“Eagle deaths: an interesting contrast”

Via David Hardy:

Synopsis: The use of lead hunting ammunition apparently kills a small number of eagles annually while wind turbines kill large numbers of birds of many types. Public officials who are concerned about bird deaths by lead poisoning tend not to be concerned about bird deaths by wind turbine.

Much as Islam trumps sexual orientation in identity politics, so crony-capitalist green energy schemes trump the welfare of wild animal populations in eco politics.

30 thoughts on ““Eagle deaths: an interesting contrast””

  1. It was the same thing with the Minneapolis police shooting.

    A few days ago there was international outrage about the oppressive American police, nasty gun culture, demands to transfer American wealth to Africa via European bureaucrats ASAP, etc.

    Now today it’s, “well… the officer was startled… we mustn’t create a backlash… this is actually evidence of racism because fantastical fake memes, etc.”

  2. It is always a mistake to accept at face value any alleged motivation for a position taken by progressives, or any other flavor of collectivist.

    Regardless of the cause du jour, the actual aim is always to create the conditions necessary for the state to acquire more power for the statist camp to wield. Birds, schmirds…they’re just more grist for the mill, both literally and figuratively.

    It’s the same for the cop/black outrage. If the actual concern was black lives, the outrage would be aimed squarely at black gangsters and their enablers in politics and society.

    The same is true across the menu of endless progressive outrage…the object changes as it appears to advance the progressive narrative, and disappears as soon as it’s utility diminishes, or begins to backfire.

    The only goal is power to control, and limit, the operations of western, hi-tech, hi-energy society.

    The ongoing revelations that much of the anti-fracking movement is funded by our adversaries around the world in order to diminish the growth of our oil and gas production is another strand in the cloth being woven around our culture to weaken and fracture it.

  3. “Much as Islam trumps sexual orientation in identity politics, so crony-capitalist green energy schemes trump the welfare of wild animal populations in eco politics.”

    This is just deranged. You people are losing it.

  4. Well, I guess I will simply return to my policy of not bothering to comment here. You have so enabled a certain insipid troll that it feels free to drop a load in any and all threads, rendering any sensible discussion impossible.

  5. Sorry to hear that VR. Just ignore Penny, like I do, save on the rare occasions when he has a point. The law of averages does catch up to him, now and again.

  6. In response to the news of Henriette’s death, Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of Israel’s parliament who leads a committee on the status of women and gender equality, called for a “deliberate plan to fight this epidemic” of women being killed and authorities failing to prosecute those responsible.

    Touma-Sliman told the Associated Press in November that more than 15 women were killed in the neighborhoods Ramle and Lod, near Tel Aviv, over a period of one year, but only three men were charged.

    TT/Abradley’s tragic story confirms the point of this thread. When Muslim men were doing the killing, the police dragged their feet and swept the domestic violence under the rug. When one Christian man committed murder all of the sudden it’s an international incident leading to a swift arrest.

  7. “This is just deranged. You people are losing it.”

    Actually, if you think about it, us people are winning it. 2010; 2014; 2016; all wins. Illegal immigration down by half. The Supreme Court upholding the ban on refugees from OTEC (the Organization of the Terrorist Exporting Countries), an excellent new Supreme Court justice, tens of new federal court judges, a massive rollback of federal regulatory agencies…I could go on, however, it seems as if a Spiro Agnew quote is in order:

    In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

    But of course you’re Canadian so we’ll have to recognize nattering nabobs from other countries too.

  8. “Actually, if you think about it, us people are winning it.”

    What has stopping illegal immigration got to do with “the welfare of wild animal populations in eco politics” ?

  9. VeryRetired has it right. Nicely framed. His post is also the answer to Penny wanting to understand we the people winning and “green” eco bird casualties. I don’t expect him to make the connection, but at least the rest of us are clear on the progressive Prime Directive.

