Ethics are the unwritten rules of traditional outdoor values. Ethics are what guide a hunter’s behavior when no one else is looking. Personal accountability, conduct and decisions cannot be legislated, but they are among the foundations beneath science-based conservation and wildlife management.

Three general areas of sporting ethics:

1. Honor game, other wildlife and the land
Adhere to the tenets of fair chase. Know the limits of your firearm and ability, and only take shots that you are confident will result in a certain and quick kill. Treat quarry with respect before and after the shot. Make every effort to retrieve and use all edible game. Take only as much as you can use. Be proud of the long tradition and continuing role that hunters play in conserving the wildlife and wild places enjoyed by all Americans.

2. Respect landowners
Always ask permission before hunting on private land, even if it’s posted. Ask every time. Do not assume that being a guest once is an open invitation. Be considerate of farming and ranching operations. Keep safely away from buildings, machinery, livestock and crops. Leave gates as you found them. Treat the land as if it were your own. Thank the landowner after your hunt–offering some of your game is a friendly gesture.

3. Extend courtesy to fellow hunters as well as non-hunters
Know and follow all applicable regulations. But understand that just because an act is legal does not necessarily make it right. Or safe. Respect the customs of the local area where you’re hunting, including the values of those who do not hunt. The Golden Rule always applies. Exercise personal behavior that reflects favorably on your sensibilities both as a good hunter and good citizen.

Hunters should never drink alcohol or use over-the-counter, prescription or other drugs before or during the hunt.

“Many hunters enjoy relaxing with a beer back at the cabin or around a campfire with friends after the hunt,” said Bob Fishbeck, senior manager, Budweiser Brands. “It’s a great way to celebrate the day.”

Budweiser has been the official beer of RMEF for over 23 years.

Since 1999, the “Help Budweiser Conserve the Outdoors” program, along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and RMEF members, has raised more than $1.1 million for conservation and education.

David Allen, RMEF president and CEO, said, “Budweiser continues to be a true friend to hunters and conservationists, and is one of RMEF’s longest standing and most valuable partners. The company’s dedication to our mission began in 1988 with a major gift for our first-ever permanent land protection project, and it continues today with sponsorship and support on many levels throughout our organization.”

Keynote Address to the North American Elk Breeders Association Annual Convention
Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, Waterloo, Iowa
August 6, 2011

I would like to take a moment to thank all the members of the North American Elk Breeders Association for providing me with the opportunity to come to Waterloo, Iowa, to the annual North American Elk Breeders Association Convention to speak to you today. In particular, I want to thank Brenda Hartkopf for working with me and figuring out all the logistics to get here and exactly what I was going to do when I did. Thank you!

I thought I would begin this evening with an old humor story that is quite fitting with the theme for which I am going to speak. It’s the story of my Uncle Virgil and Aunt Florena. They were country folks. As a matter of fact they lived very far out in the country and ran a small farm raising a few cattle, some pigs, chickens and the like. Where they lived wasn’t the end of the world but you certainly could see it from there.

One day, it was midday when most farmers were inside, out of the hot summer sun, a knock came on the front door, an indication it must not be someone of familiarity because nobody they knew used the front door. Florena answered the door. She opened the fairly large inside door and through the screen door observed a weasily-looking man with thick glasses and messy hair.

“I am from the Department of Agriculture. Here’s my card. I am inspector 356124987920475443. I am here to inspect your farm,” he said.

“We ain’t buying nothin you’re selling so git out!” exclaimed Florena and as she was shutting the door in his face he yelled, “My card says I can inspect your farm!”

Florena yelled to Virgil and told him he had a visitor. Virgil went to the front door and opened it and still standing there was the same man.

Before Virgil could speak, the man says, “I am from the Department of Agriculture. Here’s my card. I am inspector 356124987920475443 and I am here to inspect your farm!”

Virgil examined the card and then told the man to get off his property. The inspector, not taking no for an answer says, “You can see on my card that I have a right to come on your property anytime I want to perform random inspections.”

Virgil once again examined the card and said, “You go do what it is you have a right to do and then get the hell off my property!” and with that slammed the door ever so deliberately in his face.

