August, 2010

Dog Days of Summer

“Dog Days” (Latin: dies caniculares) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere, they usually fall between early July and early September. In the southern hemisphere they are usually between January and early March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.

The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather.

The Romans referred to the dog days as dies caniculares and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the “Dog Star” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky. The term “Dog Days” was used earlier by the Greeks.

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, Quinto raged in anger, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.

The modern French term for both this summer period (and for heat waves in general) “canicule”, derives from this same term. It means “little dog”, again referring to Sirius.

Annual Meeting & Elections
Mark your calendars for September 20th.This the date for our Annual Meeting and Election of Officers for the 2011 fiscal year. Nominations for all elected positions are open; if you would like to run, write your name on the board in the Clubhouse, contact a member of the Nominations Committee or contact a club officer. Nominations are voted closed during the first meeting in September.

You must be in good standing to vote in the elections; that is, current dues paid up. Our fiscal year starts September 1st. and dues become payable on that date. Dues notices along with renewal forms have been sent out, so return yours promptly in order to be able to vote — thanks to those who have already renewed.

Key Night
Starting last year we now change the locks and distribute new keys at the annual meeting.

Skeet Championship
The Skeet Committee, aided by the E-Board, will hold our annual skeet championship shoot on Sunday, September 19th; first squad hits the skeet field at 11:00 AM.
This is a 50-bird skeet shoot with no lucky targets and is open to Club members only. Cost for the shoot is $15.00 and includes lunch.

Why, you might ask, is the E-Board having to help run skeet? The answer is the Skeet Committee is down to a pitifully small number who can commit time on a regular basis, so the E-Board is helping out.

We broadcast an appeal to the membership a couple of months ago asking for volunteers to step up and help one or two openings per month. We had a good response, but few have actually made the effort.

Skeet is the only money-making activity at our Club and with the summer season, attendance on skeet days is in the doldrums. We need to increase participation in our skeet activities and the level of help to run skeet. Fall will soon be here, so now is a great time to practice your wing-shooting skills on the skeet field so those pesky pheasants and dastardly ducks don’t get away.

Alan Bonney Update
Many Club members are unaware that Alan Bonney, son of long time members Al and Dee, was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident about a month ago.

Alan was riding home on Rte. 3A when a female driver pulled out of the parking lot of PJ’s Country House without looking. Alan didn’t stand a chance and hit the car broadside.

He was MedFlight’ed to Boston Medical Center with many broken bones – ankle, elbow, wrist and hand – all on the left side. The mask on his helmet broke and he said he was spitting glass out of his mouth. Surprisingly, Alan didn’t loose consciousness the entire time! Them Bonneys are a tough bunch.

After a week in Boston Medical Center, Alan was sent home to recuperate.

According to Dee, his whole left side was/is a “disaster area” and now he has a titanium radial head in his arm. Alan’s hand still has temporary pins and rods in it. His arm is in a cast (not plaster) to keep it stationary as is his leg from above the knee to his foot.

Most of the time he has a good attitude; he started out with a crutch when he began moving around but that made his “good” shoulder sore so is now using a cane to hobble around.

The membership and officers of SRGC wish Alan a speedy and full recovery.

On The Legal Front
We have a trial date of September 27, 2010 before Judge Jeffrey Locke in Brockton Superior Court; at this point there has been no pre-trial conference.

Depositions on both sides were taken during the week of August 22.

In an interesting development, the plaintiffs have amended the suit to add negligence.

Our motion to vacate the restraining order preventing us from shooting other than skeet was sent back by Judge Charles Heley as the trial date is so close.

On the non-conforming land use suit, our attorney has sent interrogatories to the individual parties in the suit asking why they feel we do not conform to local zoning ordinances.

News from MassWildlife

Early Goose Season Dates Set
The early Canada goose hunting season dates are September 7 - September 25, 2010, with hunters allowed a bag limit of 7 birds per day.

“Data collected from agency goose banding activities this summer indicate the early goose hunting seasons have kept populations stable in the central and western parts of the state and full bag limits are rarely reached,” commented MassWildlife’s Waterfowl Project Leader H Heusmann.

“However, in northeastern and southeastern Massachusetts, where we find our densest goose populations, hunters frequently filled the 5 bird bag limit so beginning in 2008, the September daily bag limit was increased to 7.
The early season provides goose hunters with ample hunting and gives more time to landowners to allow hunters to reduce the size of nuisance flocks of resident geese.”

Waterfowlers are reminded that state and federal waterfowl stamps are required for hunting waterfowl and that hunting hours begin one half hour before sunrise and end at sunset.

Hunters planning to hunt ducks, geese, woodcock, and other migratory birds must also be registered with the Harvest Information Program (HIP) after purchasing a hunting license. This free registration number may be obtained by calling 1-800-WETLAND.

Other migratory bird season dates and bag limits will be set by the Fisheries and Wildlife Board immediately following a public hearing on August 26, 2010 the Division’s Connecticut Valley District Office, 341 East Street, Belchertown at 7 PM.

