I feel sick... just sick

"It's deja vu all over again" -- some famous baseball guy

"Why must I be surrounded by fricking idiots?" -- Dr. Evil, in the first Austin Powers movie

It's happened before, but it's been quite a while since the last time. I just found out that a group I joined is not what they claim to be.

I think the first time was when I became disillusioned with the environmental movement, and realized that their goals had nothing to do with the environment. Sadly, I walked away.

And then there was the Republican Party. I was a Party official, for the luvva gawd. And then realized that I'd gotten into bed (politically speaking, of course) with idiots. I walked, but I made damn sure to ruffle some feathers on my way out.

This time, it's a four-wheel-drive club. They call themselves the Oregon Bush Hackers. Not "whackers," but "hackers". You see, they were originally a bunch of geeks at Intel Corporation who like to wheel. Get it? "hackers." I thought it was pretty clever. The club exists only in cyberspace, as a Yahoo! group. That's enough info for you to find them if you're really curious.

So, these people CLAIM to follow the principles of the Tread Lightly organization. But NOBODY in the group seems to be able to figure out what's wrong with this picture:
Here we have some idiot on an OBH run who decides that the approved 4WD trails aren't good enough for him; he has to make his own. So he's churning up a bunch of mud during a high-runoff period, destroying the vegetation that is under the water, and increasing the siltation downstream (which happens to be a blue-ribbon trout stream).

Can anyone see what's wrong with this picture? Jeez, I didn't think it was rocket science.

So, the person who took this picture puts it on her web site, and gets a NASTY email from a forestry official a few months later that basically rips her a new asshole. She claims to be a member of Tread Lightly. In fact, I think she's claiming to be some kind of an offical. AND SHE CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT'S PISSING OFF THE FORESTRY GUY!

Jesus Christ.

So a bunch of the Bush Hackers, none of whom seem to have Clue One about "what's wrong with this picture," start sending emails to this forestry guy and his superiors, griping about his "unprofessional behavior" and trying to get him to tell them just which photos on the above-referenced Web site he finds offensive.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

He never replied to any of them. Neither did any of his superiors. Now they've got their panties all in a wad about how the Forestry officials are having to close roads and reduce other services because so much of their budget is going to repair the kind of damage shown in the photo above.

Jesus Tittyfucking Christ.

And I'm sitting here wondering just what kind of an organization I really joined, in which no one seems to be able to figure out what the hell's wrong with the picture.

I thought they were nice people. I actually believed the bullshit about the Tread Lightly thing. But they don't have Clue One what Tread Lightly actually MEANS: they only give it lip service because it makes them LOOK good.

I've gotten in trouble for this before, and I'm sure I'll get in trouble for it again, but I don't give a tinker's dam what something LOOKS like. I care what actually IS. And these people are phonys.

Tread Lightly my ass. I wonder what the Tread Lightly officials would think of this if they saw it?

Ken
WWJD -- What Would John [Galt] Do?