Virgil returned to the living room where he was trying to watch a little television and catch an afternoon nap. After about an hour, Florena woke up Virgil asking him if he could hear something peculiar. Both heard noises coming from what appeared the side of the house. Virgil went to the back door, opened it and listened. He could hear hollering.

“Hello! You, up at the house! Come and get your bull!” cried the inspector.

Virgil assessed the situation to discover his prized bull had the inspector pinned up a tree with no intention of letting him down anytime soon.

The inspector yells again, “Come and get your bull!”

Virgil called back, “Why don’t you show him your card?”

I grew up in the country poor. Poor meaning I had little in the way of material things. We had electricity, no indoor plumbing and not until later as a kid growing up did we enjoy the convenience of running water in the house. But I had it all. I thank God everyday for parents who instilled in me the importance of being fiercely independent. One cannot fully enjoy the God-given, unalienable right to liberty unless they have been taught to live independently. As a boy I was taught that you work to solve your own problems and the last thing ever mentioned was a need to ask government for something.

From the moment we are born we are free. We are individuals gifted from God with rights, none of which are bestowed upon us by man. It is only man, since our birth that has striven to deny us of our rights. Why is that?

It’s all about control. For any individual or group of individuals to force their will upon the rest they must first gain control over the people they wish to control. This is being done in many ways. I will talk about a few of them tonight.

The biggest threat against those who desire dictatorial powers over you, is an independent person. They hate us because they can’t control us. We must become independent in both our actions and our thoughts.

(*Demonstration* – At this juncture, I will do a demonstration using a rope and a jackknife. I present the rope. It’s about 6 feet long. I will ask the audience to picture this rope as big and as long as they wish and to imagine how many important and powerful uses such a rope could have.

I then will take the jackknife and cut the rope in half and then ask the audience if the rope still has the same powerful possibilities and uses.

I keep repeating the cutting of each piece of rope in half until I am left with a tiny piece. At some point I will ask the audience if there are any issues going on in our country today that are dividing us as citizens (the long piece of rope) that will eventually render us useless.)

I would like to read a quote to you tonight from Thomas Jefferson:

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add, ‘with the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

I was asked to come to Iowa tonight to speak to you about H.R. 2210, the “Sportsmanship in Hunting Act of 2011”. H.R. 2011 has had several identities over the years. Among them, H.R. 1688, H.R. 3829, H.R. 2308 and several Senate versions of a very despicable and useless piece of legislation geared at one more step toward the annihilation of our property rights.

Fortunately none of the versions of this bill have ever made it to the House floor but we cannot rest on any comforting feeling that this bill is dead. We know for a fact that Congress adds bills such as this to other pieces of legislation in order to get them passed. It isn’t until later that we discover what had happened. We must fight this legislation.

Jefferson understood that true liberty cannot be recognized and appreciated without the respect of others’ rights and he blamed the law or laws as often a projection of the will of tyrants. It is the tyrant that seeks to destroy you and me. They hate our independence.

The most pitiful and hypocritical part of H.R. 2210 is that it is worded in such a way as to promote good ethics and sportsmanship. Imagine if you will our Congress imposing on us its will of something moral or ethical. Talk about hypocrisy! Talk about tyrannical!

Our Congress is probably the most corrupt organization in this country. They consider themselves above the law. They talk down to “we the people”. They are out of touch. It seems everyday we hear of another scandal coming out of Congress, enough to make a grown man vomit. We hear of congressmen taking photos of their private parts and plastering them on the Internet and these idiots want to legislate to us something concerning ethics, fair chase and sportsmanship? They wouldn’t know decency if it bit them.

And for you holier-than-thou “hunters” who subscribe to such nonsense, get down off your high and unethical horses and let he that is without sin cast the first stone.

What is “fair chase”? Who decides? And why do you think it should be you? Can you realistically sit in your well-equipped tree stand, in which you have driven to in your lavishly expensive ATV, over land you paid thousands of dollars for a lease to hunt, park near to the food plot you planted in order to “bait” deer or other game to come to, so that you may take your pick of the litter and then call high-fence hunting unethical, lacking in fair chase?

