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Hooking the World on Prozac
Read Eugenia Tsao’s brilliant report on the global trade in psychotherapeutic drugs. As third world neoliberal economies plunge millions into hunger and desperation, sales of Prozac and other antipsychotics boom. First World to Third: Don’t organize .Blame yourself for being crazy and pop a pill. Also find Elyssa Pachico’s amazing account of how the US Patents office helped a Colorado man claim ownership of the Mexican mayacoba bean. And read Alexander Cockburn’s account of how al-Megrahi, the Libyan sent home from a Scottish prison amid a vindictive uproar in the U.S., was framed in a bid by the U.S. and U.K. to pin the Lockerbie bombing of Panam Flight 103 on Qaddafi’s Libya. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories September 4-6, 2009 George Wuerthner September 3, 2009 Marcus Rediker Ron Jacobs Mike Whitney Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Saul Landau Anat Matar Tanya Golash-Boza Dave Lindorff Andy Worthington Website of the Day September 2, 2009 John Ross Vijay Prashad Rev. Jim Rigby Joanne Mariner Missy Beattie Soren Ambrose Diane Farsetta Nadia Hijab Shamus Cooke Charles R. Larson Website of the Day September 1, 2009 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Mark T. Harris Dean Baker Jeffrey Buchanan Robin Mittenthal Ellen Brown Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day August 31, 2009 Pam Martens Anthony DiMaggio Bouthaina Shaaban Ray McGovern Joseph Shansky Greg Moses Brian McKenna David Macaray Brenda Norrell Paul Craig Roberts Beth Sherouse Website of the Day August 28-30, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Joshua Frank / Steve Early Michael Hudson Carl Ginsburg Saul Landau Dave Marsh Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff José Pertierra Joe Bageant Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Lee Sustar David Ker Thomson David Rosen Alison Weir Ron Jacobs David Swanson Udi Aloni Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 27, 2009 Andrea Peacock Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Ray McGovern Gideon Levy Shamus Cook Norman Solomon Marshall Auerbach Benjamin Dangl Kathryn Gray David Macaray Website of the Day August 26, 2009 Gareth Porter Dave Lindorff Dean Baker Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Laura Raymond / Jordan Flaherty Jonathan Cook Robert Bryce Danny Weil Cindy Sheehan John V. Walsh Website of the Day August 25, 2009 Gabriel Kolko Danny Weil Martine Bulard Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Bélen Fernández August 24, 2009 Danny Weil Neve Gordon John Ross Open Letter to Kenneth Roth Dan Bacher August 21-23, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Ray McGovern Carl Ginsburg Dave Lindorff M. Shahid Alam Ron Jacobs Eric Walberg No War on the Moon! Gilad Atzmon Crawdad Nelson David Yearsley Justin Frew Website of the Day August 20, 2009 Eugenia Tsao Dave Lindorff Yonatan Preminger Wajahat Ali Website of the Day August 19, 2009 David Michael Green Paul Craig Roberts Marshall Auerback Franklin Lamb John Ross Marjorie Cohn August 18, 2009 Michael Hudson Mary Lynn Cramer Jonathan Cook Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Bill Quigley & Davida Finger August 17, 2009 Ray McGovern Andy Worthington Patrick Cockburn Don Fitz P. Sainath Helena Cobban August 14-16, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Peter Linebaugh Esam Al-Amin Marshall Auerback Mike Whitney Paul Krassner Saul Landau Nikolas Kozloff Henry A. Giroux John Ross Jonathan Cook Isabella Kenfield David Rosen Ron Jacobs Wajahat Ali David Macaray Greg Moses Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 13, 2009 Eduardo Galeano Joanne Mariner Michael Donnelly Norman Solomon Russell Mokhiber Tim Wise Brian M. Downing Dave Lindorff David Manning / Miriam Cotton: Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day August 12, 2009 Michael J. Watts Bouthaina Shaaban Ricardo Alarcón Binoy Kampmark Paul Craig Roberts Alan Farago James Ridgeway Dave Lindorff David Macaray Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day August 11, 2009 Ricardo Alarcón Marshall Auerback Reza Yavari Winslow T. Wheeler Tim Wise Uri Avnery Deepak Tripathi Greg Moses Benjamin Dangl Dave Lindorff Website of the Day August 10, 2009 David Price Mike Whitney Alan Farago Conn Hallinan Russell Mokhiber Paul Krassner Sousan Hammad Jonathan Cook Ira Glunts George Wuerthner Website of the Day August 7 - 9, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Mike Whitney Elaine C. Hagopian Carl Ginsburg Miguel Tinker Salas Saul Landau John Ross Anthony DiMaggio Obama and the Israel Lobby: Origins of Power John Stanton Christopher Brauchli Legal Absurdities: Outing Three Strikes Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Franklin Lamb Bruce E. Levine Michael Winship David Macaray Stephen Fleischman Robert Bryce Robert Dodge, MD: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered Mark Seth Lender David Yearsley Ben Sonnenberg Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 6, 2009 Ishmael Reed Paul Craig Roberts William Blum