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A wild rabbit - considered a pest to many farmers

Mouse

Vermin (or varmint^[1] or varmit) is a term applied to various animal species regarded as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of disease. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included will vary from area to area and person to person. The term derives from the Latin vermis (worm), and was originally used for the worm-like larvae of certain insects, many of which infest foodstuffs.^[2] The term 'varmint' (and 'vermint') has been found in sources from ca. 1530-1540s.^[1][3]

Spelling distinction[link]

Varmint or varmit is an American-English colloquialism, particularly common to the American east and South-east within the nearby bordering states of the vast Appalachia region. The term describes farm pests which raid farms as opposed to infest farms—mainly predators such as foxes, weasels, and coyotes, sometimes even wolves or rarely, bears, but also, to a lesser degree, herbivores and burrowing animals that directly damage crops and land.

Although this version of the word "vermin" is not a prevalent term in Standard Written English, it is a common descriptor for certain kinds of weapons and pest control situations in the Appalachian and nearby states and the American west and south-west which have adopted terms such as varmint rifle and varmint hunting.

Scope of meanings[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Disease-carrying rodents and insects are the usual case, but the term is also applied to larger animals—especially small predators—typically because they consume resources which humans consider theirs, such as livestock and crops. Birds which eat cereal crops and fruit are an example. Pigeons, which have been widely introduced in urban environments, are sometimes considered vermin. Some varieties of snakes and arachnids may also be referred to as vermin.

The term is also used as an extremely pejorative characterization of a particular class or group of people as inferior and subhuman, and often considered social parasites. Application of the term can be wide, having been applied over the centuries in different languages, to various groups, and its use is usually based on a perception that the target group's views are "disease-like," or that such groups exist out of sociological balance with the common society.

Deterioration of balance[link]

Species can develop into vermin if introduced into regions where they find favourable living conditions, and if they face few or no natural enemies there. In such cases, humans often choose to fill the role of the predator to limit the danger to the environment. A prime example of vermin is goats on the Galápagos Islands. Rats, mice, and cockroaches are common urban and suburban vermin. Cats, introduced to countries such as Australia, have killed more indigenous wildlife than any other introduced animal, to the extent that they have been implicated in the extinction of many small mammals and amphibians^{[citation needed]}.

United Kingdom[link]

Under Tudor "vermin laws" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses. The declaration of the Red Kite as vermin led to its decline to the point of extinction in the UK by the 20th century. However, the Red Kite is being reintroduced by the trans-location of breeding pairs from Europe. ^[4]

References[link]

Look up vermin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Vermin Supreme
Vermin Supreme in January 2012
Born	Birth name unknown June 1961 (age 50–51) Rockport, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Education	Gloucester High School
Occupation	Performance artist, anarchist, activist
Years active	1984 - present
Home town	Baltimore, Maryland
Political party	Democratic Party

Vermin Love Supreme^[1] (born June 1961) is an American performance artist, anarchist and activist who is known for running as an alternative candidate in various local, state, and national elections in the United States.^[2][3][4] Supreme is known for wearing a boot shaped hat and carrying a large toothbrush.^[5] He claims that if elected President of the United States, he will pass a law requiring people to brush their teeth.^[6][7][8][2] He also campaigned in 2012 on a platform of zombie apocalypse awareness and time travel research,^[9] and he promises a free pony for every American.^[10] Supreme claims to mock the political system.^[11][2] In 2011, he participated in the ongoing Occupy Boston protests.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Supreme grew up near Boston, Massachusetts and is said to be the oldest of three children.^[1] He graduated from Gloucester High School in the 1980s, then moved to Baltimore to attend art school, but dropped out and began booking bands for underground clubs.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, he joined The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in protest of nuclear weapons.^[1] From 1987 onward, he began running for public office.^[13] He legally changed his name to Vermin Supreme in the 1990s.^[1]

In 2006, Supreme donated one of his kidneys to save his mother.^[1] He is married and has no children.^[1]