Another important quote that I would like to share comes from Abraham Lincoln.

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

And here we find ourselves in this convention better than 150 years later wondering why the people have been subdued. The people have been overthrown! And thus we are sitting here looking at legislation that is clearly an overthrowing of the U.S. Constitution if not our God-given rights to freedom, property and the use of it. We must overthrow the men who are perverting our laws.

I’ll remind you again, H.R. 2210 has nothing whatsoever to do with sportsmanship, ethical hunting, fair chase or any of the rhetorical garbage we are having forced into our brains. It’s about control – pure and simple.

Those wishing to control us have several agendas and many tools in which to accomplish their goals. We must learn them. It’s the only chance we have to fight back. H.R. 2210 is only a small tool. There are wolves, Canada lynx, tiny little fish, global warming, etc., the lists are endless. Learn what they are.

How many people sitting here tonight are aware of President Obama’s Executive Order #13575? If you are not, you MUST learn about it. I do not have time this evening to give you details. President Obama understands that the last stronghold or frontier in America that generates independent thinkers and those aimed at living independently (the biggest threat remember?) is rural America. EO#13575 aims to destroy rural America as we know it today.

Read about it. It’s vitally important that you know. I will however ask you this: If President Obama’s goal of EO # 13575 is to “help” rural America, then why did he appoint members from his cabinet, such as Defense Secretary, Homeland Security, Federal Communications Commission, etc., to his board of directors? Think about it.

It’s about control ladies and gentlemen!

Gary Allen, in a book he wrote called, “None Dare Call it Conspiracy”, wrote:

“Control necessitates a static society……So, legislation is promoted to restrict entrepreneurial effort”.

Everyone sitting in this audience tonight exemplifies “entrepreneurial effort”, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. You are independent thinkers. You want to live independently. You want government to butt out of your life and your ranches. People cannot control you if you are not static. Attending this convention is one means of being in action, working to improve what you do. This is all contrary to what government wants in you. Therefore, the attempt once again at an H.R. 2210-type of legislation – promoted legislation to “restrict entrepreneurial effort”.

There have been many attempts over the years to ban high-fence hunting. The most recent resulted in a victory for the citizens when a citizen’s initiative was voted down that would have ended high-fence hunting in North Dakota. Idaho had a similar outcome and Montana did not. There are others. We must fight these together.

Efforts like this will never end. There are enough useful idiots in this country eager and willing to carry out the agendas of those entities wishing to subdue the independent and freedom loving people.

What kind of people knowingly work to destroy their country or their constitutions? If I had the answer to that question, I wouldn’t be here tonight now would I? But let me try to explain using examples from people who have asked the same questions.

Most people are not even aware of the fact that during and shortly after the Revolution, the United States rounded up no fewer than three esteemed gentlemen and sent them to Europe for the purpose of making treaties and finding trade partners. The U.S., after all, had lost all of their business dealings and partners with England when it declared its independence.

The three me were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Quite the trio.

Thomas Jefferson visited many towns about Europe and he had a bit of a ritual he would undertake as a way to gain a sense of what kind of people he might be dealing with before actually sitting down to talk business.

His first action was to find the tallest building in the village – often this was a church steeple. He would climb it and gaze about the landscape hoping for a sense of the surroundings.

This was soon followed by walks about the village simply meeting people and talking to them. Yet, this was another attempt at gaining a better understanding of the people before expending time and energy hoping to find good character people he wished for his new country to do business with.

This action was described in a book titled, “The Young Jefferson” by Claude G. Bowers. Bowers wrote that in Jefferson’s travels, anytime he arrived at a village were he witnessed that people placed the importance of dogs or other animals above that of man, he packed up his belongings and left town immediately. Jefferson understood that people who think like this are untrustworthy and certainly someone he would not consider a viable trade partner. This is a difficult concept in America today. Just look around you.

Eric Hoffer, in his book, “The True Believer” spends a great deal of time giving us clues as to what makes people eager and willing to follow “mass movements” tick. Hoffer’s book, although written in the mid 1940s and dealt with a subject he called mass movements, really can apply to any large or small group. We today, tend to call them special interest groups.

