"A Forlorn Cow":
"A Happy cow":
Posted on 05/28/2005 1:14:12 AM PDT by MissouriConservative
Jim Chilton doesn't just admire cowboy values. He believes in them. And, like any true believer, he's eager to share the gospel in well-rehearsed sound bites, whenever the situation allows.
Ask him, for example, why he decided to sue one of the West's most prominent environmental groups. "I laid in bed at night, wondering if I was a cowboy or a wimp," he'll reply. "If you're a cowboy, you stand up and fight for truth, justice, integrity and honor. If you're a wimp, you lay there and go to sleep."
Or, ask about nature. "For a cowboy," he'll tell you, "every day is Earth Day."
That's why Chilton got so mad at the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center tried to make him the bad guy when he, the cowboy, was supposed to be the hero. And that was an attack no cowboy could forgive. (Forgiveness, after all, is for wimps.)
And so he sued -- a switch, given that the Center is normally the one filing the lawsuits. Chilton took the case to trial, and won one of the biggest punitive damage awards Arizona is likely to see this year.
The decision didn't affect his ability to ranch. A previous decision by the Forest Service had taken care of that. But he did win a lot of money. And in the process, he stunned the environmentalists and rankled First Amendment defenders. The Center returned to court this month, asking the judge to throw out the verdict, explaining that Chilton's victory set a dangerous precedent, one that would cripple the rights of anyone in the business of mouthing off to the government. The judge is now considering the Center's request.
To the Center, it's nothing less than a travesty of justice.
(Excerpt) Read more at phoenixnewtimes.com ...
It's a long, 8 page, article, but well worth the read.
bookmark
YEE HAW!
Great article, but I have one question:
How does one distinguish between a "forlorn" cow and a happy cow?
Missouri Conservative, your initial post on this thread, brought back to mind one of my favorite jokes, which I posted to freeper Zulu on May 7th, but it's one of my favorite jokes, and I tell it proudly whenever I am in the vicinity of one or more "tree- huggers". I hope you like it:
A scruffy, unshaven, underfed , backwoods looking individual is standing at the defense table with his public defender in a Florida court of of law, waiting for the judge to enter to begin the trial
for which he is charged and pleading guilty with killing a Florida panther. Seated in the front row of the courtroom are his equally shabbily dressed and undernourished wife, and their four small children. All talking suddenly stops and everyone rises as the bailiff announces to the courtroom the arrival of the judge who is to preside over the trial. The judge tells the courtroom to be seated as he sits and begins the trial by reading the charges of the defendant to the now totally quiet court.
The judge begins;" Sir you are in this court of law today charged with the criminal offense of killing a Florida panther, which is a felony in this great state. I have carefully reviewed your past criminal history, of which you have none, and have also found out that the small monthly checks that you do receive for being physically handicaped, and no longer able to to be gainfully employed, is barely enough to sustain you and your family in the simple backwoods lifestyle that you have by nessesity have had to endure for the past decade.
"Since this is your first ever offense, I am not going to give you any jail time for this crime, but I am going to fine you for it, and small monthly payments will be taken out of your monthly check, untill the fine is totally paid.
Now before I send you to the clerk to finish your paperwork concerning this, is there anything you would like to say to this court?"
The frail man rises to his feet and replies "Yes I do your Honor. I did not kill this animal for fun or sport, I killed this animal to survive. The meat from this animal sustained my wife and family for over two weeks, and after the hide was sufficienly tanned, it was made in to small articles of clothing for my four children. I did not waste this animal your Honor"
With hardly a dry eye in the courtroom, the scruffy gentleman returns to his seat. The judge replies " I believe you, but my verdict still stands. This trial is adjoured, and you can follow the bailiff to the clerks office to finish the legal paperwork, but before you do, would you please approach the bench?"
The defendant nods in the affirmative, and makes his way to the judge's bench. The judge pushes his courtroom microphone
out of sounds reach, leans over his bench, and softly but inquisitively inquires;" I'd like to ask you one question before you depart. What in the world does a Florida Panther taste like?"
The shabbily dressed gentleman raises his right hand to his scruffy beard and begins to rub it in deep thought as he ponders the judge's question, and then after a few seconds, gives the judge his reply.
"Well your Honor, that's kind of difficult question to answer you see, because it's kind of a toss-up between a bald eagle and a manatee........."
.....you should see the reaction from some of the tree-huggers upon them hearing me tell this joke...priceless..
Grampa, was it you that mentioned the story about Sierra Club being threatened with a lawsuit if it held its ground against a dangerous road being widened?
We need to start turning the tables on these guys.
