On July 4, 1947, an extraterrestrial craft crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.
The wreckage and dead alien bodies were soon transported to Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio. Cover stories were established with the media and the truth was kept from the public.
Apparently, a lone extraterrestrial (ET) survived the ordeal.
It was the beginning of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR -- paranoia was rampant in high levels of government and the military establishment.
Over the next few months, the federal government created the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Council, the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On September 24, 1947, President Truman created Operation Majestic-12 (MJ-12), a Top Secret intelligence operation that was responsible directly to the President of the United States. This committee of 12 esteemed specialists was commissioned to deal with all matters concerning UFOs and extraterrestrials.
The original 12 members:
1) James V. Forrestal -- became Secretary of Defense in July of 1947. He resigned in March of 1949, a month before he supposedly committed suicide at Bethesda Naval Hospital. One year later, he was replaced by General Walter Bedell Smith (Eisenhower's Chief of Staff and former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow).
2) Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter -- became the first director of the CIA (created in September of 1947). He publically disclosed that UFOs were real and "through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense."
3) General Nathan F. Twining -- commander of the Air Material Command (based at Wright-Patterson Air Base in Ohio). On July 8, 1947, he made a two-day trip to New Mexico due to a sudden important matter. He was responsible for creating Project Sign, a UFO study group.
4) General Hoyt S. Vardenberg -- Air Force Chief of Staff. He ordered the destruction of the original Project Sign reports affirming that UFOs were real.
5) Dr. Vannevay Bush -- a scientist who organized the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1943, which led to the production of the first atomic bomb.
6) Gordon Gray -- Assistant Secretary of the Army in 1947, promoted to Secretary of the Army in 1949. He became a special assistant on national security affairs to President Truman.
7) Dr. Detlev Bronk -- a biophysicist and physiologist who was a medical advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission and Chairman of the National Research Council.
8) Dr. Jerome Hunsaker -- an aviation designer who was the Chairman of the Departments of Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
9) General Robert M. Montegue -- was the base commander at an Atomic Energy Commission facility in New Mexico in 1947.
10) Sidney W. Souers -- a retired rear admiral who was the first Director of the National Security Council in 1947.
11) Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner -- was an electrical engineer who headed a study that created the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group.
12) Dr. Donald Menzel -- an astronomer who was a director of the Harvard College Observatory.
Also in 1947, the Air Force created Project Blue Book to determine if the UFOs were a threat to national security. Project Grudge was another operation performing the same tasks. These programs studied approximately 12,000 reported sightings and determined that 90 percent were either explainable phenomena or hoaxes. The remaining 10 percent were considered legitimate Alien encounters.
Over the next couple of years, the lone surviving ET from the Roswell crash had been in contact with his home planet (called Serpo). Communication (in English) between Serpo and scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory had been established.
In July of 1952, there was a massive UFO flyover of Washington, D.C., on two consecutive weekends -- strange objects on radar, moving at incredible speed, visible sightings of orange discs. Jet fighters were scrambled from Newcastle Air Force Base in Delaware. When the fighters approached, the objects disappeared. When the fighters ran low on fuel and returned to base, the objects reappeared.
Fear and paranoia of an alien invasion caused additional pressure on those involved to maintain a high level of security and secrecy.
In 1953, President Eisenhower created a program called Project Gleem, later called Project Aquarius, to be controlled by the National Security Council and MJ-12. It was funded by the CIA (black budget). Its purpose was to collect intelligence data from UFO sightings, Identified Alien Crafts (IAC) sightings and contacts with Alien Life forms.
Additional contact between ETs and USA authorities occurred -- a meeting was arranged.
On February 20, 1954, President Eisenhower (and others) met with a contingent of ETs at Muroc Air Base (now called Edwards Air Force Base) in the Mohave Desert in California. Eisenhower supposedly had been on a visit to a dentist in Palm Springs. Secrecy was of upmost importance. Five Alien craft had landed. Discussions ensued. The ETs offered technology but wanted certain things in return. Various accounts of the results of this meeting make it difficult to determine the outcome. Some of the USA participants didn't trust the ETs, feeling it was a ploy to gain trust, then perhaps attack.