It must be pointed out here that some of us don’t understand that there are a lot of people in this country today who want to live in a communist or socialistic country, where government decides everything for us. This begins very early on in the “education” process, so that today, regardless of the truth of historic outcomes of all attempts at socialism/communism, still we are able to lead people to believe this time will be different.

Hoffer says that those who are willing to work to destroy their own way of life, are obviously very unhappy with the life they have. For that I am saddened. I had nothing and yet I had everything, among the most important a strong foundation in God as my creator and a firm belief that I am, like the Bible says, created in God’s image. I do not see God as a weak person and someone who has to depend on government to survive or to even enjoy life. No, I am of His image, therefore, I am independent, free, respectful, caring of others and not wishing to impose my values on those of other people because I respect their rights as mine. If what I have to offer is good, people will be drawn to it.

I’ll remind you yet again, you become a threat to those wanting to control you when you are independent and seek to protect liberty, not just for yourself but for everyone.

Recall what Gary Allen said, “Control necessitates a static society…..So, legislation is promoted to restrict entrepreneurial effort.” H.R. 2210 is but another tool in which it’s design is to render you elk ranchers static and ineffective. They want you to go away. They know they can’t convince you to give it up all at once, but they sure know one small step at a time will surely get the job done.

Elk are your property. You have rights to your property, none of which came from man or our and any other government. Ending high-fence hunting is a destruction of your property and your property rights. You, the person sitting next to you, your neighbor or the U.S. Government does not have the right to take your property away simply because they don’t like what you do with it.

Ayn Rand, a Russian immigrant, who some believe possessed idealistic views on rights while other find her writings spot on, once wrote about property rights this way:

“The right to life is the source of all rights – and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.” Ayn Rand from “The Virtue of Selfishness”.

Is it then for this reason that countries that are run by dictators ensure that the people never own property? What say you then of those in this country who openly admit that man should never own property, that all things are owned collectively for the good of all?

Once again, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

“Property is the foundation of all civilized society.”

As people in this country work vehemently to give our country away, they want to give your property away as well. According to Jefferson, such a move would lead to an uncivilized society. Is that the goal here?

One step at a time, those wishing to control the masses will take what is yours if we do nothing about it.

A few months ago, I wrote a multi-part piece called, “The Crippling and Destructive Power of the Endangered Species Act”. I want to invite everyone here tonight to go to my blog and read it. It will begin to give you insight into how complex and deep reaching the efforts are to end your independence and entrepreneurial effort. It’s not a simple H.R. 2210 bill. It’s about control and the powers seeking that control are much bigger than you might imagine but that shouldn’t discourage us from fighting.

As I close tonight, I want to leave all of you with a challenge. I want you to leave here tonight not taking what I told you as necessarily the truth. I challenge you to go find out for yourself. This will further strengthen you as an independent thinker, someone who is not going to be controlled so easily.

Please take what I have shared tonight and consider if anything I have said makes sense. Hopefully, enough of what I said will at least get you thinking and finding hope that with a stronger you, we can become a stronger nation.

I’ll leave you tonight with a quote. This is actually something my brother sent me a short while ago. With his permission, I added a word or two for effect.

“The dog, the owl, the whale, the seal, the elk, the wolf, the smelt, are all tools, lies and deceit used against property rights, to include what is yours in your mind and to see who is still paying attention in America. Those paying attention threaten the tyrannical dictators of the planet.” – Al Remington

Thank you!

Included below are names with links that didn’t get mentioned due to time constraints. Please feel free to take the time to read these and go to the sites linked to and learn more about the powers seeking your destruction.

The United States Constitution reads in Article II, Section 2, Line 2; “2: He [president] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

World Heritage Convention

United Nations Agenda 21

Quotes:

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written. – Franklin Roosevelt

The annual Deer Hunter Ethics Award honors deer hunters who have exhibited conduct during the 2010 season that can serve as an example of admirable hunting practices, according to MDHA. The award is designed to bring the spotlight to those who positively represent the sport of deer hunting through their thoughtfulness, actions, and genuine concern for their fellow outdoorsmen.

