Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘animal sanctuary’

Visiting mom today in Newport (which is on the central coast) she tells us of a coyote hanging out on the street up from hers. Mom lives literally across the street from the ocean, up a hill, in the Nye Beach area. The coyote has been seen by several people in the area.

The Oregonian’s Lori Tobias, in a September 2009 article, wrote of the coyote population in the area: Newport: Coyotes on the increase along the coast

NEWPORT – No one realized Amber was missing until Sheila Sammons got the call on Sunday morning: a neighbor had found her cat’s collar.

“I knew right away something was very wrong,” said Sammons. “I thought there’d been a cat fight and that I would find her injured in the bushes.”

Instead, Sammons would discover Amber had fallen prey to wild animals she didn’t even know inhabited the area; one whose numbers are unusually high this year — coyotes.

“We’ve had a lot of calls about coyotes this year,” said Doug Cottam , a wildlife biologist in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Newport office. “It has been a good year for the survival of the young. The conditions were good, mild and a little wetter.”

Complaints about the animals, reputed for their clever but cautious ways, have long been common on parts the central coast.

“In the past, in Lincoln City in particular, there were numerous coyotes that were tame and habituated to people,” said Cottam. “We’ll get calls from tourists and there’ll be coyotes on the beach, and they are fairly unafraid.”

Usually, when I’m at the coast, I’m busy looking for agates and UFOs. Now I have to add coyotes to my list.

Echoes of Hitchcock and owl-as-alien-guide-to-liminal-experiences, Strange Owl Groups & CWD Found In MO Deer Short-Eared Owls By The Hundreds,
by Larry Dablemont on Rense.com reports strange owl sightings in Greenfield, Mo. Dablemont hosts a local nature radio program and writes he’s never heard of owls congregating in large numbers, and in daylight. Very weird. Dablemont writes:

A couple of weeks ago a gentleman from Greenfield, Mo. called in, and identified himself as Faren Fite. I thought for a moment it was some kind of hoax call, because he said he had seen around 200 owls the day before in one small area between Greenfield and Lockwood. He said that on one corral fence there were more than thirty in a group!

Photos of the owls here.

It was a huge group of short-eared owls, a species a little bit like the barred owl in size and appearance. But in habit, they are much different than most of the owls we are accustomed to hearing and seeing in the Ozarks. They have a mean look to them, with ornery-looking bright yellow eyes rather than the brown eyes the barred owl has. And the face is much different, with a pronounced circle of feathers, contrasting white and dark brown, and two little feather patches referred to as “ears”, which are much like the horns on a horned owl.

Dablemort also reports on cases of Chronic Wasting Disease, which, sadly and spookily, is being found in deer and other wildlife in the U.S:

Finally, mad-deer disease, or Chronic Wasting Disease, has come to Missouri, right where I predicted it would first be found, in one of those deer pens where they try to raise giant antlers by feeding an herbivorous creature a diet that includes meat by-products

Authorities deny there is anything harmful in CWD (well, to humans anyway, apparently the animals don’t count.)

Strange Planet has a good post about the recent earthquakes, including yesterday’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile. As Strange Planet points out:

 An 8.8 compared to Japan’s 7.0 is not a quake 1.8 times the intensity, as many of you know. It’s exponentially horrific. A 7.1 is ten times the power of a 7.0, a 7.2 is ten times a 7.1, and so on.

When the sea lions left the San Fransico area, I posted that they left for a reason, and I said that they left because of soon to be witnesses earthquakes. Strange Planet also wonders, as I did last night when I heard the news, if the OCR attack on his trainer wasn’t in some ways due to the earthquakes. Giant squid washing up on beaches all up and down the coast, and other unusual marine life behaviors — we’ve been witnessing this recently. A combination of factors, including global warming/climate changes, which the earthquakes are a part of.

As to the orca Tilkumat and the death of his trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld and that tragedy, part of that tragedy is that whales and other creatures (big cats, elephants, etc.) are kept in captivity in the first place. Strange Planet comments:

 Several days ago, there’s the sad incident at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, where a trainer was killed by a 12,000lb. OCR. Reps for the park called it a deadly misstep on the trainer’s part, leaving her ponytail wagging in the water, signaling the animal to seize it as a ‘toy’. Could be. Could also be that he wants out of this bathtub and back into the wild, and that he also sensed something out there. Because if you remember, in the interviews that followed with the staff, they said all of the animals were behaving strangely, were agitated, and just weren’t performing as they know how. There’s something deeper there. [italics mine]

There certainly is “something deeper there.”

