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Gayne, have you narrowed down your list of questions for Episode 7? | |||
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did mine make it? | |||
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I'm gonna be pissed if my spirit animal question gets nixed in favor of your screw/marry/kill  | |||
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Values matter. Tiger Woods is (was) a great golfer, but once it was revealed he was screwing everything that walks, lots of people stopped "liking" him and became "haters." But why should anyone care? It has nothing to do with golf. Bill Clinton was ostensibly a great president in terms of the economy, etc. but he will always be remembered for the ML affair. But who cares what he does in his private life, right? Many question Donald Trump's four corporate BKs. But why should we care? He isn't running for Sec Treas, just president. CB certainly has a long hunting resume and has done more hunting as a writer than just about anyone that I can think of. But the fact that he wiped out 2.5 million in debt detracts significantly from that accomplishment. Hunting extensively requires one to be in shape, have the funds or means to pay for the trips, and have the time to do it. James Mellon has hunted Africa more than just about anyone, but the guy inherited all the money he spent on hunting. That too, detracts significantly from that accomplishment in my opinion, which may of course not match yours, but I am entitled to mine. I too, followed CB on a hunt after he wrote about it. I told the outfitter I booked the hunt based on his story. Guess what? He complained that the hunt CB and Remington brokered did not deliver the amount of business they were led to believe it would. That hunt, BTW, was in a subleased area of the Selous - that was never disclosed in the story (not that it would matter - this was my first DG hunt and I booked based his glowing story). My first buff was a real trophy: a 26 inch buffalo we shot from behind. Soft as hell but I didn't know any better. Would I ever book another hunt CB writes of? Hell no. I would rather trust the collective wisdom and judgment of AR members, not someone who is paid to do so. Let me ask you a question, Arjun. Do you think it is okay for a writer to espouse the virtues of a product made by a company in which he has an ownership stake without revealing that? If you do, you and I simply have different values. I won't change your mind and you won't change mine. Yes, I do value his service but no more than any of the junior enlisted personnel that busted their ass when I served. I do think the comments from junior marines that served under him are a lot more impressive than killing a boatload of animals. Apparently he treated junior marines well, which matches the humble reputation of which you speak. No argument there. But no one is calling him arrogant; clearly there are writers who have been accused of that on AR but not him. If you think about it, all of the controversies involving outdoor writers/industry personalities almost always boils down to the values they possess and show by their actions versus the ones the rest of us hold dear. You and I clearly differ in that regard in your last two sentences: I don't measure myself against anyone else's hunting. I have the time and money and the physical conditioning to do as much hunting as I want but I simply have a lot of interests besides hunting, including shooting. I will close with this note: we lost a family member a few weeks ago. I watched this guy's daughter prepare the photos for the "photo boards" that would be displayed at the wake. From his childhood, to the two proms with his "childhood sweetheart," to his marriage, the birth of his children, him and his wife getting old together, they were all pictures I had mostly never seen before. I also sadly realized I have a lot more pictures of me posing with dead animals than I do with me and my daughter or Ms AZW. That is something I am certainly not proud of. | |||
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Well said Arjun . CB has done more for hunting through his writing TV show and public presence than any other writer that I know of. Criticizing The fact that he advertises his sponsors products is, well absurd. If Ford Trucks were his sponsors he would pitch them . There are contributors to this site that feel that to have anything other than a Chevrolet is paramount to being an axe murder and those that have Fords are stupid Neanderthals. If you do not like the products do not buy them if you don't like the fact that CB pitches them turn the channel and quit wining about it. While I am a Leupold man I know a lot of PH's who swear by Trijicon . The opinion of one individual is just that. His personal life should be off limits and those that constantly bring it up in my option are not very classy guys. Being a Marine reservist and full time writer is 2 full time jobs and can be tough on marriages. He has served his country with honor. The rank issue is a flash in the pan of outstanding service. If a LT General in a war zone said to pin on generals stars that is what you do. If he said to pin on a pink tutu you would do that to. The risk of BK is a risk that anyone in business faces and the massive amounts of time necessary and deployments to be a Reserve Officer held to the same standard as a full time regular officer takes away from critical time and energy necessary to run your business. Some times with disastrous consequences for your business . BK is a hole card decision that most are forced to make. While I do not know CB, I have met him several time at SCI and DSC shows and found him friendly, happy to talk to you and a humble man. Unlike some others I have met there. | |||
