A Chicken Is Not Pillage

Compare And Contrast

This is Kootenai Creek, first week of August, 2006.  Below is Kootenai Creek, first week of July, 2007.  I can sure as hell tell you which is better fishing ...

Taking Montana Back, One Riverbed At A Time

Anyone who knows anything of the history of Montana knows that it was built on the labor of those who live here for the benefit of those who Judy Martz proudly claimed to be a lap-dog for.  Others have come and bought our state and our lives, because ownership here isn't about use but about control and exploitation.

I could not have been more happy to read this story about PacifiCorp settling the lawsuit against them for ownership of the state's lands.  Before anyone starts, please hear me clearly.  I don't don't give one salient shit about the fact that the land is a muddy river bottom.  It's ours, and if you want to profit from it, you ought to have to pay for the privelage.   PacifiCorp  will pay a pittence (really) in order to use our land to generate profit.  I am, honestly, proud of them and of our AG McGrath, for recognizing that our state does not stand alone in offering itself for others to plunder.  It's good to be the Treasure State, but not when others are pillaging the treasure.

PP&L, on the other hand, still have no problem with geographic slavery.  (Yeah, that's probably a bit of hyperbole ... just cope.)  As long as Washington DC told them that they own Montana's ass, they're perfectly happy to use our state at will for their gain.  Their spokes-tool had this to spew:

"We still firmly believe these projects are governed by the federal licenses that have been acquired," spokesman David Hoffman said. "We really do think it's a federal pre-emption issue."

Well, there you have it.  As long as the Feds have said it's okay to rape the state, they're damn well going to do it.  It's a "federal pre-emption issue".  Montana owes the country our land and service, just as it did in the days of the Copper Kings.  Seriously, Montana, haven't we had enough of this shit?

Do I really need to point out that this wouldn't have been an issue under Montana Power?  No, I didn't think so.

The Montana Weblog Awards 2006 - Results

All listed blogs are followed by the number of votes received.  Ties are presented in alphabetical order.  Only weblogs or posts which received votes in any category are presented.  And now,  without commentary save a final "Thank You" to all who participated, the results:

Under the Heading of Political Blogs:

Best Left Leaning Blog:

    A Chicken Is Not Pillage - 22
    4 & 20 Blackbirds - 5
    Left In The West - 4
    Intelligent Discontent -1
    Montana Netroots - 1
    Speedkill - 1

Best Right Leaning Blog:

    MT Politics - 13
    Electric City Weblog - 11
    Montana Misanthrope - 4
    The Hammond Report - 1

Best Independent or Libertarian Blog:

   

    Dave Budge - 13
    The Last Best Place - 10
    Pragmatic Revolt - 9

Best Political Blog:

    Left In The West - 14
    MT Politics - 7
    4 & 20 Blackbirds - 3
    Montana Netroots - 3
    Intelligent Discontent - 2

Blog That Had The Most Impact on the Elections of 2006:

    Electric City Weblog - 18
    Left In The West - 10
     4 & 20 Blackbirds - 2

Under the Heading of Culture:

Montana Blog that best represents popular culture:

    Better Living Through Blogging - 13
    Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere - 9
    City Lights - 7
    Bah Weep Grahna Weep Ninny Bon - 3
    Patia Stephens/ A Drivel Runs Through It - 3

Best Montana History Blog:

    A History of Montana By Kodak - 20
    Karbon Kounty Moos - 6
    Prairie Mary - 5
    Electric City Weblog - 2

Blog That Best Represents a Montana Lifestyle:    

    Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere - 21
    Karbon Kounty Moos - 8
    A Chicken Is Not Pillage - 5
    What I Think (as if you give a damn) - 3
    Pragmatic Revolt - 1

Under the Heading of Creativity:

Most Creative Montana Blog: TIE

    Raven's Nest - 10
    Watermark - 10
    MOTTO - 7
    Patia Stephens/ A Drivel Runs Through It - 5