On February 22, 1954, the USA installed 60 Thor nuclear missiles in Britain.
Life goes on.
Many encounters with extraterrestrial entities have occurred prior to and after July of 1947. These events have been withheld from the public. Advanced technology has been gleaned from these encounters and also withheld from the public, kept within the hidden domain of elite rulers for elite purposes.
Those who rule Planet Earth conduct business in secrecy. Those who seek to expose the truth are ridiculed. And those who follow blindly suffer the consequences.
On September 21, 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations where he emphasized how drastically our planet would change if we were under a threat from an alien civilization. Perhaps he was preparing us for the day of disclosure.
We dwell on a small planet of an average star (the sun) in an insignificant galaxy (Milky Way) that is merely one of zillions of galaxies, in a far corner of a vast universe, that may be only one of many universes. We are not alone.
The most basic question is not what's best for the planet -- it's who should decide what's best for the planet.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "Our pleasures were simple -- they included survival." Dwight D. Eisenhower
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where ignorance is bliss.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Lickety Split
A friend of mine called me the other night asking me to look something up on the Internet for him. He doesn't have a computer, primarily because he's too cheap to buy one and has friends, like me, to pester whenever he needs a favor. Since he helped me start my car back in 1971 he thinks I owe him a life of servitude.
Basically, someone called him a "four flusher" and he didn't know what it meant. So I looked it up for him. It turns out that a four flusher is a person who makes a false claim (one who bluffs). The term was derived from poker where four cards of the same suit are worthless whereas five cards of the same suit is a flush, which will beat three of a kind and a straight. Someone betting with only four cards of the same suit would be bluffing.
The very next evening I received a phone call from a friend who told me the phrase "lickety split" came up in a recent conversation and he was wondering how such a phrase came into existence. This person is not cheap, unlike most of my friends, and owns a computer. But he's a very busy guy and probably didn't want to waste his time on trivial matters so he contacted me to waste my time on trivial matters for him.
In doing so, he also suggested that I should look up the origin of some common expressions, such as "smart as a whip," "a New York minute," "cute as a bug in a rug" and so forth. Instead, I told him his New York minute was up and I had more important things to do, such as take the bull by the horns, reinvent the wheel and catch some Zs.
In my dictionary, "lickety split" means "at great speed."
According to extensive Internet research, "lickety split" was a term used by the Puritans in the 1600s but no one apparently has any insight on how it started.
The term became prominent in the 1830s and 1840s. The earliest known appearance in print was in 1843. Other terms such as "lickety click," lickety cut," "lickety brindle," "lickety smash" and "lickety switch" were also in use at the time meaning the same thing.
Many others terms from the same era also have similar meanings, including "quick as greased lightning," "in a jiffy," "like a house afire," "hell bent for leather" and "immediately if not sooner."
Apparently, everyone was in a hurry back then.
During my Internet explorations, I also learned that "Lickety Split" is:
* A lip gloss that is "fruity, sweet and sassy, and it gives your lips a little kiss of color"
* An alchemy yarn produced and marketed by The Yarn Company of New York City
* An educational game for children, ages 6 and up, made by Gamewright
* A 27' racing sailboat manufactured by Morgan Boat Builders
* A raft trip on the Kern River in California offered by Sierra South Sports
* A night club in Philadelphia
* A rock-and-roll band
* A recipe for lasagna published in BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN
* A company in San Diego that makes balloons
* A card game involving 2 to 4 players fast grabbing from a deck of 60 cards
Jeepers creepers, I now know more about "lickety split" than I ever wanted to know.
Personally I don't like doing things at great speed – I prefer to "take a slow boat to China."
Time to end this nonsense -- 23 skidoo.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'be fruitful and multiply' -- but not in those words." Woody Allen
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where silence is golden.
