Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Off-Roaders Are Selfish Assholes

And, according to a piece in the CS Monitor, yesterday, they pose the greatest threat of any other source to the continued viability of USer public lands for any other purposes.
I think off-roading by powered machinery should be banned entirely. It utterly fucks up the places where it is done. It disturbs animal populations, destroys ecosystems, creates disastrous run-off problems, and ruins the natural features of the land.
It has no redeeming social value at all, unless in the occasional accidental deaths of one or more of its speedier and less careful practitioners. Unless you think the highest value for those lands is that they should be shredded and trashed by the spinning tires and shrieking motors of substitute penises by thrill-seekers and mechanical show-offs to test their mettle and metal.
Just because you can drive a truck into the wilderness does not confer upon one the absolute right to do so. Given what is known about their effects, they should be banned from all public lands.
But there will be a horrible, political fight over the issue. Some folks do not seem to realize they are NOT entitled to screw up everything for everybody else.
Although I would, of COURSE, never advocate for violence, a few booby-trapped trails might convince 'em otherwise, n'est pas?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how much offroading in trucks they do around here, but we've got way too many of those ATVs running around the hills and dirt roads east of us.

And way to many power toys on the lakes in state parks, especially the small ones. You can smell the gasoline and hear the obnoxious sounds of engines long before you see the lake itself.

Oars, paddles, pedals and sails should be all that are allowed on lakes below a determined size. And the number of motorized water toys permitted on larger ones at any given time should be severely limited.

It doesn't make sense to me that people should be able to indulge their environmentally destructive motorized roughhousing just anywhere.

Can't there be designated sites for the noising, oil-spewing speed freaks, and most of the people's lands protected for all of us?
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