For more information on migratory game bird hunting, go to: http://tinyurl.com/34blztx

Peter Belsan, General Manager
www.belsanbait.com
belsanbait@comcast.net

Points To Ponder

One nice thing about egotists: they don’t talk about other people.

The older you get the better you realize you were.

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

Quote Of The Month

“When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual — the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker — and that every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable ‘animated instrument’ which is Aristotle’s definition of a slave.”

    — Eric Hoffer

Blood and Treasure

By Bill O’Reilly – July 11, 2010
Even a simple guy like me can figure out these words from the U.S. Constitution: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” That’s contained in the Second Amendment. So why did four Supreme Court justices this week vote to infringe on the right to bear arms?

The court ruled 5 to 4 that 76-year-old Otis McDonald, an African-American Democrat who lives in Chicago, can own a handgun. Mr. McDonald, a retired working class guy, sued the city for taking away his right to protect himself. McDonald was blunt. He said his neighborhood is full of thugs who threaten his well-being and the city cannot control the situation. So he, Otis, has to protect himself from harm.

But Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all basically told Mr. McDonald to take a hike. They opined that guns cause a lot of damage to society; therefore, if a city wants to ban them, it can. But that is a policy belief, is it not? Where in the Constitution does it say if guns become a menace to society they can be banned? Where does it say that? The Founding Fathers well understood the need for individual protection. Under King George, British soldiers routinely threw Colonial families out of their homes using a bogus law called the “Quartering Act.” Also, the colonists had little protection from harm because there was no federal authority and state governments were in their infancy. The Founders also recognized that armed rebellion was a possibility even after we threw the British out. So they allowed the new American citizens the right to “bear arms” as protection and, indeed, wanted the folks to form “militias” in case of emergency.

A smart fifth-grader understands all that, but apparently four Supreme Court justices do not.

If these liberal jurists really cared about gun control, they would urge Congress to pass a law making all gun crimes federal offenses with mandatory prison sentences of ten years. That would mean that any thug who carried a gun illegally, or used one to commit a crime, would be facing a ten-year stretch on top of whatever else he or she had done. You want bad guys with guns off the streets? That’s the way to do it.

My opinion on gun control changed drastically when I saw the chaos in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Armed bands of looters in boats cruised the city, taking pretty much any thing they wanted, because the local police presence had collapsed. If you had remained in town in order to protect your property, you would have been at the mercy of these looters unless you had the firepower to ward them off. That is why all Americans have the right to bear arms.

It is depressing to think that the Ruth Bader Ginsburgs of this world do not care a whit about the welfare of Otis McDonald and other Americans who find themselves at risk. For Justice Ginsburg, it is all about her liberal philosophy, not what benefits the American people.

The Supreme Court is just one justice away from giving Ms. Ginsburg and her leftist crew the power to completely usurp the Constitution. Be very afraid.

Cost of Government Day 2010

August 19th is the day the average American worker has finally earned enough to pay for his share of the government spending and regulatory burdens in 2010. From now until December 31, he can finally keep the fruits of his own labor, according to an annual report by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation.

It’s eight days later this year than last.

It now takes nearly eight months, or 231 days out of 365, to satisfy the voracious demands of the Leviathan. With government at all levels now consuming 63.41 percent of all national income, just a third is left for working Americans to feed, clothe and shelter their families and save for the increasingly uncertain future.

Because the tribute is taken out of their paychecks and purchases in dribs and drabs, concealed in part by borrowing and hidden in practically every transaction, most Americans don’t understand how much government costs.

Cost of Government Day fell on June 29th in 2000, but 26 days were tacked on between 2008 and 2009 to pay for the stimulus and bank bailouts passed by Congress. This year, Obamacare pushed the date back to August 19th — setting a new record.

So by the nationwide average, Americans spent the first 104 days (January 1st until April 4th) working to pay for out-of-control federal spending, the next 52 days (April 5th to May 28th) for state and local spending, the next 48 days (to July 14th) to pay for government regulations, and then 26 days for state and local regulations.

But if you live in Maryland, you won’t be off the hook until September 4th.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/23hxcc8

EPA Denies Lead Ammo Ban Petition

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today denied a petition calling for a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA sent a letter to the petitioners explaining the rejection — that letter can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/sect21.html

Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, issued the following statement on the agency's decision:

“EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) — nor is the agency seeking such authority.

This petition, which was submitted to EPA at the beginning of this month, is one of hundreds of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year. This petition was filed under TSCA, which requires the agency to review and respond within 90 days.

EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead; however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.

As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency's authority over fishing sinkers, EPA — as required by law — will continue formally reviewing a second part the petition related to lead fishing sinkers.

Those wishing to comment specifically on the fishing tackle issue can do so by visiting http://www.regulations.gov. EPA will consider comments that are submitted by September 15.”

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