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Nathan Foster

Its fun to play God. In New Zealand, we had some birds, some rats and some Maori fullas. The Maori liked hunting and fishing. Then the white man came and spread himself around along with every other culture- and is still spreading himself around with every new subdivision and new house we put in, breeding willy nilly. Then we have the arrogance to say that such and such an animal is a pest and unbalancing the eco system. And so we carpet bomb our bush, kill some possums, kill the birds we are supposedly saving and somehow, the rats and mustelids survive. The environmentalists in the big cities who seldom enter the bush rejoice while the people in the country look at the dead Kaka (who just wanted to play with the baits) spread around and shake their heads.

Environmentalists in NZ don't like hunters because they feel that hunters tend to farm game. In other words, hunters are not the cold hearted empathy lacking killers our environmentalists would like us to be. We are supposed to kill everything on sight. And this is why you see the likes of Forest and Bird members aligned with anti gun groups. The irony being that if we were blood thirsty psychopaths, we might be more welcome. Having said this, there is cause for concern with regards to pig dogs killing kiwi. This is one hunting method that can cause problems without properly trained dogs.

Right now in Taranaki, Forest and Bird have taken our Council to court. Why? Because they want the council to take control of all private lands with native bush. In plain terms, if you have any bush on your land, you will potentially lose control of it. The land is to be fenced off (at the farmers expense- which most hill country farmers cannot afford, period). Any animals that once sought shelter from the winter in the bush will now be left out in the cold (we are cruel gods after all). Once this has been achieved, the government will be able to carpet bomb our clean green lands with 1080 as they please.

This really is terrible, especially as our traditional farming method was to break feed native birds to our sheep in colder months. But if the fences go up, the sheep have no hope of being able to dig up a kiwi and have a good chew when they get cold.

The good news is, most of our farmers do not have great social skills so when the stress really hits, they won't cause any problems for Forest and Bird, they will just kill themselves because they don't have any other coping strategies. Its a win win for Forest and Bird.

Yes, lets do the whole confiscation of land thing all over again. It went so well the last time. 1860's here we come.

If this group want their own piece of paradise- go buy it. Go buy your own land and do what you will with it. Hell, why not go the full monte and release some Cassowary in lieu of the extinct Moa. After all, the genes really aren't that different are they. Labrador versus German Shepard- both dogs yes? Oh wait up- the Cassowary will eat the bush like the deer, can't have that. Oh dear, playing God is so difficult at times.

The moral of the story, if you feel out of control in your own life, rather than trying to change yourself- try controlling someone else. Once you have control or power over another person, you'll feel so much better for it. That's the secret to being happy- being right. And how do we validate our ourselves? By controlling others.

One day an asteroid hits us, perhaps somewhere near the arctic, followed by a big flood, then a snap freeze. Most of the people die. 12,000 years later we have a new eco system and new rules and we start this all over again.

Regarding this lever gun debate. Phillip Alpers (Anti Gun / Forest and Bird) stated that "gun ownership is like drunk driving, you have to draw the line somewhere".

Back the bus up- "like drunk driving"?

Is it not more like car ownership and driving responsibly? Within Alper's statement, there is the inference that a person is immediately mentally impaired by the fact that they want to own a gun. In this sense, Alper's has shown his hand, a slip if you will. In this one statement, we see a man driven by fear. This man is filled with fear to the point that he cannot see gun ownership in a rational manner. Ever driven a car on a wet road? Of course you have. You don't have to be drunk to know that driving a car is as potentially dangerous as operating a firearm. Lives are lost every day to car accidents. Ever had your wife and or kids arrive home very late on a wet night? Did you worry about them being shot or about the road conditions? Chances are, road conditions were your concern. A wife and kids on a long journey on a wet night is not a nice thing to think about huh.

You cannot fix your own fear by controlling others. You cannot solve such problems by controlling others. Any act that is motivated out of fear will always have problematic consequences.

And what about you reading this thread. You are my main concern. There are many things written here that could leave you feeling frustrated and out of control. You may want to lash out. But will that help? Not really. It will merely inflame the situation and leave you feeling more frustrated. So you have to deal with your fears. Remember this; you always get to choose how you react to anything- including this thread. If you want to be happy right now, you can be happy right now in this moment. You don't have to just "react" to the fear generated by another person. You can let all of this go. And I don't mean burying your head in the sand either. The more relaxed and happy you are, the more you will be able to tackle any hurdle with great objectivity. If you don't want to be controlled, the first step is to choose how you react.

That or control others to make yourself feel better?