Political views[link]

In a video promoting Vermin Supreme, Supreme discussed his political views. He stated he was registered Republican at that time, but that he leaned toward anarchism. He asserted that libertarians "are just about abolishing the government and letting shit fall where it may,"^{[citation needed]} which he called a mistake; he also asserted that Republicans want to nullify the government, but "offer no alternative to helping people other than charity."^{[citation needed]} Supreme's vision of anarchism holds no need for government, but also depends on citizens to take responsibility for themselves and for others, citing "mutual aid and support and care to our fellow citizens" as key elements. To reach that end, Supreme called for a gradual dismantling of the government, while citizens take up the slack. He asserted that Americans do not know anymore how to be citizens, placing some of the blame on schools that teach in "very twisted and jingoistic fashion [sic]".^[14]

In the video, he also discussed his own campaign. He describes his "joke humor" campaign as a response to the lies people are fed by the media and the government.^[14]

Campaigns[link]

Vermin Supreme working the crowds during the New Hampshire primary

1988[link]

Supreme ran for Mayor of Baltimore as an Independent, in which he lost to Kurt L. Schmoke. He also ran for Mayor of Detroit as an Independent, in which he lost to Coleman Young. Finally, he ran for Mayor of Mercury, Nevada, but was unsuccessful in doing so.^{[citation needed]}

2000[link]

In 2000, Supreme proclaimed himself the "Emperor of the New Millennium". He has been doing so ever since and it has become a focal point of his presidential campaigns.^{[citation needed]}

2004[link]

Supreme campaigned in the Washington, DC Presidential primary in 2004,^[13] where he received 149 votes.^[15]

2008[link]

Supreme campaigned in the New Hampshire Republican primary in 2008. He received 41 votes (0.02%) in the New Hampshire primary. According to the Federal Election Commission, he also received 43 votes, nationally, in the general election.^[16][17]

2012[link]

Supreme glitter bombs Randall Terry during a forum, December 2011

Vermin Supreme is currently campaigning as a Democrat in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.^{[18][19] [20]}

The following are some of the milestones in this campaign:

• April 14, 2011: Participated in the First Debate of the New Election Cycle at the IGLO Dissidents’ Convention which also included Jimmy McMillan, Jill Stein and others.^[21][22]

• October 29, 2011: He qualified to be listed on the 2012 Democratic Party primary ballot in New Hampshire.^[23]

• October 29, 2011: He participated in a satirical debate against a representative of the campaign of deceased British occultist Aleister Crowley.^[24]

• December 19, 2011: He participated in the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum and "glitterbombed" fellow candidate Randall Terry, claiming that Jesus told him to turn Terry gay.^[25]

• January 3, 2012: He was a candidate in the Iowa Democratic caucuses and received 1.4% of the votes.^[26]

• January 12, 2012: In the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, Supreme received 833 votes. (Barack Obama won the primary with 49,080 votes)^[27]

• February 2, 2012: Vermin Supreme participated in a live debate with Republican fringe candidate Jimmy McMillan in honor of Groundhog Day^[28]

• He was a participant in the Anti-NATO protests at the May 20-21 Chicago NATO Summit.
• In May, he visited the second largest High School in Maine to give a speech about his campaign style to a government class.

Film career[link]

Supreme co-wrote and stars in the 2009 film Vote Jesus: The Chronicles of Ken Stevenson in which he poses as a right-wing political candidate to gain access into the world of American Fundamentalism.^[29][30]

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vermin Supreme

• Frivolous political party
• Political satire
• Screaming Lord Sutch, a similar satirical politician in the United Kingdom, who founded the British Political Party Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which has comparably unusual election pledges.
• Surreal humour

External links[link]

• Vermin Supreme at Americans Elect
• Biography at Project Vote Smart

References[link]

