The "Jet-ski ban" thread may have finished its unraveling by now, and may have led the list further from paddling matters and into the deep waters of political philosophy than some might wish, but at the risk of carrying it a bit further... I must say I was a bit provoked (in the good sense of `thought-provoking') by the comments, in the key of ominous, about `big government'. Thinking about that, it struck me that the very existence, let alone the maintenance and regulation of the U.S. National Park system, is precisely the result of...... big government. Without the government's having assumed that rather large role, it's hard (for me, at least) to imagine that so many attractive aquatic spaces would have been spared the ravages of commercial, industrial, or residential development. So, while sharing some of the libertarian and anti-regulatory preferences and reflexes that have been exhibited on this list, I remind myself that we have `big government' to thank for the very existence of the reserved-for-recreation waters under discussion. In a more general way, I've often noticed that people opposing a given regulation and making principled claims against `big government' are likely to overlook (by taking for granted) the regulations and government policies that put them in the position they see themselves as defending. David Kosofsky Seoul, Korea *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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