Today's Poll Question
How do you feel -- personally and politically -- about hunting?
We are a group of friends and acquaintances -- a merry band of pranksters indeed -- who have been arguing about politics on-and-off, then really on, then a little off... since 1998. On email. But that meant literally thousands of emails a year. That was too many. So here's the blog dedicated to carrying on that spirit of political and pop culture argument and dialogue. You might think of us as "schmoliticians", because while we take politics seriously, we try not to take ourselves quite so.
5 Comments:
Oh, you're evil, Sean. What a loaded question!
Do you mean hunting in this country, or globally? I suppose it all depends on the context. I would consider myself against hunting for sport. I view it as unnecessary and cruel. However, I recognize there are some cases where hunting is necessary. For example, to control animal populations (especially to preserve the balance in ecosystems already damaged by human development and encroachment) or in areas where people rely on hunting as their primary food source. Should we outlaw hunting for sport? Well, I don't think that would ever fly in the red states, but as someone who thinks we should ban the private ownership of guns, I would vote for it.
Personally, I don't get it. But, then I'm not that outdoorsy, and I don't even like to kill bugs, so its not that suprising.
Politically, I say live and let live. Therefore, hunters should have guns for hunting.
Handguns? I know you didn't ask, but why do we need those? Maybe that should be a follow up poll question.
I can't wait either... I'll say this: as a meat-eater, I think you have to believe in hunting for sport so long as the animals killed are eaten and otherwise used. How can it be OK for me to eat a chicken sandwich at Wendy's but not OK for me to shoot, kill, and eat a deer in the backwoods of Virginia? You may not *want* to hunt, but if you eat meat, you're effectively part of the animail-killing machine already.
As far as hunting, as all who know me personally, I both enjoy and condone the activity. While I get equal satisfaction from trap shooting (clay pidgeon), I find hunting to be an almost zen experience, where I provide for my own sustenance. Truthly, I can't bring myself to shoot game larger than birds and rodents. Perhaps it's because I don't care for venison that much, while I've always eaten the birds I've shot. And completely in contrast to my argument in support of hunting, I also feel that at a base level, human beings, especially men, have an inherent need to exercise dominance in some form. While hunting is often seen as a blue collar sport, I wonder if this feeling of dominance from hunting helps to offset the daily humblings of the average working man. Oh, and just try to take away my handguns ;) !
I have no problem with hunting if the proceeds are eaten. I like venison, turkey, etc, and I think that utilizing the proceeds makes killing for amusement OK. I agree that meat eaters can't really have a problem with this kind of hunting. I wonder if someone could develop a huntable cow? It'd probably be better for them than what happens at a slaughterhouse. However, I'm not sure I, personally, could shoot a cute, furry deer if put to the test.
Not a big fan of hunting ONLY for sport. Certainly not a big fan of hunting with ridiculous weapons like AK-47s or something. Not a usual occurrence, I don't imagine. Where's the sport in that?
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