Randall Terry
Born	Randall Almira Terry 1959 (age 52–53) New York City, New York, United States
Residence	Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Pro-Life activist, author
Known for	Founding Operation Rescue
Political party	Republican (?–2011), Democrat (2011–present)
Religion	Roman Catholic (since 2005)
Spouse	Cindy Dean (div. 2001) Andrea Sue Kollmorgen
Children	Ebony Whetstone (fostered) Jamiel Terry (adopted) Tila Terry (adopted) Faith Terry (first marriage) and three or more children (second marriage)

Randall Almira Terry (born 1959) is an American pro-life activist and candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2012. Terry founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue. The group became particularly prominent beginning in 1987 for blockading the entrances to abortion clinics; Terry led the group until 1991.^[1] He has been arrested more than 40 times,^[2] most recently for protesting President Barack Obama's commencement visit to the University of Notre Dame in violation of a no-trespass order from the school.^[3] Terry has long been known for provocative and controversial statements, including that abortion is murder and should be made a capital crime.

In 2003, Randall Terry founded the Society for Truth and Justice and conducted a program called Operation Witness. In 1998, he ran for Congress in upstate New York, and in 2006 for a seat in the Florida State Senate, both times losing in the Republican primary.

Career as activist[link]

In 1986, Randall Terry was arrested for the first time for chaining himself to a sink at an abortion clinic. Terry was often in the news because of his activities as the leader of Operation Rescue.

Randall Terry was named as a co-defendant in the 1994 Supreme Court case, NOW v. Scheidler, a class action suit to compel pro-life leaders to compensate clinics for loss of business. Terry settled out of court with the National Organization for Women. Rather than pay the settlement, Terry promptly filed bankruptcy, prompting Senator Charles Schumer to propose an amendment to a bankruptcy bill in Congress which would "specifically ... prevent abortion opponents from using the bankruptcy code to escape paying court fines." The amendment was not included in the final bill. In 1998, NOW obtained more than 25,000 "frequent flyer miles" held by Terry in order to help satisfy a legal judgment.^[4] The long-running case was resolved on February 28, 2006, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 for Scheidler, against NOW.^[5]

In 1990, Terry helped to organize protests outside the hospital where Nancy Cruzan was a patient, around the time that her feeding tube was removed. The group Missouri Citizens for Life also was involved in the protests, along with the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, a former Operation Rescue staffer. He was also involved in protests related to the Terri Schiavo case. In 1998, Randall Terry ran for the United States House of Representatives in Upstate New York. Terry competed with radio station owner William "Bud" Walker for the Republican nomination to face Democratic incumbent Maurice Hinchey. Terry received the endorsement of Focus on the Family head James Dobson; however, national and state Republicans were not supportive of Terry's candidacy.^[6] Terry was defeated by Walker 53% to 35%, but was the Right to Life Party nominee in the general election.^[7] Terry came in third place, winning 7% of the vote, with Hinchey and Walker winning 62% and 31% respectively.^[8] In 2000, Terry and his son Jamiel promoted the candidacy of Steven Forbes in the Republican presidential primary.^[9] In June 2005, Terry announced plans to run in the primary against Florida Republican state senator James E. King, citing King's work in attempting to block legislation which would have kept Terri Schiavo alive. In August 2006, in an attempt to undermine King's support in a Republican primary the next month, Terry publicized an endorsement of King by "Bill Clinton" — actually, robo-calls by a professional impersonator of former President Bill Clinton.^[10] The two "Clinton" scripts each contained a disclaimer. One was, "Hello friend, Bill Clinton here – not really!" The other was "This is a celebrity impersonation."^[10] Terry used the scripts and the impersonator in 43,000 calls. The "no amnesty" line was a reference to immigration reform proposals which were an issue in many campaigns during 2006. On September 5, 2006, Terry was defeated in the primary, with King receiving over two-thirds of the votes cast.

Terry counter-protesting at the National Equality March in 2009.

