Survival Of The Fittest

I believe that our government, and our society by default, has lost its way when it comes to many issues.

For instance, I believe that you should be able to ride a highly customized $30,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle, without a helmet, naked, wearing flip-flops, at 145 miles per hour.

Of course I wouldn’t want you performing such feats while me or my friends and family were driving down the road to go get a haircut or to buy milk and a newspaper. To prevent unnecessary conflict, the “authorities” should close down the interstate highways between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM on a Friday night once a month and let all of the helmet-less, naked, shoe-less, motorcyclists take turns seeing how fast they can go.

No flashing blue lights, no police, no speeding tickets, no traffic court, the only rule at that time would be that if you didn’t prepay for your own emergency medical staff and equipment, a volunteer team of backhoe operators would scoop up what was left of your headless, skinless, footless, dead carcass and be allowed to unceremoniously bury you and your motorcycle wreckage in the median or ditch at the scene of the crash.

They could have similar events late at night for drunk drivers, 16 year old BMW and Ford Mustang owners, and of course the Japanese “crotch rocket” “rice burner” motorcycle riders would have to have their own night separate from the middle aged Harley snobs.

There are a number of things out there that the government doesn’t regulate, YET, but it’s just a matter of time. For instance, when my father was learning to fly an airplane back in the 1950’s, all you had to do was untie the bird, fire it up, and take off into the wild blue yonder. By the time I was taking flying lessons back in 1991, you had to screw around for an hour doing flight planning and worry about getting run over by 747’s, F-15’s, and twenty other morons in Pipers & Cessnas all circling McCullum Field (RYY) near Atlanta.

Today, if you have enough cash, you can go out and buy a three quarter million dollar 40’ jet boat, fill up its 360 gallon tank, and run due east out of sight off of Ft. Lauderdale, run it out of diesel fuel, bake your brains out in the Atlantic sun, and never be seen again.

The government can’t do one damn thing about that…RIGHT NOW. If I want to do it, I can do it, but I am quite dead if I happen to be too stupid to know how to find a gas dock on one of the islands in the Bahamas.

Just give them a few more years and see how things are—you’ll probably have to have a license and a permit and have to say “Mother may I” or something just to start the engines on a big fast boat.

Having said all that, I point out this poor sucker that decided to go surfing when the government thought that he shouldn’t be in hanging out in the ocean:

“A surfer off the shore of Galveston, Texas, was arrested Friday for not adhering to evacuation orders and surfing the large waves created by an approaching Hurricane Rita, according to a Local 6 News report.

The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody by police after coming out of the surf.

Police said he was apparently not taking Rita seriously, attempting to surf off the shore of Galveston.Mandatory evacuations have been in effect along the Texas and Louisiana coast.”

Why is this some kind of mystery? The guy was there because he was LOOKING FOR BIG WAVES!

I say let the guy surf.

He WANTS to be there, but he should be allowed to suffer the consequences if something doesn't go as he plans. The only rule in my book would be that the "authorities" shouldn't be required to risk their own lives and equipment to go save him when he was told not to get in the water in the first place.

Actually, this gives me another good idea.

I think that the government aught to sponsor surfing competitions every year when big hurricanes come ashore. Sell tickets and popcorn and hotdogs and such. Anyone and everyone would be allowed to catch some REALLY big waves, AFTER they’ve signed a waiver of responsibility for injury and/or death.

The waiver form would look like this:

Name: ________________________

DOB: _________________________

Address:________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________


Send Remains To (if any remains are found):

______________________________

Your Mother's/wife's/significant other's/ other other's Signature:

______________________________

Your Signature:

_____________________________


But Nooooooo....the "authorities" can't do that, because they want the money.

Why is it that it always ends up being all about the money?

Well...it is...

You see, in the Galveston case, this guy will come out alive, still being an idiot, and the government will probably be $500 richer after he goes to court and pays his fine. Of course the "authorities" will all slap themselves on the back celebrating their success and the citizens of Galveston will most certainly benefit from another fifty hours of mindlessly delivered “community service.” Yet another poor slob dressed in a red jump suit picking up trash by the highway...we should all be so proud!

I say that the government should let the guys like this surf their brains out.

If they live, they live.

If they die, good riddance.

Idiots…