News: June 2007 Archives
As distressing as the first part of this article is, the end points out that arson and violence on the Mexican border is actually a sign that we're finally bringing large swaths of the badlands under American control.
U.S. Border Patrol agents seeking to secure the nation's border in some of the country's most pristine national forests are being targeted by illegal aliens, who are using intentionally set fires to burn agents out of observation posts and patrol routes.The wildfires have destroyed valuable natural and cultural resources in the National Forest System and pose an ongoing threat to visitors, residents and responding firefighters, according to federal law-enforcement authorities and others. ...
Wildfires are being set by alien and drug smugglers, authorities said, to create a diversion in an attempt to gain undetected access across the border. The fires correspond to a dramatic rise in assaults against Border Patrol agents -- up more than 100 percent over last year. ...
Authorities said agents are being targeted by illegal aliens and their smugglers for rock attacks -- including grapefruit-size rocks wrapped in rags, dipped in gasoline and set on fire.
"As larger areas of the border come under operational control, we can expect violence to increase as smuggling operations can no longer operate with impunity and do not have unfettered access to the border for their criminal activities," Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar told a Homeland Security subcommittee this year.
"This explosion of aggression is an indicator how desperate and angry drug and human traffickers are at the increasing disruption of their smuggling routes," he said.
We should be incredibly proud of the dangerous job being done by our Border Patrol officers. I only hope our politicians can back them up with a wall and laws that reduce the incentive for these criminals to keep crossing.
Brady Barr has studied all 23 species of crocodilians but decided that he needed to get a closer look at the Nile crocodile, so he made a disguise and crawled right in.
When Dr Brady Barr decided to dress up as a crocodile, the disguise needed to be good.Otherwise he was in grave danger of being eaten by the real thing.
The zoologist adopted his bizarre outfit in the hope of getting closer to a colony of Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 20ft.
His disguise was a prosthetic head attached to the front of a protective metal cage covered with canvas and a generous plastering of hippo dung to mask his human scent.
Balls.
(HT: RB, Neatorama, and Metafilter.)
This is the most incredible nature video I've ever seen in my life. You wouldn't believe it if I described it to you. I promise that you will not regret watching it.
(HT: Luke.)
Is it not treason to actively promote secession?
Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre of writers and academics is plotting political strategy and planting the seeds of separatism.They've published a "Green Mountain Manifesto" subtitled "Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union." They hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting Day next March, eventually persuading the state Legislature to declare independence, returning Vermont to the status it held from 1777 to 1791. ...
The Vermont movement, which is being pushed by several different groups, has been bubbling up for years but has gained new traction in the wake of disenchantment over the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of the pro-secession groups.
This issue was pretty much settled in 1865: states can't leave the Union. Frankly, I think these sorts of secessionists should be prosecuted as traitors if their "plotting" has gone beyond the talking stage and they're organizing to take action.
It's true that America began with a secession from England so the question can be asked: why wouldn't a secession by Vermont from America be as noble? I guess the only real answer is that history is written by the victors, and if you want to secede and we won't let you then you'll have to fight for it, just like America did.
If it were easy we'd all secede!
