Time to get up to date with my reads! I've been reading, but I've taken a few weeks off from reviewing so as a result I'm left with a list of "currentTime to get up to date with my reads! I've been reading, but I've taken a few weeks off from reviewing so as a result I'm left with a list of "currently reading" titles that I actually finished some time ago.
First off was this gem about America's public lands and why they're so great. I doubt anyone picks this one up who has yet to be convinced of the value inherent in public land, but those people likely don't read much to begin with so what can you do?
There are two parts to "That Wild Country." One is a history of America's public lands and how they came to be, and the other consists of the author, Mark Kenyon, going out camping and hiking with family and friends in those lands. The first part was more up my alley than the second, but it's nice to see the author practicing what he's preaching, not that it would matter — you don't have to set foot in a National Park like Yellowstone or Yosemite to benefit from or see the value in it.
Part of "That Wild County" recounts the 2016 occupation of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a group of philistines led by the Bundy family, a pack of halfwit inbreds who believe public lands should be auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder. Because the government won't allow them to graze their cattle on this land, because it belongs to everyone — not just them — the Bundys figure they'd rather it go to millionaires and billionaires who'd sooner not allow access to anyone. No, it doesn't make much sense, but that's what passes for conservative "thought" these days: if the government's involved, it's automatically bad.
Whatever happened to the "conserve" part of "conservative"? I don't rightly know. It was a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who began the National Parks system after all, but the party has come a long way from Teddy as anyone who's witnessed the last five years can attest.
It's simple: America's public lands are what makes America great. We have some of the most stunning, incomparable nature of any nation on Earth, and the fact that the "Make America Great Again" con artists decided that selling off portions of this land and opening it to drilling for oil and natural gas shows exactly how full of shit they are — and who they're working for.
Check this one out, you'll learn a good deal about what makes America's public lands so special. But if you've ever stepped foot in a National Park and witnessed how truly magnificent the American landscape is, you already know just how special it is....more
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