Lone Gunman; Free To Buy?

Got out hunting again this morning. Unlike opening day, I think I was almost the only person out. Not that it made a difference. I hit stands of dogwood, some grape arbors, and the brush around some apple trees hard, but couldnt move a grouse. Unfortunately, I also hit some rose vines hard, with my hands and face. Ouch.

The little birds were very active today. Most of the brush I hunted was positively dense with chickadee, robin, cardinal, and sparrow bodies, and songs. I did flush one woodcock and took a couple shots but missed. On the first I actually had a decent chance, but on the second I was probably kidding myself.

Saw a couple of puffballs that were nearly the size of basketballs. Also quite a few buck rubs and scrapes. They're starting to feel their oats.

Driving home, I caught some of the second hour of the Diane Rehm Show, where the guest was Thomas Barnett, a researcher from the Naval War College who discussed the changing security challenges facing the US. The part of the interview that stood out was his comments about development in poor countries. Democracy, he said, shouldn't be the focus of US participation; economic development should. You improve people's lives, he argued, by increasing their economic opportunities and by providing capital for development, not by establishing political freedom. The strong hand of a dictator or a theocratic regime might be necessary to stabilize countries as they make the difficult transition to modern nationhood.

There is some merit in that last idea, up to a point. Modernization is never a smooth or bloodless process. But I was a little shocked to hear democracy and personal freedom dismissed so casually. And considering the current leadership of this country (as well as some of the people who'd like to take over after 2008), it's not hard to hear those ideas being turned against us. A further comment by Barnett underscored this: "Think of your own life: What freedom do you exercise the most, the economic or the political?" So perhaps in the not-so-distant future, you could, with the government's blessing, secure payday loans to finance mall outings after you've maxed out your cards, operate a business in "voluntary compliance" with worker safety rules, or build a home that displaces endangered creatures, so long as you don't make a fuss about your vote being diluted, your speech being restricted, or the occasional arbitrary detention. And who would? After all, how much time do you spend each day engaged in political activity as opposed to, say, shopping?

I'm sure Mr. Barnett would scoff at these concerns and assure me that such things could never happen here. But given the increasing influence of corporations over our political life, and our government's ongoing adapation to meet the needs of its corporate sponsors, I don't think I'm being unrealistic at all.