The MountainGoat Report

Lawnmowing Is Dangerous In Burley?

From the Times-News this morning:

William Stirling Teeter, 50, of Burley, was charged with felony aggravated assault Friday night following an unusual response to a teenager's ball landing in his yard.  The alleged incident culminated in Teeter pulling a semi-automatic pistol on the 13-year-old boy.

According to the Cassia County Sheriff's Office police report, the victim was playing with the ball while Teeter was mowing his lawn when the ball rolled onto Teeter's yard.  The victim said he walked over to retrieve the ball, and then, the report reads, "William drew a pistol from his hip."

The article goes on to report that "Teeter asked if the charge would affect his concealed weapons license and federal firearms license."

This is exactly why the wisdom of recent legislation allowing national park visitors to carry loaded weapons into the park should be questioned.  Having a concealed weapons permit does not guarantee one's sanity or proper judgment in the use of that firearm.  The last thing a family trying to enjoy Old Faithful should have to worry about is whether a Mr. Teeter is going to be pulling a gun on them.

Who packs heat while they mow their lawn, anyway?  In Burley?

Unnatural?

Time has an interesting photo essay running on their website entitled, "Same-Sex Overtures Across Species," including photos and bits of info on dolphins, bison, fruit flies and this beautiful image of the Laysan Albatross, among others:

 

Its caption reads:  "Nearly one-third of relationships observed in one Hawaiian albatross colony involved long-term female-female pair bonds. The females courted and then raised offspring together."  Evidently they never read the memo.

Check out the rest of the essay here.

With Friends Like These. . .

It's bad enough when people like Bryan Fischer, soon to be formerly of the Idaho Values Alliance, spout phrases like "aberrant sexual behavior" and "dangerous, unhealthy and immoral" when writing and speaking about gay people.  We've come to expect it from people like him.  When you go to his website or read one of his missives in the local paper you know what you're getting.

We expect it when people like equal opportunity bigot and radio host Zeb Bell say that being gay is a "sick and perverted lifestyle" and "dirty," "vile" and "disgusting" and use words like "cockroaches" and "pervert" to describe gay people.  Tune in "Zeb at the Ranch" and you know to steel yourself against some very ugly language.

We don't expect to go to a progressive blog and, on a post attempting to shed some positive light on transgender people (including Chaz Bono's recent announcement that he was a transgender man), find this [emphasis mine]:

Part of the issue is trying to figure out how gay people can like the ickey sex, but a lot of it is just foreign because we wonder, why would you NOT like what I like? What is the attraction in that same gender? Eww. It’s unknowable if you’re just not wired that way, and therefore a little scary.

When Nemesis calls gay sex offensive and distasteful (Websters) and describes same gender attraction with "eww," just because they were couched in a generally positive context, those words don't sting any less than if they had been uttered by Fischer or Bell.  Whether thoughtless or malicious, words do matter.

Probably most discouraging is that this came from a supposed ally.  If this is what our friends say and think about us, the road ahead for equality in Idaho is much longer and more grueling than ever expected.

My simple advice to anyone wanting to be an advocate for equality:  put yourself in the other person's shoes.  How would it feel if "icky" was used to describe your most intimate expression of love?  And then get educated.  A good place to start is with this:  the GLAAD Media Reference Guide.

Update: Nemesis has posted a very gracious response to this post.

Hell-o-o-o

Contrary to all outward appearances, I have not fallen off the face of the planet.  Will have new content here soon.  Stay tuned. . . .

You Could, But Why Would You?

Great read at High Country News on recently passed legislation allowing national park visitors to carry loaded firearms.

Here's a snip:

I think Ronald Reagan had the right idea in 1983, when he signed into law a rule requiring everyone who entered a national park to disassemble and unload all guns and keep them out of reach. This gun-loving, conservative Republican president created a law restricting gun use that has worked -- and worked well -- for 26 years.

That hasn't stopped the National Rifle Association from trying to change that law. And now it has succeeded in Congress and the White House, thanks to a rider tacked onto a law addressing credit card reform. It's hard to know why seemingly rational politicians would support allowing loaded weapons into our parks and wildlife refuges, starting next year. Are there more ferocious animals to shoot nowadays? Has street crime risen in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite? Are tourists feeling so unsafe in the great outdoors that they're clamoring for the right to tote arms in their RVs and handguns on their hips? If so, I haven't heard about it.

