you idiots can continue to choose to support a failed government bureaucracy and you can continue to not understand life in the west.

hillbilly's story he posted says some astronomical number of homes have been built within 30 miles of a national forest since 1982 is comical to say the least, I'd like to see just how much land in the west is at least 31 miles away from a national forest boundary.

I guess what I should be doing is demanding all of you in Missouri build your homes to withstand a tornado and an earthquake and floods, ya know and when you are flooded out or blown over or shaken down I guess our response in the west should be that you should have built a stronger home at a higher elevation that was earthquake proof.

I would never say that though considering I know that there is nowhere on the earth where you are not subject to at least one form of natural disaster or another.

All thinning the forests would do is give people one more way to mitigate the hazards that may one day present themselves out here, just as you scurry to the basement or storm cellar or purchase property that is above the 500 year flood plain.

The thing is, we can't force our largest neighbor to take care of the land they manage for the people. And why, because they don't have the money to take care of the land they have and because of that, the conditions on their land threatens our land.

If you can't take care of your property, you should sell it to someone who can, it is that simple and all of you would agree with that, but you would rather argue for failure since I am presenting it to you rather than follow sound conservative principles many of you claim to adhere to.