___________
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Basically, someone called him a "four flusher" and he didn't know what it meant. So I looked it up for him. It turns out that a four flusher is a person who makes a false claim (one who bluffs). The term was derived from poker where four cards of the same suit are worthless whereas five cards of the same suit is a flush, which will beat three of a kind and a straight. Someone betting with only four cards of the same suit would be bluffing.
The very next evening I received a phone call from a friend who told me the phrase "lickety split" came up in a recent conversation and he was wondering how such a phrase came into existence. This person is not cheap, unlike most of my friends, and owns a computer. But he's a very busy guy and probably didn't want to waste his time on trivial matters so he contacted me to waste my time on trivial matters for him.
In doing so, he also suggested that I should look up the origin of some common expressions, such as "smart as a whip," "a New York minute," "cute as a bug in a rug" and so forth. Instead, I told him his New York minute was up and I had more important things to do, such as take the bull by the horns, reinvent the wheel and catch some Zs.
In my dictionary, "lickety split" means "at great speed."
According to extensive Internet research, "lickety split" was a term used by the Puritans in the 1600s but no one apparently has any insight on how it started.
The term became prominent in the 1830s and 1840s. The earliest known appearance in print was in 1843. Other terms such as "lickety click," lickety cut," "lickety brindle," "lickety smash" and "lickety switch" were also in use at the time meaning the same thing.
Many others terms from the same era also have similar meanings, including "quick as greased lightning," "in a jiffy," "like a house afire," "hell bent for leather" and "immediately if not sooner."
Apparently, everyone was in a hurry back then.
During my Internet explorations, I also learned that "Lickety Split" is:
* A lip gloss that is "fruity, sweet and sassy, and it gives your lips a little kiss of color"
* An alchemy yarn produced and marketed by The Yarn Company of New York City
* An educational game for children, ages 6 and up, made by Gamewright
* A 27' racing sailboat manufactured by Morgan Boat Builders
* A raft trip on the Kern River in California offered by Sierra South Sports
* A night club in Philadelphia
* A rock-and-roll band
* A recipe for lasagna published in BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN
* A company in San Diego that makes balloons
* A card game involving 2 to 4 players fast grabbing from a deck of 60 cards
Jeepers creepers, I now know more about "lickety split" than I ever wanted to know.
Personally I don't like doing things at great speed – I prefer to "take a slow boat to China."
Time to end this nonsense -- 23 skidoo.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'be fruitful and multiply' -- but not in those words." Woody Allen
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where silence is golden.
___________
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Saturday, November 12, 2011
The Next Ice Age
Many climate scientists now agree that global warming, primarily cyclical in nature due to fluctuations in solar activity, could trigger a new ice age in the Northern Hemisphere. Some of them believe this potential catastrophic event has already been set in motion.
In March of 2004, NASA reported that views from orbit “clearly show a long-term decline in the perennial Arctic Sea ice.” Scientists at NASA and elsewhere worry that melting ice will dump enough freshwater into the North Atlantic to interfere with ocean currents.
Receding ice cover in the Arctic exposes more of the ocean surface, causing more moisture to evaporate, leading to more rainfall and snowfall in the northern latitudes.
The oceans circulate water in a pattern called the “Great Ocean Conveyer.”
Saltwater is denser (heavier) than freshwater. The surface water needs to sink to drive the Conveyer. Sunken water flows south along the ocean floor toward the equator, while warm surface water from the Tropics flows north to replace the water that sank. An increase of freshwater could prevent the sinking of North Atlantic surface waters, stopping the circulation.
Evidence developed from tree rings and ice cores indicates that the Earth’s climate has shifted abruptly in the past. As the world warmed at the end of the last ice age, melting ice sheets appear to have caused a sudden halt to the Conveyer, creating ice-age-like conditions for the next 1,300 years called the “Younger Dryas.”
Without the warmth the ocean currents deliver, Europe’s average temperature would drop 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Portions of eastern North America would also drop in temperature but not quite as much.
These types of abrupt climate changes could result in massive crop failures, leading to global food shortages.
