mattys281

We all get a little passionate about politics and religion - so I let your joyful comments about my "pending bankruptcy" go... but today they announced on MSNCB that STAGflation has reached the highest level in 33 YEARS - thanks to the cost of energy and food. Not so much a spike, but an ugly reality that may not affect a community that revolves around an in-demand commodity like copper, but for the rest of us, it is very symbiotic. If Bob-the-Builder gets laid off, he cannot buy non-essentials and may not even be able to afford necessities and has to rely on tax-payer relief [that we all pay for], the shops he formerly frequented suffer with declining sales and let people go... each person laid-off has a disparaging story that he or she cannot help but share - and everyone who hears thinks they too should stop spending and squirrel-away some nuts... thus the economy goes into a serious tail spin. I read the jobless claims [more tax-payer support] rose by 80,000 men and women - they'll probably be looking at bankruptcy too. Like CnS suggested - a little humility and humanity goes a long way... after all, we're all just here[CwT] to be [good]sportsman, eh? I hear you guys & never meant to sound like I don't care about others hardships. Also, for my daily dose of humble pie, when doing the grocery shopping this week I paid closer attention to what I actually was paying per item & did notice a price increase on more than one thing. Apples were up & so were the Cambells soups that I often buy for my lunches. Fortunately, Hamburger helper seems to be holding steady (as I still have about 15 or 20 lbs of ground deer in the freezer, that's an important one!). As a small business owner myself, I hope nothing but the best for your family & your business. I've been very fortunate in my career, having already survived 3 lay-offs in the past 15 years, but I also recognize that that's what it was - good fortune. Ive seen plenty of people who were smarter & more experienced then me walk. Guess they didn't have my great people skills. Matt S.

+1 on that. I was out checking a trail cam w/ my boy last July & we ran into three of them on the way out! That's too many for one trip in my book.

Unfortunately Lark, the election outcome and the aftermath will have everything to do with race and the liberal media bias. Doesnt much matter how experienced Obama is[nt], he has already won the alligance of most every person of color, and every clueless MTV & MySpace-watching young person in this country. They have no idea [and dont much care] how far down the darkside this creep will take us - because he's been anointed by the media. One of the long-lasting bi-products of this election battle will be to reignite the tension or full-on battle between races - if he doesnt win, be-that Billary using super delegits to "diss"enfranchise his people, or McLame stomping him because a national alarm clock wakes people to their senses - either way they've been "diss'd" by whitey - yet again. Honestly, the only colors that matter to me in an election are TRUE red-white-blue and the green necessary to move our economic machine. God help us - literally I had this same conversation w/ a couple guys I work with the other day. They think that McCain will take it, but I pointed out the trendyness factor with young people. Being black is "in", and being non-discriminatory is even more "in". What better way to prove you're not a racist then to vote for a black guy? There was also a clip on channel eight a couple weeks ago where they were interviewing some local feminist who was just livid w/ her daughter for not supporting Hillary. She said that as feminists, they were obligated to support her, because the feminist movement had been working towards a female candidate for over 40 years. No mention of qualifications or her stance on any issues. The only important thing was that she has a vagina! Seem's to me that there's about 3 billion of those on the planet, & her's isn't even good enough to keep her husband at home, so how in the heck does it qualifier her to lead my country?!! None the less, that's the though process that we're dealling with. Matt S.

And about 98% of the photos I posted are hosted on my own COX sites. That said, I wonder how many folks here know that they can actually store up to 10MB per email address with Cox without having to actually create a web site or have the email address active. I have 7 of them, thus can store 70MB of images. -TONY Everything I've posted recently is linked from myspace.com, since Amanda's post about linking images instead of uploading. Links are free for her & myspace is free for me.

LOL! That's priceless!

Based on what I'm told, I think they have a ferral population. It's public land & otc tag. It may not be mouflan's, I'm not 100% sure. I met up w/ some guys on archerytalk.com that do a yearly trip. They come from all over the country, and as mentioned earlier, they're all completely insane. Just the kind of company I can appreciate! I can't wait to go.

