So say you're stuck in the woods, the temperature's dropping fast and you need shelter and fire, quickly. There are trees all around but you have neither saw nor axe. All you have is your knife. It's not even a big Rambo-inspired, serrated-edge survival sword with a picatinny rail, but a twelve-dollar plastic-handled mora with a little four-inch blade. Hey, no problem.

I admit, I'm a knife junkie just like the rest of you. Customs, semi-customs, high-end production models, even plain-jane knives speak to us with their seductive blend of form and function and we respond by purchasing them without regard to reason or budget.

But in terms of absolute bang-for-buck, is there anything out there to compare to the lowly mora? These simple, inexpensive wonders aren't made of the latest super steel, they aren't a quarter-inch thick and there's nary a tactical, special ops-inspired doodad on them anywhere. They just work when you need them to. If you shop around you can find them for about the same price as a super-sized extra-value meal. And if you want to make your own, you can buy blade blanks for about the same money as your kid's happy-get-fatty meal.

If there's a knife out there with a better price-to-performance ratio than that, I'd like to know what it is.

There's already been a  boatload of bloviation expressed on the recent reversal of the ban on loaded firearms in our national parks, some of it sensible but most of it (predictably) bordering on  hysterics.

This column from the Huffington Post is a perfect example:
 
"In fact,  the new rule is likely to make national park visitors less safe around  wildlife. Packing heat could give some people a false sense of security and  make them more likely to approach bison, elk, moose, and grizzly bears,  rather than keep a safe distance which is better for both people and  animals."

But the most certain outcome of this congressional action is  that it will promote poaching. The National Park Service warned in its fiscal 2006 budget submission each year for the past several years ... The data  suggests that there is a significant domestic as well as international trade  for illegally taken plant and animal parts." Poaching, the agency said, "is suspected to be a factor in the decline of at least 29 species of wildlife  and could cause the extirpation of 19 species from the parks." 

Two points I'd like to make in response. First, poaching. When you make an argument it's generally a pretty good idea to make sure the data you use in defense of your argument actually support it. Apparently Mr. Markarian skipped that chapter in his high school debate class. There's absolutely no, none, nada, zip not a shred of evidence or data to support his assertion that allowing visitors firearms "promotes poaching." He, to be perfectly blunt, reached around his backside and pulled that statement out of his a**. And that National Park Service budget submission he quoted was published in...2006. Yes, three years ago. You know, back when packing in national parks was illegal.
 
Second, it's obvious the author has never visited a national park. If he had he would know that it's complete fantasy to believe that current (unarmed) visitors to our national parks  exhibit good judgment and keep a safe, prudent distance from roadside wildlife. Quite the opposite. Thanks to the constant anthropomorphization we're subjected to we now believe that wild animals have a deep, intrinsic  empathy toward humans. They would love us, if only we would put down our  guns and let them.

In fact, if one could make a sweeping generalization about the common sense of the average American tourist by observing their behavior around national park wildlife, one would have to reach the inevitable conclusion that we're already a nation of clueless,  pushy, overly-aggressive suburban jackasses. Guns certainly aren't going to change that. If you point out the obvious fact that wild animals have no interest in connecting with us on a spiritual level but if we intentionally harass them they will most  assuredly connect with us on a physical level, then you're simply an  unevolved lout who doesn't get it. See video below.

But I'm a pragmatist, and I think I've reached a compromise that will make everyone happy. Why don't we make loaded firearms illegal within say, 100 yards of any RV-accessible road but allow loaded  firearms in campsites and on all trails? This achieves two goals: it gives backcountry hikers and campers a measure of personal protection from  criminal and animal attack. It also gives park wildlife the freedom to (without the threat of being shot) continue stomping, goring, maiming and  otherwise communing with the hordes of camera-wielding Animal Planet watchers who choke our national park roads every summer.  

F&S is the best magazine of its size on the planet. Okay, I’m a little biased on that point--but it’s not just me who thinks so. Last night, the country’s top magazine editors representing the country’s top magazines met at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the 44th Annual National Magazine Awards. Known as Ellies, these are basically the Oscars of the magazine industry, and “General Excellence” is “Best Picture.”

The 2009 General Excellence nominees for magazines with a circulation of 1 to 2 million were: Field & Stream, Bon Appetit, The New Yorker, Vogue, and Popular Science. And the winner is, from the American Society of Magazine Editors website:

Field & Stream: Anthony Licata, editor, for May, June, December/January issues
From tips on becoming a total outdoorsman to profiles of veteran amputees reentering the world of hunting, Field & Stream respects its readers enough to challenge them. Like all great magazines, this one is much more ambitious than it needs to be and delivers the goods, but also provokes with content that is consistently savvy, witty and large-hearted. Nominated 14 times, this is Field & Stream’s first Ellie.

I know all of you have been waiting for an opportunity to heap praise on us—and who are we to hold you back? So just go for it.