Read the rest; it's worth the click.

Rammell's Woes

Found in the comments to the Standard Journal article reporting that Rex Rammell, former U.S. Senate candidate and recently announced candidate for governor in 2010, has filed for bankruptcy protection:

Sick of Rex wrote on May 30, 2009 2:01 PM:

"This is when you have taken it too far. When you are on the verge of loosing everything over revenge and puting the well-being of your family in jepoardy that is when it is time to hang it up. The people of Idaho have already showed him we don't want him in public office. Once in the primaries and then later when he ran as an "independent" in the general elections. Seriously cut your losses and grant forgiveness instead of completely destroying your reputation, future, and children's futures."

In the article Rammell says about his gubernatorial candidacy, "If I lose this, then the era of Rammell in politics will come to an end.  All Idaho has to do is send me a message that I am not the right guy and I will gracefully bow out."  Rammell also responds to criticism that his campaigns are really about seeking revenge for killing his elk, "I would have to be 100 percent insane to seek revenge in this manner."

Indeed and I'm not sure anything Rammell has done could be considered graceful.  This might be a first.

Rammell launched a senatorial campaign that most Idahoans agree was based on "that guy shot my elk" and now a gubernatorial campaign based on "that guy wants to raise my taxes," suggesting he knows what "needs to be fixed" and can prevent economic collapse, meanwhile his personal finances are in shambles.  Without taking responsibility for his own poor decisions he couches himself as a victim of an overzealous government and then inexplicably cloaks himself in the motto "Courage, Honor, Integrity." 

Rex Rammell would have us believe that his woes are the fault of broken and misguided government and that his is some sort of Cinderella story.  He is delusional if he thinks Idahoans are buying it.

Monday Music

On this Monday morning, Chris O'Brien and "Ocean Stone."

DADT Nabs Decorated Mountain Home Pilot

With news today that the Pentagon has no plans to repeal the don't ask-don't tell policy for gay service members, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interviewed decorated Air Force pilot Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach who is being discharged under that policy.

As stated in this first public appearance, Lt Col Fehrenbach is stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base and is being discharged after 18 years of active duty, 88 combat missions, 2,180 total flight hours, 1,487 fighter hours and 400 combat hours.  Oh yeah, and after roughly $25 million in training.

How exactly is Lt Col Fehrenbach "an unacceptable risk?"

BYU-I On Dissolving Campus Political Groups

The Standard Journal has an interesting read on the dissolution of campus political organizations at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg.

A snip:

[L]ast semester (Winter 2009), the BYU-Idaho administration announced that both the College Republicans and the College Democrats, (both student-run political organizations), would be dissolved in an effort to comply with changes to the BYU-Idaho political neutrality policy.

"We are trying to ensure that BYU-Idaho is a politically neutral campus," said Andy Cargal, a BYU-Idaho public relations representative. "As a private institution and being affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we feel that it is in the best interest of our university to be politically neutral.

"While we actively encourage our students to be politically active and join political parties of their choice, we feel that BYU-Idaho itself can't be a sponsor of partisan political groups or activities."

The university explains that no event prompted this change in policy but one has to wonder if the flak the LDS church received, including questions regarding violations of federal tax law, over their involvement in California's Proposition 8 ballot measure hasn't had some effect.

Regardless, seems there's more to being politically neutral than stating so in policy and eliminating campus-sanctioned partisan groups.

Handicappers' Early 1st CD Predictions

In the very first "House Line" for the 2010 election cycle, Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post rates the top ten seats he predicts most likely to switch parties in the U.S. House.  Very early in this cycle, freshman Democrat Walt Minnick's 1st District seat comes in at number two on the list.

Idaho's 1st district (D) ([Obama won] 36 percent): Rep. Walt Minnick (D) ran a solid and professional campaign but it's hard to imagine him having won this seat if not for the utter ineptitude of then Rep. Bill Sali (R), a hard-right Republican who managed to alienate even his allies during his single term in Congress. Minnick raised a very solid $394,0000 in the first three months of 2009 but the simple fact of this district is that the Democrat could do everything right and still lose. Minnick got something of a break when state Treasurer Ron Crane decided against running but, rest assured, Republicans will find a credible candidate.

Other political observers, Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook list Minnick's seat as "Toss-Up/Tilt Democratic" and "Democratic Toss Up," respectively.  Cook ranks it as one of the three most competitive Democraticly held seats.