Comments by DirkWigdoubt
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Posted on November 22 at 8:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Both kids on the snow machine had prior convictions for underage drinking....check the court records. The time to intervene was the first offense. Now they are both guilty of manslaughter and leaving the scene... Doesn't matter if they were drinking in this case...they rear- ended pedestrians because they were going too fast.
drunk driving could be greatly reduced by putting a breath a lizer on the ignition of every motor vehicle like they do in some states for convicted drunk drivers.
On Troopers: Driver in deadly snowmachine, dog sled crash had been drinking
Posted on November 22 at 8:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Both of the young adults had prior convictions for underage drinking...check the court records. Snow machine drivers tend to look at the trail right in front of their machine to steer and ignore things in the distance. Lights ahead of them appear to be furthur away than they are. These accidents happen all the time. Often with a drunk driver involved...sometimes just an inattentive driver. I've had my dogteam hit in broad daylight by a sober snow machine driver who was looking to the side. Nothing can be done about it...
Posted on November 11 at 7:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Saw Gov Palin making hot dogs last night for Greta Van and mixing up some lunch for the Toady show this morning. In both interviews she wore the same fancy looking dress suit. Give the poor woman an apron! So she doesn't, like, ruin that Armani... She has a future filling in for Martha Stewart but, please God, don't open any more doors for her in government.
Posted on November 8 at 7:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The other reason to keep the electoral college is in case one of the elected candidates suddenly becomes unavailable- has a sudden illness and lapses into a coma or something. The electors can then vote in somebody else. I think this happened once in the past to a vice-presidential winner.
Posted on August 20 at 7:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I contacted Park rangers via the email "info" link on their website. This was a month after the news broke about King's charges. I asked for info about how to find the north boundary cause I wanted to go chicken hunting out there. It took a week for them to email back to me that the boundary there is a straight line on section and township lines. They didn't mention the bearing or that the bearing was available on their website. I never went hunting cause my wife, Buffy, wanted to go shopping that day anyway.
Other sections of the Park boundary are marked with those orange fiberglass markers but they just tick people off who are out hiking or whatever and they pull them up. So its a waste of money and time to go putting markers all over the tundra.
I suppose that all the publicity surrounding this trial will cause hundreds of new hunters to go out there in search of King's "honey hole". For Pete's sake, all these years I thought the Salmon Bake was the local honey hole....
Posted on August 19 at 9:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've just been notified that King does not have a jury for this trial. I read that he had requested one but I guess that was denied. Normally this type misdemeanor offense would not have a jury. King requested a jury for some reason.
Historically, the Park service has had a real hard time getting convictions on game violations out of a jury- especially around McKinley Park when it first formed. Judges aren't swayed as easily by emotion and prejudice so I predict King will be convicted and then appeal.
His judge in this trial is named John Roberts...wouldn't it be ironic if the case ended up with another John Roberts presiding! There are a lot of issues simmering under the surface here...but they probably won't come out in this case...
Posted on August 19 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Park Service and Fish and Game have stepped up enforcement along the northern boundary for the last ten years. They just convicted two hunters a few years ago for moose hunting in the same area. They also got a few hunters on 4 wheelers out on the Sushana River. King knew about those busts and could have been more cautious.
I've had problems finding the boundaries of the Park during snow machine use for making trails. The line on the map can be a quarter inch wide red line so that could make the boundary a mile wide. So maps get you close but not close enough. To use a compass is worthless because they aren't accurate either due to magnetic variation. You can't use the few markers you find because they were put up so long ago and aren't accurate and you usually only find one- you can line up a compass off that one marker but it won't be accurate.
GPS doesn't work real well either because you have to know what the boundary bearing is and then guess if the moose is standing on the other side of the boundary. You can use the GPS compass feature if you first locate a point on the boundary. The only way to really know where the boundary is would be to walk the line with a GPS and put markers up yourself before you start hunting.
The area where Jeff was hunting was open to everybody until 1980 when it was added to the Park. The little town of Cantwell which is about 50 miles south of the area where Jeff was hunting and has a small native population was designated as a "subsistence" zone in 1980. So anyone who lives or moves to Cantwell can qualify to hunt in the area. This despite the lack of historical use by cantwell folks. You couldn't even drive from cantwell to this area (which is north of Healy) until 1971 when the road opened. (Unless you drove the Denali and Richardson all the way around.)
But if you live in Cantwell, regardless of your past history or heritage, you can hunt anywhere in the new Park areas- including Kantishna (120 miles from Cantwell) and the north boundary area where Jeff was hunting. Ironically Jeff lives a lot closer to the area than cantwell residents do and he has a history of subsistence use prior to 1980 in the north additions. He may have been able to get a subsistence hunting permit based on past use- wonder if he ever tried.
These federally designated subsistence areas exist all over the state and have fostered a lot of resentment which causes non-preferred hunters to push the rules and sometimes ignore the boundaries.
I see several mentions of a jury. Normally this trial would not have a jury since its a misdemeanor. anybody know if Jeff got the jury that he requested?
Posted on June 23 at 8:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Giving everyone an energy welfare check will just put off the inevitable. Everyone will have to spend more on energy or they need to modify their lifestyles to use less energy. In the bush perhaps the residents will have to burn wood for heat and insulate better. In town everyone needs to drive less and drive slower.
The Gov should immediately lower the maximum speed limtit to 55mph and dedicate money to enforcement. By driving slower and inflating my tires to 40psi I now get 21 mpg instead of 18 mpg. If everyone did that we would save millions of gallons of gas every day. This would reduce demand and should lower the price. But most people won't slow down because it only saves them a few dollars a week individually.
The president has rightly stated that as a nation we are addicted to oil. This addiction is most obviously expressed through illegal driving over the speed limit. As with other addictions the only way to break the dependence on oil is to intervene with the addicts. Rational individuals should drive the speed limit and when on a multi lane hiway should block all lanes while going the legal speed limit... This would force speeding addicts to obey the law and save fuel. This would lessen fuel use, reduce demand for fuel, lower the price of fuel and reduce our need for importing fuel from countries that hate our guts.
REAL PATRIOTS support our troops by driving slower....
Posted on June 18 at 9:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks, I needed that...
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Posted on December 3 at 7:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Dude sounds pretty smart to me. He had an expensive satellite enabled personal locator so he could work the system to get a free ride back to Bettles.
The Bettles Lodge owners didn't seem to mind taking the government money to house him. They could have refused him service and let him go elsewhere.
The guy was hiking in a national park. Did he have an overnight camping permit? Is one even required in GAtes? Park Service could require that hikers get rescue insurance to cover the cost of rescues.
They had to fly a chopper all the way from Anchorage? What are all those choppers and planes doing in Fairbanks?
The rescue should have ended in Bettles since the guy was not in need of medical help and there is a commercial flight available from there. He could have got a job in Bettles chasing off the grizzly beers if he needed money...
On Brooks Range hiker rebuked for rescue