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Yahoo!There is no such thing as “sustainable hunting.” Predators kill the weak. Hunters deliberately target the strong, thereby weakening the gene pool. For details, see home.pacbell.net/mjvande/sustain. It is easy to favor preserving native cultures; most people do. It is easy to favor preserving wildlife; most people do. What nobody wants to talk about is what to do when those two priorities conflict with each other, as in this case. The only choice that makes sense is to protect the weaker party—in this case, the polar bear. Extinction is forever, and polar bears cannot protect themselves from humans. The Inuit, on the other hand, like all humans, can live almost anywhere. It would be a shame for them to lose their culture, but there is really no way to preserve it. It is fast becoming obsolete, due to forces beyond our control. In a choice between saving the Inuit culture, which may be 10,000 years old, versus saving the polar bear, a species that is millions of years old, we must come down on the side of the polar bear and other wildlife. — Mike Vandeman, San Ramon, CA
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Vandeman, your arrogance is not just condescendingly ignorant it is jingoistic, evil, and disgusting. Beware folks of a small minded lazy philosopher when what they propose can so easily be turned around to bite your ass.
Vandeman, your type of conceit has been used so often to destroy so many things. I am reminded of the War Relocation Camps - let's protect the Japanese from themselves, Sophie's Choice - those darn Jews are hurting the regular people and need to be "contained", the Myall Creek Massacre - those pesky Aborigines are killing the innocent cattle. The list is endless. All events proposed by people such as Vandeman who thought that the better good was saved by something evil. Shame on you. Daniel Petry
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jcrdan (anonymous profile)
October 29, 2009 at 2:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd say the writer came from The Kook Inlet....
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azuresees (anonymous profile)
October 30, 2009 at 6:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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