich enough.

I love the Zephyr.

Mickey Allen

Rangely, CO

DRIVE 55 AND STAY ALIVE...BUT GO NUTS IN THE PROCESS

Stiles,

Once again The Zephyr provokes my thoughts...

Stramatolites were highly successful primitive organisms that thrived in the shallow, warm seas of Earth about a billion years ago. They loved the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere of early Earth and soon overpoplulated the globe. Eventually the waste excreted by the stramatolites began to build up to levels that were toxic to them. The waste excreted by the stramatolites was oxygen. They couldn't survive in the new atmosphere and now all that's left of them are fossils. We humans are the new stramatolites and undoubtedly after our demise, some new life form will arise that will thrive on the waste products that eventually poison us.

As the modern equivalent of a waste producing stramatolite, I tried your experiment of maintaining a 60 mph speed on a recent drive across the west. It was frustrating. Rather than barreling down the highway at a "safe and sane" 75, I held back, reigned it in, and exercised patience. Large suv's and semi trucks rode my bumper. They seemed to take my moderate speed as a personal insult, some of them flipping me the bird and honking as they passed. There was one near head-on collision involving a zippy little Honda driven by a cell phone chatting NAU student passing me like a bullet in the face of an oncoming semi truck. Other than my elevated blood pressure there was no real damage.

Overall the trip took a little longer but I realized significant savings in gas money. However due to the stress level involved, until the old 55mph speed limit of the 70's is reinstituted, and assuming my financial condition improves, I won't be trying the 60 mph experiment again.

Regards,

Cyndy Hodo

GRAND COUNTY DOGS IN TRAPS Editor:

Up to seven dogs owned by Grand County residents have been caught in leg traps during the last year. The number of visitor dogs caught in traps is unknown. Concerned citizens have requested that the Grand County Council form an advisory committee to review the problem. The advisory committee will include the BLM, DWR, Humane Society, Sand Flats Management and several interested dog owners and trappers. Most members of the committee have expressed interest in participating, and are waiting for an invitation from the county.

The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources has the sole authority to change trapping regulations in Utah. Grand County and the other committee members need to prepare a proposal by July 19, 2007 with a recommendation to the state of Utah that small, local, high use areas, such as the Sand Flat Recreation Area, are no longer appropriate for trapping. The following concerns and information should be part of the committee’s review.

1. Size of Areas of Concern--- The areas of concern are very small, close to Moab, and heavily used by residents and tourists. The county has 3682 square miles, and we are looking at less than 1% of the county. Sand Flats has over 100,000 users per year, and the other areas are used extensively by residents and tourists. The areas of concern are listed below.

1. Sand Flats

2. Negro Bill Canyon

3. West Side of Moab

4. Hidden Valley ( West side of Moab Valley)

Mill Creek

2. Counties with Trapping Restrictions---The following Counties in Utah have restrictions on trapping in areas other than National Parks and State Parks. (Source is Furbearer Proclamation 2006- 2007 page 13): Grand County in Bitter Creek and Sweetwater Drainage, Beaver County, Carbon County, Daggett County, Garfield County, Rich County, Summit County, Millard County, Uintah County, Kane County, and Iron County.

3. Dogs Under control---Dogs will be under the owners control at all times. Currently the county has a code saying that dogs will be restrained. Restrained by the DWR definitions is that hunters chasing furbearers "must participate in the hunt with the running dogs." Sand Flats defines restrained as a leash in campgrounds and owner control outside of campgrounds.

4. Search and Rescue---Grand County needs safe areas for the training of Search and Rescue Dogs.

5. Trapping Close to Town----Trapping is no longer appropriate as a historic use in heavily populated areas and in areas used by hundreds of thousands of tourists.

Big Game Habitat---Our areas of concern are not listed as high value or critical deer habitat by the DWR. Large game has been dislocated from these areas by either hundreds of motorized vehicles, or by hundreds of people moving through a constricted area such as Mill Creek, Negro Bill Canyon, and Hidden Valley.