On March 20, 2009, the White House announced that President Barack Obama was to speak at the May 17 Commencement of the University of Notre Dame. Terry declared that Notre Dame, being one of the foremost Catholic universities in the nation, should not have allowed Obama to speak. Terry's main objection was that Obama supports abortion. He was quoted in an article to the University's newspaper, The Observer, stating that he planned to make the commencement "a circus." Terry was arrested May 1, 2009, on the Notre Dame campus for violating a no-trespass order. He posted a bond of $250 at the St. Joseph County Jail and was released the same day, and assigned a court date later that month.^[3][11] In a statement given to a Christian news service, Terry claimed Notre Dame's invitation of Obama was a betrayal of Catholic teaching, comparing it to Judas' betrayal of Jesus Christ.^[12]

When Kansas obstetrician George Tiller was murdered while serving as an usher in his Wichita church on the morning of May 31, 2009, Terry immediately issued a statement critical of Tiller.^[13][14] On the same day, June 1, Terry released a video in which he called President Barack Obama and pro-choice politicians "child killers", and described Tiller as a "mass murderer" who "reaped what he sowed." He voiced regret that Tiller wasn't able to "get things right with his maker" and that it was unfortunate that he didn't get a "trial of a jury of his peers and to have a proper execution."^[15] Terry's comments provoked a backlash. The Albany Times-Union, in an editorial, accused Terry of undermining the credibility of the "generally peaceful" pro-life movement,^[16].

2012 presidential candidacy[link]

In January 2011, Terry announced his intention to challenge President Barack Obama in the Democratic Party primaries for the presidential election of 2012.^[17][18][19] His whole campaign strategy was based upon a commercial during Super Bowl XLVI featuring graphic photographs of aborted fetuses;^[17][18] historically, the networks have refused all political and issue-related advertising during the Super Bowl, citing equal-time rules and the advertisement did not air.^[20]

The attempt to air the ads led to legal action^[21] and a statement by the Democratic National Committee that Terry was not a legitimate candidate,^[22] and thus should be forbidden privileges given others running.

According to unofficial results, Terry received 18% of the vote in the 2012 Democratic Oklahoma Presidential Primary. He also won 11 counties in the state, and will be awarded two delegates in the Democratic Primary.^[23]

Personal life[link]

Terry's personal life has frequently come under public scrutiny, some of which he has welcomed, going so far as to put his foster children on his curriculum vitae as part of his pro-life "bona fides." Terry has been married twice, having numerous children. With his first wife Cindy, he had a daughter before fostering two additional daughters and a son. He formally adopted the two youngest foster children. As of 2006, he had four sons with his second wife, Andrea.^[24]

In the early 1980s, Terry married Cindy Dean, a woman he had met in Bible school.^[9][25] In 1985, he met a woman who had borne her second child in prison and was planning an abortion rather than having a third. Terry persuaded her to continue the pregnancy and a daughter named Tila was born later that year. In 1987, Cindy and Randall Terry had a daughter together whom they named Faith.^[25] In March 1988, they took in Tila, then aged three, and her siblings Jamiel, 8, and Ebony, 12, as foster children. All three are biracial; their mother was white. Terry formally adopted the two younger children in 1994 and began describing his family on his résumé as: "Children: One by birth and three black foster children," although Ebony had left home at the age of 16 in 1991.^[9] Ebony, who was not adopted by Terry, uses the surname Whetstone, but both Jamiel and Tila took and retained the surname Terry.^[9][25] She converted to Islam, a religion Terry has preached is composed of "murderers" and "terrorists."^[9] In 2004, Terry described his relationship with Ebony as "good."^[9] However, Terry banned Tila from his home after she became pregnant outside of marriage twice by age 18; her first pregnancy ended in miscarriage.^[9][26] In 1998, when Terry was accused of racism while running for Congress, his son Jamiel stepped forward to defend him.^[9] In 2000, Jamiel worked with his father on Steven Forbes' campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. President, and campaigned with his father against gay marriage in Vermont.^[9] In 2004, Jamiel publicly announced that he was gay and wrote an article for Out Magazine for which he was paid $2,500.^[9] When he learned that the Out article was to be published,^[9] Terry pre-empted Jamiel by writing an essay, My Prodigal Son, the Homosexual,^[27] in which he writes of pain and disappointment, blames Jamiel's homosexuality and other troubles on his childhood experiences, and contends that much of the Out Magazine article is false and was written by other people. Jamiel's response was, "My father's first and foremost aim is to protect himself. He talks about how I prostitute the family's name, but he's used the fact that he saved my sister from abortion and rescued me from hardship in his speeches and interviews. What's the difference?"^[9]

