You're really a pill. I tried to give you a compliment and as typical
for an idiot, you took it for an insult. You said "we non-stupid ones
have campaigned...." I suppose you aren't included in that
group. Silly me.

I have to admit you lost me there. I re-read your previous post and
mine, and can't find where you
tried to give me a compliment ("that's really nice to know"?), OR why
you interpreted
what I said as my taking your compliment for an insult. All I meant to
do was continue
the discussion about licensing/ceritifcation rules. I'm also not sure
what group you suppose
I'm not included in. Yes, I'm definitely included in the group of
non-stupid pwc operators....I promise.
(I dunno, if you want to talk about my IQ, SAT"s, Mensa membership, my
twenty-year career as a software developer/architect
or anything else to back up my being non-stupid, that's a separate
discussion, hopefully
you'll just take my word for it and we can keep talking about boating
issues.)

I don't think it's necessarily the best
place to start. All boaters should have to take some sort of safety
class, but the licensing part of it I'm not sure adds that much to it.

Here's where I can help you, or clarify what I was talking about
before. The heart of
NY state's pwc "licensing" requirement is that you have to take an
eight-hour basic
boating safety course (it's not a license per se that you get, but a
boating safety
certificate that shows you passed the test at the end of the course -
demonstrating
that you have been exposed to, and demonstrated at least a minimal
retention and understanding of,
the basics of boating safety). So I think we're actually in agreement
here, right? You agree
with me (and the pwc industry and community at large, for what it's
worth), precisely that,
as you say, "All boaters should have to take some safety class," that
is exactly my position.
As far as the "licensing part" and what it "adds to it," I think I'm
just looking to make someone
take a test to demonstrate that they actually did take the class, and
absorb the material satisfactorily.
If we're going to mandate that all boaters take a safety class (and I"m
really pleased to hear that you agree with
me that we should), I think you'd agree that we need some way of
verifying that they have, and paid some
attention to the information.

I'm glad we've slogged through the rougher parts of this chat, I think
we've found a lot of common ground
and I appreciate your softened, eminently reasonable and flameless tone
in the post below as well.

richforman