MISSOULA, Mont.?Your crosshairs shift undecidedly between a raghorn bull and a big cow, both standing broadside at 60 yards. The elk tag in your pocket makes both animals legal. Which one do you shoot?

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation offers 5 reasons to consider taking the cow:

1. Reducing a herd to fit the carrying capacity of its winter range is a form of habitat conservation. Culling a calf-producer is more effective population control. Wildlife agencies issue either-sex tags specifically to encourage hunter harvest of cows.

2. Letting young bulls walk improves your odds for a big, mature bull next year.

3. A more abundant bull population tends to be older which can improve efficiency of the rut. Result: more bulls surviving winter, higher pregnancy rates in cows, fewer late calves and better overall herd health.

4. A less abundant cow population tends to be younger, more vigorous and resistant to diseases.

5. As tablefare, cows and calves are generally better.

Hunting remains the primary wildlife management tool today, vital for balancing elk populations within biological and cultural tolerances, says David Allen, Elk Foundation president and CEO.

?Habitat conservation, sound management, good hunting, healthy wildlife?they?re all tied together. And, more and more, adequate harvest of cow elk is becoming a factor. If you have an either-sex elk tag this fall, consider letting young bulls go and filling your freezer with a fat cow,? he said.

RMEF this summer passed the 5.6 million acre mark in habitat conserved or enhanced.

Last year the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of District of Columbia vs. Heller and that ruling declared that the Second Amendment to the United State Constitution guaranteed an individual the right to keep and bear arms. But that didn’t stop Chicago from continuing its gun ban, like Washington, D.C. had before the ruling and still does to some degree.

Chicago claims that the Federal Government does not have power over the states and/or municipalities to create their own gun laws. That claim has been challenged and appealed to the highest court in our country. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear McDonald vs. Chicago.

We know that the newest member of the Court, Justice Sonya Sotomayor, sat on an appeals court and supported a ruling in New York very similar to the McDonald vs. Chicago case in which she ruled that Federal gun laws cannot overrule state laws.

It may just be that the Supreme Court will decide whether its ruling in District of Columbia vs. Heller also extends to the states. Heller did not clarify that and I speculated back then that the day would come when a decision from the courts would be needed. But there are issues in this that will make the case interesting.

As I see it, some are wanting their bread buttered on both sides. Many individuals cry out for Second Amendment protection for their individual right to keep and bear arms, while at the same time demanding enforcement of the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment spells out that the only power the Federal Government has over the states is what is given them by the Constitution.

That in and of itself presents a problem to those seeking to have protection of the U.S. Constitution to own guns and yet if states have the power to make and enforce their own gun laws, as is supposedly granted by the U.S. Constitution, then we have a problem.

But it’s not even that simple. Recently the Ninth Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment therefore giving the Federal Government power to control guns.

With several states now either having or considering laws to challenge the Federal Government in order to reinsert their rights under the Tenth Amendment, does it not make sense that states, such as Illinois, will need to examine their own constitutions to see if gun ownership is guaranteed.

McDonald vs. Chicago may prove to be decisive in two ways. It may clarify federal power over the states, something many states are trying to get away from or it may be one more step toward dismantling the strong arm of the federal government.

This case will be heard sometime next year.

Tom Remington

As many of you know, I began blogging over five years ago with posts totaling well over 8,000. I own and actively post on no fewer than seven blogs on a daily basis. Where has the time gone. I began blogging because I liked to write and I had a lot to say. The rest is history as they say.

I also happen to blog for Skinny Moose Media, which I am half owner of. For those familiar with Skinny Moose Media, you might think our entire focus is on hunting, fishing and outdoor activities. While those genres have certainly been much of the meat and potatoes of the Network, Skinny Moose does want to expand out and include many other fields of expertise – politics, sports, cooking, religion, health, movies, music, etc.

This is your chance to get active in what you enjoy being a part of. Share yourself with others. Tell them what you know or what your opinions are. It’s easy really and can be loads of fun. It can also open up doors of opportunity you might never dream of. What makes blogging interesting is you get out of it what you put into it. Become an authority in you field or just have fun. It’s up to you.

Simply put, here’s how it works. Skinny Moose Media will provide you a website. We’ll assist you with technical help and even assist you in naming your blog, as well as create a banner to place at the top if you wish. All of this and more at no expense to you. As a matter of fact, we’ll give you a chance to put a couple dollars in your pocket if that’s something that might interest you.

We’re not just another free bloggers’ site. You don’t register and are left out on your own wondering what to do next. We keep it personal and care about what you do. Our customer service is unprecedented.

If you would like to learn more about blogging for Skinny Moose Media, click this link and soon you can be on your way. You may aspire to be a Pulitzer Prize winner or maybe just to share thoughts, photos and ideas with friends, family or business associates. Some of our bloggers have realized wonderful opportunities as their horizons expand.

You can achieve what you wish as a writer/blogger/citizen journalist. We’ll provide you with the platform, you achieve your dreams. Click this link to learn more and to begin a journey into the blogosphere.

Tom Remington

Here’s a peek into some different perspectives on saving a species that just might not be savable. What do you think?