In 2000, Terry divorced his wife of 19 years, Cindy,^[9] and married his former church assistant, Andrea Sue Kollmorgen.^[25][26][28] Kollmorgen, born c. 1976, was approximately 25 at the time of their nuptials;^[29] As a consequence of the divorce, the home on 119 acres (0.48 km²) where he had lived with Cindy and their four children was to be sold.^[28] His decision to divorce in 2000 to marry Kollmorgen was unfavorably contrasted by some in the press to his own judgment expressed in his 1995 book, The Judgment of God: "Families are destroyed as a father vents his mid-life crisis by abandoning his wife for a 'younger, prettier model.' "^[9][30] His sentiments against divorce had been so strong that when his own parents divorced, "Randall refused to let his children speak with their grandfather for three years," according to interviews with the family done by the Washington Post.^[9] As a result of Terry's divorce from Cindy Dean, the pastor of the Landmark Church of Binghamton, New York, "unceremoniously tossed him out"^[9] although Terry had been a member there for 15 years.^[31] That church had previously censured him for abandoning his wife and the two children still at home in preparation for divorce, and for a "pattern of repeated and sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women."^[26][31] After the censure and expulsion, Terry joined the Charismatic Episcopal Church, a denomination established in 1992.^[31] After a period of study commencing in 2005, Terry formally converted to Roman Catholicism in 2006, taking the confirmation name "David Mark."^[24] After his conversion, he disavowed the first marriage and divorce, saying, "There were tragic problems that were inherent to the marriage. According to Catholic doctrine as it has been taught to me, those problems made it an invalid sacrament."^[24]

In the 2004 essay about Jamiel, three years after divorcing Cindy Dean, Terry described his family as "a great wife, a teenage daughter and two small boys." ^[27] The teen daughter was Faith Terry, his child by his original wife, born in 1987. In 2004, the Washington Post reported that Terry and Cindy's daughter was in college.^[9] Five years into his second marriage, a 2006 article in the National Catholic Register described his current family as "his three, soon to be four, rambunctious young boys."^[24] Terry's second wife, Andrea, is also a pro-life activist and was arrested in 2008 for trespass while leafleting a Roman Catholic cathedral parking lot with campaign flyers for a fictitious candidate promoting slavery for African-Americans. Randall Terry stated, "The piece was intended to be incendiary and basically a satire," a protest against vehicles in the church parking lot which, he said, carried bumper stickers supporting pro-choice political candidates, particularly Rudy Giuliani.^[29]

Terry's son Jamiel was killed in an automobile accident in November 2011. The two had reportedly reconciled prior to Jamiel's death.^[32][33]

Recently, Terry moved his growing family to West Virginia to focus on his campaign.^[34]

Works[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Accessory To Murder: The Enemies, Allies, And Accomplices To The Death of Our Culture (1990) ISBN 0-943497-78-7
• Why Does A Nice Guy Like Me... Keep Getting Thrown In Jail?: How theological escapism and cultural retreatism in the Church have led to America's demise. (1993) ISBN 1-56384-052-9
• The Sword: The Blessing Of Righteous Government And The Overthrow Of Tyrants (1995) ISBN 1-887690-00-X
• A Humble Plea: To Bishops, Clergy, Laymen: Ending the Abortion Holocaust (2008) http://ahumbleplea.com

Discography[link]

• I Believe in You
• Dark Sunglasses Day

References[link]