Michael Price wrote:
>
> Hi Tweets,
>
> Gerald Hamilton writes:
>
> Why do they call this a *refuge*
> >when hunters are allowed to shoot ducks and geese 31/2 months of the
> >year??????? Maybe I have the wrong interpretation of the true meaning of
> >the words *wildlife refuge*. It certainly *isn't* a refuge to the
> >wildlife involved during this period!!!}
>
> Hunters' English, Gerald. Before we cast stones about arbitrarily applied
> definitions and semantic contradictions, remember birders have a similar
> Birders' English: Fall Migration that begins just after the Summer Solstice
> and is mostly done by the time of the Fall Equinox, males in 'Non-Breeding'
> Plumage can father young, 'Winter' Plumage you can see on some species in
> spring, summer and fall, 'Winter' species first appearing in August and not
> leaving until mid-May (only a few weeks before the beginning of the Fall
> Migration) etc. No big stretch to allow hunters into a place where they can
> shoot wildlife and call it a wildlife refuge. English, particularly
> Government English, is so malleable--that is both its power and its woe.
>
> However, there is a qualitative difference. The birding examples are simply
> semantically amusing/irritating inconsistencies. To call a place where
> killing wildlife takes place a 'refuge' is not just semantic sloppiness: it
> is a bald lie. And it is a lie in intent and practice. It's simple: a refuge
> that cannot or does not protect is not a refuge. Calling it one does not
> make it so; it needs, then, to be called something that describes its true
> nature more accurately. That the arbitrary application of the term 'refuge'
> to a killing ground has government sanction does not excuse that perversion
> of language. But, hey, government ignorance of and contempt for the
> integrity of language is nothing new: 'War is peace.' as an obscure British
> writer, a Mr. Orwell, once mordantly pointed out in his essay on Government
> English, Nineteen Eighty-four.
>
> >>No Canada Geese(Duskies mostly) have arrived yet
>
> Any day now. First good NW wind should bring them into the region.
> Apparently, we're going to get a pasting Wednesday from an intense Pacific
> Low rumbling towards us out of the ocean toward us with storm-force winds
> and a *ton* of rain (forecasting *100mm*, or 4 inches, for the W Coast of
> Vancouver Is.). That warm water can fuel some pretty robust storm systems.
> I'd guess that the geese will be riding down on the NW'erlies behind it when
> the ridge builds up. So, Thursday or Friday, say.
>
> Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
> Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
> mprice at mindlink.net
---------------------------

..........Very well said!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm treasuring this
reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gerald at e-z.net