Cult of Dualsport

Sacramento Bee commits journalistic crime

The Sacramento Bee says that grave robbers and tattooed parolees are terrorizing California's state parks, and there aren't enough park rangers to stem the tide of crime.

I'm getting pretty fed up with the government-media complex and its penchant for publishing crap and calling it "news". Check this out: "Rising crime dims luster of California state parks."

Holiday visitors seeking a quiet day off beside the water at Folsom State Recreation Area on July 5 instead had front-row seats to a pursuit, as park rangers chased an assault suspect on foot through throngs of picnickers.

It was like a scene from a big-city television crime drama. But this was a state park.

Crime is on the rise in California's state parks, up nearly threefold in the last decade, according to Department of Parks and Recreation data analyzed by The Sacramento Bee.

A few years ago I would have laughed it off. In the age of JournoList (see also here) stories like this make me wonder about the newspaper's political motivations. And, true to form, the Bee leaves out many facts which would undermine its central theme. Let's take a look at some of the "crimes" that are  "more common ... in the eight off-road vehicle recreation parks."

I live close to Prairie City, a big OHV park near Sacramento, so I looked at the the Bee's Park Crime and Maintenance Database to see what is actually listed. There are over 800 events listed for this park, and I looked at them all. Most of the Incident Types are listed as "Crime". What kind of crimes? Violations of the California Vehicle Code. Here are a few repeat offenses:

• CVC 38020: Identification Requirements: Violations
• CVC 4000A: Registration Required
• CVC 38205: Application for Transfer
• CVC 38170: Display of Identification Plates
• CVC 38300: Unlawful to Disobey Sign, Signal, or Traffic Control Device
• CVC 22350: Basic Speed Law
• CVC 38305: Basic Speed Law

Do any of these violations sound like "crime" to you? Sure, some dudes on their motorcycles got cited and there was even one drunk driver. But reading the first few paragraphs of the Bee article, one might think that crazed motorcycle gangs of tattooed parolees are murdering motocross moms every weekend.

The truth is that the worst "crimes" I found were "Possible Pipe Bomb" (not a crime at all unless an actual pipe bomb was found, and the database doesn't contain that information), "DUI", "Public Urination", "Dog Off Leash", and "Fence Knocked Down". There was even a "crime" listed as "No Violation."

A few of the events labeled "Incident" were pretty funny:

• Dog bit a person, lady hit dog
• Medical - Rock to the head
• MX Down (no kidding, at a motocross track?)

Does the Bee list these items? No. Rather, they say, park rangers must contend with "car surfing" and "grave robbing" and "illicit sex".

The article is probably just the result of a breathless reporter reporting breathlessly on the urgency of government intervention. Or it may be just another in a long string of articles designed to create fear in the minds of Americans. Whatever it is, it's bogus. Maybe I'll ask the folks who wrote it:

This story was reported by McClatchy Newspapers' five California papers: Matt Weiser and Marjie Lundstrom at The Sacsramento Bee; Rosalio Ahumada at the Modesto Bee; Tara Albert at the Fresno Bee; Jamie Oppenheim at the Merced Sun-Star; and Kathe Tanner and David Sneed at the San Luis Obispo Tribune. It was written by Weiser and Lundstrom. Contact The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264 or mweiser@sacbee.com; or Marjie Lundstrom, (916) 321-1055 or mlundstrom@sacbee.com.

Talk about fatal flaws

For some reason, I'm subscribed to the Wildlands CPR email list. In one of their latest articles, The Forest Service's Fatal Flaw, Executive Director Bethanie Walder opens with this:

Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Willy Loman, Tony Soprano, and ... the Forest Service? A diverse group with a common theme – tragic or fatal flaws. From ancient literature to modern times, people have written about, read about and dissected the concept of the fatal flaw.

My "metaphorical synapses" may be as rusty as Ms. Walder's -- to her credit, she admits it -- and I can appreciate the effort she makes to build the foundation of her essay. But the Forest Service isn't a character and thus cannot have a "fatal flaw" of the kind that Walder attributes to it.