The tragic end of Keiko (the orca known as “Free Willy” and kept at the Newport, Oregon aquarium until his release into the ocean) is not something I want to see happen again. I don’t know if releasing Tilikum the orca (I will not use the exploitive and titillating term “killer whale”) back to the ocean is the right thing to do. Maybe it is, I honestly don’t know. A start to prevent these tragedies, and, to simply prevent the imprisonment of sentient beings like orcas in the first place, is to make it illegal to keep these creatures in captivity.

As to the events occurring now, local news (Eugene, Oregon, about 50 miles inland) tells us of tsunami warnings on the Oregon coast because of the earthquakes in Chile and Japan. According to the KEZI news website:

The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami advisory for the Oregon coastal area.  Coastal residents are advised to stay out of the water, off the beach, and away from harbors and marinas.

This is not a watch or warning. No significant coastal flooding is expected to  be produced by this wave.  However, some areas of the coast could experience dangerous currents and surges in harbors and bays due to this tsunami. [a href=”http://kezi.com/news/local/164262”> Massive Quake Prompts Tsunami Advisory For Oregon Coast

I heard about the earthquake in Chile from Ian Punnett on C2C. He said there weren’t any details but that the news was, an 8.5 (at the time, that’s what was reported; today’s paper said it was 8.8) earthquake in Chile. So I turned on the TV, with our roughly 250 channels, and I couldn’t find one news program. 11:30ish pm, and not one news program. I mean news, like the old CNN, where you had simple, straight forward information coming in about what was going on in the world. What I found were “news” shows having to do with entertainment, news shows, of a sort, with a host or two but clearly the show was about them, and what they wanted to focus on, which seemed mostly to be the tragedy at SeaWorld. The most news I got was from the Weather Channel.

In an odd bit of juxtapositioning, the following item was in today’s local news about Oregon’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport: State OKs money for Oregon marine mammal center:

Assuming Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the bill, researchers at Hatfield hope that amount will be enough to win $16 million in federal funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also called NIST. Combined, that would be $25 million, enough to build the new center.

“This would establish a unique center, a university-based center for the study of marine mammals,” said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute. “It would be the largest in the U.S.

“It will give us the unique capacity to advance technology for the study of and protection of marine mammals, including satellite tagging, advanced studies of life history and analyses of genetics diversity.”

As with the people of Haiti, my prayers and thoughts go to those in Chile as well.

According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, there is a moose population in Oregon’s Blue Mountains in the eastern part of the state. The moose population is small; about 60 altogether. Moose have been spotted for a few decades but “only recently have animals been considered established residents.” says the ODFW site. Unfortunately, Oregon’s moose might have a parasite that can be fatal. Scientists aren’t sure the parasite is the cause; they speculate the deaths of the Oregon moose were caused by a parasite found in Wyoming moose that killed some of the animals there:

“We lost two of our radioed animals this summer, and we could never determine the cause of death,” said Pat Matthews, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. “So this sort of jumped out as a possibility.” (Register Guard)

While the deaths are worrisome, and there are indicators that the parasite might be the cause of death, the herd in Oregon does seem to be thriving.

Sources:
The Oregonian:Oregon biologists fear small moose herd may be infected with deadly parasite

Moose on the Loose!

Register-Guard:Oregon biologists look into moose deaths

Kym Pokorny, for the Oregonian, makes it clear in her article Mix of gardens and guns is, well, just wrong she isn’t against guns, exactly, but finds the combination of guns and gardens bizarre. I concur.

It feels surreal to peruse the magazine’s Web site. The “About Us” section says, “Garden & Gun” is a Southern lifestyle magazine that’s all about the magic of the new South – the sporting culture, the food, the music, the art, the literature, the people, and the ideas. It espouses a strong conservation ethic that grows out of its connection to the land, and it reveals the beauty of the South.”


