US News offers this tidbit

Kerry hunts

12/12/05
Kerry's Christmas Goose Is in the Bag

Sorry, PETA; Sen. John Kerry really does hunt--and not just when the campaign cameras are whirring. Remember that scene in late October of last year's presidential election when Kerry emerged from a muddy Ohio field in a new camo jacket cradling a shotgun but not his dead goose? The one that prompted critics to giggle that the photo op was ginned up to show that the Boston brahmin was a regular guy?

Well, sources tell us that Kerry is an avid bird and deer hunter, and a good shot to boot. The proof: Early last week, he traveled to Nebraska for a waterfowl hunt. The senator and some friends, including old Swift Boat pal Jim Wasser, bagged 10 mallards, some smaller widgeons, and two Canada geese. We hear "J.K." and Wasser met near Decatur, Neb., by the Missouri River, huddled in a bunkhouse, grilled some steaks, popped a few beers, and watched the Colts-Steelers Monday-night football game on a 14-inch TV. They were out by 4:45 a.m. Tuesday. Temperature: 19 degrees. Wind: 30 mph. Kerry, armed with a Benelli shotgun; Wasser, and six others set the decoys on a pond and jumped into two blinds. At sunup, three ducks screamed in and the crew nailed 'em with their 12-gauges. Nearly a dozen more fell by lunchtime, all retrieved by the host's black lab, Bo. "Not bad for a few hours' hunting," said a Kerry buddy, who added that the birds will probably be served for Christmas dinner.


http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/articles/051212/12whisplead.htm

Can you imagine * doing this?

macho catnip!!

Like a turkey?

TO COOK YOUR GOOSE

To Roast:

Goose is simplicity itself to roast as it can only be spoiled by overcooking. First remove giblets, rinse them, put into a small pan, cover with water, add seasoning and simmer for one hour to produce stock for gravy or soup.

Rinse the body cavity with cold water and pat dry. Secure the wings against the body with skewers and tie the legs together. Either stuff the neck end or simply place a cut up apple and onion inside the body cavity. Place trussed bird on a roasting rack, or small cake rack, inside a deep roasting pan, rub breast with salt and place in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. After 30 mins. prick skin along each side of the breast and cover pan tightly with foil. Allow 15 minutes per lb., remove foil for last half hour of cooking time and use some of the fat for roasting potatoes.
Lift bird carefully on to a carving dish and allow to rest for 20 minutes in a warm place before carving. Pour fat into a large basin and allow to cool completely before storing in the refrigerator.

http://www.metzerfarms.com/recipes.htm

Oh and mui macho. And great, great catnip. (I wonder who took care of having the 'dressed' and shipped out. Can you imagine that? Wasser probably brought the birds in and asked them to shipped ut. My brothers bring their birds to a guy in NH who does a great job of dressing the kill and shipping it out. He can hold stuff for six months as well.)

I do wonder the same thing about the dressing and such. Which reminds me of the Newsweek article about Teresa that mentioned she'd once hurt Chris Heinz's feelings when she turned his per rooster into broth. So, in theory, at least one member of the Heinz/Kerry household must know how to pluck fowl?

I had to do that once when I did kitchen duty at a job. Yuck! (I am such a wuss on this. I'd rather have someone else do the dressing and send me the end result. Plus it was boring and it made my hands hurt from repetitive motion stuff.)

Didn't Teresa grow up on a farm in South Africa? Then she probably learned about taking care of poultry and such. Good for her. (I heard she was a very good cook.)

I knew and know a lot of people who hunt in this area. As long as you are hunting replenishable stocks and actually eating what you catch, then I do't see the harm. (There are plenty of deer, pheasants and such around here. They are not endangered species.)

But I can't imagine it's much fun.

I don't know that THK grew up on a farm per se, but I don't imagine there were too many supermarkets complete with, you know, your bonless, skinless, whateverless chicken breasts in midcentury Mozambique. But I could be wrong.

And her home is Pittsburgh is a farm, hence the tragic end to Chris' rooster.

I knew someone who grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont. Well, the stock would sometimes wind up on the table for dinner. My friend told me that one day she went home and had a nice roast dinner. Her Mom kept calling it 'Curlie meat.' (Isn't this Curlie meat great! Sigh!) My friend was distressed to know that they were eating one of her favorites from the herd, Curlie. (Okay, I thought it was funny.)

Sorry, but I think it's funny, too :)

I can not understand why anyone would want to and enjoys hunting. If you want to shot off a gun, use a fake target. I live in an area where the schools are closed for the first day of dear hunting. When I first moved to this area I was stunned. No Martin Luther King day off, but the first day of dear hunting season.
Anyway, I digress,thanks for posting, it was a nice "whispers" story.

if you're going to eat animals that you kill, it's quite different than if you're doing it just for the sake of killing, at least in my opinion. Animals killed by hunters probably led much better lives that those raised solely for the purpose of being turned into meat, if you thing about it. I personally could never kill an animal, but I think there are times when hunting is okay.

I've never hunted, but I've plucked a few home-grown fowl for dinner. As a meat eater, I also agree with LittleClarkie.

letting someone else kill one's food and then buying it at the supermarket. As long as someone eats the meat, I guess I'm cool with Kerry and his buds having a bonding experience.

Maybe because I grew up in Chicago!
But it makes me sick to think of people hunting.

I get teased alot from my hubby's family - alot of farmers in that clan.
They ask me - where do you think that chicken and steak from that you buy at the grocery store? Yeah - but - that's different.