Best Photography:

   Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere - 18
    Bitterroot and Bergamot - 10
    Karbon Kounty Moos - 4
    Land Of Little Rain - 3
    Out There With Tom - 2
    A History Of Montana By Kodak - 1

Best Written Montana Blog:

   

    A Chicken Is Not Pillage - 10
    City Lights - 9
    4 & 20 Blackbirds - 6
    Dave Budge - 3
    Watermark - 3

Most Humorous Montana Blog: 

    A Secular Franciscan Life - 18
    The Monkey Cage - 9
    Bah Weep Grahna Weep Ninny Bon - 3

Best Post:

    You didn't think I Gave it up, Did you?, Great Falls Firefly - 6
    Playground Politics, Rebels Are We - 4
    Truly Tragic, A Chicken Is Not Pillage - 4
    In My Kitchen, Great Falls Firefly - 3
    Do Religious Leaders On The Right Have a Political Agenda?, Wrong Dogs Life Chest - 2
    Electability Revisited, A Chicken Is Not Pillage - 2
    Breaking The 'Cone Of Silence', The Internal Filter - 1
    New Jersey, Gay Marriage and Social Conservatism, 4 & 20 Blackbirds - 1
    The Secret Reason Why Nobody Writes Good War Stories Anymore, Pop Snark Hooligan - 1
    Weekend Coffee, MOTTO - 1
    Wherein OCG Makes A Complete Fool Of Herself At Walmart, One Crue Girl - 1

Best Series Of Posts:

    A History Lesson, Electric City Weblog - 15
    Cece-in-Montana's coverage of the Ballot Initiatives, Cece-in-Montana - 10
    No Mandatory Animal ID, Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere   - 3
    The Political Dictionary, Rebels Are We - 1
    The Bischoff Chronicles, MT Politics - 1

I invite commentary about the results in comments or elsewhere.  If you have comments concerning the process or future of the Montana Weblog Awards, please leave them here, or in the comments to this thread below.  I will attempt to keep up with the comments, but it is highly doubtful I will post again before next week.  So, I wish you all the very best NEW YEAR possible.  May 2007 be bright for us all.

Tha Ballots Are In

All ballots for the Montana Weblog Awards 2006 have been received and are now undergoing the officially mandated recount (I double check my work to make certain I didn't do anything stupid).  I should post the results tomorrow.

However, I did want to present a few demographics and thoughts for your contemplation.  There were a total of 49 ballots submitted, a rather substantial increase over the 28 from last year.  Votes were cast from as far away as New Zealand and France.    There were 4 ballots cast from persons who's location I couldn't identify, and 8 from bloggers or readers from other states.  That left 37 ballots coming in from Montanans, with 25 of those coming from Montana bloggers.

This is only a well-founded guess, but the ballots submitted from out of state (and from those in-state by those who do not have blogs) appeared to be  all in response to Montana bloggers who have a wide appeal beyond our borders, and advertised the awards to their readers.  Most of those ballots were rather limited in the number of categories they voted in, and the number of websites that they voted for.  There isn't more that I can state definitively, but it's pretty obvious that Mike, Sharon and a certain Sam from a certain creek have a very broad readership.

There were only 15 ballots that were designated 'full', with votes cast in all 14 categories.  The break down among the 34 partial ballots is a lot harder to get a handle on.  Some of those partial ballots only skipped one or two categories, where others were single-website or single-issue votes.  There were 3 single-issue voters, people who voted for only one website in one category.  To those of you who received votes from those folks, trust me, you got fans!  There were 7 ballots from those who voted for only one website in multiple categories.  The rest of the partials were very disparate in quantity of votes and focus of that voting. 

Note this, however, most of the partial ballots focused far more on the cultural and creative categories than on the political.  Surprisingly (at least to me) was that among those partials that did deal with the 5 political categories, very few of the ballots broke on partisan lines.  With no more than 4 exceptions, people were willing to vote on left-leaning websites and right-leaning websites.  I realize that this is my own bit of projection here, but it is my hope that Montanans tend to be more egalitarian in their reading than many other places.

