I am not going out of my mind. I did notice a post on Hot Air about trusting the National Park Service ever again after the shutdown theater, the title and lead-in posed as a question easily answered with, "no."
That is what I wrote. Two people got in before me. Checked later and there were some 35 responses, some long, 100% in agreement "no way will they trust them again." That surprised me. I thought I was being unusually uncharacteristically closed-mined about this, turns out it's just a regular attitude held by anyone who noticed what happened.
Now the post is gone. It was on top. Sometimes they move down. I do not see it there on Hot Air now.
Gosh, I hope it comes back. I wanted to see how far it would go. Did it get too ugly?
For me it goes like this [Smoky the Bear ---> fascist ] Just like that. One step. One single event and wham my whole attitude changed toward the entire national parks system generally. And I don't care who it is, National Park Service, National Park Police, National Park Administration, National Park Overseers whatever, don't confuse me with tidy distinctions. They're all lumped together and they're all bad news even if there happen to nice ones in there caught up in the theater beyond their control. I honestly do not care if I ever make it to the Grand Canyon, or to Yellowstone, or to Mt. Rushmore anymore. I'll read about those things and avoid fascist fiefdoms, even Estes that opened quickly enough, none of them are acceptable now. They're all off limits to me. And if I end up there by mistake, say, a series of unfortunate events, it happens, I certainly will have the creeps the whole time through knowing I'm in the presence of weak-minded stormtroopers. My attitude will not change. It cannot, because they cannot. I will hold this soured attitude until the day I die. Best for me not to think about national parks and leave all those splendid things for others.
So. What do you think?
First I'll check to see if the post came back. Nope. Not in "more green room" either. See? That there is fascism. It's everywhere.
17 comments:
Hot Air Tag:
national park service
I am not trusting them. They are in the bag for O.
Lem, it's not there. Poof. Gone. And I know it was there because I went into comments twice.
I am not trusting park service anymore because they are so easily manipulated instead of saying, "screw you."
And because how my friend who worked for Colorado State park service described his work experience basically as a private fiefdom. They really do have the attitude that it is their land to do with as they wish, and oh by the way, that pesky public must be appeased too so as listlessly as possible. Their interest is in the land, in their job, a sinecure, in their fiefdom, not with providing services to the public. Buildings just for their use. Party buildings. Lakes just for their use. Whole stretches for them alone to enjoy.
That's okay. The best times I've had exploring is on private land.
A bunch of great times on private land. Wanna hear one? Okay, goes like this:
The one old guy's name is Yege. Sounds like Yea!-ge. Ancient. Antique. Actual antiques at his real house, he collects them. Imagine a collection of spinets and harpsichords and pianos. That takes a lot of room. That house was built by the family who built the amusement park across the street. Elitches. When I knew him. Dean of D.U. Law previous to me knowing him, his father too. Way back, his father defended a moonshiner and was paid with a patch of property. He termed the property Yege Mountain, or Yeage, however he spelled it, built a house up there near the top.
yegee
yeage
yege
Nothing works. I cannot find it. Nor can I find anything verifying him being dean. Too bad for me.
The guy is outrageous, if still alive. The three parties I went to over time were all professional people, all drunks all three times. A vacation house was on the mountain and was struck by lightening and burned to the ground, and then another one rebuilt on the same spot but more securely into the mountain the second time around.
The new house is built directly into the rock. So imagine a gigantic orange boulder sticking out of the side of a mountain with a house built on and around it. Solid. The raw rock juts through inside the house in certain places, in the bathrooms, and through the floor in a larger living room. Balconies all over. On every corner. So sticking out all over the place like a castle.
But it is not the tippy top.
Hiking up a short distance away from the house flips you over to the other side so that it is no longer visible, and where the wind rushes up the hill like a turbine engine right up the face of the mountain right across the pine trees struggling to take hold in the cracks of the rocks, and while sitting there taking it in I realize, "holy shit, there's a fortune in natural bonsai trees right here all around!" They are incredible. Full aged trees straining so hard you can hear it. Bent backward violently, their branches whipped into their unique aching distorted shapes, barely alive for the brutality of the elements pounding them and rewarding with stingy light, and then I see how much damage must be done to liberate them, even just one, how the roots creep along the cracks in the rock for quite a long distance digging into any tiny space available and stringing its tendrils for minute traces of nourishment in the cracks in the rocks or getting it all from the wind blowing past. They cannot be ripped out without destroying them and tearing apart the rock, they are part of the rock.
So if you want to see a hundred or so natural bonsais, you had just go there and look.
If I can only find yegee mountain. I know two people who can tell me what's what with that. I've had those harsh little trees on my mind since I first saw them.
Supposedly, this was the sort of stuff they do any time they want something; it was just nastier.
Something else to shut down or cut when the revolution comes.
I think that due to the conservation of matter the materials that were consumed in the house fire were not lightened. We would have to weigh the smoke and the ashes to ascertain whether or not that is the case, but I bet it is close to being true.
Chip ... I think you are surrendering. Those parks are yours and mine and park rangers need to feel push back or they won't step back. The go too far too often. I've been warned of citation for taking a photo of a bear while caught in a traffic jam of people looking at the bear...no feeding or teasing, just looking. I was about 5 cars back so WTF, eh?