She identifies "accountability" as the flaw which plagues the Forest Service, and goes on to say that "one word may be too simplistic to describe the whole problem." Eventually, she uses more than 1,400 words in a quest to fully develop her essay on the tragedy of government.

About halfway through, we find out what Walder thinks the real flaw is, and it's not "accountability":

Their tragic flaw, therefore, may be their failure to create a new infrastructure to develop, promote, direct and implement their watershed restoration plans.

The "flaw" of the Forest Service is that it's not big enough! It apparently doesn't have enough money, either, for Walder says they have "largely failed" to implement the Legacy Roads and Trails program  despite receiving $180 million in the last three years. And she wants to give them $700 million a year for a proposed Integrated Resource Restoration Program.

Now, pardon my ignorance, but I'd like to propose that there's a different fatal flaw at work here. On the one hand, Walder (and, by extension, Wildlands CPR itself) acknowledges the Forest Service's failure. At the same time, she wants to give them more money to build bigger programs and hire more staff.

For example, we think they should develop a national Watershed Restoration Program, led by a national Director of Watershed Restoration, with regional Restoration Directors, and we have proposed this to the agency. These staff should be trained in hydrology and/or aquatic/fisheries ecology, and they should be tasked with developing and implementing clear, science-based, ecoregion-specific restoration agendas for the agency that put resource needs over economic returns.

Clearly, Walder thinks she knows best. She demonstrates an unfailing willingness to put taxpayer money where her mouth is. And she has a fatal flaw that is truly the equal of its classical brethren: hubris.

Hubris: extreme haughtiness or arrogance. Hubris often indicates being out of touch with reality and overestimating one's own competence or capabilities, especially for people in positions of power.

In a fashion worthy of her opener -- which is to say that it's lacking -- Walder takes the essay full circle. The Forest Service can, she says, avoid becoming a tragedy.

The agency can make an attitude adjustment, they can create the necessary infrastructure and accountability, and they can implement the restoration vision that Secretary Vilsack and others have laid out. In typical tragedies, the “hero” is incapable of overcoming their flaw, and thus they fail. But this isn’t a story, it’s real life, and it doesn’t have to be a tragedy.

There's a small problem here, and it comes directly from the liberal worldview that Walder so eloquently embraces: the government must not fail. No matter how much money it squanders, no matter how badly it actually does fail at every program it undertakes, people like Walder will always want to funnel more taxpayer money into it.

To her literary credit, she does recognize the essence of a tragedy; the moral makeup of its main character makes redemption impossible. What she fails to recognize is that such tragedies have their genesis in real life; and that, in order to succeed, government must be smaller and not bigger.

Flaw, thy name is Walder.

Government regulation of space ... er ... alien

I'm not sure where Greg  Meuwissen stands personally. Maybe he's just a bureaucrat getting paid to write stuff like the USFS Unmanaged Motorized Recreation position paper:

Recreation visitors expect a great deal from their national forests and other public lands in terms of settings, experiences, facilities and services. The challenge for recreation managers is to address the needs and conflicting expectations of millions of people who use and enjoy national forests while protecting the health and integrity of the land.

Federal Recreation Managers. What next? Maybe our public lands will begin to look like the U.K.

Put this post in the "rant" category. I'm consistently amazed at the positions taken by many well-meaning citizens. The position I object to is that "more government makes us safer". Regular folk who believe this tend to be honest, sincere, and confused. Activists who believe this are dangerous.

After the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "fire suppression" programs run at the Federal and State levels, and [insert your favorite government program here] I keep hearing the refrain: More Government!!

WTF?

Maybe I'm the one who's deluded, but can you imagine the seating chart for your local emergency room under National Health Care? Think Superdome.

Government IQ dropping along with approval rating

Here we go again.