Many of the people who added comments expressed the difficulty of choosing in some categories.  I couldn't agree more, and the voting reflects that.  We have some terrific websites in this here state, and anyone who was nominated for anything should be justifiably proud of the level of competition.  I personally liked the nomination format used this year, simply because it set a standard of agreement that could be reached.  Honestly, this felt a lot less like herding cats and a lot more like reviewing the best of the best.

To all who were nominated, congratulations!  I extend that especially to the youngest websites on the ballot, sites like MOTTO and Pragmatic Revolt.  To all who voted, I extend my sincerest thanks.  I hope that you all appreciate the creativity and effort of the Montana webloggers, and continue to find the newest, brightest and best to read in the coming year.

My Ballot - 2006

I figured that maybe I'd best get this in before the deadline.  I just want everyone to know that, especially since I've become something of an authority on Montana websites, this was every bit as hard for me as it was for you.  This was one terrific bunch of candidates, and choosing from among them is almost ... painful.  But, here 'goes ...

Under the Heading of Political Blogs:

Best Left Leaning Blog:
 
   Left In The West
    

Best Right Leaning Blog:

    MT Politics
   
(Though I'm quickly becoming a huge fan of The Montana Misanthrope.)
 

Best Independent or Libertarian Blog:

  AHHHG!  This choice burns!   But if I have to choose,

     Pragmatic Revolt
   
Moorcat is just so engaged in the blogging community and Montana life, and writes so personally that he gets the nod this year.

Best Political Blog:

    Left In The West
   
 

Blog That Had The Most Impact on the Elections of 2006:
 
    Electric City Weblog

 

Under the Heading of Culture:

Montana Blog that best represents popular culture:

    Better Living Through Blogging

Best Montana History Blog:
 
    Prairie Mary

Blog That Best Represents a Montana Lifestyle:
 
    What I Think (as if you give a damn)

By a mere whisker over Thoughts From the Middle Of Nowhere.

Under the Heading of Creativity:

Most Creative Montana Blog:
 
    Raven's Nest

Best Photography:
 
    Bitterroot and Bergamot

Best Written Montana Blog:
 
    Dave Budge
 

Most Humorous Montana Blog:
 
    A Secular Franciscan Life

 

Best Post:

    Playground Politics, Rebels Are We
   
Best Series of Posts:

    No Mandatory Animal ID, Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere

   

Montana Weblog Awards 2006 - Nominees - Perhaps I Wasn't Clear

Folks, it appears that many of you are logging your final votes early.  Let's not do that, okay?

The call has gone out for nominations.  Many blogs you may have not considered for a category, others have.  We need a range of selections in each category to go head to head in the final count.  Honestly, so far it has been pretty scattergun.  Holding to the standard of three nominations to be viable (and three viable candidates in each category) we have only three  categories that can go forward.  So please, read up on the Montana blogs.  You're allowed to choose up to three candidates for each category.  So please, let me know who shines in each category, and we'll pick the shiniest later.

If you need inspiration, perhaps to read blogs you've never reviewed before, I offer these Montana blog-rolls:

The BigSky Blogroll

Montana Bloggers list (to the right side) on A  History Of Montana By Kodak.

The vote for the best of the websites in the best of the states begins next week, but for that to happen, we need the nominees.  So,  Feed Me, Seymour!

Montana Weblog Awards 2006 - Nominees

I wasn't going to do this.  Seriously, I wasn't.  But I kinda' have to.  Tradition and all that nonsense.  It must be done, so let's do it.