Well, hmmm. I guess the gun part comes with the sporting culture. I can’t really see bloody carcasses as part of the beauty of anything, but, then, that’s me. And I don’t really think they run photos of any dead things.

The mix of stories is weird: a guy in Atlanta who grows 43 different varieties of boxwood; letting your wife choose your “hard-core gun dog” (that’s wrong on so many levels); farmers and environmentalists joining forces to bring back the bison; a company that rebuilds shotguns.

More here.

The following item in today’s local paper (Register Guard) echoed the Bison post that appeared here the other day. Today’s item is about a proposed mobile slaughter house in Eastern Oregon with Dan Forsea, the president of Baker County’s Livestock Association, explaining the the need for a mobile slaughter house:

“Right now, the closest place for us to haul our cattle (for slaughtering) is in the Boise area,” he said.

Some of the processed meat gets hauled right back to Baker County for a “beef to schools” program.

I have no idea what “beef to schools” program means, I assume it’s selling off beef to the school districts.

There are independent slaughter people for hire who will go out and slaughter your animals; but a mobile slaughter house is a new idea:

Financial and environmental considerations have weighed against building a meat processing plant in Oregon. But Forsea said Joel Huesby, a rancher near Walla Walla, Wash., has built one of the first mobile slaughtering plants the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved.

He says that could be a model for one in Oregon. He had Huesby in Baker County recently to talk to ranchers.

According to the article, one of the goals of the mobile slaughter house is to “increase the value of his cattle and cattle raised by other ranchers around Walla Walla County and other areas.”

When writing the Bison post, (Fortean Bison: Sacrifice in South Dakota) it brought back memories of a disgusting episode experienced by friends of mine who had just bought several acres in Western Oregon, and the above news item falls into the same category. Continuing the theme of slaughter and mobility, I was reminded of a trailer left on the newly brought property friends of mine bought a few years ago. A lot of things were left behind by the previous owners, including a horse, who was sadly neglected; fortunately he now has a very happy life, thanks to my friends. One of the things they left on the property was a small trailer. I was curious about the interior of the trailer; but my friend warned me it was pretty disgusting. She said the trailer was full of Mason jars full of meat. I opened the door; the inside of the trailer was dim. There were shelves and shelves of mason jars full of greasy, white-ish gray, sometimes dark, meat type liquid stuff. Some of this stuff was oozing out around the top of the jars, there were flies buzzing around… like a scene from a horror movie. Adding to the weirdness was that the meat filled jars had been put up in the 1980s. It wasn’t that there was any smell, surprisingly, although there was a thick hint of dust and grease. It was the vibe; just a strong WHAP! of wasted life energy, of sadness and decay. And that was all just standing on the step leading to the inside of the trailer; I couldn’t bring myself to go further.
All this made me remeber a letter I found written by my grandfather, William H. Galvani (his assumed name when he left Russia and entered the U.S.) My grandfather, who died when my mother was eighteen so of course I never knew him, was an interesting man. He was a Russian Jew, having left the Ukraine in his twenties; a Buddhist, wrote a book on Theosophy and other topics, and a vegetarian. Oh, and a 32nd degree Mason. I found the following annual report on line he wrote when he president of the Oregon Vegetarian society in 1897. In this letter he mentions the Society’s success at stopping a beef killing contest (a beef killing contest!):

We prevented the two packing companies in this city and state from carrying out a most brutalizing exhibit in form of a beef killing contest for which they made all necessary arrangements, after having obtained from the constituted authorities special permission to proceed with so monstruous a show. It was a Vegetarian who first entered a protest in the columns of the local press, who interviewed the leading ministers of the principal religious denominations, obtaining a promise for a sermon on this monstrosity on the Sunday evening immediately following first protest, and who convinced the municipal authorities of the justice of his claims, so that notice was given to the packing companies. ordering them to give up the project of exhibiting butchering skill in the killing of animals more useful than themselves. Thus the hog and beef-eating heirs of immortality where given a lesson which must have set them to thinking, at least some few of them, since the vast majority, seldom, if ever, thinks. It also gave rise to a newspaper controversy on the merits of Vegetarianism, which resulted in silencing the carnivorous portion of the community, who prefer the morgue to the fields and gardens for their food supply.