Nominations were submitted from around Minnesota through letters or e-mails explaining the actions of the nominees and why those persons were worthy of this recognition. Both youth and adults were eligible for this annual award, but all nominees were required to be Minnesota residents. The ethical incidents for which hunters were nominated must have occurred during any of the 2010 Minnesota deer hunting seasons. (archery, firearm or muzzleloader)

Craig showed genuine concern for his neighbors and exemplified ethical hunting practices during the opening weekend of the Minnesota firearms season. As the recipient of the 2010 Ethical Hunter Award, Craig received a framed MDHA print, gift package, and a complimentary MDHA membership. Banquet organizers and sponsorship groups also thanked the dozens of people who took time to forward nominations for this award.

Below is Joe Cannella (left) of Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, presenting Craig Baker with the Deer Hunter Ethics Award.

Click Image to Enlarge

Pictured below are Craig Baker (left), Joe Cannella and seated is Doug Bermal of Turn In Poachers

Click Image to Enlarge

And the supporters of Measure 2 want to talk about ethics?

Tom Remington

I guess my notion wasn’t so far off as this technology has been implemented and with marked improvement. According to an article in the New York Times, there is now a competition with hunters, using 20-gauge shotguns equipped with a shooting scope…..but it’s not just any shooting scope. It can take photos and shoot video.

The competitors use the shotguns, with blank shells, and go hunt deer. Just prior to pulling the trigger, the hunter activates a video recorder and has ten seconds to record the shot. The competition is judged on several factors.

Would could possibly go wrong?

The entire event is being promoted as an educational thing and to be used to improve hunting or more accurately shooting skills; looking for that quick, clean and ethical kill. There are potentially other problems that can arise from this activity but I’ll withhold comment and leave it up to readers to weigh in with their ideas.

Ladies and gentlemen, the comment section is all yours.

Tom Remington

A good percentage of this broadcast is the taking of phone calls from listeners. If the representation of callers is any indication of how the vote will turn out, the Measure will not pass.

From my own perspective and feedback I have received over the years on this issue, it is a toss-up as to whether hunting on game ranches is a good thing or a bad thing. However, when you start telling American people what they can and can’t do with their lands and businesses, the overwhelming majority will defend those rights.

To listen to the podcast, click this link. It will take you to an archived page on the GPIM website. Simply press the play button.

Tom Remington

I’m talking about Measure 2, a citizens’ initiative that aims to stop property owners from offering hunting opportunities on their ranches, most as a means to supplement their incomes. The end result will be that these ranchers, good Americans like all the rest of us, will, more than likely, be run out of business.

Behind this farce is a group called Hunters for Fair Chase. Roger Kaseman is the self-appointed leader of this group and last week he had an editorial published in the Grand Forks Herald (subscription).

The citizens of North Dakota will have to decide what they believe is in the best interest for all. When these folks go to the polls, they will have to ask themselves if regulating everything a property owner can do is what they would like to have happen to themselves. Once the truth is told to them, the outcome is certain. Measure 2 will be soundly defeated.

In Kaseman’s editorial, his attempt at persuading voters his Measure 2 is the tool that will insure his hunting and that of future generations, he opens by painting an inaccurate picture of reality on the ground but that’s what people do when they can’t support their agendas with truth.

But this isn’t the worst of the editorial. He reminds me very much of our present President, Barack Hussein Obama, who during his campaign stated that the Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution, got it all wrong. Obama was quoted as saying the Constitution and Bill of Rights is about what you can’t do.

Few people know the history behind the writing of the Constitution and that’s a shame. James Madison has been credited as the author of it. Madison was a mentor of Thomas Jefferson’s and they argued at length as to whether or not the Constitution, when originally written, should also contain the Bill of Rights. This is one reason the Bill of Rights came at a later date.

Thomas Jefferson believed that all free Americans understood, as he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that our liberties come from God and nowhere else. Madison felt it necessary to make sure certain rights where in writing.

The problem President Obama and others, who believe it is their right to rule over others, have with the Constitution is that the authors of that document knew the people understood their God-given rights but they also knew from past experience that those in positions of authority want to take those rights away and thus the Constitution is about what government cannot do. It limits the power of government.

When you see life from the perspective that people need to be controlled, told what to do and how to do it, as Mr. Obama does, it is easy to see why he would think that the Framers’ words to limit government control were all wrong. What has been lost for people like Barack Obama is that all of our rights are granted to us by God; not by the President of the United States; not by the Congress; not by the governor of your state; and certainly not by your neighbor.

Roger Kaseman distorts the very Document that brought this country together and made it great, in order that he, can control the people. He twists the meaning in an attempt to convince people that you can’t have a right unless government grants it to you through legislation or a citizens’ initiative. Kaseman states the following:

First, they argue that the measure will interfere with their property rights. But ask them which article or section of the Constitution grants them the unfettered right to operate their shooting galleries as they see fit, and they can’t answer.

What court decision, state or federal, supports their claim to this right?

This kind of demented and backwards perspective is dishonest and dangerous to freedom-loving Americans. Obviously Roger Kaseman knows not from where his liberties come. He believes that none of us have liberties unless he and others like him, give them to us. Where have we seen this before?

One would have to ask if anyone should trust a person who thinks this way?

The second issue that Kaseman attempts to discredit is whether or not passing Measure 2 would result in “open[ing] the borders of North Dakota to radical animal rights groups, and that these groups will outlaw all hunting and all animal agriculture.”

To some degree, Mr. Kaseman is correct in that it wouldn’t suddenly open the door to allow actions to take place in North Dakota to outlaw hunting. It’s already taking place and Measure 2 is simply one more increment in getting the job done.

Read what he says as being the reasons this sort of thing won’t happen.

Think about that for a moment. This argument presumes North Dakotans are gullible enough to believe that should Measure 2 pass, animal rights groups will invade the state and impose a dictatorship that would outlaw hunting and animal agriculture.

That would require both a complicit Legislature and a compliant citizenry. But neither a complicit Legislature nor a compliant citizenry exist in this state. Never have.

No group could convince either the people or the Legislature to outlaw hunting and animal agriculture. But the high-fence operators argue that gullible North Dakotans would let just such laws be passed.

Kaseman radicalizes and embellishes his statement to try to persuade his readers but does he even realize it is the very things he claims won’t happen already have?

Those who hate America and everything it stands for learned a long time ago that you can’t yank the rug out from under us to steal our freedoms. After all, liberty and independence are the two items that insures that America will always be free and remain the greatest nation on earth. Try entering my house in order to take my guns away and you’ll have quite a fight on your hands. But work at taking my guns away one regulation at a time and with patience, it will happen. After all, what’s one more small regulation going to do?

Passing Measure 2 isn’t going to put an immediate end to hunting or ranching. But it is one more small step in that direction.

Americans got comfortable in their surroundings of independent liberties. It is in fact the complacency Kaseman says won’t happen that already has. This complacency exists today in every American to some degree and within our legislators to a higher degree, resulting in complicity that Kaseman says doesn’t exist.

One wonders if Mr. Kaseman is aware that North Dakota is a willing member and participant with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA). This organization is now mostly run with environmentalists and pseudo-conservation groups like Defenders of Wildlife. AFWA promotes non consumptive wildlife management and utilizes money from Pittman-Robertson in order to fund non hunting programs. Pittman-Robertson money is used to fight to continue the listing of endangered species which is in turn used as a political tool to limit or end hunting opportunities. It would appear that North Dakota’s “complicity” has already resulted in limiting Mr. Kaseman’s and all other North Dakotans of their hunting, trapping and fishing opportunities. At the present rate, hunting will end in most states within 5-10 years. This isn’t an attempt at scaring people. It’s the truth and it is there to discover for those not “complacent” or “complicit”.

My advice to the voters of North Dakota is to not put stock in anything a man says who doesn’t understand the Constitution and from whom his rights are granted. Open your eyes and look around and ask yourself, how much of your life as a free American is limited, regulated and controlled by government. Do you want more of this? On the surface you may see passing Measure 2 as a good thing but how will you feel when the next measure comes along that directly affects you and robs you of your freedoms while stealing away your livelihood?

Remember, sometimes to preserve your rights puts you in a uncomfortable position.