Announcing the Montana Weblog Awards for the year 2006.  Things are a bit different this year, so let me explain.  I have several categories, organized under general headings,  and for the next week, one week only, I am calling for nominees in those categories.  Responses are required in email to wulfgar.pillages@gmail.com or  comments at this website.  No category will be displayed for the final vote if there are not more than 3 nominees.  You may nominate up to 3 in each category.  Any submission that nominates more than 3 per category will be dismissed.  Clear enough?  If it's not, then email me, and I will explain.

Heading:  Political

Categories:

Best left leaning blog.
Best right leaning blog.
Best independent or libertarian blog.
Best Political blog.
Blog that had the most impact on the 2006 elections.

Heading: Culture

Categories:

Montana Blog that best represents popular culture.
Best Montana history blog.
Most exemplifies Montana lifestyle.

Heading: Creativity

Categories:

Most creative Montana blog.
Best photographic Montana blog.
Best written Montana blog.
Most humorous Montana blog.

Heading:  Special

Categories:

Best post. (include a link, please.)
Best series of posts relating to given topic.

There.  That's only 14 things that one must nominate for.  One week, and then the real voting begins.  Let's have the nominees, folks.

And just for the record, YES! you may nominate yourself for any category.  No need to be bashful, folks.

Bummed Out

I've made no mystery about the fact that I feel depressed when football season is over.  A big void enters my world, one vast February wasteland of frigid temps and no football.  I hate that.  This late in the football season it's always at the back of my mind that the more I enjoy, the closer the end gets.  I got a little taste of that today.  For the first time in my life, I'm actually depressed that hunting season is over.

It's not that I got skunked, which I did.  But I did get a shot off, which pleased me to no end.  I managed to get myself into a tight spot up on a point above the ridge I was hiking, where the drop before me and to the east was impassable, and the slide to the west wasn't a whole lot better.  It was too steep for stable footing and snowy/iced up to boot.  I kinda zigged-zagged my way down, until I hit a passable game trail, and then followed it to the bottom.  As the ground leveled out before the trail, I broke out of the brush and there was a doe, just standing there looking at this moron who was standing there looking at her.  She was about 50 yards away, and she moved up the slope on the other side, revealing another muley standing broadside to me about 10 yards behind her.  I knew that was a buck; every instinct told me it was.  But I couldn't see his hat.  He was behind a Ponderosa pine, with his neck dipped just looking at me.  I could see his snout and his eyeballs, that's it.  I slowly slid the Mag off my shoulder, and sighted him through the scope, but I wasn't going to take the shot until I knew he was a he.  We stood like that for 3 minutes (that is no lie) and by the time he moved, I was wobbling so bad I couldn't have hit  Godzilla at that range.  That bastard didn't even flinch when I flicked the safety off.  My younger brother would have taken that shot, consequences be damned.  But I had to know it was buck, and I couldn't tell.  I'm kinda stupid that way.

By this time, 2 more does had moved out of the brush on my side and joined the first headed up the hill across from me.  They just stood there in a bunch staring at me, like the fricken brides of Dracula.  And the deer behind the tree didn't move any either.  Finally, that bastard moved back behind the brush and up the hill.  I sighted in on the clear point near the crest where I thought he'd have to come out, and sure enough, he did.  He was at a trot by then, and angled away from me.  I saw that he was a fair sized four by four; 'had to be big to have a harem of three.  I pulled up and fired ... and went clean over his back.  Bastard.  Over the hill he went.  Bye bye.

Even after I shot, those twisted sisters just kept looking at me.  As my father-in-law suggested, they were probably thinking: "shit, you can't hit nothin' anyway ...".  Then they turned butt and headed over the hill with the buck.  Damn.

That was an evening hunt.  My niece and I headed up the next morning to see if we could catch the deer headed back across from the west rise to the eastern clearings.  We had one asshole buck fake us out.  I could smell him, but he was bedded about 20 yards to our rear, and when he ran, we only saw his backside.  We found a nice group of does up on the top ... but no buck with them.  My niece had a horrible thought.  They were alone because the distant shot we'd heard about 30 minutes before was somebody else taking down the buck.  AAAHHHHGGGG!