The entire letter is below:

Vegetarian Federal Union 1889-1911
ANNUAL REPORT 1897
OREGON VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

The past year’s work of the Oregon Vegetarian Society has been a year of of marked progress. On January 18th, we shall celebrate the beginning of the seventh year of continuous activity. During all this time we managed to hold up high the banner of Vegetarianism by monthly meetings, press reports, controversies, and by every other method that was best calculated to advance the claims of a bloodless diet on every thinking mind. At present we can number among us eminent professional men and women skilled in arts and sciences, as well as mechanics and labourers, all of whom unite in bearing the best kind of testimony to the superiority of the products of the plant world as the source of Nature’s food supply for the human species.

My own experience, as well as that of many others whose opinion is fully deserving of serious consideration, is still on the side of maintaining at all times the principle of the sacredness of all life, including all animals, other than man, as the basic principle for our claims. Of this too we are reminded by the Son of David and King of Israel in his declaration: “A man hath no preeminence above a beast ” – Eccles. iii. 19. This ought ot be sufficient for all such as justify the slaughter of animals for food upon theological interpretations of man’s supposed right to claim special privileges above all other organized representatives throughout creation’s domains. As to those whose reasoning faculties do not always accept the interpretations of theology, this will also do, since they cannot upon any logical grounds reject the declaration just quoted.

Among our most successful efforts in Vegetarianism are:

(1) We prevented the two packing companies in this city and state from carrying out a most brutalizing exhibit in form of a beef killing contest for which they made all necessary arrangements, after having obtained from the constituted authorities special permission to proceed with so monstruous a show. It was a Vegetarian who first entered a protest in the columns of the local press, who interviewed the leading ministers of the principal religious denominations, obtaining a promise for a sermon on this monstrosity on the Sunday evening immediately following first protest, and who convinced the municipal authorities of the justice of his claims, so that notice was given to the packing companies. ordering them to give up the project of exhibiting butchering skill in the killing of animals more useful than themselves. Thus the hog and beef-eating heirs of immortality where given a lesson which must have set them to thinking, at least some few of them, since the vast majority, seldom, if ever, thinks. It also gave rise to a newspaper controversy on the merits of Vegetarianism, which resulted in silencing the carnivorous portion of the community, who prefer the morgue to the fields and gardens for their food supply.

(2) Another cause for congratulation is the establishment in this city of a medical mission under the management of Dr. W. F. Hubbard, where medical advice and medicines if necessary, will be furnished free to the poor, and where they will be provided with lodgings, baths night garments, etc., for, ten cents per night, and with meals at ONE CENT per per dish. This establishment is on absolutely Vegetarian principles, all animal foods being most positively excluded, and so stated in all advertising matter of the institution. All credit for this excellent enterprise is due to the Vegetarians from among the Seventh Day Adventist denomination who have taken upon themselves the establishment and maintenance of this institution.

I cannot bring this report to a close without expressing the grateful acknowledgment of the O.V.S. to Dr. D. W. Reed, formerly head physician of the Portland Sanitarium, and now of Colorado, and to Dr. W. F. Hubbard, his successor, for their active cooperation in maintaining our public meetings, and to Mrs. Lucy A. Mallory, at whose house the O.V.S. has had its home ever since its organization.

With greetings to all Vegetarians, wherever found, and especially to the Men and Women of England, whose Spirit of Justice and Love of Freedom – the source of all that is truly great and noble among humankind – have ever been their chief traits, I beg to close this report of our efforts for the year 1897.

WILLIAM H. GALVANI,
President, Oregon Vegetarian Society.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
January 1, 1898.

---

Sources
Vegetarian History

Register Guard Newspaper

Image: Good Stuff!

A gruesome and sad story, with Fortean elements, from South Dakota. Bridge water South Dakota became overwhelmed by the stench of over 44 tons of rotting bison meat. The owner of the meat processing plant abandoned his business, leaving behind tons of frozen bison meat. Electricity was shut off for nonpayment, though the meat stayed frozen through the severe Dakota winters. When spring and summer arrived, the meat thawed. It didn’t just thaw; it literally “liquified.” The stink of decomposing bison flesh was worse than “rotten [human] bodies” commented mayor Barattini:

Some said the scent was like road kill. The mayor said he spent two tours of duty in Vietnam and could not recall smelling anything as bad.

