"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"claus" wrote

The January 2008 issue of SAIL magazine has an editorial about a
forthcoming Coast Guard mandatory license requirement for Recreational
boaters.

This is coming just as irresistably as the growth of the Chinese economy.
(And no, Tom (whoever), I'm not advocating it.)

It has absolutely nothing to do with boating safety. Homeland security
wants to have a better idea who is on the water and be able to keep
certain people off the water so show to the rest of the public that they
are being protected. No, it's not terrorists they want to keep off the
water, they know the terrorists won't bother to get a license before they
drive a boat full of explosives into a tanker or ferry. They also know
they can't really stop that kind of event but they need to assure the
public that "bad guys" are being kept off the water. So, it doesn't even
need to be bad guys. Any guys will do. Did anyone see the 60 minutes
show with 14 of the 500 or so people who all had a common and thoroughly
American name (something like, "Michael Herbert Smith") who suddenly
discovered that they couldn't fly because the name somehow got on the
No-Fly list. One of the DHS drones was saying, "Having a few thousand
innocent people unable to fly on commercial airliners is a small price to
pay for protecting our freedoms." Of course, he didn't say it quite that
way but that's what it translates to in normal English. I guess being
able to fly for business or personal reasons isn't a freedom.

This will decimate the boating industry and be pretty painful to anyone
who wants to sell a boat. The industry is so over developed and crowded
that just a slowing in growth causes panic and a 10% drop in the number of
boating households would be right up there with an asteroid wiping out
Florida. How many people do you think would decide to take up some other
recreational activity if they needed a license? This will fit very nicely
with the DHS real agenda. If you are looking for the needle in a haystack
of a terrorist in a pleasure craft, the fewer straws out there, the
better.

--
Roger Long



No disputing the rush to id for no reason, but I believe this is for boats
entering the US, not ones already here.

"subject small planes and boats entering the United States from other
countries" is the key phrase.

I doubt this will decimate the boating industry in the US.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com