America, Your Vacation Wonderland! (Mark Steyn)

National Review Online ^ | October 9, 2013 | Mark Steyn

[neverdem]

On his radio show yesterday, our pal Michael Graham spoke to one of the tourists held under house arrest (or hotel arrest) by the National Park Service geyser stasi at Yellowstone Park. Here’s part of the interview:

There was a large group of Asians there. Not many spoke English… They said, ‘Are we under arrest?’ I mean, they were fearful. I mean, it looked like we were inside a prison. There were two large guards doing a walk up and down in front of the doors, so people felt like they were in prison. And the Australians said that would never happen in their country. Never never never.

Oh, get over yourself. Consider yourself lucky Obama didn’t just drone your tour bus...

[neverdem]

Ping

[353FMG]

“Consider yourself lucky Obama didn’t just drone your tour bus...”

.
A drone would be too obvious but an IED would be more subtle.

They can always blame it on an unexpected geyser action. After all it is Yellowstone Park.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I posted an article about this incident yesterday and a skeptical FReeper questioned why none of the tourists had taken pictures of the offending Park Service Rangers. I responded by conjeturing that it may have been like when I visited China in 1983 and we were ordered to not take photos of the Red Army guards forming a phalanx on our path to board a plane in Beijing, nor to look them in the eye. Nobody pulled out a camera.

Well, my hunch was confirmed by an interview on Fox & Friends this morning with the lady from Boston who was first to report this incident. They were ORDERED by the Park Police to stow their camers and not to use them to take pictures of any kind — especially pictures of the geysers. Can you imagine what might have happened if these hapless tourists had actually snapped a photo of the Park Stasi?

[The Great RJ]

In closing Mt. Rushmore, the National Park Service Gestapo even put up orange cones to block tourists driving up to the monument from stopping to take pictures. Fortunately Mt. Rushmore is still visible from STATE highways, though not as close as on the monument site. I’m surprised the Obama administration hasn’t covered the monument with tarps to prevent any citizens from seeing the “Shrine to Democracy” from any vantage point.

[Irenic]

how the Park Service, on the two-and-a-half hour bus journey out of the park to Checkpoint Charlie at the Yellowstone Wall, forbade the seniors from using any of the bathroom facilities en route. If you did that to foreigners you’d captured on the battlefield, it would be in breach of the Geneva Conventions. But, if you seize them in an American park, you can do what you want.
************************

How utterly embarrassing. The shutdown isn’t embarrassing but the politics surrounding it are a disgrace. We have treated our company and visitors terribly, I am deeply ashamed.

[thouworm]

The "new" lows Obama is setting are only exceeded by his "old" lows. Examples of his moral depravity and obsession with power are mounting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration. This is an expansive claim, of course. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the NSA, the HHS mandate​—​this is an administration that has not lacked for appalling abuses of power. And we still have three years to go."

The Park Police
~~~~~~~~~~~

In one of the most despicable and immoral acts of any president in the history of the United States, President Obama, the Commander in Chief, is playing politics over the dead bodies of American soldiers killed in action during the government shutdown. These soldiers were killed following his orders.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “I cannot conceive of any other president in our history doing what Obama is doing in this situation. As Commander in Chief, he signed the orders sending these young men into harm’s way. They died following his orders. Now he is denying their families the military’s “death gratuity” normally given within 3 days of the death, which covers funeral expenses and travel to Dover Air Force Base to receive the flag draped casket that holds their fallen hero. President Obama is callously adding to the unimaginable grief and the heavy burden these surviving loved ones carrying just to score some political points.”

Shame on You, President Obama
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

None of Obama's sadistic [definition: enjoyment that someone gets from being violent or cruel or from causing pain] acts are mandated by the government shutdown. They never happened before in any other shutdown.

These are choice edicts issued directly from the Spite House.

#SpiteHouse: President Stompy Foot sparks new name for White House

[tet68]

“For the moment, it’s mostly petty despotism. But despotism rarely stays petty for long.”

Steyn BUMP!

[Peter ODonnell]

NO GEEZERS MAY VIEW THE GEYSERS

— By order, King Barack I, Ruler of the Unseen Government

[Hardraade]

The Aussies killed the model for Crocodile Dundee when they rampaged around confiscating guns.

It could happen in Australia.

[Hardraade]

It’s still petty when it kills you by the thousands...

[Paine in the Neck]

"Experience Your America"

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping neverdem.

[Gritty]

This is an utter disgrace for a "free" society to do to it's guests or people.

Unfortunately (thanks to Liberalism) we are rapidly turning away from a "free" society to a Marxist tyranny.

[GOPJ]

Oh, and stay tuned to the end when she recounts how the Park Service, on the two-and-a-half hour bus journey out of the park to Checkpoint Charlie at the Yellowstone Wall, forbade the seniors from using any of the bathroom facilities en route. If you did that to foreigners you’d captured on the battlefield, it would be in breach of the Geneva Conventions. But, if you seize them in an American park, you can do what you want. David French is right. This is bigger than the boring process stuff ...

ping

[dead]

[Windcatcher]

I just noticed that those laptops are the same model as mine...HP 8710w.

[Windcatcher]

Oh, wait...no, those are the narrow ones...NM...

[publana]

For the first time in my life, I hope the foreigners sue the pants off of us. The lost their vacation time and money, not to mention the fear they must have felt to be under house arrest for doing nothing more than spending their money in our country.

[Inyo-Mono]

Sickening.