Seriously, I had more damned fun hunting this year then I have had doing most things in one helluva long time.  I got skunked because I never planned for hunting more than a couple of hours at a time.  Poor planning, late season prep, yada yada ...  Hunting is probably about 5% prep, 55% luck, 50% skill and 100% perseverance.  (yeah, I know that's more than 100 ... just shut up.)

But there is next year to look forward to.  Problem is, there's a long frosty time until that comes.  Don't get me wrong; I'm bummed, not mad.  Life doesn't owe me a kill, or a season, or anything.  I value these because I can take them, I can earn them.  I'm unhappy that this season is done, over, finished ... but I'm hungry for next year.

And Gerik, if you read this and come on in next year, I'd love to stomp the ground on your spots with you.  Let me know.

Tools

To understand any of where this post comes from, read this and this and this and this, and for God's sake don't miss the comments.  In part, I blame Scott for what I'm currently going through, but I blame Bill, Mike, Jon, Dennis and Dwane almost as much.

To anyone who knows me, it will come as no surprise that I'm not the most social (or socially adept) person.  Talking to people on the phone is something I do with ease, and I revile doing it.  I'd rather talk myself into hiking a slope that no fat-ass such as myself should ever attempt.  I will trade a quiet sit in the Montana woods for any exciting night-club adventure.  If it's a choice between talking about the latest trends and/or politics or discussing hunting and fishing, I'll take neither.  Give me a rod and reel or a rifle and I'm just that much happier.

This has been a great year for me.  I've been able to go fishing more, and I've taken up hunting again.  These are special things, things I've mostly forgotten.  But I will not, can not, go into a grave (hopefully many years from now) having remained forgetful.  I have renewed my love-affair with the outdoors.  A few of you might have noticed a growing silence around this blog ...

That was a long time coming, and I blame most of it on the tools I didn't have.  Though lots of women folk (and too many men) would call such things "toys", they really aren't.  I've hit my mid-life crisis, and instead of lusting a fancy sports car with which to buy 'sexy' from the image obsessed, all I really wanted was what I never had ... a truck.  My CRX rocked, my Subaru was stable, but I have wanted a mountain rig for years.  And now, thanks to my beloved pushing me in the right direction, I have one.

A little over two weeks ago, she looks at me and says, "So, you want'a go look at trucks?"  I was beyond apprehensive.  I don't like spending money, and I really don't like spending it on myself.  At all.  But now I have a truck that could climb the side of a Sequoia, and still not lose the  elk carcass in the bed.

Really early on this year, I bought a rifle.  I've never owned a gun of my own, except for the very brief time I had a bolt action 30-30.  That was a Christmas gift, and in the generous spirit of the folks who gave it to me, they took it away when my ex-wife left me.  They did leave me the bullets, spitzer tipped which are unusable for a lever action rifle, and hence almost impossible to get rid of.  I still have those, by the way, should anyone have a rifle that can fire them.  Life always seemed to get in the way of gun ownership.  It would be more accurate to say that my sense of proper expenditure got in the way of gun ownership, I guess.  But this year, I had the opportunity to buy a hunting rifle for a terrific price.  I couldn't refuse payment for such a capable weapon.  And so I bought it...

The nicest thing of all about a somewhat harsh life lived is that I see these things for what they are.  Tools.  In this case, I see them as tools to build happiness.  I live in Montana.  I've never been a great hunter, though I am a capable fisherman of trout.  These are the things that make this state valuable to me, and I've only now begun to really explore what that means.

Many (too many) years ago, I made a conscious choice to stay in this state, knowing full well that monetary  opportunities were better elsewhere.  It's taken a long time, probably a little too long, to get the tools that help me build an idea as to why I was correct when that choice was made so many years ago.