Well there actually is one thing that I don't like about Kerry.
All this time I thought he was perfect.

On the other hand, this is a great story because once again it proves what the media can do.

Anyone who eats meat or poultry cannot say hunting is wrong, per se, but I don't like to think of someone I admire doing this. Just me.

I'm just not into the macho of hunting. To me, it is more macho to mend a broken wing than to blast one of these beautiful creatures out of the sky.

Geese mate for life and I've seen a male stand guard by his sickly mate after the flock moved on and left them behind on their migration south. This pair lingered on the grounds of an office park. The male stood by the female and protected her until they were both weak from starvation. They watched us humans going into the building and tried to come in with us to get warm. Finally we managed to get someone to come take them (to help them, not put them down); Fish & Game or Animal Control (don't remember which). Everyone was anxious to keep up on their status. The men would joke about "Thanksgiving meals" but they had been among the first to have attempted to feed the birds before they were taken away. Both geese survived and everyone was greatly relieved to hear that these two "lovebirds" made it. I just can't imagine seeing a Canadian Goose shot out of the sky. It would be incredibly painful to witness and I wonder at why anyone would want to do it. If I had to do this to feed children, then it would be necessary, but for sport? Even if you enjoy the taste of their flesh, still...could you do it?

This really disturbs me. In the light of things like the Iraq war, it is certainly a non-issue...but I'm no fan of hunters.

:'(

especially deer which in some places are overly abundant (admittedly mostly because we're destroying their habitat), I tend to agree with you Dy about the shooting of Canada Geese. When they migrate south for the winter, a lot of them end up on the waters around here. You know the winter is approaching when you hear the loud honking of the birds, and then look up to see them flying in perfect formation. Some of them stay on through the summer and nest (I guess they get used to an abundant food supply) and I've seen the devotion they have to each other and their young.

We also get a lot of Snow Geese and Tundra Swans, and believe it or not, the National Park Service has a brief hunting season for all three of those birds (plus ducks) on its land.

I'm just glad that if JK is going to kill them, he's going to eat them.

have been known to stop eating an die. This is just incredibly sad to me. It can be argued that this is instinct instead of emotion as we know it, but still... Dogs and cats have emotions that go beyond just knowing where their food is coming from. Who is to say exactly what a goose feels?

Hunting is a cultural thing. People I know take their kids hunting as soon as they can walk, so it is a thing you grow up being used to. But it strikes me as very sweet when you see some big, tough guy concerned about the welfare of a silly bird (like the ones I mentioned in my previous e-mail). To me that shows more machismo than taking a gun and shooting a helpless creature flying by. Just saying that hunting is not something that strikes me as macho.

I just sent this to a repub friend of mine who lives in Omaha and is an avid hunter. I can't wait to hear back.

I don't hunt; my depth perception and a strongly dominant left eye (I'm right-handed) make me a mediocre shot at best. Although I am very much in favor of deer hunting (there is a scientifically documented GLUT of them and it's better IMO to hunt them than allow them on the roads where they could be deadly), I generally don't like hunting birds; but then I am in the Audubon Society so there you go.... However, I'm going to be a hypocrite when it involves JK :P. And anyway he's eating them. ;)

Also, there is something very appealing in a primitive way. Probably a holdover from the hunter-gatherer days, actually.... We like the big stud that can bag.....

...a meal. :evilgrin:

Unfortunately many of the geese hang out in city parks where you can't hunt them, but that's because some people feed them. The ecosystem is upset because of the lack of wolves. But they've been reintroduced and are growing in numbers in the rural areas. So until then we need hunters to go out and thin the deer herds--probably always will. There is a "mad-deer" disease out there because of the overpopulation now. Another big problem is the amount of car-deer crashes we have every year.

As for the ethics of hunting, I think that if all of America could somehow survive by hunting wild game, it would be a lot better for the environment, for our health, and for the animals themselves. Or at least animals should be kept on small farms, not the big mega-farms where efficiency is the #1 priority, and the animals' well-being is not. I personally have avoided eating pork for about 8 years, because I feel our factory farms are too cruel to these fairly intelligent animals. I avoid beef too, but because I don't trust the gov't to keep mad-cow disease out of it!

I am not a vegetarian so I don't have any moral compunctions about hunting at all - at least game hunting. Trophy hunting is a different story. Hunting an animal is far kinder than forcing it to spend its entire life in a 4x4 foot box, force-fed antibiotics and steroids, and finally butchered. (All that said, I still eat all kinds of meat :blush: )

taking note of, since I decided to study JK intensely since the election. People call him a "phony", and it just isn't true, and this article is simply more proof of that.

The most significant part of the article for me was that Kerry went hunting with Jim Wasser, his fellow crewmate. One of the accusations during the whole SBL fiasco was that nobody liked him, and that he had tricked his crewmates into supporting him by putting them up in nice hotels and such. Of course, it was all rubbish, and they all (except Steve Gardner) have been friends for a long time. This makes sense, as there was no one for Kerry to talk to, nobody who would understand, except these guys. There were no ulterior motives for this trip. It was just to go out and have fun with the guys.

Just to explain a little here, there are two categories to look at for someone running for president: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are their resume, the ideological positions, and actions they have taken in the past in public life. Soft skills go to the likeability factor which include character, how down to earth are they, can he or she identify what the average Joe is going through. We can be snobby all we want about it, but the soft skills are just as important as the hard skills when it comes to American voters. So that's why I like to keep track of the evidence of Kerry's "soft skills" -- yes, they're catnippy, too, but they also do matter when it comes to electing a president.