“This is worse than rotten bodies,” Barattini said.

Going in a Fortean, slightly esoteric direction, we can say all those bison were sacrificed for nothing; the symbolism of the bison as an animal of strength, abundance and nurturing gift to indigenous peoples is contrasted with the legacy of man’s greed and disrespect for both non-human and human beings. Ilan Parente, the man responsible for leaving behind the rotting bison meat in Bridge water started another meat business in Minnesota called Noah’s Ark Processors. A strange name for a meat processing place. Another little Fortean item is the fact the bison meat was Kosher — and to be sold as pet food.

Days of clean-up, expenses, faulty meat processing plant with taxes owed, as well as a house, and lawsuits in the past for violations — with little word from the owner, who only had this to say:

“I feel bad for the people of Bridgewater who had to live with the smell. But that’s really where the extent of my feeling bad goes. It wasn’t ever a health hazard to anyone,” he told The Daily Republic of Mitchell in July.

Source
AOL News: 44 Tons of Rotting Meat Caused Big Stink

Image (public domain): Wildlife North America

A few years ago, it was good news among Oregon media, environmentalists, animal welfare activists, etc. that the wolf was making a comeback in Eastern Oregon. Pretty much, most people thought it neat. Not surprisingly, most ranchers didn’t think the news was neat; they quickly got on the defensive.

Well, the wolf has been making a slow comeback, and, as quickly as the wolf arrived, it’s been with equal quickness that the wolf has been assassinated.

About a year ago a wolf was found wounded on the Oregon/Idaho border. Reports of wolves being shot have been coming in; and here, sadly, is the latest story of two wolves killed.

What makes this news even sadder is that the killing of the wolves was approved by the “U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services with approval from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.” The killing of the wolves was met with both frustration and sadness:

“It saddens us that with so few wolves in the state, we lost these two animals,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.”

The wolves were killing sheep and attempts to drive the wolves away with non-lethal methods were tried first, like hazing.

Wolves are not a protected species, and it’s open season on wolves in Montana and Idaho. This is tragic not only for the wolves of course but the environment, says Noah Greenwald:

“Wolves are an incredibly important part of our environment, with research in Yellowstone National Park showing that reintroduction of wolves keeps elk and other ungulates on the move, leading to increased streamside vegetation, which in turn benefits numerous other species, such as beavers and songbirds.”

source:
Killing of Wolf Pair a Serious Setback to Wolf Recovery in Oregon

(Inspired by the recent Vanity Fair piece by Alex Shoumatoff, and reposted on my blog Women of Esoterica.)


I recently commented in a post for my blog Octopus Confessional on Alex Shoumatoff’s excellent article, Bohemian Tragedy, in the May issue of Vanity Fair. Shoumatoff’s article reveals the secrecy and greed of Grove members who are involved in “forest management” and “fire prevention” techniques by harvesting the redwoods in the Grove. Their cutting of the redwoods and other trees affects more than just private areas in a closely guarded compound; the aftermath affects entire eco-systems, within and without the Grove, including water systems and marine life.

Regarding the effects of these practices on the rest of us I wrote:

The Grove’s arrogance, power and disregard has affected not just themselves in their inner circle, but the outside world as well; the peasants, us, the no accounts, yes, the measly proletariat. The issue of salmon is a huge one; affecting far more than the meal on our dinner plates; it affects the environment as well as economy in many ways. The Grove calls all this harvesting “forest management” but there’s far more to this than simple “fire prevention” tactics, as Shoumatoff adeptly reveals.

The elitism, arrogance and power that is the foundation of Bohemian Grove is highly secretive, extremely protective of itself, and clings to these traits with rigorous tenacity. (Shoumatoff, a journalist, was kicked out of the Grove for trespassing — the legality of his treatment is in question. Shoumatoff takes part in an ironic history: The Bohemian Grove was founded by journalists in the late 1800s; today however journalists are banned from becoming members and are considered enemies of Grovers.)