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Values matter. Character matters. Integrity matters. Covenants matter. If you choose to be a marine, a husband, a father, a writer who often espouses ethics and standards - then you must live that life and not just pick and choose what parts you want to honor and show commitment. You cannot and should not separate the words from the actions. The point is not whether or not I like the products or not. The point is that selling anything and everything to anyone just to get money is more prostitution than actually endorsing the quality and value of a product. If you espouse ideals - those of a marine, an ethical hunter, a father or husband - than those values would lead you/drive you to only lending your name and reputation to products or services you truly believe to be superior and the best. I do not see that in CB or many of the other guys on the hunting shows. Roger Raglin and some others are the worst I have seen, so CB is not being solely singled out here. I stand firm on that your actions show your character far more than your words. | |||
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I was going to not comment here but dogcat squares this issue perfectly. After his summation what else is there really to say? That Hillary is really just misunderstood? Jeff | |||
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I just want to comment on one narrow issue . . . the suggestion that someone's personal life should be off limits. If someone wants to remain a private person, I have no problem with the suggestion that their personal life should be off limits. It absolutely should be. But when someone embarks upon a decades long career in the public eye, writing articles, writing books, producing DVDs, speaking at conventions and local hunting club meetings and the like, they have relinquished the ability to claim that their private life is off limits. They choose to make their living and practice their livelihood in the public eye, they cannot then seek to claim their private life is off limits. Instead of someone asking for your $35 to buy their book, what if it was someone asking for your vote in an election? And then the person says, well the fact that I was involved in an illegal frocking, declared bankruptcy, have been married multiple times, was involved in failed gun building company, etc., those all pertain to my private life so you are off base for raising them and it would be unfair to judge me based on them. I think most folks would not hesitate to call BS. Craig is a great writer and an even greater speaker in my view. I value his contributions to hunting and safari hunting in particular. But that does not give him a pass on being criticized. Mike | |||
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I think Gayne left the building a long time ago. | |||
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Trump comes to mind and nobody seems to care at least for now. Many marriages, many bankruptcies etc... besides being loud mouth aka trumpet. I agree with you Mike that if you live in public spotlight and benefit from public/hunters then it's all game " Until the day breaks and the nights shadows flee away " Big ivory for my pillow and 2.5% of Neanderthal DNA flowing thru my veins. When I'm ready to go, pack a bag of gunpowder up my ass and strike a fire to my pecker, until I squeal like a boar. Yours truly , Milan The Boarkiller - World according to Milan PS I have big boar on my floor...but it ain't dead, just scared to move... Man should be happy and in good humor until the day he dies... Only fools hope to live forever “ Hávamál” | |||
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I have never seen CB promoting any outfitter or destination, if someone read about his hunt somewhere and went and had a crap hunt afterwards that can happen for all sorts of reasons I don't see how he is to blame. I am sure an outfitter will go to lengths to put his best foot forward if CB was hunting with him, it would be no different if a restaurant owner knew a well known food writer was dining in his restaurant. That's life. About promoting different products that's what all writers do, today he maybe talking about a ruger and tomorrow a Remington. I have never read any writer come out and say this new rifle or scope or boots is a piece of shit, blah blah blah. It doesn't happen. My buying decisions are mine alone. If one trijicon scope broke there are 1000s more working just fine. Often what writers are doing are testing proto types and providing feedback to manufacturers. For gods sake the man is writing books on hunting which is solely up to you to buy or not. Entirely different subject but no different to an author of cooking books IMO. If people out there wish to hero worship him and use him as their moral compass and hang a photo of him over their mantle piece and then feel very let down and devastated because he declared bankruptcy (supposedly) or got married multiple times, that's your problem. I read that 1 in 3 people in America get divorced does that make them a bad writer or person? We in America have two sets of rules, if anyone has an affair it is a big deal, yet we are the biggest producers and consumers of porn!!! 30 million users were exposed on Ashley Madison dating website, out of that 15k emails were traced to US military and government. Hypocrites what! To equate CB to a politician is crazy, what a politician does or does not do effects us, we have voted them in to lead our town, village or country. Their actions impact us and we elected them. If CB wrote an article that was not to my liking, I don't think its that big of a deal. The problem I see it is that in this country we take people and elevate them to God like Status. Its probably least of all in our sport, look at the hero worship that goes on in other sports! I am done with this nonsense! | |||
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That's a hell of a stretch Mike. the two are not fungible. I ask a hell of a lot less out of a guy for entertaining me for a few hours than a guy to represent my ideas on the political front. | |||
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Thanks to all that asked questions The first round can be heard on Episode 6. You can download at iTunes for free HERE https://itunes.apple.com/us/po...podcast/id1026126732 | |||
