I went to a new REI store near me today to pick up a few things for my upcoming trip. For a store that claims to be 'environmentally sensitive' they sure (a) have a lot of nice BIG store and (b) sell lots of stuff (often overpriced) in shrink wrap. Those SUVs in the parking lot go home full!

Anyhow, while I was there the sales person asked where I was going. I told her "South Africa" and her response was to go off on a tangent about "carbon footprints" and air travel.

She asked me if I was going to do any "carbon offsets" to make up for all the jet fuel.

I told her that yes, "once we get there we're only going to eat what we kill."

That was about 2 PM. I wonder if she has come out of shock yet.

Can you get the security footage? I wanna see her facial expression. Sounds classic.

ya we had a tree hugger in camp to (researcher) who was way passed full of his self. he looked like you slapped him in the face with a dead fish when I told him he had no fucking idea what he was talking about when it came to orthopedic pain. He had tried to BS his way passed Lane who tried to be polite a true gentelman. I'm not predisposed to that affliction so after listening to his crap. I removed my leg showed him my stump and told him gentaly. AND THE IDIOT STILL ARGUEED WITH TWO MEDICAL PEOPLE ABOUT ORTHO PAIN. One very we'll know DVM and myself a orthopedic nurse and amputee. proof a Degree don't make you smart

Wow, Bob. I had a very similar experience, except mine actually happened on the flight over to SA. Of course, I get seated next to a similar chap to the girl you ran into at REI. He was an Afrikaaner who was visiting some environmentally friendly town in Oregon to see all of its eco-friendly wonders. I got a whole lecture on carbon footprints and environmental agendas, all the while as we're pissing out untold thousands of pounds in jet fuel out the ass-end of the Boeing 777 we're both sitting in...and that's just going one-way.

Amazing how people get on their high horses in the face of doing exactly what it is they're bitching about.

I'd like to see a poll done among all the tree and bunny huggers. I believe that the most militant ones haven't been on a hike or a camping trip in years, if ever. They might drift out of cell phone/e-mail/twitter coverage or not be able to down load the latest hit to their i-pod. They just mill around the cities, hooked into the main stream media and cluck their tongues at us barbarians.

I do think REI has some good stuff. I buy just a few things from there. I don't think most of their most loyal customers realize how REI capitalizes on the green/tree-hugger religion to maximize their big, fat, CORPORATE, bottom line. More power to 'em. Capitalism is the only system that works.

When I meet a tree hugger I like to talk about the time I ate seal and beluga !! That puts them immediately into shock !

The most carbon footprints I think may be in WV as people track all that coal dust all over the state.

quote:

I removed my leg showed him my stump

Oh...I think you got thru to him when you took your leg off...his eyes got wide as saucers!!!

Two answers I like to use usually shut them up for the moment, and there are variations. Yes, I have done my part to save the earth, I stuck a plug up a cow's ass and stopped pollution...or I ate 3 deer, 24 pheasants and more quail than I can count to help eliminate poop in our streams.

My carbon foot print is so big only al gore could afford to buy enough credits t off set it OHHH shit wait a min all the credit money goes to uncle al dam I almost forgot and spotted owl taste's wonderful toooo

That Icelandic volcano just negated any "carbon footprint" crap you will hear for a decade. That baby shot so much carbon and CO2 into the atmosphere, we'd all have to drive Prius's for the next two hundred years to make up for it. What a bunch of PC enviropolitical bullshit!

You guys surprise me. With the sensitive nature and being if the greenies you need to be more caring of the gentle psyche after all they are fellow human beings. Being an accessory to heart failure or induced aneurism will be on your conscience for the rest of your life.
Rather talk about tag and a release. Those animals that fail to be released are then utilised for feeding programs and leather thus helping the poor African economy. this reduces the need for deforestation due to planting of crops. This is much better and gentler on the psyche of the greenie.
Tell them that you have noticed a sad state of affairs where more and more animals are dying from copper poisoning on the African subcontinent and that huge sums of money are required for research into this phenomenon. Give them the bank account for donations explain that some animals will have to be utilised for medical research so thorough testing can be done on the impact of copper on the animals.

quote:

impact of copper

More like well sharpened steel if all goes well....

I always appreciated that the Courtney Boot Company in Zim touts how "green" their footwear is because they're made almost entirely from renewable resources, namely, dead animals!

fantastic. 99.99% of all greenie do nothing but sit behind their computers and sign petitions and send chain mails. Reality is , that 99.99% of the petitions they receive are simply ways of passing peoples addresses on to spammers and hackers.

