Northman's Fury

I knew there was a reason I didn't like him!

Creepy.

Now there's a new word I could get to like.

Ah, memories!

"Gopher tourism" is making inroads across the southern grainbelt, with some farmers offering free room, board and even free ammunition to anyone willing to kill the voracious gophers gobbling up their crops.

Farmers near Swift Current, Sask., are looking for tourists with guns to combat an infestation they say is especially bad near Aneroid, Ponteix and Hazenmore.

Les Jordet, a mixed crop farmer near Hazenmore, has opened his home to host visitors from Manitoba as well as a group from B.C.

"They drove 17 hours to get here. They just totally went on a real hunt," Jordet said. "They would drive to where they seen a pocket of gophers and sit out, and walk. They'd shoot for hours and hours in spots."

Local officials welcome the gun-toters so long as they save farmers' crops.

Jordet said the out-of-towners shot thousands of gophers a day, and even worried they would run out targets. He assured them that was not the case.

Granted, I never thought of turning it into a tourist attraction, but I remember trapping the little beggars for the bounty farmers would pay for them. I also recall hanging on while we swerved across the highway to run one down in a car. Farmers really don't like them, which is understandable given the problems they cause.

It does make me wonder at the type of people who would drive for hours for a chance to shoot at them. They're not exactly big game. if I remember correctly, the preferred weapon for taking them down was a pellet gun. Even a .22 is overpowered for such a small animal. Oh well, I guess it beats shooting targets at a range.

in toking:

Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report found.

The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.

Guess it isn't the Tim Horton's coffee after all.

Normally I avoid getting involved in the US elections. After all, I'm a Canadian, and I don't like it when folks outside our country tell us who we should be voting for or against, so I try to return the favour.

My dog Freya, on the other hand, doesn't recognize such boundaries, and after finding out what happened to poor Seamus, has begged me as only a dog can to unite with others of her kind in condemning his behaviour.

You can normally get away with pissing off a few special interest groups without suffering too badly for it, but dogs? Upset and unleashed, and with all those cute little puppies to generate sympathy, they'll do more to hurt Romney than any other group I can think of.

Dogs Against Romney - where his Presidential campaign will go to die.

Since unlike our neighbours to the south, we'll be working today.

From the Agonist, some Limey humour:

"The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Alas, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels."

And second, via The Galloping Beaver, the ultimate revenge on a telemarketer.