A Few Helpful Tips

Just because of a couple of  incidents that have been sticking in my craw something fierce, I feel the urge to offer a few helpful tips to out-of-staters, especially east-coasters,  who move to Montana and hope to make it their own happy home.  The first and most important should be obvious: to live here happily, you need to be able to get along with Montanans.  That should be patently obvious, but some of the fine points get a little lost in application.

Being as I'm always here to help, just as I was with Lot-Vultures, I figured I'd offer a few insights just to support the cause of harmony and world peace.

First, property is everything to Montanans.  We will know it's value, it's strengths and it's limitations.  More to the point, though this will sound redundant, we know what it's worth to us.  Respect that, or there will be consequences.  I couldn't be more serious with this.  More people have been shot over water rights in this state than have been hung for cattle-rustling.  Montanans tend to be keenly aware of what's theirs, so don't be intruding with your expectations.

Examples:  If a guy moves a fence off of your property onto the actual property line, especially when you bought your property never knowing about the encroachment, you say "Thank you", and then shut the fuck up.  Period.  If your neighbor is doing things with and within his property that you don't like, and it doesn't affect your property at all, shut the fuck up.  You don't have to like these things, but you do have to accept them.  Most counties and municipalities have rules and ordinance to protect your rights.  If your neighbor isn't violating any of those, you have nothing to say.  So don't say it.  If the water run, above or below ground, isn't what you want it to be, then too damn bad.  If above ground, then get the water right or shut the fuck up.  If below ground, then don't show your displeasure that life treats you unfairly.  Your property is yours, and your neighbor's is his.  Respect that, and you'll get along just fine in this state.

Second, we all love things that grow but there are consequences to them all.  If you have a problem that your neighbors leaves fall into your yard, then buy better gloves with which to rake them, and shut the fuck up.  Growing things add value to all property in Montana, both that in which it grows and all adjacent.  Montanans know this.  Learn it, and love it.

Third, and related, know what grows and how it grows.  Noxious weeds are a problem to this state.  When you see them, pull them.  Wash your rigs to remove seeds.  You obviously fell in love with this state for a reason.  Wouldn't it be nice to keep it that way?  When you buy properties that have weeds, attempt to control them.  If you have established plantings, maintain them.  You bought the place at what price you did for a reason, right?  Did you think that was an accident?  Of course it wasn't.  Keep up what you chose.  Otherwise, you just piss off your neighbors needlessly.  Tree suckers happen with many mountain plantings.  You may like them, but here's the truth:  they are disease prone, they sap nutrients from other plantings, the roots have consequences as they grow and they can damage the parent plant.  With Aspens, this isn't so big a deal.  With Birches and Ashes, it is.  Learn your mountain plants, Easty.  And finally, Hop is a vine.  It can be cut to the ground and still grow back full force the very next year.  When a Montanan tells you something about a plant that grows here, you'd best frickin' shut up and listen.  That's called learning ... look into it.

(And for the record, you dip, I do know that "some people brew beer with that, ya' know!")

Fourth, and this is the biggie, our state is not for sale; and neither are we.  You may be used to offering people a couple a hundred bucks to suck up to your will, but that isn't Montana (at least not since Judy left office.)  Most of us can't be bought for Scotch; most of us don't believe we can be bought at all.  If you want something from your neighbors, ask.  If they say no, or just ignore you, shut up and move on.  They have their own will and probably a *fuck you* attitude.  The arrogance displayed by your offer to purchase their compliance will only piss them off more, especially if they've tried to be more fair to you than you were even aware of.  And then they will screw with you at every opportunity.  Why not?  You pissed 'em off, ya' fuckin jerk.

Fifth and finally, don't approach your neighbors while being Stoned Ass Stupid, especially not while being belligerent.  What, you think us hicks won't know?  Of course we will. Most of us don't give one single salient shit what you do in your own house on your own time.  But fuss with us while being a poster child for East Coast elitism, especially while under the influence, and many of us will smack your jaw with a heavy power tool.  It's a testament to the Montana character when we don't.  But it's really not wise to push it.