I’m no tree hugger, but this does make my blood boil. Since we brought back Riverboat Gambling in Missouri — which has since turned into gambling in buildings built on liquid foundations — why don’t we bring back hanging? If the $279.50 fine isn’t enough to keep these jerks from ruining the streams in Missouri, maybe a few of them swinging by the neck will. Instead of ruining these great natural streams, why don’t these yahoo’s make their own concrete stream bed and play in that instead?

As long as I’m on the subject, another thing that really bugs me is the way subdivisions are built in my neck of the woods these days. The way they just level all the trees first thing sends me around the bend. I don’t get it. I understand you have to knock down the trees where the streets and houses are going to go, but why knock down every single one of them? One of the things I like about my subdivision is that they didn’t do that – my back yard is filled with mature oak and ash trees (and dogwoods before the anthracnose got them). The subdivision is old enough now that the trees planted along the street have grown together to form arches in spots, but thirty years isn’t long enough for oaks to become mature. I’d figure that you could get a higher price for neighborhoods that still had stands of mature trees and not just nothing but sod. First thing people do when they move in is plant trees, so why not leave a few? And since my area is hilly, it can’t help with erosion to clear cut like that.