Boulder is a Stoopid Place

Thought of the Day

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one. Helen Keller is the other. — Erma Bombeck

Found this thought here.

RMAD stands for Rocky Mountain Animal Defense. In the updated Camera article, Dave Crawford from RMAD gets a few (too many) paragraphs worth of space….

Relocation sites are few and far between. That means animal-rights activists such as Dave Crawford, head of Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, will be scrambling to find the prairie dogs suitable new homes in the next two weeks.

“Lethal control is off the table for RMAD,” he said. “You can’t justify it in terms of what we’ve historically done to this animal. The killing has got to stop.”

Crawford said the city must try harder to find a nonlethal alternative. Relocating the rodents to a nearby colony should be an option, he said, because there are fewer than 10 animals that need to be removed. Crawford said his group also hopes a private landowner will step forward with land.

This is certainly a lesson in politics. RMAD is a special interest group, it does not directly control the Boulder City Council or the Boulder County Commissioners. However, the way Mr. Crawford speaks he sure seems to think he does. This is no surprise as I’m sure they have been welcomed with open arms in the past by the City Council and County Commissioners. Hopefully this will change.

I am amused as well that Mr. Crawford thinks a private landowner will step forward. This sugar-daddy Mr. Crawford envisions should have lots of land for two reasons:

1. It won’t take long for the prarie dogs to do what they do best and multiply, and then destroy the land.

2. Who’s going to build the fence to keep the dogs on this private owners land? Perhaps he owns an island?

The fact is there are too many prairie dogs and not enough space. Deer hunting season is to thin out the deer population, why is this such a hard concept to transfer over to prarie dogs? I suppose it’s because deer meat can be consumed as food (sorry vegetarians) but there is no use for the prairie dog carcass.

Update, the link is now fixed. Apparently it changed when the story was updated.

Boulder to kill (euthanize) prairie dogs…

City officials announced Thursday that they might have to euthanize prairie dogs in North Foothills Community Park if they can’t find a place to relocate them.

Where did they get this dose of courage since on March 23rd lethal control was not an option….

Since “lethal control” isn’t an option, and relocation is usually prohibitively difficult, that most likely means the fence would be built at that point, Scholl said.

The dose or courage came from discovery of bubonic plague in Lyons.

But the decision to build the barrier has been changed, he said, because of the discovery of bubonic plague in Lyons. If an overdue plague sweeps through Boulder’s prairie dog population, he said, spending money to build a fence won’t make sense.

Not to mention that spending the money, I believe more than $120,000 although I couldn’t find a reference, is a waste of limited resources. This is a city that while they are closing the satellite libraries early is busy building unsafe traffic circles and spending endless hours trying to contain prairie dogs.

The outcry of the vocal minority in the upcoming weeks should provide cheap entertainment.

Even the Daily Camera has figured out prairie dogs are losing the road war. They list two reasons:

1. Development and
2. a good year for the “dogs”.

I’m not sure what a “Boulder wildlife consultant” is, but here she is commenting on the “good year”

“We do seem to be seeing more this year,” said Susan Honeycutt, a Boulder wildlife consultant.

An unusually healthy year for prairie dogs actually might be backfiring on the burrowing species, Honeycutt said. Because this year saw lots of precipitation and extra vegetation, more of the critters survived long enough to get kicked out of their burrows and scurry right into high-speed traffic.”

and here’s the typical Boulder comment that growth is bad and it’s our fault, not the fact that priarie dogs procreate at warp speed….

Increasing development also means less room for new prairie dog populations to expand, Honeycutt said.

“Every year it seems like more and more get pushed out of areas that are being developed,” she said. “Then they’re kicked out, they’re on the run, looking for somewhere to hook up.

To the best of my knowledge there is NO major development occuring in the areas where I have observed the increase in roadkill. The problem is obvious, the priarie dogs multiply too fast for the available space. The solution is population control by thinning the population, unfortunately County government doesn’t have the courage to implement this solution.

In Boulder County, being a prairie dog is quite a privilege. The county open space that can be used for prairie dogs is filled. No vacancy. The down side of this is the “dogs” moving onto private property where they may or may not be welcome and an exponential rise in road kill.

Almost daily I drive a square loop that takes me from the mouth of Left Hand Canyon, to Nelson road into Longmont in the morning. In the afternoon I take the diagonal highway to Boulder, then North Broadway and Hwy 36 back to Left Hand Canyon. I encounter prairie dog road kill at the following points:

1. Corner of Hwy 36 and Nelson Road, going East on Nelson.
2. On Nelson Rd just West of the intersection of N. 75th avenue and Nelson Road
3. West side of the Diagonal Hwy, heading towards Boulder just past IBM
4. Going North on Hwy 36 leaving Boulder.