A secret report commissioned by the Pentagon in 2004, leaked to the press four months later, warns that climate change over the next 20 years (or less) could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
In what is described as a contingency scenario, the report warns that major European cities will sink beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a frigid climate by 2020. Dwindling food, water and energy supplies throughout the planet will generate global anarchy. The report concludes, “Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life. Once again, warfare would define human life.”
Whether a catastrophic global climate change will occur in the near future is uncertain. If it does happen, it will take two to three years (perhaps as long as a decade) to unfold, a very short period of time in geological history but plenty of time in human existence to prepare for the consequences.
If this scenario occurs, there will be food shortages, followed by a Mad Max reality of civil mayhem.
Be prepared (Boy Scout motto) -- avoid living near the ocean, avoid living in or near a big city, have a reliable source of fresh water and keep plenty of non-perishable food in store. Plus, lots of ammo. In self-survival, anything goes.
We live in precarious times. Man’s inhumanity to man continues to haunt the world and the whims of the universe are mostly beyond our control.
Mother Nature is indifferent to the survival of mankind -- we can only hang on and go along for the ride.
Keep your powder dry and your nose to the wind.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "Instead of working for the survival of the fittest, we should be working for the survival of the wittiest -- then we can all die laughing." Lily Tomlin
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and an imaginary girlfriend named Lois Lane.
___________
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In March of 2004, NASA reported that views from orbit “clearly show a long-term decline in the perennial Arctic Sea ice.” Scientists at NASA and elsewhere worry that melting ice will dump enough freshwater into the North Atlantic to interfere with ocean currents.
Receding ice cover in the Arctic exposes more of the ocean surface, causing more moisture to evaporate, leading to more rainfall and snowfall in the northern latitudes.
The oceans circulate water in a pattern called the “Great Ocean Conveyer.”
Saltwater is denser (heavier) than freshwater. The surface water needs to sink to drive the Conveyer. Sunken water flows south along the ocean floor toward the equator, while warm surface water from the Tropics flows north to replace the water that sank. An increase of freshwater could prevent the sinking of North Atlantic surface waters, stopping the circulation.
Evidence developed from tree rings and ice cores indicates that the Earth’s climate has shifted abruptly in the past. As the world warmed at the end of the last ice age, melting ice sheets appear to have caused a sudden halt to the Conveyer, creating ice-age-like conditions for the next 1,300 years called the “Younger Dryas.”
Without the warmth the ocean currents deliver, Europe’s average temperature would drop 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Portions of eastern North America would also drop in temperature but not quite as much.
These types of abrupt climate changes could result in massive crop failures, leading to global food shortages.
A secret report commissioned by the Pentagon in 2004, leaked to the press four months later, warns that climate change over the next 20 years (or less) could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
In what is described as a contingency scenario, the report warns that major European cities will sink beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a frigid climate by 2020. Dwindling food, water and energy supplies throughout the planet will generate global anarchy. The report concludes, “Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life. Once again, warfare would define human life.”
Whether a catastrophic global climate change will occur in the near future is uncertain. If it does happen, it will take two to three years (perhaps as long as a decade) to unfold, a very short period of time in geological history but plenty of time in human existence to prepare for the consequences.
If this scenario occurs, there will be food shortages, followed by a Mad Max reality of civil mayhem.
Be prepared (Boy Scout motto) -- avoid living near the ocean, avoid living in or near a big city, have a reliable source of fresh water and keep plenty of non-perishable food in store. Plus, lots of ammo. In self-survival, anything goes.
We live in precarious times. Man’s inhumanity to man continues to haunt the world and the whims of the universe are mostly beyond our control.
Mother Nature is indifferent to the survival of mankind -- we can only hang on and go along for the ride.
Keep your powder dry and your nose to the wind.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "Instead of working for the survival of the fittest, we should be working for the survival of the wittiest -- then we can all die laughing." Lily Tomlin
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and an imaginary girlfriend named Lois Lane.
___________
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Saturday, November 5, 2011
Dodging Bullets
An emergency phone operator received a call one afternoon from a hunter who was very distraught.
“My hunting partner just passed out and keeled over,” the hunter said in a panic.
The emergency phone operator told him to calm down and check for vital signs.
“He’s not breathing,” the hunter observed. “I think he might be dead.”
“First of all, let’s make sure he’s dead,” the emergency operator said.
There was a short pause, followed by a gunshot.
“Okay, now what?” the hunter asked when he got back on the phone.
While the above joke may be amusing, there’s nothing amusing during hunting season to those of us who live in rural areas and wonder if the next errant bullet is headed our way.
Recently, 12-year-old Lindsey Duffield of Browns Valley, Minn., was riding a white mare named Princess along the driveway of her grandfather’s farm on the edge of town. A shot rang out. A short time later, Lindsey’s leg became moist and cold, soaked with blood. Princess had taken a 12-gauge slug in her shoulder and later died. The hunter had been sitting 200 yards away. He said he thought it was a deer.
Similar incidents happen every year during hunting season. In Minnesota, a 14-year-old girl was killed when a bullet penetrated her house as she was sitting in her bedroom, practicing the violin. A hunter in Wisconsin shot another hunter perched high in a tree stand. In Pennsylvania, a woman was gunned down while sitting on the deck of her cabin, drinking a cup of coffee. When I was a teen-ager, a friend of mine was shot in the back of his head and killed by another hunter in his own party.
I now live in northern Arkansas where some of the “sportsmen” are just as irresponsible. A couple of years ago, a Little Rock man shot a llama in a fenced pasture in the next county, claiming he thought it was a deer. If you can’t tell the difference between a llama and a deer, please stay in the city where you belong.
A few years earlier, some "sportsmen" were driving down my road and shot a neighbor’s dog that was sitting in its own driveway as they passed by.
When I first moved into my present home several years ago, I spotted three hunters approaching my place in my backyard at sunrise. Even though they were less than 40 yards from my back door, they continued walking toward me, each carrying a high-powered rifle. I went outside and told them they couldn’t hunt on my property. They became very indignant and told me the previous owner had allowed them to hunt there. After I told them I didn’t care what arrangement they had with the previous owner, they walked out onto the main road. One of them looked menacingly at me and fired a round into the air before leaving the area. I guess it was his way of saying he was displeased I wouldn’t allow him to wander on my property and fill the air with stray bullets.
The following year, another sportsman (or perhaps the same one) shot up my mailbox. He hit it twice. Apparently, he wanted to make sure it wasn’t really a deer after all.
Later that year, another sportsman (or perhaps the same one) discarded the remains of a deer carcass in the middle of the road at the end of my driveway.
In November of 2004, Chai Soua Vang, 36, a Hmong (Laotian) immigrant from St. Paul, Minn., was sitting in a tree stand on the private property of Bob Crotteau in northern Wisconsin waiting for a deer to wander by.
Eventually, Crotteau and his deer hunting companions arrived at the scene on ATVs. Crotteau verbally admonished Vang for trespassing and demanded that he leave. The previous year, Crotteau had been forced to confront Hmong hunters several times on his posted property and was clearly upset he had to do it again.
Vang, who had been charged with criminal trespass over a similar incident in 2002 on another property in the same vicinity, was apparently upset as well. He opened fire on the hunters, most of whom were unarmed at the time, with his SKS assault rifle.
When it was all over, six hunters were dead and two lay wounded.
Later that day, Vang was arrested without incident by a game warden. When first questioned by local authorities, Vang claimed that one of the two survivors, Terry Willers, did the killings (including murdering his own daughter).
However, investigators quickly ruled that scenario out after examining the scene. Vang then recanted his story and insisted he was fired upon first.
During the trial in September of 2005, the two survivors, Terry Willer and Lauren Hesenbeck, described how Crotteau had verbally confronted Vang about trespassing. When Vang started walking away, he removed the scope from his rifle, turned around and opened fire on the hunters. As some of them scattered, Vang reversed his orange jacket to camouflage, chased them down and shot them in the back.
