Playing Cards with Jesus

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

I read that there’s an ammunition shortage in Western North Carolina. Right. I have none at all.

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

Life is good. Yeah!
Just being here is magnificent!
It’s a wonderful life.
They got it right.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“I’ll match your 50 and raise you 100. The cards are falling my way tonight.”

[Maybe He had 3 threes? Nope, never said it.]

D. Blog: Oh, the Gall!

ASHEVILLE — A Cherokee man will spend six months in prison for selling 51 bear gall bladders.
The U.S. Justice Department also announced Wednesday that Clement Calhoun was sentenced in federal court in Asheville to a year of supervised release and revocation of his hunting license.
Authorities charged Calhoun, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, as part of a three-year undercover investigation called Operation Botanical focused on the trafficking of ginseng and bear parts in the Southern Appalachians.
According to court documents, Calhoun sold bear gall bladders outside the reservation between January and September 2005. He pleaded guilty in December to transporting and selling bear parts in violation of the Lacey Act.
Calhoun said in court in December that the bladders were worth at least $6,600.
Traditional Asian medicines involve the use of many parts of the bear, with bile from the gall bladder being the most coveted part. Increasing demand for bear gall bladders may threaten the black bear population, authorities said.
“This operation and its resulting conviction and sentence should send a message to those illegally trafficking in animal parts,” said Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We at the Justice Department take these crimes seriously and will continue to focus on regions and areas where this activity is suspected.”
The defendant's attorney, Rich Cassady, of Sylva, said in court documents that Calhoun, 48, has lived his whole life in the Big Cove community and is one of only about 400 fluent Cherokee speakers left on the reservation.
Calhoun also was required to make a public apology for selling the gall bladders.
“I understand that the selling (of) bear gall bladders could threaten the black bear population by creating a financial incentive for poaching,” he said in a letter published last week in the Cherokee One Feather.
--Asheville Citizen-Times, January 14, 2010

[This story raises a lot of questions for me, but I’ll limit myself to one: what medicinal purpose is bear gall bladder bile supposed to serve? See below.]

Bear bile from the bear gall bladder is one of the most treasured of traditional Chinese medicines. Prescriptions for bear gall first appeared in writing in the 7th century (Bensky and Gamble 1986). Bear bile is believed to have special qualities to treat ailments of the liver, stomach and a diverse illnesses from fever to digestive disorders.
As Asian bear populations decline and wild bear bile and other bear parts become more difficult to obtain, sources of bear parts outside Asia will be developed by traders and others willing to make significant profits.
-- clickerado.com