Men — mainly white, Protestant men; few Jews or blacks, for example,have been members. As Shoumatoff writes:

They see themselves as the moral underpinnings of America’s greatness, whose central tenets are the Protestant work ethic: work hard and prosper and you’ll get into that great club in the sky. The Bohemian Club is like the Opus Dei of the Protestant American establishment. Very few Jews have made it in, and even fewer blacks.

The excluded include women,there are no women members. This shouldn’t be surprising, given the purpose of the Grove, which is to maintain power among the corporate-government complex. Herbert Hoover called the yearly meeting of fellow power elites “the greatest men’s party on Earth.” Sociology Professor Peter Philliips at Sonoma State, has said “This is a place men can go and hang out with people who are similar to them.” (Unclear if he is a member; I believe he is but not sure. However, he is an apologist for the Grove.) There have been a few “honorary” female members, as well as female guests, but these women are restricted as to access and privilege. They’re allowed to visit during the day, but cannot go into buildings except the City Club, and there they are kept to the downstairs. Access to the other camps on the 2,700 acre property is prohibited. Women guests, for example, spouses, sometimes visit, such as on the annual “Ladies Hi-jinks” night.

In 1979 the Grove was sued by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing but the Grove won. Judge Robert Kendall ruled that since men at the Grove “urinate in the open” the inclusion of women would “alter” the men’s behavior in a negative way. Pissing against trees seems to be part of the undercurrent of ritualistic behavior of Grove members. Shoumatoff makes reference to this penchant for tree pissing:

Another hallmark of the encampment is the promiscuous micturition—guys standing up to the redwoods and relieving themselves everywhere you look. Maybe they’re trying to symbolically assert their primacy over nature. But the amount of drinking that goes on, plus the fact that many members are elderly and likely have prostate problems and can’t make it back to their camp fast enough, also plays a role in what has become, if not a formal ritual, a group-reinforcing collective activity.

But back to women. While women aren’t powerful or rich enough to become members of the Grove, they are useful enough to work for the Grove. In 1981 the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, ruled that the Bohemian Grove had to start hiring women; the Grove appealed to the California Supreme Court and lost. Female employees of the Grove are restricted however; working only in a few select areas or “camps.” Presumably this excludes the rumors of prostitutes who are said to be present in the Grove during gatherings.

None of this is surprising; what else to expect from the industrial-global-banker-entertainment elite? Yet the Grove isn’t all just doddering old white men who piss against Redwoods and other plant life due mainly to alcoholic gluttony and enlarged prostates; it’s also the Fortean irony of members like ex-Grateful Dead musicians. And while women are not allowed in, is it any kind of victory if women were to become equal partners in weirdly goofy yet somber occult tinged rituals in the dead of night? It’s no comfort to me to know that there are women of power and wealth, in positions where global policies are made and implemented, that keep the rest of us hoi poli in our place, while they revel in the Grove. Those sisters would also exclude. We’d have a grove full of Margaret Thatchers; no appeasement there.

Another tidbit of irony comes to us by way of the Grove’s motto: “Weaving spiders come not here’ (see note at end of article) meaning, leave your cares behind, all you big powerful men you. Rituals invoking this intent are performed at the Grove; the “Cremation of Care” ritual symbolically burns away the burdens of the outside world. It’s tough being a member of the powers that be.

The reality is that policies and plans are put into place during these gatherings, and serious papers are presented on a variety of subjects affecting the world. For example, a list of topics presented at one Grove gathering are listed in a 2003 article by sociologist Peter Phillips for Counterpunch:

Additionally, there were daily lectures from world-class experts on global warming, war policy, school vouchers, mad deer disease, horse racing, stem cell research, terrorism, American-Russian relations, and marine ecosystem.

The paranoiac inclined Fortean can easily see the esoteric connections between those subjects.

The Grove’s two symbols, the Owl and the Spider, are both symbols of female wisdom. The Roman goddess Minerva is accompanied by an owl symbolizing the wisdom Minerva brings to the world. However, many, from the paranoid Christian anti-occultists to the unconsciously misogynist, the owl is the symbol of Lilith, which for many, represents Satan. This view ignores a more divine feminine perspective of Lilith. Regarding Spider, some Native American traditions “Grandmother Spider” weaves wisdom, bringing knowledge to others; but more importantly, Grandmother Spider is the creator! Women with Spider energy are powerful indeed.