Vang's courtroom account of the incident was virtually the same, except he testified that Crotteau shouted racial slurs at him, thereby disrespecting him and deserving to die. He also claimed that someone fired a shot at him first. Both Willer and Hesenbeck denied under oath that anyone had fired a shot at Vang.
According to his own testimony, Vang had reloaded three times and fired more than 20 rounds.
Robert Crotteau, 41, construction business owner -- dead (shot once in the back)
Joey Crotteau, 20, construction worker (Robert Crotteau's son) – dead (shot four times in the back)
Denny Drew, 55, car salesman – dead (shot once in the chest)
Allan Laski, 43, lumber yard manager – dead (shot three times in the back)
Marl Roltd, 28, auto mechanic – dead (shot once in the head)
Jessica Willers, 27, nurse (Terry Willer's daughter) – dead (shot twice in the back)
Terry Willer, 47, construction worker – wounded (shot in the neck)
Lauren Hesenbeck, 48, car dealership manager – wounded (shot in the shoulder)
It took the jury only three hours to return six first-degree murder verdicts. Vang was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole, the maximum penalty available in Wisconsin.
Vang had lived in the United States for more than 20 years, had been hunting since 1992 and had previously been chased off of private property for trespassing. He knew the rules but chose to ignore them.
I have eight acres in Arkansas and previously owned six acres in Arizona. In both places, I've been forced to chase armed intruders (hunters) off my property, even though the property was posted and I lived there.
Inconsiderate hunters put rural property owners in an awkward, dangerous position when they trespass without permission. Irresponsible behavior by idiots toting dangerous weapons with the capacity to launch a bullet a great distance with deadly results is a nightmare for those of us who enjoy living far from the maddening crowd.
Chai Soua Vang will rot and die in prison, probably still demanding to be respected.
But respect is not something you're entitled to – it's something you earn.
___________
Quote for the Day -- "After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral -- When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." Will Rogers
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the ghost of Terry Hawkins.
___________
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“My hunting partner just passed out and keeled over,” the hunter said in a panic.
The emergency phone operator told him to calm down and check for vital signs.
“He’s not breathing,” the hunter observed. “I think he might be dead.”
“First of all, let’s make sure he’s dead,” the emergency operator said.
There was a short pause, followed by a gunshot.
“Okay, now what?” the hunter asked when he got back on the phone.
While the above joke may be amusing, there’s nothing amusing during hunting season to those of us who live in rural areas and wonder if the next errant bullet is headed our way.
Recently, 12-year-old Lindsey Duffield of Browns Valley, Minn., was riding a white mare named Princess along the driveway of her grandfather’s farm on the edge of town. A shot rang out. A short time later, Lindsey’s leg became moist and cold, soaked with blood. Princess had taken a 12-gauge slug in her shoulder and later died. The hunter had been sitting 200 yards away. He said he thought it was a deer.
Similar incidents happen every year during hunting season. In Minnesota, a 14-year-old girl was killed when a bullet penetrated her house as she was sitting in her bedroom, practicing the violin. A hunter in Wisconsin shot another hunter perched high in a tree stand. In Pennsylvania, a woman was gunned down while sitting on the deck of her cabin, drinking a cup of coffee. When I was a teen-ager, a friend of mine was shot in the back of his head and killed by another hunter in his own party.
I now live in northern Arkansas where some of the “sportsmen” are just as irresponsible. A couple of years ago, a Little Rock man shot a llama in a fenced pasture in the next county, claiming he thought it was a deer. If you can’t tell the difference between a llama and a deer, please stay in the city where you belong.
A few years earlier, some "sportsmen" were driving down my road and shot a neighbor’s dog that was sitting in its own driveway as they passed by.
When I first moved into my present home several years ago, I spotted three hunters approaching my place in my backyard at sunrise. Even though they were less than 40 yards from my back door, they continued walking toward me, each carrying a high-powered rifle. I went outside and told them they couldn’t hunt on my property. They became very indignant and told me the previous owner had allowed them to hunt there. After I told them I didn’t care what arrangement they had with the previous owner, they walked out onto the main road. One of them looked menacingly at me and fired a round into the air before leaving the area. I guess it was his way of saying he was displeased I wouldn’t allow him to wander on my property and fill the air with stray bullets.
