Chalk It Up To Entertaining Reading, Slightly Over The Top

Brace yourself for another wave of “government-hating, homeschooling, Scripture-quoting” survivalists as a result of a Jan. 8 center spread in The New York Times Magazine. It’s not chamber of commerce fare. For that, you dine at The Coeur d’Alene Resort and talk to Jobs Plus executive Bob Potter. Still, Philip Weiss’ piece is an entertaining read, even with such overblown lines as: “The top couple of buttons on (Bo) Gritz’s shirt are open, and sprigs of gray chest hair peek over his undershirt and catch the morning sun, and the same sunlight takes in the valley of the Clearwater and the pale blue berries on the elderberry bushes.” Obviously, the light was playing tricks on the New York Times crew. The 10-page piece ends with a photo of a cross burning near the Hayden Lake shore “at the Aryan Nations compound.” Richard Butler can’t see the lake from his place. Hmmmm. Sounds like a setup. Do you suppose Connie Chung brought the kerosene?

Hey, we are a little squirrelly

I was going to get huffy about the Times’ characterization of us as “radical individualists and apocalyptic zealots.” But then I read about the latest shenanigans of the Tenth Amendment Coalition of Benewah County. Ringleaders still want an ordinance requiring guns ‘n ammo in every house - though the county attorney (and common sense) says it’s unconstitutional and unenforceable. How can a group that professes to revere and understand the Constitution push such nonsense? Maybe the Tenth Amendmenters envy all the attention big-city press give Gritz, Randy Weaver and Butler.

Enviros, utilities playing loose with truth

Environmentalists and utility interests deserve Hot Potatoes for their dueling Smolt-o-Matic propaganda. Enviros have sponsored a 15-second ad locally that shows baby salmon in a blender, suggesting that smolts are ripped to shreds by hydropower turbines. They aren’t. But utility interests have no right to get huffy either and compare the misinformation to the “Alar apple disgrace.” Turbines do kill salmon, millions of them, but not in the slice-and-dice manner implied in the commercial. Generally, they suffer internal injuries caused by dramatic changes in water pressure. Sometimes, their eyes pop out - like ours did when the competing sides fed us their malarkey.

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