When I was younger, I fished very occasionally but never caught
much. I did go scalloping mostly because I could snorkel and see all
the other weird critters. Then thye decided we all had to have salt
water fishing licenses and I gave it up as too much trouble. Once when
wading around the bay with my kids, my little son picked up a scallop
and I put it in a bucket so he could see its row of blue eyes. I was
not going to do any scalloping cuz its just too much trouble when you
havent got the time and for the cost of a license for my wife and I
could buy em at the store. A park ranger came out and gave me hell for
scalloping without a license. I see that this makes sense to many of
you but not to me. These days I worry about even allowing my kids to
pick up a Welk shell (with critter inside) just to look at cuz they
might need a license to do so. Do you ever consider getting an
excavation permit before building a sand castle?
These days its tough to even go snorkeling without running afoul of
the law. We always carried a dive flag attached to a pole on the
nearby canoe but recently got hassled cuz it now turns out that we need
a bigger flag and it has to be on a free floating thing, not on the
boat. For us, snorkeling is like going for a walk, we have all been
doing it since we were tiny so who woulda thought of any regs about it?
Do you ever consider that there might be regs about how you walk?
Even canoeing has become difficult due to over regulation. As kids,
we would all take the canoe to the middle of the lake and turn it over,
swamp it and play in it. Now, my kids swim like fish and recently with
the canoe my wife and I took it out and turned it over. The kids swam
out and began to play in the water filled canoe with us. The ranger
tried to ticket us cuz the kids had no life jackets. They weren't
canoeing, they were swimming. I ALWAYS use life jackets but this was
absurd.
For most of my adult life I was an obsessive cave explorer (not cave
diving) and one of the primary attractions was the total lack of
regulations. You were responsible for yourself and your companions.
If something happened, the so-called authorities had no ability to help
you, other cavers did. I recognize that most of life cannot be like
this but I also think we have given up too much when we expect the most
minute aspect of our lives to be regulated and even regulated with no
intelligence.

Maybe you and yours should move to North Korea for some perspective....
JR

wrote:

When I was younger, I fished very occasionally but never caught
much. I did go scalloping mostly because I could snorkel and see all
the other weird critters. Then thye decided we all had to have salt
water fishing licenses and I gave it up as too much trouble. Once when
wading around the bay with my kids, my little son picked up a scallop
and I put it in a bucket so he could see its row of blue eyes. I was
not going to do any scalloping cuz its just too much trouble when you
havent got the time and for the cost of a license for my wife and I
could buy em at the store. A park ranger came out and gave me hell for
scalloping without a license. I see that this makes sense to many of
you but not to me. These days I worry about even allowing my kids to
pick up a Welk shell (with critter inside) just to look at cuz they
might need a license to do so. Do you ever consider getting an
excavation permit before building a sand castle?
These days its tough to even go snorkeling without running afoul of
the law. We always carried a dive flag attached to a pole on the
nearby canoe but recently got hassled cuz it now turns out that we need
a bigger flag and it has to be on a free floating thing, not on the
boat. For us, snorkeling is like going for a walk, we have all been
doing it since we were tiny so who woulda thought of any regs about it?
Do you ever consider that there might be regs about how you walk?
Even canoeing has become difficult due to over regulation. As kids,
we would all take the canoe to the middle of the lake and turn it over,
swamp it and play in it. Now, my kids swim like fish and recently with
the canoe my wife and I took it out and turned it over. The kids swam
out and began to play in the water filled canoe with us. The ranger
tried to ticket us cuz the kids had no life jackets. They weren't
canoeing, they were swimming. I ALWAYS use life jackets but this was
absurd.
For most of my adult life I was an obsessive cave explorer (not cave
diving) and one of the primary attractions was the total lack of
regulations. You were responsible for yourself and your companions.
If something happened, the so-called authorities had no ability to help
you, other cavers did. I recognize that most of life cannot be like
this but I also think we have given up too much when we expect the most
minute aspect of our lives to be regulated and even regulated with no
intelligence.



--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth

On 2 Jan 2006 12:34:11 -0800, "
wrote:

The ranger
tried to ticket us cuz the kids had no life jackets. They weren't
canoeing, they were swimming.

==========================

Good defense, I'll have to remember that one. :-)

I find that many park administrators seem to have forgotten that the
parks belong to the people. Maybe it's just me but I sometimes get
the feeling that they'd be happier if no one used the parks at all.

Me and mine were here before the regulators and I have no intention of
going anywhere.

Spears or Arrows??

" wrote:

Me and mine were here before the regulators and I have no intention of
going anywhere.