I'm an old fart and one of my few remaining pleasures is to bait NPS rangers. I seriously considered going to Yellowstone just to see if I could get arrested for "recreating?" The road to Cooke City cannot be and is never close even in winter, and it runs through the Lamar Valley. I am dying to find out what
law" there is to ban "recreating?" Also so how applies on an other wise public highway, not just a park road? Been in jail before so that's no big deal, but the hearing would be fun. Decided against it when I calculated how much my lawyers would cost ...e.g. more than the trip itself.
Smokey the Bear = US Forest Service, not NPS.
Nit-picky I know, but many people forget they are two different agencies. Except for campgrounds,picnicgrounds and toilets, the forest trails and backroads were pretty much open for use. Not that they could realistically be closed.
Maybe someone should redo the old Reagan There's a bear in the woods commercial, only replace that bear with Smokey.
The NPS rangers needs to be more like Andy Taylor and less like Barney Fife.
Or maybe Baywatch.
The National Park people have easy wonderful jobs. I suspect - and yes it's only a guess -that they fall in line -even if they don't want to fall in line- because those jobs are coveted.
Again - just a hunch.
Still - it would have been nice if they all agreed to give Obama the finger.
btw - I want to borrow this and carefully place on top of the Washington Monument.
This is one of those times I lose a lot of respect for anyone who supported Obama, and claims to be "progressive."
To be really clear:
> I can respect that you think he was the better candidate--twice.
> I can respect that you think there was something worth fighting over in the budget wrangling, so much so that you think the President and the Democrats were right in voting as they did in the shutdown imbroglio.
But I cannot respect your refusal to call the administration on its unnecessary, insulting, and inherently thuggish behavior with the monument-shutdown strategy.
You keep your mouths shut, and perhaps your eyes and ears. And that's not something any honest person can respect.
On one level, setting up barricades around a national monument is small potatoes.
But what about honesty? Ah, there's the rub.
I once saw an NPS ranger issue a ticket to some lady because she didn't have her dog on a leash.
He had his siren going and the lights flashing and the whole thing.
It was actually pretty funny.
Bet she won't ever do that again!
We are surrounded by National Forest as well as State Parks. All of the employees of those agencies that I know and have had contact with are rabid global warming worshipers, far liberal/progressive lunatics. The only exceptions are a couple of Fish and Game guys that are actually quite conservative. To reason with these people is a complete waste of time.
And it is correct. They think they OWN the forests and the land. There is no consideration of the people who live in the surrounding areas. In fact....they wish you would drop dead. You are annoying them in THEIR land.
A year ago, there was a large....LARGE lightening caused fired in one of the National Forests. The park service decided to just let it burn. Not always a bad idea. Quite often fires in our area will be left to burn out. Too difficult to get into the area to stop and it can be a benefit to allow some natural burns just go.
BUT it got severely out of control and was heading like a runaway locomotive directly to the area west of the park where there were several communities of people, homes, towns, ranches...tens of thousands of people. There was much angst and threats towards the NPS people directly if they didn't get their act together and at least TRY to stop or slow the raging forest fire before it got past the park boundaries. The NPS wouldn't even allow the local fire depts or the State CDF (can't deal with fire) to go onto the park and try to help. The people outside of the park were fighting for their lives. The NPS didn't give a shit. They wanted to just stand by and let it burn. Eventually, the bad press did get to them and they brought in some fire fighting groups and the towns were saved with minimal loss of life and property.
Do not trust the NPS. They don't care about you.
That's not unique to the NPS, DBQ. No government agency cares about you.
The government doesn't serve the people. I don't know that it even did, but it certainly doesn't now.
Revenant said ...
That's not unique to the NPS, DBQ. No government agency cares about you.
Sorry, but you are very wrong on this topic. The ordinary civil service grades, GS-01 through GS-13 actually DO care about you and the service they provide upon your request.
The assholes are the senior managers, almost all SES level (flag rank just like generals and admirals) who set the policies, make the rules and force their subordinates to carry them out.
You don't really think that those mid-level civil servant grades, both salary and wage grade) blockading parking lots and memorials didn't hate it do you? What would you do in your job if your boss arbitrarily ordered you to punch the next dozen customers you had in the face.
You'd quit, right?
Or what? Tell me.
Blame those who cause the problems, not those who have no choice in carrying out dumb-fuck ideas. I was one civil service grade manager who did NOT carry out dumb shit, and I assure you paid for it in lost wages and promotions, and had a target on my back for half my time in grade. I was no different on the uniformed side, and I paid for it, nearly went to jail in fact.
Blame those responsible, not just who you think is involved.
Sorry, but you are very wrong on this topic. The ordinary civil service grades, GS-01 through GS-13 actually DO care about you and the service they provide upon your request.
Go back and re-read what I said. Note my use of the phrase "no government agency".
Yes, there are individual people in the government who care. There are individual people outside of the government who care, too. I've seen no evidence that government workers of any rank are friendlier or more helpful than those outside of it.
Blame those who cause the problems, not those who have no choice in carrying out dumb-fuck ideas.
Of course they have a choice. They aren't slaves. Worst-case scenario is they disobey the order and get sacked.
And what of it? When government prosecutors come sniffing around, do you think private-sector workers get to say "oh, I just did all this unethical and illegal stuff because my boss ordered me to do it"? Fuck no. Civilians are expected to do the right thing whether it means their job or not.
"I have to do [whatever] or I'll lose my job" is just another way of saying "I'm doing [whatever] because there's money in it for me". It excuses nothing.
Hehe, I love it.
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