I admire those who are committed and work toward their causes. But Greenies do themselves no favours when they argue a point without ever having physically gone out and done work that will benefit the very trees, creatures etc that they are trying to protect. Almost every hunter I know has ACTIVELY participated in contributing toward conservation. .........and damn Eland steaks still taste fine

When you go to REI ask for hiking boots, not hunting boots. I was looking at boots there and the clerk, being very diligent, asked what I would be using the boots for. After all making sure the customer is using the correct boot for the intended application is part of his job. I should not have said "hunting in Africa" as my answer. It all went down hill from there.

Back in the 80's the CEO of REI hunted with us.
SHE was a very nice lady and a good hunter. Of course, the hunting bit was really on the QT.
Rich Elliott

It doesn't matter what I tell greenies because I work as a pesticide research scientist, so I'm the evil bastard trying to find new 'poisons' to use on our precious environment to kill bugs, plants, etc.!!

Rich - that's interesting what you said about the female CEO of REI in the 80's being a hunter. Good for her!

I've been a "member" of the REI co-op since 1971. In the vestibule of every REI store they have a photo wall of all the employees doing an outdoor activity they enjoy - hiking, rock climbing, cross-country skiing, biking, etc. Rarely is there a photo of a fisherman, and if there is, he's releasing the fish. There is NEVER a hunter, as it goes against the greenie, hippy mindset of 99% of their employees. This is the image REI has decided they want to market - non-consumptive sports. They carry some good stuff, but over the years I've shopped there less and less.

Think about this - 100 years ago there weren't any greenies, and darned few vegetarians. This is a very recent concept. I am only one generation removed from the farm. My mom collected eggs, milked cows, bailed hay, shelled corn, and wrung the chicken's neck if they wanted to eat chicken for dinner. Her brothers shot deer, ducks and pheasants and occaisionally butchered a beef cow. Most farmers and people who live in rural communities still live like this, but the city folk greenies are so far removed from the outdoors that they can't understand why anyone would pull the trigger on a wild animal, or even butcher a domestic animal for that mattter.

I'll admit there are times when I wish I was born 100 years ago, and had enough money to travel, especially after looking at those old photos of Nairobi in the early 1900s. I know it was a much tougher life back then, but I can't help thinking - ah, the good ol' days. Sigh!

quote:

Originally posted by Muletrain:
When you go to REI ask for hiking boots, not hunting boots. I was looking at boots there and the clerk, being very diligent, asked what I would be using the boots for. After all making sure the customer is using the correct boot for the intended application is part of his job. I should not have said "hunting in Africa" as my answer. It all went down hill from there.

I did this very thing stating "buffalo hunting in Zimbabwe." The clerk wanted to discuss the plans and costs and made me promise to share pictures when I returned. I was certainly surprised since this was in College Park, MD a suburb of Washington DC! In the end it boils down to individuals an their outlooks.

While on a plane to Johannesburg the lady next to me asked if I was going to Johannesburg and I said "yes, I was".

She asked if I was on a business trip and I replied that I wasn't, that it was a hunting trip......a hunting safari.

Her reply was "Oh how dreadful, what are you hunting"?

I could see that the conversation was going to hell in a hand basket and that I was sitting next to a tree hugger so I told her "Elephants"

She replied "How could anyone ever shoot one of those magnificient creatures?" Her voice and posture revealing total and complete disgust....

Immediately thinking I just wanted out of this conversation, I replied "Oh I don't know.....I just like the sound they make when they fall".....

It's 17 hours on a single plane from Atlanta to Johannesburg and that was the last word exchanged with her in all that time!

I ripped up some greenies literature in front of them at our local sport show. Not one of my finer moments. But I would do it again.


ddj

Clearly, you guys are far more sophisticated politically than am I.

I am only interested in two things about REI: inventory quality, and price. Usually pretty damn good on the first. On the second, not so much.

By the way...when asked, "How could anyone want to hunt much less kill a (fill in the blank)?, my answer now is the simple truth: "Because it's fun."

Anymore, I just tell the tree hugger that I hunt because I like to eat raw meat.

My finest hour dealing with a tree hugger came, I believe, back in the late 1980's. I was in Boulder, Colorado in an upscale sporting goods store buying an out of state elk license. I was in the check out line with a buddy, and this college age chick with frizzy hair was in line directly behind me. Behind her was her mother.

