THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 771, May 18, 2014
There are, broadly speaking, two main strands
in the opposition to the New World Order. Where
these two strands disagree is over the cause of
the New World Order. For one, it is the final
result of the Enlightenment. For the other
strand, the enemy is a counter-Enlightenment.

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Letter from Jeff Fullerton

Letter from L. Neil Smith

Letter from Rex May

Letter from Jeff Fullerton

PA Big Three

Re: "My Fair Share" by L. Neil Smith

My sacrifice to the commonweal: the three most beautiful chelonian species in Pennsylvania which have the most commercial appeal and are very easy to take care of and breed in captivity. The PA Big 3:

The Eastern Box Turtle—Terrepene carolina carolina.
The North American Wood—Glyptemys insculpta.
The Spotted Turtle—Clemmys guttata.

Gave them up. It was that or risk fines in the neighborhood of thousands of dollars per violation. All because a state wildlife agency insists on a blanket prohibition because it cannot afford to trust "unqualified" private individuals to do it right. But more likely it is a matter of the agency and others like it—so heavily steeped in Progressive Era vintage dogma of contraband conservation and deep ecology mysticism ; imposing their philosophical preferences on others. Can't even order a few from the Turtle Source or other breeders as I did the Nihon Ishigame and Chinese Box Turtles. Had I opted to remain an outlaw turtle keeper and wanted a new bloodline I could always go to Florida and tell them I just moved down there and have not changed my driver's license yet or get a friend who lives there to buy one for me. But that is water under the bridge now.

As the portion of text I just lost when my iPad ran out of power and shut down! The reconstituted version: shorter and sweeter.

I have long wondered how much farther ahead we might be if the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission had just gotten out of the way 20 or 30 years ago when many of these species were still common and just let the hobbyists and breeders do their thing. Which is the real "sustainable" thing to do since in the long run it is actually easier to produce offspring in captivity than collect from the wild.

Also this but one example of the Law of Unintended Consequences as it pertains to green issues and "sustainability". And harm to the economic wellbeing of people. Another one is the conversion of the corn crop into ethanol fuel additives driven by federal subsidies that are in addition to reversing previous conservation gains by putting marginal land that makes good wildlife habitat back into production and pollution from increased runoff of agrochemicals—is also hurting the poor in other countries like Mexico where it was driving up the cost of corn tortillas. And may have been a contributing factor to the hunger in Egypt and neighboring countries that was probably the spark that set that region on fire a few years ago. Many have suffered and died so farmers could get subsidies and politicians could buy votes. Even folks in the USA who heat their homes with propane had to deal with higher prices and shortages on top of a colder winter because propane is burned on the process of making Ethanol! That math sure is flawed.

Ethyl alcohol is a lousy energy source. Factoring in the amount of energy to produce and transport it—gasoline has a much lower carbon footprint and overall environmental impact. But government and its favored special interests are more concerned about the unintended consequences of someone raising turtles or little things a private individual might do with his one her own land—but not their regulatory overreach or pet projects like the bird killing cuisine arts lining the ridge tops of Appalachia. Or the solar furnace in the California desert that cooks an occasional eagle or hawk! Lending credence to the slogan on a poster I saw on the wall of the HQ of the Propertarian Party in the Probability Broach graphic novel "The State is Harmful to All Living Things".

Human and non-human alike.

How much farther would we be ahead as reptile hobbyists and breeders if the energy we divert toward fighting back against those who want to put an end to our craft was used to advance and enhance the husbandry of our animals? That is true of every field of endeavor. The price paid is way more than anyone's fair share in the way of opportunities and knowledge lost. And the joy and happiness ruined in order to satisfy compliance with rules and regulations. Like in my case—all those years of hoping and dreaming that maybe the PFBC might one day come to its senses and change the rules for the better. Only in the end they changed them for the worst which forced me to change course and start over again from scratch!

Of course the species I have chosen to be my New Big Three are not so perfectly adapted to the local conditions as the original ones were, but they come fairly close. At least many of the lessons learned previously are still applicable. Aside from superficial differences between species and even major family groups scattered around the globe—turtles are turtles and their basic design and behavioral ecology has not changed much since the breakup of the continents millions of years ago.

Be it a North American Wood Turtle, Japanese Pond Turtle, an Australian Side-neck, a Snapping Turtle, a Green Sea Turtle or Galapagos Tortoise—with few exceptions—I've noticed the nesting ritual that takes place on some sandy field or beach is virtually the same rote, blind instinct that was well established even before the first dinosaurs came into existence and has served them well ever since. And if we blow it, some form of chelonian will be doing it the same way for millions, if not billion of years hence (without the help of state and federal wildlife agencies ) until the sun starts leaving the Main Sequence and the planet Earth becomes too hot to sustain anything but the hardiest forms of microbial life.

Maybe in the far distant future on a sweltering beach of a shrinking ocean there will be a scene like that in HG Well's The Time Machine where the time traveler stopped briefly to witness the last days of life on Earth. But instead of giant crabs it will be giant turtles!

Jeff Fullerton
[email protected]

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