Tom Remington

The people who live in North Dakota are no different than most states. People there want and enjoy their liberty and the freedoms granted them by God in their pursuit of happiness, life and liberty. If they are like the rest of us, the last thing they want to see on this November’s ballot is an initiative that is spelled out in big, bold letters that somebody else wants to further regulate your life and plunder your liberties.

That is the meat and potatoes of Measure 2, an effort by a group looking to place themselves above others in order to rule over them. This of course is part of the Marxist theory, one that strives to overturn the very principles that made this country great in order to force the citizens to become subjects while they decide what is best for you.

Measure 2, formulated for the second time by Hunters for Fair Chase, aims to run elk and deer ranchers out of business because they believe they have a copyright on “fair chase”, “ethics” and the humane treatment of animals.

For decades Americans have sat by while their God-given rights have been taken away. Slowly but surely this has happened. We need to accept a certain amount of the blame for our complacency that allowed such a thing to happen. It appears many Americans have been slapped across the face are are now fully aware that their lives as free humans are in the middle of being snatched away.

We now in this country have a Government or Government sponsored groups or individuals that are preparing to or have already succeeded in destroying free America. You as a parent, no longer can make decisions on how to raise your children. You will be forced into buying a Government run health plan, the first time in history. Our government now wants to dictate how much money you can earn while stealing most of what you make from you in order that they can continue their quest for total domination. The Government believes it knows how you should eat and will ban foods in order to control us. The Government will decide what drugs, if any, you can take or give to your children. The Government now decides what kind of car you will drive and the light bulbs you must use. The Government indoctrinates our children. Our kids are no longer taught how to add and subtract or about history, or how to dissect a frog. Instead they are brainwashed about our environment and all the evils of man.

Environmental groups, that rightfully can be described as agencies of our Government, have been very successful in stealing your rights. You lose property rights, you pay higher prices for gas, food, utilities, and virtually everything we do in our lives daily because of overreaching environmentalism.

The Endangered Species Act now destroys our heritage of hunting, fishing and trapping.

The list I have compiled is small. What is happening to free Americans is not small. When North Dakotans take to the polls in November they are going to be asked if they want to run good families out of business for the purpose of fulfilling the fantasies of a ragtag group of Marxists who believe they own the authority to foist their ideals onto free North Dakotans.

Hunting ethics are what I, as a free American, teach my children as they grow up. My neighbor should have no business telling me how to raise my kids. The Hunters for Fair Chase want to draw an imaginary ethics line in the sand and determine who can and cannot cross it. They believe themselves to be in a class above you, a class that is more intelligent than you and they decide where that ethics line gets drawn. They decide what is humane treatment of animals.

They think shooting any animal within a fenced in area is unethical and inhumane, whether that fenced in area is 100 square feet or 100 square miles. They decide that because you are not intelligent enough to make that decision on your own.

If it is unethical to enter a person’s private property and shoot an elk that belongs to the landowner, why is that unethical and walking into the forest and setting up a bait station, then sitting in a tree stand waiting to ambush the game, is not? Isn’t it then unethical to use artificial lures and calls to trick your target into an ambush? Isn’t it unethical to hunt with dogs? Isn’t it unethical to use a scope to sight and kill your game? Isn’t it unethical to use natural boundaries to corner and trap your game in order to increase a hunter’s odds at success? Isn’t it unethical to use clothing that masks you scent? Isn’t it unethical to use a GPS, compass, radio, etc.? Where does this imaginary line stop and why does the Hunters for Fair Chase get to decide?

This Measure isn’t about ethics. It’s about who gets to be in control. Who becomes or remains the ruling class and who becomes the subjects.

Hunters for Fair Chase are exercising their right to petition the citizens for a measure to change the law. It will be up to the voters to sort out truth from fiction and make a decision as to what is good for themselves and the communities they live in. I predict that the citizens of North Dakota, once they realize another Marxist group is looking to further crush their rights, will overwhelmingly reject a measure of this kind.