The clerk asked me what I wanted, and I told her I wanted an out of state muzzleloading permit. I saw the college chick get a huge look of disgust on her face, but before she could say anything, the mother says "You're not going to shoot BAMBI, are you?" I said "Lady, not only would I shoot Bambi, I would shoot Bambi's mother if it season was open and I had a legal tag in my pocket."

That pretty much ended the conversation.

I got the tag, but came up empty on the elk.

a bunny hugger at the coffee shop here ask me today what I did in africa!!!! I told her I had a really good time and got to kill stuff tooooo. needless to say she did not want to talk to me anymore the owner of the coffee shop was laughing her ass off. She knows I'm not politicaly correct or well house broken

the only true wildness is between a greenies ears

REI is the hotbed of fruitcakes. I wouldn't buy anything from those phony creeps on a bet.

You have to give REI marketing credit for selling $200 tennis shoes to some gullible hairy leg chick that believes in global warming! And voted for obamie. Kids and old women that never grew up.

Wonder how that dumb bitch comes up with carbon credits for the CO2 she breathes out!

Yet again I have to stick up for the greenie you guys are just not that nice to them. With their intelligence versus us dumbass hunters you will see we are ignorant.
You see CO2 and carbon credits are a matter of mathematics for greenies.
The greenies, who are mostly vegetarians, see the methane expelled by the animals. The gases expelled in flights as well as vehicles to and from hunting grounds and then the all not to important camp fire. If you add this all up and compare it to a vegetarian/greenie you will see that you far exceed the carbon footprint of the typical vegetarian/ greenie.
Let’s see now in comparison. We have a vehicle clearing large tracts of indigenous land killing or chasing the local fauna to die a slow death of starvation. Oh and the vehicle used does not use to much fossil fuel to clear/plough the land so we won’t take that into consideration. Then there is the not too important aspect of the vehicle that plants the seeds. If it is seedlings well most green houses are run with fuel efficient electricity so we can discount the fossil fuel impact yet again.
The veggies need to be sprayed with of course bio friendly true organic insecticides. No impact on the environment or destruction of friendly insects. Because it only attacks the naughty ones eating the veggies. Oh and the crop sprayer is not airborne as long as a jet plane so we can just discount any carbon emissions there. Now the veggies don’t like competition so we need to get rid of the weeds (read indigenous plants wanting to re-establish themselves). So we need a vehicle to spray or destroy these nuisances. Now again as the vehicle is only going through half the land as the other half is under veggie plants we only need half the fossil fuels so again we can neglect the carbon impact.
Finally we have the harvesting of the veggies. Now as we all know mature plants turn CO2 into oxygen due to photosynthesis that the CO2 used during harvest is in effect replaced by oxygen by the plants being harvested.
Now the only carbon footprint the vegetarian and the greenie does cause is the transport of these veggies to the market place via vehicle or plane.

So quite clearly your plane trip vehicle usage and camp fire is far in excess of the fuel used to transport the veggies to market.
It is as simple as addition and subtraction as to why we are more destructive for the planet as hunters.

boerbokrib,
dam you sound just like a democrap.

Hi sorry full fledged ANC supporter. That we we dont get surprised when an african becomes president of the country.

Thats Jersey for you Bob...

quote:

Originally posted by Luis L.:
Wow, Bob. I had a very similar experience, except mine actually happened on the flight over to SA. Of course, I get seated next to a similar chap to the girl you ran into at REI. He was an Afrikaaner who was visiting some environmentally friendly town in Oregon to see all of its eco-friendly wonders. I got a whole lecture on carbon footprints and environmental agendas, all the while as we're pissing out untold thousands of pounds in jet fuel out the ass-end of the Boeing 777 we're both sitting in...and that's just going one-way.

Amazing how people get on their high horses in the face of doing exactly what it is they're bitching about.

This is a funny post! Nothing like a hypocrite.

Next time a greenie gives trouble, look at their shoes, handbag, belt... Even with vegans, good chance there is leather somewhere in that collection.

Also, funny note about elephant hunting. Every moron greenie thinks elephants are really the "gentle giants" portrayed on Nat. Geo. TV, they don't realize that that is far from the truth, don't know about killing villagers, raiding crops. Can't imaging how native people are elated when a hunter kills one.

