Palin wears musk ox scarf. Musk ox not doing so well anyway.

[underpants]

FAIRBANKS — In keeping with the Lincoln Bicentennial theme, Gov. Sarah Palin was introduced with a revised, Alaska version of the Gettysburg Address at Saturday night’s Lincoln Day Dinner hosted by Fairbanks Republican Women.

And Palin exhibited her Alaska fashion sense, sporting a tan smoke ring — a circular scarf delicately knitted in Eskimo motifs from fine qiviut, the underwool of Arctic musk ox.

Palin also mentioned media confusion about predator control in Alaska.

She said she responded to a FOX newscaster’s questions Saturday with, “For me, I eat, therefore I hunt.”

Then she added for the Fairbanks crowd, “That’s the way we roll in Alaska.”
http://newsminer.com/news/2009/feb/15/palin-speaks-lincoln-day-dinner/

Palin does no favors for musk oxen
Michael Engelhard
Jan 24, 2009
http://alaskadispatch.com/tundra-talk/9-talk-of-the-tundra/634-palin-and-the-musk-oxen

A 2006 survey of traditional musk ox habitat in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge surprisingly came up short: Pilots counted only a single animal within refuge boundaries. It is easy to imagine that loner as one of the two shag piles our boat crew approached on the Aichilik River, which unbeknownst to us then could have been the entire herd.

What triggered this downward slide of a species sculpted by glaciers? Poaching? A mysterious disease? Toxins in the water or soil?

Residents of Kaktovik, an Eskimo village nestled against the Arctic Ocean's blue sweep, increasingly comment on erratic weather. Colder springs delay breakup season, preserving snow sumps deep enough to stop even 900-pound bulls. Untimely thaw-freeze episodes encase grasses and sedges under an ice crust too thick to be cracked by hooves. Malnourished cows may give birth to weak calves, or leave in search of greener pastures farther west or in Canada. Recently, 13 musk oxen drowned in a flood on the Colville River west of the refuge; others got stranded on raw barrier islands where they pawed sand for sustenance and starved to death after the sea ice melted, mingling their bones with bleached driftwood.

The last musk ox topples notions of ecosystem stability and raises questions that cut close to the bone. Is human-caused local extinction less lamentable than its global counterpart? Do we dare reassess our responses to environmental threats, or are we bull-headed enough to repeat destructive behavior ad finitum?

Outlining a philosophy of sound land management, Aldo Leopold cautioned us to preserve every cog and wheel when tinkering. The realization that we don't even hold all the blueprints or fully grasp the interlocking of parts can be as humbling as a face-to-face encounter with ice-age beasts.

Trained as an anthropologist, Michael Engelhard lives in Alaska, where he works as a wilderness guide. His latest book is 'Wild Moments', a collection of writers' adventures with northern fauna.

[NOW tense]

1. If only she would just go away. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

15. People stop talking about her --> she goes away.

[NOW tense]

16. Good point. n/t

[Optical.Catalyst]

2. Is that Trig standing next to her?

<>

[roguevalley]

17. They look huge don't they but they come up to your waist. The bulls

may be bigger but not much more. They are awesome. I love them. I have a smoke ring scarf my dad gave my mother. Holding it in your hand, it's so fine you can't feel it. Put it on and it will kill you with the heat it makes. I love it.

[grannie4peace]

3. i'd like to see the scarf after it reached her , not before!

[jody]

4. Musk Ox are amazing animals, suggest DUers visit “Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative”

http://www.qiviut.com/store/index.cfm?target=home&CFID=2888281&CFTOKEN=37715297

[jpak]

5. Actually qiviut is gathered from bushes after the muskox shed it in the summer

They don't shoot the muskox to get it...

[underpants]

7. Okay I did not know that

Whoops

[roguevalley]

18. 's kay underpants. this is a cash crop for the villages. :) My nephew's

wife has family in Nome and you see them all over the place there. They are so damned cute.

[erinlough]

12. I visited that farm and saw their woven products

very soft and your right, no musk ox was killed.

[peekaloo]

6. A yoke for the yokel.

"that's the way we roll in Alaska" :eyes:

Shrill, baby, shrill.

[Moochy]

9. And the Alaskans assembled nodded and sagely gave her mad props.

and other Alaskan-American Malapropisms.

[mitchum]

13. The snowbilly becomes a gangstabilly...

"that's the way we roll in Alaska"

[Dukkha]

14. people who are presidential material always use urban slang

and give "shout outs" and wink during speeches. :eyes:
What a clueless bimbo. She is so dumb she doesn't even realize how dumb she is.

[Vickers]

8. “That’s the way we roll in Alaska.”

Stay there.

[truebrit71]

10. Fuck that wolf-killing bitch.

eom.

[infidel dog]

19. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Paladin]

11. I Bet She Smells Musky Enough Without That Scarf... (n/t)