The residents of Moab and our visitors need to have small areas where they can safely exercise with their pets.

Sincerely:

William E. love

Moab, UT.

ABOUT MAINSTREAM ENVIROS... David Cremean's criticism of mainstream environmentalism talks about the elephant in the middle of the movement that everyone is embarassed to admit. Many of these organizations started out with activists unafraid to rattle the comfort zones of authorities and the wealthy. Now, they have become a new breed of authorities and a part of the wealthy class' materialism that they once despised.Yes, mainstream environmentalism has become the enemy. I work for a non-profit organization as a professional telefundraiser for a variety of non-profit "activist" organizations. At first, I was excited to work there. I got to call out about issues that mattered and get a very modest amount back to pay rent and bills. And before the question gets asked, no, we get paid in advance and don't get portions of anyone's donations given over the phone.Nevertheless, my enthusiasm over time has deflated into cynicism. I got to see how each organization uses its funds from information packets, but worst, I learned how oversolicited the "donor market" has become. I am aware that the vast majority of the donors are small donors and yet, I am obliged to ask three times as much or ask for monthly donations when they are retired, on social security, etc. I also learned the dirty secret that several non-profit organizations trade member information with each other. (Heads up: when you donate to an organization, you can explicity request to NOT have your information traded, to have reduced mailings, and to NOT to be called for solicitions.)While generally the "gifts" for donating are donated by companies to these organizations, I still see it as a waste and encourages and gives a wink to reckless consumerism, the very enemy that we need to defeat. The resources that these gifts were made for are still spent even if they are donated to a non-profit organization. The rationalization is that these gifts encourage donations, but I have had many requests from donors to not send a "gift" and to save the money for better use. I have only one instance in my year of employment from what I suspect was rich parents' 18 year old son that asked what would he "get" for donating on a small monthly basis instead of a big sum on a yearly basis. I responded, trying to disguise my disgust and anger from my tone: "What do you mean what do you 'get'?"Many, many donors are elderly. These elderly donors literally cut their expenses and free money so they can give just a small donation every year.Here is the other dirty secret of so-called "green" corporatized environmental groups:1) Well-meaning environmentalist or wildlife lover sends a small donation to a mainstream "environmentalist" group. 2) Their information is traded with non-profit organizations who over time trade that information with yet other non-profit organizations. 3) The donor steadily becomes more and more solicited by phone calls over time. They steadily receive more andmore mail from not just the original organization, but every organization that gets their information. 4) The charitable donor is hit by dozens of crybaby, scare, "emergency" solicitions every month, feels pressured to give more and more to more and more causes.I have heard of accounts of selfless donors going into debt to give, changing phone numbers, ignoring their phone on a regular basis, and having piles of mail constantly on their desk that they stillplan to "get to". Don't think either that making a donation will register in the system to reduce the number of calls or mailings you get. After awhile, it boggles my mind how much paper and resources these mainstream environmental groups must consumer on a daily basis, which, for the most part, is just thrown away.These corporatized environmental groups have a sense that they are authority figures in the movement. And that they are more important than the "ma and pop" local groups in the movement, that they and not local groups are more important because they carry more weight among corporations and Capitol Hill. Once criticizing the political game that shuts out grassroots voices, their pompous smug elitist attitude smothers the voices of true grassroots activists. They have become hypocrits and self-righteous traitors to their roots.Instead of being a monkeywrench in the "Culture of Death", they really have become simply another facet to it. Imagine, just imagine, if the hundreds of millions they raise every year was channeled directly into grassroots activism. It would become a popular green revolution that would transform our society to where it needs to be. Instead, they act as a parasite, sucking off almost all of the funds donated by well-meaning donors that want change, and shitting out most of it for their own use, luxurious lifestyles, and rubbing comfortably with shoulders of politicians and the elite.Thank you, Zephyr, for your rare honest voice among overcrowded "green" hypocrisy.

Stewart Thorpe

Salt Lake City, Utah