This doesn’t include the road kill that can be found on the East side of Hwy 36 on Plateau Rd, Neva Rd and N. 39th street. Unfortunately, our County leaders are in the hands of the loud environmentalist minority and don’t have the courage to take the required action to control the growing and expanding prairie dog population. However, nature may be taking the matter into her own hands with the recnt discovery of Bubonic Plague in Lyons. It’s unfortunate it came down to this and hopefully this outbreak can be contained. Even if it is contained, Boulder County needs to take immediate and aggressive action to control the prairie dog population.

Geez, yes Boulder is a stoopid place. This letter to the editor in the Boulder Daily Camera titled “Why do we let them die like this?” seems to want top rate medical services for roadkill. The author, Miriam Paisner, had this to say about how a rabbit’s life that ended after being hit by a car and injured on Jay Road in Bouder County…

I looked over and saw a rabbit trying to cross Jay, but as he turned back he was struck by a speeding car whose driver never looked back. I pulled over and watched this poor little creature pull himself to the side of the road by his front legs.

She then called the Sheriff’s office trying to get the number for the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, but 10 minutes of being on hold yielded no information except they were open until 7pm, resulting in the following action…

I needed help; the rabbit was desperately in need of help, so while the officer called Greenwood (at last), I put him on my dog’s blanket in the back of my car. I was told that Greenwood was open until 7 p.m., so I raced the back roads to Colo. 66 east of Lyons. The rabbit died in my car on the way to help. It broke my heart.

This leads to a number of heart wrenching questions:

Why wasn’t there a closer place to take this poor creature?

Why didn’t the driver stop to see what he or she had done?

Why is the life of a poor, wild creature so meaningless that there was no way to save him?

What has happened to our humanity in Boulder?

First of all, I do my best to avoid animals while I drive down the road. Quite recently, after swerving to try and avoid a rabbit on Nelson road it ended up as roadkill, probably in a similar fashion as described by the author. However, my answer to her questions are as follows:

1. Where would she like to take him? The rabbit was hit by a car weight many hundreds of pounds, unless simply a foot was broken the internal injuries are bound to be devasting.

2. What is she expecting the driver to do? The rabbit is a goner.

3. Is the rabbit’s life meaningless? I’m not sure how to answer that, but there is no shortage or rabbits and how far down the food chain do we want to supply animal ambulances and surgical teams who are on call for every injury?

4. I have a hard time relating Boulder’s “humanity” to an accident where a basically wild rabbit (kamikazee bunny we call them in my neighborhood) panicked and ran in front of a car?

I wonder, who would pay for all the medical care that Ms. Paisner believes this rabbit deserves?

Similarly, I’d sure hate to be driving on a 2 lane highway where Ms. Paisner and I were approaching each other and a rabbit or some other non-domesticated animal ran out onto the road. Reading her letter, I get the distinct feeling she would easily entertain the thought of an accident involving another car and potential injury to human life to avoid injuring the animal. I call that scary.

Reading the letters to the editor and the editorials in the Boulder mouthpiece, The Daily Camera, one would think the world is coming to an end. Most of the time it’s the Republican’s faults, or at least no fault of the Democrats.

For example, according to this letter writer (at bottom of page) the very basis for Democracy is in crisis…

We are now at the tipping point. We are about to lose our democracy. A democracy requires advocacy of multiple points of view. One-party rule is about the elimination of opposition. No compromise. No quarter.

Our current ruling party has the power. It owns the executive branch, both houses of Congress, and most of the judicial branch. It is working hard to eliminate checks and balances to its power.

Of course, Boulderites need to put on their reading glasses when they talk about one party rule. No Republican worth the name has held an elected office in the City or County in years. A few years ago a small businessman, Jim Murphy, ran for County Commissioner as a Republican. Suddenly his small business was audited for potential sales tax violations. After the election the Democrats filed suit against him for improper reporting of campaign contributions. There was some merit to the suit, but it was all in very bad taste and a pox on there house.

In this Sunday’s edition, Clay Evans reviews James Howard Kuntsler’s new book, “The Long Emergency: Surviving the Convering Catastrophe’s of the Twenty-First Century”. He relays Kuntslers message that the end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching due to the depletion of petroleum worldwide.

But Kunstler says his tome is no mere story: He believes we are barreling toward the end of civilization as we know it, and it’s probably too late to do much about it. (For a full review, check today’s Books section, Page 6E.)

and more dire talk…

The problem with optimism in the face of the coming oil crisis — which will catalyze wars, disease, starvation, and a collapse of governments, Kunstler argues — is that every aspect of our comfy American lives is umbilically tied to petroleum. And oil, eons’ worth of solar energy neatly stored in the pressure-baked detritus of past ages, is a finite resource.

No doubt, longer term higher oil prices are on the way and there will certainly be crisis and dislocations but I’m far from convinced that Kunstler’s message rings true.

I briefly considered sending Clay a copy of The Coming Generational Storm so he could become educated on the converging crisis of Social Security and Medicare. My concern he might fall into terminal depression has prevented me from doing so.

Geez, wonder if I can put a dose of common sense in the administrations drinking water?

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A high school junior has been suspended for the rest of the school year for refusing to end a cell phone call to his mother who is a soldier in Iraq.

