The South is a land of near horizons. Everything sits in the foreground. Trees, rivers, buildings, and people are always in sight. More of the same lies behind, but you can’t see it from here. So distance is skewed; places merely out of sight seem very far away. Southern heat compounds the phenomenon. Our sun …
Author: Matt Mullenix
Independence Day
Happy 4th, y’all! Grow some veggies. Eat some meat. Blow something up! Revolt in your own way….
An Interesting Exchange
Somehow the humble web log comment manages to provide a space for good exchange that 10 million listserves, chatrooms and newsgroups have failed to create. Just maybe, the feature offers the right mix of specific audience and topic. The rolling in of subsequent posts may also limit the natural life of a comment thread, deterring …
Peruvian Pasos, for Harry McElroy
One of my falconry heroes (one I share with hundreds of other falconers) is Harry McElroy of Arizona. I call Harry the Dean of American Gamehawking. His experience in the sport spans six decades and covers most of the ground between North and South America. He is known especially for his love of quail hawking …
Free Speech Challenge in Supreme Court
Hawker, digger, long-dogger and outdoors writer Teddy Moritz forwarded this news of a case to be heard by the Supreme Court. It regards the editor and seller of a hunting dog video who was convicted on federal law prohibiting “depictions of animal cruelty;” his conviction was later overturned on 1st Amendment grounds, but US prosecutors …
Ten-Percenters
I speculated recently that if Americans provided just 10% of their own food via gardening and hunting, Monsanto would have a cow. I wondered further: Could any elected official propose such an alarming change in the national status quo? More importantly, Could the average American even pull it off? Ten percent. Every day. Michael Pollan …
Attack of the Scientific Reductionists
LiveScience reported yesterday on new research published in this month’s Genetics (the journal of the Genetics Society of America) attempting to determine the existence and location of genes for “tameness” in animals. According to the LiveScience version, “A study of nasty and nice lab rats has scientists on the verge of knowing the genes that …
News from The Front
The situation on the ground since my last Revolutionary Update is good. The troops are flourishing, even as the local heat and dry spell continue. Pictures to follow. But first, I’m pleased to forward this Revolutionary Report from our friends The Barrows, who are furthering their plan for financial independence by putting in their first …
The Apprentice
Falconry continues through the ages in one of two ways: Either it springs spontaneously from the fertile mind of some bootstrapping biophile, or it passes down from one to another through an apprenticeship.Some combination of the two is also possible. My own introduction to the sport was largely self-starting but later molded by a series …
Paradox of Localism
Localism, not a new idea, seems to be gathering steam. I think it’s fair to describe Querencia (the blog) as somewhat ahead of this bandwagon on the Internet, and Steve well forward the main group since Querencia (the book) and before. Writer Rod Dreher of my generation has helped advance a notion of localism in …