Meanwhile, as cliché and basic Women’s Studies 101 it may sound, the fact is the men that are in power and come together at Bohemian Grove think little enough of women to include them in any meaningful — powerful enough — way. They’re useful, as servants, be they cooks, maids, clerks, hookers or wives of members but there their usefulness ends. In the Grove, what few women there are operate in a passive state, either as infrequent guests, or employees at the lowest rungs.

There are plenty of reasons to continue to rail against the Bohemian Grove meetings; for the above reasons, for the occult underpinnings, for their rape of the environment, to be a squeaky wheel. Take your pick.

---

Notes:
“Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you longlegged spinners, hence!
Beetles black approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.” ~ William Shakespeare

“A quote from the 1st Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 2, scene. 2. A charm to protect the sleeping Titania from tiny creatures common in England, all harmless, though once thought to be venomous.” From: “Weaving Spiders, Come Not Here” – What Is This Bohemian Grove?” by J. Mark Sovegin, 2008.

Alex Shoumatoff: Bohemian Tragedy, in Vanity Fair, May 2009
Peter Phillips:US Elites Celebrate Patriarchy, Racism and Class Privilege, in Counterpunch on-line 2003
Images:
Minerva, public domain

An excellent article in the May issue of Vanity Fair: Bohemian Tragedy by Alex Shoumatoff. Shoumatoff snuck into the Grove to investigate the harvesting of Redwoods. There isn’t that much money to be made in doing this, but there is great harm, so why continue? As Shoumatoff and others ask, why not charge membership fees and the like? Instead, arrogance combined with cold disregard rule. A man and ex-member named “Jock” has worked hard to get the Grove to see reason, yet nothing of the kind has happened. The money made from the harvesting of trees was used to “manage” the forest but the reality is very different:

But, according to Jock, the forest outside the main grove was in terrible shape. Hiking trails had been turned into logging roads, footbridges had been bulldozed and not repaired, and there was massive erosion in some places, some of it washing down into the Russian River, which once hosted the most abundant spawning runs of coho and king salmon and steelhead in California.

The Grove’s arrogance, power and disregard has affected not just themselves in their inner circle, but the outside world as well; the peasants, us, the no accounts, yes, the measly proletariats. The issue of salmon is a huge one; affecting far more than the meal on our dinner plates; it affects the envirnoment as well as economy in many ways. The Grove calls all this harvesting “forest management” but there’s far more to this than simple “fire preventation” tactics, as Shoumatoff adeptly reveals.

Bohemian Grove has long been a subject full of all the things an esoteric junkie loves: conspiracies, the occult, rituals, the power elite in costume by firelight, all the time taking themselves very seriously, even while seemingly winking and nodding towards the amusing nature of good old traditional fun . . . and there is a steady undercurrent in this mainstream presentation of this article. The arrogance and rape of nature underscores the darker conspiracy driven theories about the Bohemian Grove. After all, it’s the ruling class indeed, the elite, the powerful, the global-industrial-military-entertainment complex reveling in their power, hidden from the rest of us, that control things.

Strange too are the juxtapositions of culture icons within the Grove; ex-members of The Grateful Dead are members of the Grove, as well as Fortean ironies, like the name Bohemian itself, for there is nothing “bohemian” about the Grove at all. As Shoumatoff writes:

In the Bohemian Club, “bohemian” means something completely different from the free-living, poverty-stricken artist that the word usually conjures. It means toeing the party line, United We Stand. Unbohemian means being disloyal, betraying the pact, the global-dominance group. It’s the worst thing a member can be called.

Thug tactics at work; Shoumatoff is rudely, and no doubt illegally, treated, but who’s to care? And the audit that suddenly befalls one of the Redwood’s protectors also teeters on the illegal. But again, who’s to care, and who’s going to change it?

This isn’t about saving a few pretty trees, but about protecting ancient Redwoods that, if left alone, help the environment and help protect us from global warming, er, “climate changes.” This refusal by the rulers of Grove is both disturbing and puzzling; as mentioned, why not charge more from members, if money is the issue? Is the continued and stubborn desecration of the Redwoods a sacrifice to maintain power? It seems so.

Image source: State Symbols USA