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Hey, there are plenty of analogies out there. If you do not like the politician then try the movie actor asking you to shell out $15 for a movie ticket and telling you to stuff it when it comes to what they do in their own time. Bottom line, want to make your living off the public in a public profile position be ready for the scrutiny that results of all aspects of your life. Mike | |||
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What about the novelist who writes great prose, but unlike the majority of other novelists, indulges in hunting. In other words…I;m OK with people producing a product for public consumption while doing things in private I may not agree with. Or as W.F. Buckley might, say, " I can disagree with someone and still be their friend." maybe I'm in the minority these days. | |||
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I'm with ya'! | |||
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Unless it was Gore Vidal. Paul Smith SCI Life Member NRA Life Member DSC Member Life Member of the "I Can't Wait to Get Back to Africa" Club DRSS I had the privilege to fire E. Hemingway's WR .577NE, E. Keith's WR .470NE, & F. Jamieson's WJJ .500 Jeffery I strongly recommend avoidance of "The Zambezi Safari & Travel Co., Ltd." and "Pisces Sportfishing-Cabo San Lucas" "A failed policy of national defense is its own punishment" Otto von Bismarck | |||
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That's your prerogative. Just like it is the prerogative of others to conclude that what the person is doing in their personal life is relevant to them. I was only making the point that it is disingenuous to suggest that someone with a public persona should get a pass on their personal life. But perhaps we agree to disagree and still be friends. Mike | |||
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You, if I;m correct, represented the 'public' (or a form of it) in your practice. Should I be privy to your personal proclivities, or should I instead rely on your expertise of the law? I'll rely on the latter, and still remain friends. I guess I operate under the assumption that what a man does to make a living (if that living includes a 'public' persona), does not mean that he does it on the back of his private life. finis | |||
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I'm convinced if Jesus Christ himself came on here he would take a beating by this crowd... Why does everything and everyone have to be criticized to the extreme? | |||
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I'm convinced if Jesus Christ himself came on here he would take a beating by this crowd... Why does everything and everyone have to be criticized to the extreme? Often thought the exact same thing! | |||
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First, I don't agree that because you are a public person that you deserve zero privacy. Second, I would guess that more than half the people who are pursuing the moral high ground here have blood relatives who have: 1. declared bankruptcy, and/or 2. have been divorced more than once, and/or 3. have one or more illegitimate kids, and/or 4. have made spectacularly bad business decisions, and/or 5. have worse military records and/or 6. would jump at any chance for a "deal" on a hunt. Third, this is just so much jealousy and so very little righteous indignation. | |||
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And just exactly HOW many of them would want such shit hashed out on an InterNet chat room by a Kangaroo Court that would not want their dirty linen aired? Crap like this is just exactly why hunters are going to lose the ability to hunt. Anyone on here that can willingly and honestly claim they have NOT made mistakes or poor choices in their life, Step Forward. I will be 65 in a couple of weeks and have NEVER met ANYONE that has not made choices in their life that they wish they had not made. Even the rocks don't last forever. | |||
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Good thing airlines are back to shipping taxidermy, lion hunting issues are resolved and there's nothing else of the like to worry about in the hunting world. That way we can talk about really important shit like CB's love and business life. | |||
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One needs to remember that it was the people who once closely supported JC, that then turned on him,deserted him and let him down. A fickle creature the human species is....as turns out they never really had JCs back covered at all. The people superficially slobbering all over CB for his military service and celebrity hunter status are really no better. | |||
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I would not pass judgment on Craig as I believe that he has a lot of great contributions. MJ is correct, however, that he can be open to criticism. However, I like to think that a person either possesses character or he/she is one. This is not my view of Craig as I do not know his personal life other than what others have espoused. I just use the above as a benchmark for making an evaluation of a person. | |||
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Gayne heard the podcast with Boddington. Please note you (not Craig Boddington) mentioned I along with other people was jealous in some way. Please note there is nothing in the outdoor writer lifestyle I am jealous about. Now if it was Paul Tudor Jones then I am envious of his trading skills and of http://singita.com/regions/singita-malilangwe/ Also you attributed a question to me about the decline in outdoor magazines - that was not me. I am glad you addressed the topic. I don't get why its a "personal and inappropriate question" as I am asking a outdoor writer and editor if his content is paid for by publication/writer or the service provider being written about. Seems like compensated writing in the norm in the outdoor writing industry http://owaa.org/about/owaa-code-of-ethics/ Food Critics have a different standard http://www.afjonline.com/ethics.cfm My question was not a soft ball question but I think a appropriate question. Thanks for taking the time to answer it. Mike | |||
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Gayne heard the podcast with Boddington. Please note you (not Craig Boddington) mentioned I along with other people was jealous in some way. Please note there is nothing in the outdoor writer lifestyle I am jealous about. Now if it was Paul Tudor Jones then I am envious of his trading skills and of http://singita.com/regions/singita-malilangwe/ Also you attributed a question to me about the decline in outdoor magazines - that was not me. I am glad you addressed the topic. I don't get why its a "personal and inappropriate question" as I am asking a outdoor writer and editor if his content is paid for by publication/writer or the service provider being written about. Seems like compensated writing in the norm in the outdoor writing industry http://owaa.org/about/owaa-code-of-ethics/ Food Critics have a different standard http://www.afjonline.com/ethics.cfm My question was not a soft ball question but I think a appropriate question. Thanks for taking the time to answer it. Mike[/QUOTE Your question was not inappropriate Mike. Some here lose their minds when it come to their hero just because: 1- he has a TV show 2- he has written a lot 3- he was actually nice to them at a show when he was selling something | |||
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The "personal and inappropriate question" comment was made by Craig Boddington on the podcast. But I am glad an experienced shooter and hunter like Craig liked my choice in shotguns. I actually like the podcast approach. I could do without the ads for Amazonian Fishing but someone got to pay for the show. Mike | |||
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The jealous line that is thrown out willy nilly is one that just floors me. Jealous of what exactly? Jeff | |||
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Exactly Jeff. It reminds me of those who scream racism about everything. When they have nothing else, play the race card or in this case the jealously card. I am not going to name who sent me this e mail last night. he is a well known poster here. He had an interesting point: Surprised no one commented on the question “I am sure there are those on the moral high ground that know someone who has done one of the following: · Multiple divorces · Illegitimate child · Bankruptcy · Poor business decisions Sorely tempted to respond by saying, “Yes, you are right, with the operative word being “ONE.” I know of no who has the bad behavior grand slam. | |||
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Frankly the jealousy argument is just a crock. Most folks are jealous of others that have been married and divorced multiple times, declared bankruptcy, been involved in multiple failed or troubled business relationships, retired from the military after an illegal frocking incident, etc. Really? So I guess the folks claiming that any negative comments are motivated by jealously believe that notwithstanding whatever else happens in someone's life, if they get to hunt and write books, that is enough to be envious of irrespective of the rest. Get real. As I said above, Craig is a great writer and a wonderful speaker . . . but those qualities do not give him a pass on criticism . . . Mike | |||
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Larry, Sorry I attributed a question to you. Will be glad to clarify on the next podcast. Jealousy was brought up as one possible in a back and forth conversation. That's it. Nothing more. People tell me and Craig more so all the time that they wish they could have our careers. That's all. Thanks again to all | |||
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What are they jealous of, specifically? I personally like being home most of the time, being a husband to my special wife of 30 yrs, and a dad to my two adopted children. That seems like a much better deal than hunting all over the world on someone else's dime, and letting someone else raise my kids. | |||
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Jealous? Really? Of what? To be jealous requires that I want something he has or does and I am willing to do nearly anything to take it from him. It also implies that I am not happy with my life. Nope, I am not jealous at all. He, and others in his place in life, are not people I would ever hope to emulate or switch places with. No in a million lifetimes. When I look at his non-hunting life, I thank the good Lord I am married to my first wife (only), have 3 normal kids, work in a job I like, have hobbies I like and get to use products I really like that I do not have to endorse to get paid. The only person I am jealous of is Saeed- having the patience to host this website and tolerate all the weirdness that goes on AND getting to hunt buffalo a lot!  | |||
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Gayne, I like the Texas Sporting Journal BTW. That is well done. I just subscribed. | |||
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Mike and Larry, I understand your points but I submit that Craig isn't writing books or giving advice on marital affairs, business dealings or personal finance. I don't see how these relate to the things that he has written about hunting. My personal experience experience with him is that he has given me good advice and did so politely and without any apparent bias. if he had been rude or suggested that I shoot be shooting Ruger rifles or Hornady bullets then I might feel differently. | |||
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Gayne: I think it was Mike. Definitely not me. | |||
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Gayne, we want Craig and your job, but not all the baggage that comes with it. | |||
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