It is one thing when a valid case is brought, but bending the facts to 'make' one is bogus. I hope the court sticks to the punitive damages, too. After putting this man through the titwringer, the environuts can't admit they were wrong, only whine about how hard they got spanked.
Laugh! Great story.
The envirowackos claim the only reason they lost is that they were outspent in court.
I read the entire story. I hope the judge keeps the punitive damages at their current level but I doubt this happens. Judges usually reduce punitive awards in some solomonic premise of being "fair".
Mr. Suckling and his minions need to be slapped around. What they did was dishonest and they knew it. And they knew they could go running to their friends at the government to enforce their way.
As for the whining about Mr. Chilton's "deep pockets", ask yourself how Mr. Suckling is able to afford to pay all those lawyers and "scientists"? Chilton just matched their lawyers and experts by paying for ones of his own and the environazis are ticked off that they couldn't bully him into submission as they undoubtedly had done to all his neighbors.
Nice balanced article, by the way. Rare to read one anymore.
Great article!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! You owe me a new keyboard. LMAO!
'outspent'='truth'!!!
"A Forlorn Cow":
"A Happy cow":
Bump for later reading...
ping
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Nice to see the mentally ill envirowackos lose one
Is that photoshopped or is that really a three-zebra horselaugh?
I think it is a real photo and I love it. If it is "built", I still love it.
One for the good guys!
That was my thought exactly!
I kept reading it expecting it to veer into a slam on one side or the other, but it was equally tough (and fair) on both.
Good for Mr. Chilton, btw.
Indeed it is, I just finished reading it all. Thanks for calling it to our attention.
Anyone starting to see a pattern here?
Kieran Suckling - What a name
Outstanding! Thanks for posting this article.
It would be nice if people started suing the ACLU.
This is a forlorn cow (taken just after the elections in 2004):
This article reminds me of something that happened in Wyoming a few years ago. The enviros and federal gov't had reintroduced wolf back into areas close to sheep range. Ranchers complained and were told not to worry, the wolves wouldn't bother their herds. After five years, once again the sheep herds were being decimated by wolves, and the ranchers were naturally complaining & shooting these "precious wolves." The enviros and fed's brainstormed and came with a plan The feds/eviros laid out their grand plan at a public meeting with the ranchers. A Fed and enviro condescendingly explained to the ranchers that they were going to give the wolves Birth Conrol! After they were done talking- an old rancher in the back of the room spoke up- he said "You fellas are mighty smart, but I don't believe you understand the real problem we have here- these wolves are Eating our sheep- they ain't tryin' to Screw 'em!"
The article is a great read. This needs to become the norm and not the exception. How many law suits will renewed drilling in Alaska result in?
That is determined by how near the bull is to the cow.
Thgey should declare all environmentalist Watermelon groups as terrorist organizations and ship 'em all off to Git'mo.
Every last one of these POS tree-huggers.
great read.
hurrah for the property owner! money is the key as usual. support the Paragon Foundation, a great group that takes on cases involving property rights.
What a great story...thanks for the post.
First: The photograph was actually taken on land owned by Chilton's neighbor.
Second: By the time Chilton took Marton to see the spot in question, the area that had been so muddy was no longer muddy at all. It was a lake, a lake that dried up during the spring of 2002 because of severe drought conditions. The picture actually depicted the lake's bottom.
Third: Just days before the Center's cameraman snapped the photo, the dry lake bed had hosted several hundred campers, who were throwing a May Day celebration.
Marton obtained photos from that event. Those photos show trucks, campers, tents, and a virtual platoon of hippies.
"People did this," Marton says. "People. Not cows."
But it wasn't until the Center's photographer, a college student named A.J. Schneller, testified in his deposition that Marton realized just how reckless the Center had been to include Photo #18 in its appeal and press release.
As Schneller conceded, when he took the photograph for the Center, he knew all about the May Day party that had happened on the same spot just days before.
How did he know about it?
Because he'd been there, Schneller admitted. Partying.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
SUCKLING, I can't imagine a more fitting name for this Enviro Wacknut.
I don't know about distinguishing happy cows, but I can help with the concept as it applies to bears ;-)
They probably lie/mislead like this more often than is reported.
High five to the cowboy!
What's to prevent the Center for Biological Diversity from declaring bankruptcy and avoiding the judgement? And then starting up under a new name and continuing its harassment.
Anyone familiar with bankruptcy law?
bump
Certainly IS worth the read. God bless this man for doing what more ought to do.
I applaud this man for standing up to these extremists!
I also echo the sentiments offered by several others: the writer did a great job telling the story in a balanced way.
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