I suppose I should jump for joy and shout to the rafters. After all Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has decided to bless us with a brand new pile of cash (freshly minted no doubt) to increase conservation and tourism on our public lands.

Thank God! Were it not for the good graces of the DOI, the people in my part of the country would be consigned to real jobs with benefits! But lo! Here he comes descending on a cloud, Ken Salazar offering Americans in the West a chance to wait tables, tune skis, shine shoes and clean hotel rooms!

And not a moment too soon! Were the Secretary and the special interest groups not in control of the fate of the land in America’s West, those of us who live here might take the silly notion into our heads that we could buy homes, start businesses, send our children to college and perhaps even retire some day. What a relief indeed that Secretary Salazar and his acolytes have arrived on scene to remind us that our true purpose in life is to cater to those happy few with enough capitol on hand to actually recreate on our public lands.

Were it not for Mr. Salazar, we of the proletariat might still be laboring under the misguided notion that we could achieve something in our lives. And furthermore, the American people would still be struggling with the notion that energy to power our homes and vehicles with such things as coal, oil and natural gas rather than solar plants (that even segments of the environmentalist community object to) and windmills that make casserole out of eagles and bats, are viable options. Despite the fact that  “renewable” resources have yet to become commercially viable, and have made a hash out of Spain’s economy.

I don’t want to belittle the benefits of tourism, hunting and fishing, nor do I want to belittle conservation. Travel and tourism are components of a healthy local economy and I have yet to meet anyone who seriously advocates doing away with wilderness,  or who wants wholesale clear cutting of forests or wanton rape of the land. In my experience, those people exist only in the imaginations and propaganda of  the environmental left.