Eat Moose, Wear Wolf

I saw this bumper sticker yesterday, for about the millionth time. It's a very common bumper sticker up here. You can click on it for a larger version.

Simple sentiment, expressed clearly. Alaska girls kick ass. This one statement wraps up about 90% of the Alaska experience. Man or woman, in the North toughness is implicit, and if you'd like to whine, you can go back to wherever you came from and whine your heart out.

If you look at the rest of the picture, the Alaska girl in question was driving a 4x4 Chevy Siverado pickup. Also common. Unlike, say, New Jersey, there is a real need for a pickup and a 4x4 up here. If it's -50 outside, you might want to think twice about getting in a vehicle that gets easily stuck. Also, a huge number of people up here live in a very rural setting. Many folks need a pickup just to move stuff to their house, like water, since they don't have wells.

SUV's are silly in Darien, Connecticut. That's where one organization is from that doesn't want folks up here killing wolves legally. In Alaska. Think about that one for a second.

A group
in Connecticut
upset
about Alaska

Most times when a "green" group is protesting some thing up here in Alaska, they're off at some distance, say, Seattle, Los Angeles, Connecticut. When they come up here, sometimes they allegedly break our environmental laws. Very few Alaska residents are in the news protesting moose hunting. A more typical Alaska sentiment is:

Eat Moose, Wear Wolf

Saw that bumper sticker on Friday. Wow. I wish I'd had my camera at the time. As I understand it, this is the official position of Alaska PETA members.

Then, driving down the road during the same trip, I listened to a talk radio host who was upset because he wanted to own automatic weapons, real machine guns. Thought they should be legal for anyone who could legally own guns. All callers agreed. Again, wow.

So, to summarize:

• Guns still popular in the 49th state, but people want more of them, larger calibers, more ammo
  
• Moose thought to be tasty
• Wolf thought to be fashionable (and warm)
• Protesters based in Connecticut like wolves
  
• Alaska girls (including The Mrs.) kick ass

(Sunday Afternoon Addendum: A local editorialist also wrote in the paper negatively about the dead wolf this weekend)