Kevin Francois, a 17-year-old at Spencer High School (search), was suspended for disorderly conduct Wednesday after a confrontation that began when he was told to give up his cell phone at lunch during the call, he said.

Bingo. This hits close to home having two daughters “learning” math in the St. Vrain Valley School system. Yes, learning belongs in quotes, no doubt about it. St. Vrain has “bought in” hook line and sinker in to the Connected Math program.

Things I’ve encountered:

1. A badge of honor that they don’t teach algorithms. Of course, it doesn’t seem to bother the “big” administration that their students don’t know their multiplication tables.

2. Don’t really teach division. Most students don’t know how to do long division.

3. Almost all math problems are written horizontally, i.e. 30 x 42. This is to encourage the thought process of breaking the problem apart into 30 x 40 and 30 x 2. Nothing wrong with that, but the hidden message is that standard algorithms do math backwards. There’s even not much wrong with that if you want to estimate.

4. The value of the one’s, ten’s and hundred’s places seems to be a “zen” thing. If a student uses standard algorithms then they have no concept of the values of numbers in the tens and hundreds place, etc.

5. Eighth graders when presented with a problem like 30 * 42 realize that it’s 42 added 30 times or 30 added 42 times. Unfortunately, they take it literally and the only way they know to solve the problem is to do the addition

If you’re suffering from the same frustration, here is plenty of ammunition with references. Enjoy!

As a side note, both my daughters get outside math help from the Kumon program. I really don’t know if Kumon is better then other programs but it works for them. Also, the Middle School Principal is concerned and doing everything he can within the system to make sure the students are learning math. Unfortunately, the damage done in elementary school is not easy to undo.

What grade should students learn their multiplication tables?

Someone should have told the Dem’s to be careful, they might get what they wished for. Ed Morrisey over at Captain’s Quarters takes on Nancy Pelosi…

After spending weeks screeching about the alleged ethical abuses of Republican Whip Tom DeLay, Congressional Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suddenly came down with a case of laryngitis when several Democrats were found to have the same problems as DeLay in their travel arrangements. The GOP now wants Pelosi to back the same investigations for these Democrats as she demanded for DeLay, and calls her silence “hypocritical”:

The Daily Camera editors have joyfully taken stabs at DeLay, sure hope they can dish it out to their friends.

Good grief, why try again? Perhaps with inflation the dollar coin will become useful for vending machines? The only place I encountered a dollar coin in the last few years was in change received when buying stamps at the local post office. I got rid of them ASAP. Read about it from a slightly more positive perspective over at A Constrained Vision.

… worldwide that is. I had no idea. How come the greenies aren’t up in arms? Guess they need electricity too?

Bring yourself up to date here.

This article reminds me of my father. He was diagnosed with lung cancer about 7 years after he had stopped smoking. Still he had smoked many more years then the folks referenced in this article.

Getting ever closer to 50, this gives me the heebie jeebies.

Can’t wait to experience this…

“Once you get into your early 50s, folks really begin to feel that their
age is … a negative factor in that hiring decision,” said Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com, an online job board focused on positions that pay $100,000 or more. “

I’ve experienced HR managers that had attitudes about their jobs that it takes only a very small leap of faith to imagine them going through this thought process…

“Not only do I hear it from the candidates, I hear it from [human resources] managers who should know better,” said Renee Ward, founder of Seniors4Hire.org, an online job resource board for older Americans. See the Web site.

At a recent conference, Ward asked a question of some personnel managers: If you posted a job requiring three to five years’ experience, would you deny the job to a candidate with 10 years’ experience solely because ofthose extra years?

The consensus was yes, she said. “An older person can’t do this job,” a 30-something manager at a perfume company told Ward. “She was just blatant about it,” Ward said, noting that three other people at the table agreed with the manager.

and who knew your High School graduation date would come in “so handy”???

Klos felt confident about one prospect recently. He’d met with seven people, including a top executive, and the company was talking to him about salary and start date.

But in the middle of a day of meetings, the hiring managers abruptly asked Klos to complete an application form, and specifically directed him to include his high school graduation date.The job offer dried up within 24 hours. Klos believes it was because of the gap between his college and high school grad dates, four years longer than other job applicants’ because of his time in the military.

Later, he mentioned the story to his daughter, who had recently completed a personnel-management course at her firm.

“I talked about the abrupt demand” for graduation dates, Klos said. “Her jaw dropped open. She said ‘Oh my God, they just taught us to do that.'”

In her management course, Klos’ daughter was told to insist on high school graduation dates on application forms. “This is our vehicle for making sure that you don’t inadvertently hire older employees,” Klos’ daughter was told by her company.

The only bright side is in the big picture there aren’t enough young employees, however outsourcing may take up the slack. We live in interesting times is about the best I can say!

The late Dr. Thomas Gold believed oil was not a fossil fuel. He’s not an idiot, being a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Brush up on the details here.

the usual “capitalism is evil” BS from our friendly, tenured liberal educators at the college level.

Read about it on Betsy’s page.