In accordance with national direction, implementation of Subpart B of the Travel Management Rule for the Tahoe National Forest is scheduled for completion by approximately September 2009.

Translation:

An appointed government bureaucrat will, by Sept. 2009, pretend to use a 1,894-page document to decide what roads we can and can't ride on.

Since it's a government and environmental "thang", the Forest Service feels compelled to state the obvious:

The DEIS is a large, complicated document ...

I'm convinced that government documents are large and complicated because government officials can't write. But maybe the goal is to prevent as many people as possible from actually reading them. At random, I picked Page 2 from Volume IV, and found this:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)

Is it my imagination, or is this "Non Discrimination Statement" getting longer every year? Genetic information? All that's missing is "BMW ownership." Or maybe "Intelligence Quotient of government bureaucrats."

See also this Sept. 19 article from Sacramento Bee, reproduced at Motherlode Dualsport.

Firefighting costs strip Forest Service budget

The US Forest Service has moved $400 million into its fire-supression fund, stripping funds from all non-fire programs including recreation, fire-prevention and safety. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimball issued a letter on Aug. 22:

We have depleted the $1.18 billion allocated in our FY 2008 budget for fire suppression, but we will continue to fight wildfires through late summer and fall. To make additional funding available for firefighting, the Forest Service has set in motion its legislated transfer authority to recall funding from non-fire programs.

What does this mean for the OHV trail designation projects? Federal, state and local government regulations complicate the issue. This article from the Challis Messenger in Idaho illustrates some of the conflicts.

The Christian Science Monitor notes the Eldorado National Forest in Californa (where I ride a lot) in this article. Read the whole thing, and check out the comments, too.

Here in the Eldorado, which some regard as “ground zero” for the growing national debate over off-road vehicles on public lands, the template for future action across millions of federal acres could be set, observers say. ...

Despite years spent evaluating Eldorado’s motorized trail system, many miles were designated for ORV use without scientifically evaluating their impact on the environment, says Karen Schambach, California coordinator for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national group that has been critical of ORV impacts on public lands.

... federal data for other national forests strongly suggests that the number of miles of off-road vehicle trails being approved will come on top of already strained Forest Service transportation-management budgets - if there is any extra funding at all to oversee the new trails that are designated.

The Blue Ribbon Coalition does good work and always has good updates on these issues. Bookmark their site and consider contributing.

Update: Americans for Responsible Recreational Access is another good source of info.

Worst article about the worst motorcycle ever

The topic of "worst motorcycle ever" comes up now and then, and everyone has their favorite. I have a different idea: What's the worst article written about the worst motorcycle ever? I'll keep looking, but Release Candidate 1 is Tim Shamess writing at DriverMagazine.com, a Canadian publication. It starts out well enough, but ends with this:

... the bike I like the least is the one I just heard ride by my window while I’m stuck inside at my desk. I think I’ll go for a ride now.

Letdown. Cliche. Why did I waste my time? Don't waste yours.

Sick of Green

Yeah, I'm sick of Green. Not the Kawasaki green. The environmental green. Everywhere you look, every advertisement, every product, every service, every government agency is ... green. Yeah, I do my part. I pay extra fees to my utility district for "green" energy. I recycle. Etcetera.

But it's gone too far. Just a few minutes ago I got an email from Baja Designs. Guess what?

 

GO GREEN with BAJA DESIGNS   
Recieve a FREE Key Switch Upgrade (a $29.95 value) or FREE Ground Shipping with the purchase of a Baja Designs Dual Sport Kit!

You can view the complete ad here (don't know how long the link will be valid).

"Go Green" and "Save Some Green" at the same time, the ad says. How ... freaking ... cute. If I was ever tempted to buy anything else from them, that temptation has now evaporated.

The Cult is Here

The once and future Cult of Dualsport is here. Dedicated to the high-speed hikers*, the 'medium core' among us who are in the hardcore motorcycle world but not of it.

* Source unknown. Possibly Tumbleweed?