I hear ya. I've only drawn one elk tag & my girlfriend butchered that hunt w/ her Dale Earnhardt Sr. impersonation and those sheep pics are enough to get anyone's blood pumping. I managed to get invited on a sheep hunt in NM for the spring of '09. Mouflan sheep, I believe. I'm not even sure what the heck a mouflan sheep looks like, but as I've been swapping e-mails w/ the others in the group for several months now, I know w/ that pack of nuts even a jack-rabbit hunt would still be one helluva time. Matt S.

Now you know how most of us felt when pics of your trophy room were floating around! Speakin of which, am I mistaken, or have you not contributed to this thread yet? Matt S.

Don't know about those other units, but I didn't see enough hunters in unit 1 last Aug. to warrant a draw.

I thought he needed penecillin for that other stuff?

This pic is kinda crappy, but it was my very first bow kill in 1997. Took about four or five years of bow-hiking to luck into this little javi. This is my first bow-killed deer. Took about 12 years of bow-hiking on & off when I had time, and then about 2 years of butt-busting, do or die bowhunting.

I'm not saying that inflation isn't possible. It happens day in-day out. It is continuous, 365 days per year. The only variable is the rate of inflation, and it's not uncommon to see a spike that comes down in short-order. I'm not convinced that my dollar is going to suddenly become worthless in the next six months. I am convinced that people are going to have to start managing their finances instead of just swiping their credit cards & making the minimum payment when the bill comes in.

I wasn't trying to be arrogant at all. I've honestly not noticed a drastic increase in food prices, but I haven't been looking for one to tell the truth. Energy prices are a fricking sham. I've been living on my own since I was sixteen years old & can't remember them ever going down. What can we do about it? The point I was trying to make, and evidently did so poorly, is that it will not be only ipods & nick-nacks that fall in price. It'll be all consumer goods. When people stop spending, those who remain in the market get a bargain. That's all I was saying.

What an awesome buck, Kirk. I'm already going crazy waiting for August to roll around & you're making it worse! Congrats again. Matt S.

I'll be headin over to Christy's Cabaret & donating mine to help support single mothers & college co-eds, one dollar bill at a time.

What part of ARgentina were you in? My GF is from Baya Blanca.

Well, smart-butt, why don't you give us an example of what your paying more for, other than fuel. Calling the rising cost of fuel a result of inflation is about the same as saying the canadian geese migration is the cause of global warming - their unrelated. I'm only 30 and certainly haven't seen it all, but I have see that fuel goes up every year regardless of what our economy is doing. Buy a hybrid or deal with it those are your options. And of course delivery costs will go up as a result, common sense there. I also hope you're including vehicles in your category of non-essentials, as the price on those usually plummets with the economy. Example: I've been hearing on the radio that one local dealership has Ram 1500's starting at $12k? Not to mention housing prices that are also falling through the floor, but again I guess you lump those in with i-pods. I do most of the grocery shopping in my house & haven't noticed an increase in the price of beef, pasta, or vegetables in the last three years. Apples are still 99 cents/lb. at Super Wal-mart, just like they were three years ago. Good point, though. Every economist I've seen on the news for the last couple months agrees we're in a recession, and there's going to be some bad things that go with that. The only thing that I find surprising about it, however, is that everyone seems surprised. Our economy has been driven on credit spending for the last 2 decades at least, not on real income. How long did people expect that to last? For God's sake, average household credit debt (cards, not counting auto-loans) has increased over 400% since 1980! The price of a new vehicle increased between 250%-300% between 1985 & 2000, while the average wage only went up around 10% for the same time period. Not to mention what's happening politically with all the uncertainty right now. The market never responds well around election time. And incidently, I am one of those people with a good job and savings. I'm also one of those that has almost no debt & usually pays for things in cash. Hate to be the one to break it to you, but you being bankrupt is great news for me.