    Death6

  10. Veryretired: Your comment stings a bit as it is partly true. Pengun is like my friend’s Chihuahua which craps in the house to get attention. If you yell at it, punish it, etc. it gets attention and the bad behavior continues. But if you ignore the occasional turd the dog eventually stops doing it. In a blogging context this might translate to CB authors spending more time pruning and censoring comment threads or, alternatively, to the reasonable majority of CB commenters ignoring trolling comments. I’ve tried both approaches and prefer to trust the sane commenters to overlook the attention seekers, but nothing works 100%.

  11. Why should PenGun be censored? Just because you disagree with him? Isn’t that what the far-left is doing, censoring people they disagree with?

  12. I can’t recall where I saw it, but there is apparently some way to regulate the rotation speed of wind turbines to reduce bird deaths. I can’t recall where I saw it because it popped up once and disappeared. Why did it disappear, anybody know? Doesn’t it work, or don’t we want to degrade the cost-effectiveness of wind turbines?

  13. It’s yer damn cows. That’s where a huge part of GW comes from. Filthy carnivores, destroying our planet for your depraved appetites.

  14. GW, is that “climate change”, ” or “global warming” or great waste?

    I love cows, they taste just like beef.

    Wind turbines don’t have cost effectiveness, they are cost ineffective before you even count the externalities, such as bird kills and general ugliness. Without massive public subsidies, they go away in most areas.

    California is so enamored with great waste (GW) they are getting ready to require 25% of their agricultural land to have turbines and almost all of their housing to have solar power by mid century, some of this at nearer term deadlines.

    How will they pay for this? Not to worry, state subsidies and “help from the Feds.” The state economy is expected by the proponents to boom as all the illegals “who haven’t found work” will be doing the installs on the roofs. A perfect virtuous cycle if ever a progressive dreamed one up. My expectations are much lower (even negative), but you never know about the Feds. Watch Puerto Rico and Illinois for a preview.

    No matter the outcome, state and national political power will increase so the progressive Prime Directive will be fulfilled. Governor Moon Beam is considering taking the name of Sun Beam to help kick off the effort. He passed on Blow Hard, but if Penny moves there, it will be available to him. Heck, he can have it now. I’ll keep Death6

    What fun.

    Death6

  15. “Watch Puerto Rico and Illinois for a preview.”

    I think that’s really why pwogies are so freaked out about Hillary’s loss. Consciously or subconsciously, they knew that the Chicago gal would bail out the big blue bankruptcies.

  16. @CapitalistRoader
    You raise an excellent point. I never really thought about it, but based on how Saint Barack handled the auto bailout, it’s obvious that “the greater good” would require that 49 other states rescue Illinois.

  17. “I love cows, they taste just like beef.”

    If God did not want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat ?

  18. USFWS and state game officials I talk with, and researchers and ornithologists and bird watchers, all note more bird deaths from lead shot than wind turbines.

    Got actual counts, or just biased reporting?

  19. Ed Darrell,

    The post in the Save The Eagles blog that David Hardy links to argues that bird deaths from wind turbines are systematically and significantly undercounted for political reasons. Are the assertions in that blog post what you mean by biased reporting, or are you referring to Hardy’s blog post itself or to something else that Hardy links to, or are you dismissing Hardy because people you talk to disagree with him? I can’t tell. It seems to me that uncertainty about the accuracy of official bird-death counts is the central issue here. To dismiss as biased people who challenge the stats is to beg the question. Why are the people who challenge the stats wrong?

  20. “all note more bird deaths from lead shot than wind turbines.”

    Bald eagles from bird shot ?

    That’s a felony. I think your numbers are BS.

  21. Mike K – I believe the claim is that eagles are dying from the involuntary ingestion of bird shot, not an injection of bird shot.

  22. Mike K — The naturalists at the eagle rescue place told us that the eagle’s digestion is aggressive, and since eagles like an easy meal, a larger portion of a wounded bird’s lead shot winds up in the eagle’s bloodstream than would if we ate the same bird.

  23. “If God did not want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat ?”

    So humans are good? I wouldn’t know, just fish since the late 60s.

Comments are closed.