Tom Remington

Measure #2 on this November’s ballot will read as follows:

Initiated Statutory Measure No. 2
SECTION 1. A new section to chapter 36-01 of the North Dakota Century Code is created and enacted as follows:
Fee killing of certain captive game animals prohibited – Penalty – Exception. A person is guilty of a class A
misdemeanor if the person obtains fees or other remuneration from another person for the killing or attempted killing of privately-owned big game species or exotic mammals confined in or released from any man-made enclosure designed to prevent escape. This section does not apply to the actions of a government employee or agent to control an animal population, to prevent or control diseases, or when
government action is otherwise required or authorized by law.
SECTION 2. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act becomes effective on November 1, 2012.
YES – Means you approve the measure as stated above.
NO – Means you reject the measure as stated above.

Unfortunately for the voters, it seems that some voters discovered after they had signed the petition it wasn’t exactly what they believed, according to what was written on the petition, they were signing. It is ultimately the responsibility of anyone to know what they are signing, but unless you are completely aware of all the existing statutes, etc., voters ultimately must rely on what is written on a petition as at least being accurate. After all, it is approved by the Secretary of State. And herein is the rub.

For clarity’s sake, let’s go back to the first petition submitted to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office for approval in Aug. 2007. That entire petition can be viewed at this link.

The latest petition was submitted to and approved by the Secretary of State on August 21, 2009. The entire text of that petition can be found at this link.

Mind you that essentially the two petitions are identical with the exception of language that explains to the person signing the petition about what the proposed new law is. In 2007 the instructions to the signatory read:

IF MATERIAL IS UNDERSCORED, IT IS NEW MATERIAL WHICH IS BEING ADDED. IF THE MATERIAL IS OVERSTRUCK BY DASHES, THE MATERIAL IS BEING DELETED. IF NO MATERIAL IS UNDERSCORED OR OVERSTRUCK, THE MEASURE CONTAINS ALL NEW MATERIAL WHICH IS BEING ADDED.

For the record, this explanation is correct. The approved petition for 2009 has a similar explanation and format of the proposed bill but the wording is incorrect. Here’s how it reads:

IF MATERIAL IS UNDERSCORED, IT IS NEW MATERIAL WHICH IS BEING ADDED. IF THE MATERIAL IS OVERSTRUCK BY DASHES, THE MATERIAL IS BEING DELETED. IF MATERIAL IS NOT UNDERSCORED OR OVERSTRUCK, THE MATERIAL IS EXISTING LAW THAT IS NOT BEING CHANGED.

I emboldened the last sentence as it shows distinctly language that is in error. This isn’t simply a typo. This is language that leads any person wanting to sign this petition as believing what is written is already existing law.

Article III, Section 2 of the North Dakota Constitution reads:

Section 2. A petition to initiate or to refer a measure shall be presented to the secretary of state for approval as to form. A request for approval shall be presented over the names and signatures of twenty-five or more electors as sponsors, one of whom shall be designated as chairman of the sponsoring committee. The secretary of state shall approve the petition for circulation if it is in proper form and contains the names and addresses of the sponsors and the full text of the measure.

What is clear is that the Secretary of State’s office must approve the petition “as to form”. Just what precisely does that mean? We know that, among other things, the petitioners must provide at least 25 legal “electors” to circulate and attest to the signatures contained on a petition. Does the SOS also verify the text contained on the petition? It would appear to me that SOS must approve a petition to be accurately written as well as “to form”. If not, this leaves the door open to fraud and deceit.

Now voters are left wondering whether the Secretary of State’s office knowingly and/or irresponsibly allowed a petition to be circulated that was incorrect, if not illegal, or both. Or, that the petitioners knew they could get away with changing the wording if they thought it would help their cause. This adds all sorts of confusion to exactly what Measure #2 is.

All that I am able to verify is that the wording on the petition approved by the Secretary of State, is incorrect and overly misleading to anyone who would read it. Have we now gotten to the point where we can’t even trust that a simple petition is accurate and legal?

The campaigning that will be behind this initiative will be emotional and heated. Compound that with the fact that a petition that passed with a minimum number of signatures, and voters are left with a bitter taste in their mouths about this whole thing.

The voters will ultimately decide. Unfortunately, the voter loses.

Tom Remington

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