+1 on that. Hate to try'n talk someone out of something they like, but with the readily available supply of carbons & superior qualities.... hard to stay with aluminums. I had been shooting Easton ACCs for a while (carbon wrapped around an alum. core tube), but now have even gone away from those, as they bend just like aluminums, but are much more difficult to straighten IMO. Now I shoot the PSE Radial X-weaves & those things are tough as nails! I regularly bounce my blunt-tipped carbons around through cactus & rock fields while shooting at rabbits & almost never break one. Matt S.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall from my econ classes, inflation & the unemployment rate usually move opposite one another do to exactly what you said: people stop spending. The law of supply & demand shows that when demand for a certain good drops, so does the price, hence a bunch of people getting laid off might cause havoc in the stalk market, but for those of use with cash reserves who manage to hold on to our good-paying jobs, we'll be able to purchase more goods for our dollar. The u.s. dollar will drop in relationship to the Euro & the UK pound (big surprise) in relationship to the GDP & as a result of our "instability", but will actually end of having high purchasing power in our domestic markets, in the hands of the people that still have money to spend.

Now that I know she's related to someone on here, I will try to keep the drooling to a minimum. No promises, though....

I'm havin a hard time with it this year. I'm interested to see who throws their hat in the ring on an independent ticket, as between these other three a-holes it seems like you're just voting for the lesser evil. I don't think any independent will get elected, but maybe if someone descent steps up & gets a fair percentage at least, that can be a stepping stone for other ind. types to build on in following elections. You know, kinda build some momentum. From that point of view, it's not a wasted vote. I've been thinking about re-registering as an independent & now that McCain got the nod I guess I'm gonna have to follow through with it.

Huhm. Why are the most obvious solutions always the last ones we see? Clears up that little mystery.

It's a lot better at Christy's.

FYI.... This is Exactly what the Muslims plan to do to us! Although, I think thier book writes a little more about killing us too.... CnS I've not read the entire Koran, & can't quote the exact verse (memory slips w/ time), but I recall in my contemporary religions class from college reading in there that Muslims are forbidden from commiting acts of violence against any other followers of "the book" (the old testament, specifically). This includes the Christians w/ their bibles & the Jews w/ their Talmut. I've not read the whole Koran, so I can't say what is or what isn't in there, but I did read this part of it. The people we're having problems with are F-ed up terrorists who come from F-ed up country's where their F-ed up governments manipulate their religions & use BS propaganda to make the us (the United States, not Christians) the bad guys. Think about it, most of these piss-hole countries don't have running water, let alone TV, & 3 hours worth of global news on Direct TV. They only know what they're told. As you may recall from history, Christians have done plenty of killing of their own over time. The Spanish Inquisistion saw thousands of people burned at the stake for be heretics, not to mention the Protestant Reformation & of course two of the three crusades were started by Christians. More recently, the IRA was making news before the Taliban for blowing up everything they could in England, taking their "fight for freedom" to civilian doorsteps. I'm not trying to jab at anyone's personal beliefs, but I honestly believe that the problem here has nothing to do with religions, it has to do with extremism & terrorist nations using a twisted version of their religion to justify their need for violence. As for Obama, last I hear that muslim rumor was started by a BS e-mail (which I also received), but has since been discredited. Check out snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp Matt S.

+1 Very well stated......BMH needs to keep to himself, and not judge others before getting to know them. Make it +2. I think this is a great cause & one that has hit my family like many others. My foster mother is a BC survivor, as was my grandmother, who incidently just past away on St. Patty's day at the age of 87, minus both of her breasts. My GF & I are both planning on walking the 3-day this year. If anyone else is interested, maybe we could form a coueswhitetail team & walk as a group. As for the arrows, I think it's a great way to show your support, but I'm sticking with my Radial X-weaves. Matt S. http://08.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/Arizona...80&pg=entry