After 29 days of hunting wolves in some Wildlife Management Zones of Idaho, hunters have only bagged 15 wolves. More areas will open soon for wolf hunting. To my knowledge, only one wolf has been taken so far in Montana, whose wolf hunting has been running about 2 weeks in some pretty remote areas of the state.

Some predict the numbers will spike up once snow covers the ground making it easier to track and when more hunters are in the woods looking for elk and deer. Either way, quotas have been set and when those quotas are filled in each of the Wildlife Management Areas, the hunt is called off.

Tom Remington

When Dr. Rex Rammell decided to run for the Governorship of the State of Idaho, did he ever imagine he would be listed as #16 of 25 that supposedly President Barack Obama would like to silence? We can’t really be sure that this list, which is headed by Glenn Beck and ends with Michelle Malkin with other very notable Americans in between, is Obama’s list. You have to consider the source it came from – The Globe.

According to the Globe, sources are “blowing the lid off one of the White House’s darkest secrets”.

The Globe says Rammell got on this list because during a campaign stop a few weeks ago he jokingly said that he would buy a hunting tag for President Obama. Rammell says that when he becomes governor, he suspects he’ll move up to number one.

Although the “Obama tags ” comment has been completely blown out of proportion, I am honored to be #16 on his hit list. When I am governor of Idaho, I expect to move to the top of the list. Not because I want to hunt Obama, but because I plan to challenge him and the federal government on their usurpation of Idaho’s states’ rights. It is my intention to show President Obama the power of the 10th Amendment.

I suppose if I were Barack Obama and by looking at that list of names, I’d want the most of them to shut up and leave me alone too!

Tom Remington

At least a dozen states are taking up the “Tenth Amendment Challenge” when it comes to health care. Some states are seeking constitutional amendments that would prohibit Obama’s health care plan from forcing individuals to buy health insurance or pay a fine.

New York Times story.

Tom Remington

It’s always got to be a crisis – real or imagined, doesn’t it. It’s the only way these Marxists/Socialists can continue to steal our rights and beat us into submission.

Tom Remington

It must be time!

I wise man once told me that when it came time to elect a new president, just open your wallet and look in to see if there is more money in there today than when the last president was elected. Perhaps an oversimplification of a method of determining validity but sane just the same.

One of the things that should be of concern to most Americans today still remains national security. It does me. Well, we are not about to elect a new president but it won’t be too long before we will be faced with mid-term Congressional elections. So how’s that national security working out these days. I’m opening up my wallet and looking in to see if I believe, as was promised, that the world would fall back in love with America with President Obama in charge and we’d be a much safer country. Hmmmmmm!

When was the last time a United States president lobbied the Olympic Site Selection Committee to bring the games to American soil? Um, er, ah, oh, well, maybe……..never? What can possible go wrong with that. Maybe Obama will travel to Copenhagen and offer up a round of fist bumps and all is well. One rumor floating around is that Obama was already notified Chicago would win the games for 2016 so he’s going to go to Copenhagen and pretend he’s hardlining the committee. It will be his first foreign policy victory since becoming president. Hmmmmmmm!

Obama says kids need to be in school longer, perhaps even shortening or eliminating the summer vacation. So, Mr. President, is it that the kids need more time to learn the lyrics to “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Barack Hussein Obama”?

Obama says he “wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.” A safe place to go? Are you kidding me? I think Obama needs to get out a little bit more. Not that his predecessor knew what was going on in our schools either, but inner city school certainly are not safe havens. And he basis his decision on what his two daughters think. I wonder what his thoughts would be if he had two boys? Hmmmmmmmmm!

I read someplace that the biggest mistake a head of state can make is to go before television cameras without having anything new to say. Hmmmmmmmmm!

According to some in this country, their advice to you would be to commit some heinous crime and then run away and hide for about 30 years. Then you can come out and you shouldn’t be prosecuted. Oh, but wait. I think it would have something to do with who you are or what your name is. Never mind! Hmmmmmmmm!

“Couldifmite” Hmmmmmmmmm!

Growing up the perpetual “smart ass”, if someone had a headache, I told them I could take care of that for them. I never really did what my intentions where, but I told them if they let me stomp on their foot as hard as I could, they wouldn’t be thinking about their headache anymore.

And so it goes with Bill Clinton. Do you realize how many people who once considered him the biggest sleaze ball to walk the planet, are now thinking he was a pretty good president? Just think about Obama as being the stomping on the foot. Hmmmmmmmmmm!

A male bear in a German zoo attacked and killed a female bear while zoo goers looked on. Zoo officials have no explanation as to why the bear did this. Well, duh! Anybody who’s not interested in being politically correct can find a simple explanation. Officials said the male bear was a “Syrian” brown bear. Was the bear’s facial hair shaved off? Hmmmmmmmm!

New DNA testing has revealed that the skull, once thought to be the charred remains of Adolf Hitler, is actually that of a woman. It was believed that Hitler shot himself in the head and this skull had what was an obvious bullet hole and supposedly it matched dental records. Hmmmmmmmm! I think this deserves another, Hmmmmmmmm!

Tom Remington