f13.net

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071031/ap_on_re_us/california_wildfires

Yeah, some kid started a fire.  He's not responsible for 38000 acres of wildfires and 21 homes burning down though.  Drought, dry high speed winds, inadequate clearing of dead brush, inadequate firebreaks, poor land management and on and on - THOSE are the contributing factors to 38000 acres burning down.  The fact that some kid set it off doesn't make him responsible for it.

the twinkies made him do it.

This sounds like a Smokey the Bear commercial. I would hope that California would start learning a lesson when these things happen, but they never do. We'll see another wildfire in 5 years because they won't manage their forestry. Here's the last two before this:

October 2003: Cedar Fire, near San Diego, 273,000 acres, 4,847 structures, 15 deaths. Accidentally started by a hunter in the Cleveland National Forest, it was among 15 wildfires that killed 22 people, destroyed 3,640 homes and blackened 750,000 acres of Southern California during a two-week period.

November 1993: Topanga Fire, Malibu area of Los Angeles County. 18,000 acres, 323 homes, three deaths. Cause: Arson. The fire was among more than 20 that killed four people, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and consumed 193,814 acres during a two-week period.


HINT HINT: It shouldn't be that easy for your forests to go up in smoke even in bad conditions.

They need to invest in some non-flammable trees.

I've heard good things about asbestos.

Uh, yes he is. Sure, mismanagement made it become as bad as it is, but the little shit knew what he was doing.

The kid woke up one day and thought: "I'm gonna burn down a forest?"

Really?

Well the negative side of darwinism is that the impact of a flawed organism isn't always limited to itself.  I get what you are saying but where do you draw the line, so some drunken fool starts shooting his gun in the air in celebration and the bullet comes down on someones head is he allowed to use the "I didn't wake up and say jeez i'm gonna shoot someone in the head today" excuse? 

This is exactly why they allow for some leeway in our legal system, I think they should charge the little fucker so he is scared into learning something then let him plea out for some comunity service as it gets closer to d-day.  Maybe even put his dumb ass in some smokey the bear adds so he can get some national humiliation going on.  Ostracism and Ridicule are still the best forms of social control available to us, of course that is assuming we can bring ourselves to be unpolitically correct enough to effectively use those tools.

It's California. There's no way they will punish this kid severely. They'll probably give him therapy or something to discuss the root causes of his behavior.

Uh, charge the kid with misdemeanor arson and make him do some community service.  Don't hold his parents responsible for 21 homes worth of property damage and whatever value is attached to the 38,000 acres scorched earth, which is what the article stated was under consideration.

I don't think it's possible to respond to this without taking the thread to politics. But.. I agree with Murgos.

You are obviously unfamiliar with California ("throw you in jail for life for stealing a bike because it is your third strike") penal law.

Did the kid torch a bus full of nuns before?

So it wasn't Al-Queda? Or maybe the kid was working with Al-Queda and we shoud torture him in case they have a ticking bomb.

That's pretty reasonable. My little rant was against him getting off scot-free. I didn't intend to sound like I meant his parents should be driven to the poor house or something similiar.

Good.

Because the little bastard already burned down the poor house.

Crap.  I just realized the irony of my current avatar being in this forum.    :oh_i_see: