[AuntB]

Hi, sapient02. Let's take a look at your statements.

"With all due respects for the great Farrah, I believe that the cause for the great fires is the fact that the government offers firefighters great salaries to fight the fires in areas where employment is not as readily available and renumerative."

You're partly right. But you've fallen into the old "either or" hole. A lot of different things have contributed to this out of control fire situation. This seemed to be the case with one man in Arizona and then a few nutty forest service people in others. The So. Oregon fires, so far as we know were started with lightening and the firefighters are brought in, the unemployed locals are not working at fire fighting.

"The government tempts local individuals to start the fires, since they are assured of plenty of good money from Uncle Sam for putting it out."

The government "tempts"....an arsonist is a criminal and doesn't need temptation. The government is responsible for much of this, but temptation isn't one of their sins...except for tempting the attorneys for the envirofreaks to line their pockets because of the faulty law known as the ESA.

"This is another example of the self destructive effects of government programs."

Yes, it is. It's also the fault of out of control groups calling themselves Environmentalists to make a BUNCH of money, that WE provide. And a bunch of activists judges on the 9th circuit. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Regards, B.

[Cleburne]

The fires sweeping the West are the result of many factors, not the least of which is the fact that fire is an ancient natural component of Western ecosystems. The conception that fire is a foreign and evil force in nature is not a correct one, except in a certain number of ecosystesm scattered here and there- and even those will suffer a large fire at one time or another in the course of the centuries. Western forests are very fire-attuned: but man has tended to deny the fact, and rather flaunted himself before it. Environmentalists choose sometimes to do nothing, not recognizing man's role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. "Regular people" (for lack of a better word!) oft times have ignored fire and chosen to believe it can not impact them- or it can be forever stopped. Both sides have contributed, as they have both failed to adequately understand and grapple the problem, and have rather usually merely accerlated and agravated the problem beyond its natural bounds.