Heard from a fool at the camera shop after he looked over my shoulder and saw me editing photos of dead elephants with me and rifle featured, directed to the clerk behind the counter, "Do THEY allow that, elephants to be killed?" Who the hell is "THEY?" A fool who has turned his life over to the Gov't, who must be "THEY."

JPK

When someone asks you "how can you kill an elephant?" you might tell them, "Well, it takes a hell of a lot of walking and really good shot placement."

quote:

Originally posted by JPK:

Heard from a fool at the camera shop after he looked over my shoulder and saw me editing photos of dead elephants with me and rifle featured, directed to the clerk behind the counter, "Do THEY allow that, elephants to be killed?" Who the hell is "THEY?" A fool who has turned his life over to the Gov't, who must be "THEY."

JPK

Living in MoCo would you expect anything less?

Our hunting club has to spend a huge amount of cash to prevent the tree hugging morons crashing our website and they send there spys to our club meetings just so they can keep an eye on us and find out what we are doing to counter them.

Like every thing else you can't throw a one size blanket over REI, the manager of the eastern (US) distribution center for REI won 3 guns at our SCI chapter gun raffle. Our table won the table draw which had 10 guns and he had bought 3 of the 10 tickets so I am sure he wanted them.

Die Ou Jagter- Thanks again for the invite, I had a great time at the SCI banquet and do have a use for the guns.

I'll be up front- I'm a 17 year employee of REI and have worked for REI in NM, WA, AK, and PA. There are over 8,000 REI employees, many of whom hunt and many more who don't. I'm very sorry anytime someone gets hassled for being a hunter, since REI's mission is to "Inspire, Educate, and Outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship." Our goal is to get more people enjoying the outdoors so that kids and future outdoors people have a place to recreate, a goal I think we can all support.

I don't mind pulling people's chains when they're closed minded, but please don't label all 8,000 REI employees as a bunch of tree huggers with a greenie agenda. In PA we give everyone we can the first day of deer season off, and last year I spent 5 weeks in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia on a hunting and then photo trip for my REI paid sabbatical. (check the hunt reports)

Jesey Bob- It's a great company that accepts a lot of viewpoints, I'm sorry that someone didn't show that side to you. I was at the East Hanover store opening last year when our CEO, Sally Jewell, gave her opening remarkls to 150 people. She made it quite clear that the outdoor community, hunters and fishers included (she called out a long list of different recreation), are part of the future of outdoor conservation, and that REI is there for all people.

REI's travel division does offer carbon offsets for travelers, since over 1/3 of our CO2 load is from our customers traveling the world. What the employee probably didn't share was that our biggest source of emissions is employees commuting to work. That's a much better place for us to start than telling our customers how to live their lives. Again, I apologize.

As for prices, we're a co-op, have been since 1938, nobody gets rich from owning REI since we don't have shareholders, but all of our customers who choose to be members get 10% of what they spend back at the end of the every year, for a $20 lifetime membership. We sell at manufacturers suggested price or lower, we have a lifetime 100% guarantee on our products, and we try not to sell junk.

Sometimes we make mistakes, I hope all of you give us a chance. Feel free to ask for a manager any time you don't feel like you're getting the service you deserve, that usually gets some attention.

Best regards to all.
Chris

When someone used to ask me were I was going and I said " Elephant hunting in Zimbabwe" I would sometimes get the wearying, cliched, eye rolling, morally superior put down/response. I would then waste my time trying to explain elephant overpopulation, damage to the ecosystem, blah, blah, blah. Fat lot of good it ever did me. Like trying to teach a pig to sing.

Nowadays, if my victim has sufficiently annoyed me, gets the vapors and, in a snotty tone of voice, asks me, " How can you possibly shoot an elephant?"

Wait for it.

I just say," It's easy, you just put the front sight on their brain and pull the trigger. They drop like a sack of potatoes."

Being left alone is vastly underrated

"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in them I have no idea." Groucho Marx

Sally's Dad;

Thanks for your responce;I've been an REI member for a few years and have nothing but good to say about any experience with REI and its gear.

I also have shopped in the Conn. store and have been treated with nothing but respect from all of the employees.

Now the EMS store in Poughkeepsie.....that's another story

Chris, that was a nice bear. We had a SCI (Allagheny Mts Ch) committee meeting last night and the unoffical results (banquet fund raiser) are we made about $20,000 for the night. Again thanks for your support.