Assassinations and Coups: Keeping Track of the Empire's Crimes Michael Donnelly Jonathan Cook Dave Lindorff Ellen Brown Website of the Day August 5, 2009 Dedrick Muhammad / Norman Solomon William Blum Gareth Porter Mary Lynn Cramer Jim Goodman Nadia Hijab Gretchen Kroth Steve Macek / Sarah Lazare Website of the Day August 4, 2009 Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Jonathan Cook Jeff Sher Dean Baker Andy Worthington Uri Avnery Mark Weisbrot Alvaro Huerta Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition Are Hunters Stupid?The Unintended Consequences of Wolf HuntingBy GEORGE WUERTHNER In my younger days I worked for the BLM in Boise, Idaho. A new range conservationists, named Daryl, came to the district. On Friday after work, we invited Daryl to a party so he could meet some of the local folks. I was talking to a couple of women when Daryl ambled up to us with a beer in his hand and big smile on his face. I introduced him and he started talking to the ladies I think on the whole he was making a good impression. Dressed in his cowboy boots and jeans, Daryl made a striking figure. After making some small talk for a while, Daryl made his move. He asked them if they wanted to go gopher shooting on Saturday. “Gopher shooting” they asked incredulously? “Yeah, he said, “gopher hunting—you know blowing away gophers.” They looked stunned and remained silent. So Daryl tried to recover and said, “The fun part is seeing the red mist rise in the air when you hit one. It’s an incredible rush,” he said with obvious enthusiasm. Those women just looked at each other like they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. He might as well ask them if they wanted to go the park and molest children. The women fled. Daryl was left baffled and standing alone. He just couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to go blow away gophers, especially when he offered to bring a spare rifle so they could join in the fun. Poor Daryl had grown up on a farm in North Dakota, and more recently had worked in Burns Oregon. In his world, shooting gophers was considered a legitimate recreational pastime. But what passes for fun in rural America seems like senseless killing to most urban dwellers. Sometimes I think most hunters in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are as clueless as Daryl. They can’t seem to comprehend how killing wolves baffles, if not outright infuriates, a lot of people. Wolf killing gives fodder to those who want to stop all hunting. Sometimes when I see these rural rubes, with their often ample bellies hanging over their equally ample belt buckles, strutting around celebrating the initiation of a wolf hunting season and talking about how it’s an "adrenaline rush" to shoot one, I have to wonder if they are brain dead or just incredibly naïve and ignorant about the rest of mainstream society’s values? They apparently cannot imagine how much some forms of hunting, including the shooting of an icon like the wolf, turns off the rest of society to hunting. Most people don’t hunt, so the perception of hunting and hunters is key to how society will tolerate and support hunting as a legitimate activity. Yet most hunters seem to take the knee jerk attitude that anyone who objects to any form of hunting or kind of hunting, no matter how barbaric, is either a member of PETA, or just doesn’t “understand” Nature. The truth is that many of those objecting to wolf hunting are neither ignorant of ecology nor members of PETA or any other animal rights organization. Americans are willing to accept some forms of hunting, typically if the animal is used for food and/or if there is a legitimate safety issue—say animals carry rabies. But they don’t support outright slaughter of animals for no reason other than someone thinks killing is fun or a challenge. I and many of my friends hunt—but we all eat the animals we kill, and we don’t kill animals unnecessarily or with malice against them. Furthermore, many Americans, including myself, consider spotting a wolf in the wild as a cherished event. Despite the claims by some hunters that there are “too many” wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, the chance of seeing one of these animals in the wild is extremely rare. There are less than 2000 wolves spread over three of the largest western states. Imagine if there were only 2000 deer spread over all three states—would hunters think there were “too many?” Plus, for many Americans, wolves are symbolic of a largely lost heritage of the wild, unfettered nature. And for some, such as myself, wolf restoration represents the best of American values—acknowledging the great ecological wrong we imposed upon the land when we extirpated wolves, and an attempt to heal the ecological wounds we created. So the idea that any state would implement a policy to restrict or reduce wolves is something to strongly oppose. As the ecologist Aldo Leopold noted years ago, wolves also play an important biological role as a top down predator that has many ecological ramifications across the landscape. Unfortunately most hunters have not yet developed the ability to “think like a mountain” as Leopold admonished. We do know that wolves select different animals in the herd from hunters. Wolves, while opportunistic, still tend to kill the young, old, and injured. They can keep herd animals free from disease and can sometimes have significant influence upon other animals and plants. For example, it’s theorized that hey alter habitat use by ungulates, for instance, moving elk out of riparian areas. Even when wolves severely reduce prey numbers, they are performing an important ecological function by providing plant communities respite from heavy browsing pressure. Hunters by contrast, tend to kill the productive age healthy animals, and have less ecological influence upon prey species and habitat use than native predators. Of course, some hunters rationalize killing wolves because they suggest the animals “need” to be managed. I hear that all the time, as if somehow the natural world had gone to hell in a hand-basket before Euro Americans arrived just in the nick of time to rescue Nature from imminent collapse. Of course, the “need” to manage wolves is both a self-created and self-justifying excuse to kill animals that most hunters wish would just go away or at least believe should be kept at much lower numbers. All this talk about the so called “need” to manage wolves is disingenuous at best. Any good ecologist will tell you that wolves and other predators do not need to be “managed” since they are more or less self-regulating by prey availability and social interactions. The only reason one has to “manage” wolves is because state wildlife agencies want to sell more hunting licenses. (There may be rare instances where lethal action is necessary where an animal may have become habituated to people and poses a safety concern, but that is entirely different than “sport hunting”.) I doubt most agencies care about predator social interactions. They treat wolves and other predators like cogs in a wheel—interchangeable parts. Shoot some wolves. Not to worry, more will be born. But the interactions between wolves, prey, and humans are not so simple. Animals have real social lives that influence many aspects of their behavior. Indiscriminate hunting, by disrupting these social relationships, can exacerbate the conflicts between wolves and humans. Killing a large percentage of wolves in any area creates many of the so called “problems” that hunting is supposed to reduce. Indiscriminate hunting and reduction of wolves (as opposed to the surgical elimination of a particular animal or group) skews the local population towards younger animals which are less skilled hunters, thus more likely to attack easy prey like livestock. Also with more young animals breeding, that produce more pups, you actually increase the total biomass requirements of packs so that even if they don’t prey on livestock, wolves are likely to need more prey—i.e. those elk, deer, and moose that hunters covet. Nothing will do more to create animosity and conflict towards predators than hunting. But you won’t hear this from any state wildlife agency since it’s not in their interest to worry about social interactions of animals. Yet if you read hunting magazines and/or listen to hunters discussing the future of their favorite activity, you find a common theme is that predators are destroying game herds, and the “antis” are out to take away their guns. The “antis” are, of course, anyone else who doesn’t hunt. Most hunters spend more time complaining about the “antis” than doing anything meaningful to protect the habitat that is central to all hunting. The real threat to hunting doesn’t come from PETA or any other animal rights group, but from the habitat loss resulting from oil drilling, logging, livestock grazing, ATVs, sprawl, and all the rest of the development and degradation of natural landscapes that continues unabated daily. Some hunters and some pro hunting organizations like the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, among others recognize this, and certainly most agency biologists are well aware of this threat, but the average hunter seems less interested in protesting against oil wells, expanding ATV use, and/or sprawl than complaining about the antis. If hunters want to help realize their worst fears—that is fuel opposition to hunting by society--they could find no better way to do this than continue blowing away wolves. But if Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho want to signal to the world that they have entered the 21^st Century and no longer hold archaic and outdated ideas about predators, they can begin to value wolves as essential for ecological diversity, as well as their role in the American imagination as symbols of what we are doing right to heal the ecological wounds we created. The way to do this is to stop the hunting of all predators starting with wolves. George Wuerthner is a wildlife biologist and a former Montana hunting guide. His latest book is Plundering Appalachia.
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift: Spell Albuquerque: Waiting for
Lightning
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