Finally, Some Oil-For-Food Indictments

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Here's the article in Newsday. Finally, some action on this. But I've got questions...

1) What's this about an "unnamed UN official?" I assume it's because of an ongoing investigation that he hasn't been identified, but let's not compromise with any guilty parties. This whole thing is too offensive to let people involved cop pleas or keep their names out of the press.

2) Who is the "former U.S. Government Official?" See above.

3) Why does Park face only five years? Seems light to me, especially since this isn't the first time he has engaged in this kind of behavior.

Keep going, fellas. Let's see some more indictments in the coming months. And, just as importantly, let's see some recovered funds as well.

Anti-ATV People Piss Me Off

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I can understand not wanting a bunch of ATV's making noise over near your house. I can understand being worried about safety. I can even understand environmental concerns. What I can't understand is how people who are anti-ATV out on Long Island near my home can sit there and refuse to consider the rider's side of it when confronted with cold, hard facts. Fact - ATV sales outpaced that of street bikes. No matter how many times I tell anti-ATV people this, they refuse to acknowledge it and spout the same crap over and over about how giving a piece of county or state land up for a public ATV park would help out "only a couple thousand people."

Fact - It IS possible to have public riding areas without everybody getting the shit sued out of them. I point to public riding areas in other states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Massachusetts that are bringing in tourism dollars from riders all over the place. The anti-ATV people ignore this. I tell them these public riding areas continue to exist despite liability issues. They ignore me and continue to voice their opinion that liability makes it impossible to have a public riding area on Long Island.

Fact - More people are killed by bee stings in the average year than by ATV accidents. I love how the anti-ATV people constantly parrot some figure of over 4,700 people killed by ATVs. Turns out that even the decidedly anti-ATV lobbying group that cites this figure admits that it's a 20-year total.

Fact - The problem with illegal riding is not a recent phenomenon. It's at least 30 years old. Growing up in Wading River, even as a small child I remember hearing about dirt bike riders getting chased by the cops when riding on public land. The anti-ATVers conveniently forget that when they call for increased law enforcement. It's been at least 30 years and nothing's worked. Perhaps it's time for a change in the way we attack the problem.

I can understand people having strong feelings about the issue, but sometimes debating it is like talking to a brick wall. This is why the problem persists.

UPDATE: I've closed comments on this thread because the comment spammers have latched onto it and keep loading it up with ads for boner pills. I've opened another thread for comments here.