The following year, another sportsman (or perhaps the same one) shot up my mailbox. He hit it twice. Apparently, he wanted to make sure it wasn’t really a deer after all.
Later that year, another sportsman (or perhaps the same one) discarded the remains of a deer carcass in the middle of the road at the end of my driveway.
In November of 2004, Chai Soua Vang, 36, a Hmong (Laotian) immigrant from St. Paul, Minn., was sitting in a tree stand on the private property of Bob Crotteau in northern Wisconsin waiting for a deer to wander by.
Eventually, Crotteau and his deer hunting companions arrived at the scene on ATVs. Crotteau verbally admonished Vang for trespassing and demanded that he leave. The previous year, Crotteau had been forced to confront Hmong hunters several times on his posted property and was clearly upset he had to do it again.
Vang, who had been charged with criminal trespass over a similar incident in 2002 on another property in the same vicinity, was apparently upset as well. He opened fire on the hunters, most of whom were unarmed at the time, with his SKS assault rifle.
When it was all over, six hunters were dead and two lay wounded.
Later that day, Vang was arrested without incident by a game warden. When first questioned by local authorities, Vang claimed that one of the two survivors, Terry Willers, did the killings (including murdering his own daughter).
However, investigators quickly ruled that scenario out after examining the scene. Vang then recanted his story and insisted he was fired upon first.
During the trial in September of 2005, the two survivors, Terry Willer and Lauren Hesenbeck, described how Crotteau had verbally confronted Vang about trespassing. When Vang started walking away, he removed the scope from his rifle, turned around and opened fire on the hunters. As some of them scattered, Vang reversed his orange jacket to camouflage, chased them down and shot them in the back.
Vang's courtroom account of the incident was virtually the same, except he testified that Crotteau shouted racial slurs at him, thereby disrespecting him and deserving to die. He also claimed that someone fired a shot at him first. Both Willer and Hesenbeck denied under oath that anyone had fired a shot at Vang.
According to his own testimony, Vang had reloaded three times and fired more than 20 rounds.
Robert Crotteau, 41, construction business owner -- dead (shot once in the back)
Joey Crotteau, 20, construction worker (Robert Crotteau's son) – dead (shot four times in the back)
Denny Drew, 55, car salesman – dead (shot once in the chest)
Allan Laski, 43, lumber yard manager – dead (shot three times in the back)
Marl Roltd, 28, auto mechanic – dead (shot once in the head)
Jessica Willers, 27, nurse (Terry Willer's daughter) – dead (shot twice in the back)
Terry Willer, 47, construction worker – wounded (shot in the neck)
Lauren Hesenbeck, 48, car dealership manager – wounded (shot in the shoulder)
It took the jury only three hours to return six first-degree murder verdicts. Vang was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole, the maximum penalty available in Wisconsin.
Vang had lived in the United States for more than 20 years, had been hunting since 1992 and had previously been chased off of private property for trespassing. He knew the rules but chose to ignore them.
I have eight acres in Arkansas and previously owned six acres in Arizona. In both places, I've been forced to chase armed intruders (hunters) off my property, even though the property was posted and I lived there.
Inconsiderate hunters put rural property owners in an awkward, dangerous position when they trespass without permission. Irresponsible behavior by idiots toting dangerous weapons with the capacity to launch a bullet a great distance with deadly results is a nightmare for those of us who enjoy living far from the maddening crowd.
Chai Soua Vang will rot and die in prison, probably still demanding to be respected.
But respect is not something you're entitled to – it's something you earn.
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Quote for the Day -- "After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral -- When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." Will Rogers
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Bret Burquest is the author of 7 books, including THE REALITY OF THE ILLUSION OF REALITY and ORB OF WOUNDED SOULS (available on Amazon). He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and the ghost of Terry Hawkins.
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