I’m astounded…..at this US scout leader toppling a rock formation in a national park as his knuckle dragging hominoids cheer and egg him on, apparently the scout leader of the group said “we made the right decision but probably the wrong method”.

I make no apologies for for the following rant but these **** should not be allowed to be scout leaders, if this is the general standard of what passes for a scout role model in the states then this guy deserves to earn the Darwin award, preferably posthumously due to a terrible rock formation accident.

Where’s that Brazillian trafic cop?

I’m picturing the whole area with toppled rocks. Kin ****!

He’s a cock yes! But in the grand scheme of things did he really do anything hugely detrimental other than being a yank ****?

wrightyson – Member

He’s a cock yes! But in the grand scheme of things did he really do anything hugely detrimental other than being a yank ****?

Are you from China?

Why did he do that?

Mind you if it was that unstable it’d probably have fallen at some point anyway, but still.

Pity the bloody thing didn’t fall on……well, you get the rest.

This guy being a scout leader was authorised in his capacity to be a role model towards the growth and development of children under his care and due to his limited neural awareness for the consequence of his actions and how they would be interpreted by those under his charge just underlies his dearth of awareness towards the natural environment he finds himself in, it’s not his fault per se as his superiors that appointed such a **** to position of scout leader should be made to answer for his action, it certainly looks like he gained his MacDonalds super size merit badge……….utter **** wit.

It would have been much more sensitive to have simply chosen a route (rowte) for the kids that avoided the rock. Not that it was likely to fall after millions of years in the same place. Redneck idiots altogether.

All of a sudden the Merkans liberal gun laws seem rather appealing…

I’m not sure if its bad journalism but damage to a 170 million year old rock is not really criminal activity. Construction works cut into rock formations all the time. I guess the issue here was it was in a national park and the goblin formations (not the rocks) had some protection order on them.

I wonder if the NPS will restore the formation?

Get them before they get you. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17481016

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57016443-78/goblin-park-state-rock.html.csp

Obviously a very health and safety conscious guy just testing the rock formations for there stability prior to when he brings his little red neck troop round. Next weekend it’s a visit to Monument Valley.

Not surprised he managed to knock the rock off, it must only be a little heavier than him. Best tie that scout leader to the floor in case he falls over a squashes a scout.

The formation can be 170 M years old, that particular rock was just a temprary feature on the eroding landscape. Don’t you just love modern reporting.

As their more advanced northern neighbours espouse: “Take only pictures, leave only footprints”.

Shame that mantra is not embedded within the USA scout movement.

Where’s Mr Grylls?

Hopefully he doesn’t have a passport.

Appalling behaviour from a Scout Leader, hardly setting the right example is it ? If every young scout took this as a lesson in appropriate behaviour there wouldn’t be much left of the landscape.

Mehhhhhh

Meanwhile elsewhere in Utah, some mountain bikers and a fizzy drink company do the same thing a few million times over, with a digger!

As a bit of context for why this is big news in the US, you need to understand how they see their national parks and national heritage.

As we all know the USA is a very young country. This means they don’t have much built heritage of the kind Europeans love to list, protest and visit with gran – literal monuments to the past, built by people (usually men as it happens, but that’s another matter). So what they define as national heritage is monuments of nature. These are the oldest things in the country and because of dominant views of nature, and the way North America as a continent was seen as terra nullius (land belonging to nobody), Americans revere pristine landscapes.

This is obviously very different to how our national parks work, which are have long been working landscapes. We use and protect our national parks very differently to the US, and when humans impact ‘nature’ so blatantly it goes against the fundamental principles of how Americans understand their natural heritage.

The blatant prejudice and juvenile name calling directed at Americans on this forum is astonishing. Do you think calling all Americans. “Yanks, rednecks, or the like.” Is any less offensive to the vast majority of US citizens than calling someone from Brum a cockney or from Shropshire a farmer would be. I think it’s worse than that. It’s akin to calling a Pakistani a word I won’t write down.
The ignorance of one retarded scout master does not reflect on the entire US populations beliefs regarding the preservation of their open spaces and national park lands.

Your rant at the lack of political correctness directed towards septics is somewhat tarnished by using the term ‘retarded’ to describe the scout. If you’ve going to do PC, you’ve got to stay on message.

Having heard all the media hype around this, I was imagining a tall rock rock formation that was the centre piece of a national park. A rock that would take thousands of years to naturally fall and could be seen from miles around.

Not a big boulder balanced on some dirt who’s time was almost up and was going to come down in a matter of days anyway. It almost looks like someone had been scraping the dirt away anyway…

True, the guys are idiots for doing it, but as usual the media have got hold of it and turned into into a hate campaign.

IanMunro – Member
Your rant at the lack of political correctness directed towards septics is somewhat tarnished by using the term ‘retarded’ to describe the scout. If you’ve going to do PC, you’ve got to stay on message.

Using a word in context to describe a person of obvious limited mental development is not politically incorrect. It’s an accurate description.

Having heard all the media hype around this, I was imagining a tall rock rock formation that was the centre piece of a national park. A rock that would take thousands of years to naturally fall and could be seen from miles around.

Yup it does seem a bit bizarre that this is a newsworthy story outside the state of Utah.
Personally I find the fatness of the scouts more disturbing than the environmental damage. Looks like their skin is about to split from external pressure, much like when you fry a sausage.

Using a word in context to describe a person of obvious limited mental development is not politically incorrect. It’s an accurate description

You keep telling yourself that, and you might even convince yourself it’s true.

As a bit of context for why this is big news in the US, you need to understand how they see their national parks

Except it’s not a national park, it’s a state park.

It’s a pretty cool place though, the campsite there is one of my favourites.

[trivia]it’s the place where aaron ralston (guy who cut his arm off after being trapped by a rock) was meant to meet up with friends for a party and didn’t show up to[/trivia]

What a load of fuss about nothing.

All they have to do is make him put it back.

I’d like to see the video of that 🙂

I remember when the US Scouts used to make nuclear reactions in the garden shed 🙂

Can we lease lend Grylls to them ?

spooky_b329 – Member

Not a big boulder balanced on some dirt who’s time was almost up and was going to come down in a matter of days anyway. It almost looks like someone had been scraping the dirt away anyway…

Are you kidding? I honestly can’t tell.

I particularly enjoyed how they discovered it to be unstable in the first place. Apparrently, jumping around on top of some unstable looking rock formations leads to the remarkable discovery that they are, in fact, unstable! Who’da thunk it?

I firmly believe that ignorance and being a dick are not mutually exclusive. And thus I’d call them ignorant dicks.

I know a lot of (British) Scout leaders, even though the odd one could be irritating I can’t believe that any of them would ever do something like that generally they like nature too much

I thought this was going to be a 7 day creationist arguing that the rocks were 2000 years old.

oh well

I hope the ghost of Edward Abbey wees in their coffee pot.

The thing is, it’s not this exact incident per se, it’s the general attitude towards nature that is on display. He’s probably the kind of guy who sees signs that say “do not stray from the path because you will damage some rare plants” (or something like that) and treats it as a dare.

Arrogance towards nature is a dangerous thing to instill in the brains of imressionable youth.

I hope the ghost of Edward Abbey wees in their coffee pot.

+1, Desert Solitaire is one of my favourite books.

According to the news a criminal investigation is under way.

He claims that he is disabled from a car crash!

News story.

Busted!