That was going to be my first question.

These people are what happens in a society that lets its high school science curriculum die.

Mormons too. What assholes.

I misread that as Morons. I always misread that word as 'Morons.'

"Take only pictures, leave only footprints." I don't know how much trouble the BSA can actually cause, but these guys are pretty awful scouts.

"Hall added that the men also were acting as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints youth leaders."

I'm guessing since they were Mormons, they think the earth is only 5000 years old anyway.

Moron was the angel, I believe.

>Moron was the angel, I believe.

Moroni, which I believe is plural for morons.

If someone does attempt to charge them, I'm pretty sure some pro-bono religious lawyer will sweep in and attempt to claim the charges are not justified. This is due to:

1. There is no way the rocks could be as old as stated due to Young Earth, so there is no crime to commit.

2. If that rock was balanced there by god, it was clearly placed for the Son of Jesus to do whatever he wanted regardless. If the man pushed the rock clearly God told him to do so. He states that he saved a child's life and this is because God Spoke to him in order to save that child.

MORMONS! (did I get your attention?) Do not believe in a young earth. Granted, individual mormons might, but official doctrine does not state as such.

No, instead they believe that Jesus visited North America and talked with some Native Americans that fit no known tribes, went to cities that don't exist, and all of this bonus material came from some magical discs that nobody's ever seen that the founder of the sect claimed to have translated using a magic rock.

This is in addition to the usual hokum from Ye Olde Bible.

Yes, that's FAR better than believing the Earth is only 6,000 years old.

Well, maybe THIS planet isn't 6,000 years old, but you can be sure that when I get my own planet, like Mormon Jesus promised, I'ma make it as Young Earth as Young Earth can be!

I'll invite you over some time, but you've got to promise not to leave a fossil record in my planet's substrata.

In fairness SPK. Any religion will sound equally ridiculous when described simply and clearly like that. In fact I'd argue the bulk of human activity is whimsical.

(Also stars for 'bonus material' :D)

***** spirit (har har) stars for SteamPoweredKleenex

The forces of erosion are never pretty.

I visit a lot of museums and I grimace every time I see a horde of scouts roll in, almost universally loud, obnoxious, disrespectful assholes that couldn't care less about learning anything.

oh yeah. Some straight up nutter beliefs to be found in LDS dogma, not trying to defend any of it. That being said, if you're going to speak poorly of anything speak poorly of it because of things they believe/do. Not for things you incorrectly think they do.

but he's too fat to be the Coyote

Given American and most other histories involving people and nature, they're doing a pretty good job. It could only be better if they'd found oil underneath the rock.

After reading an interview with them, I calmed down a little. It did sound like they were actually trying to help and that their regret is genuine. The worst that will come of this is that people will actually intentionally go to goblin valley to destroy it.

Yeah, thank god they were around to help. Just think, a kid could have been hiking by underneath, and a grown man could have knocked the boulder on top of him after struggling for only a few minutes.

Oh look, Chocolate Jesus knows how to use sarcasm.

I'm in favor of lynching and necklacing these guys but it's more sexual than political.

Yes, but for US, not THEM.

True punishment will involve their trailer wives peeing in their Tang and finding a town where children rule and kill them for the slightest infraction against nature.

They didn't so much run out of mud, they just want to play in your mud over there with the funny looking rocks.

After 20 million years of NOT falling over, it's bound to fall over any minute now!

If that rock had a gun, this never would have happened.

If i punch you in your stupid face, what's the problem? there's still tons of stupid face left over.

Moving that rock cured my cancer.

Seriously though, "It's just a rock" seems to be the common line from dumb doughy youtube hick comments.

Would "It's just metal" fly if someone blew up the statue of liberty? The danger of tourists falling off that is a zillion times more likely than anything being crushed by this rock.

Your comparisons are really, really, really dumb. I don't care who else happened to say "It's just a rock", it doesn't make me that other person on youtube. Welcome to reality, where nature could have blasted that shit off its pedestal plenty of times by now. If you get a boner simply because OHH THE ODDS OF IT STANDING FOR SO LONG, good for you, i'll go watch lava spew onto a glacier for my fix. Rocks sitting there is nothing new, and them toppling is even less new. If nature did it you wouldn't have anywhere to stuff your animosity, so stuff you.

Actually, its odds were looking pretty good until Babyface McPeepants came around.

Because nature causing a natural formation to fall over is the same thing as someone knocking it over on purpose. Thanks for clearing that up, Gmork. You know, oil bubbles up through the earth's crust on its own sometimes, so why sweat people dumping it in the Everglades?

Fires happen naturally all the time, so you won't mind too much if I burn your house down? Thanks!

What if his house falls over and crushes some children?

It'd be irresponsible NOT to burn it down.

"nature could have blasted that shit off its pedestal plenty of times by now"

If ever there was a case of someone missing the fucking point by lightyears, here it is.

I actually love discussing things people, so there's this strong urge to explain my position on this and then argue it with you. But my God, you are so dumb and so profoundly do no deserve it. Unless you are ten, I guess. How old are you, Gmork?

Its a protected park you fucking dumbass. Its not up to Douchebag McHillbily there to decide that something that is valueless to him is valueless to the rest of humanity. The world doesn't revolve around you and it'll keep going long after you're are dead. This shit is stealing from the present and stealing from the future. Thank the relatively few people that instituted the idea of state and national conservation that all the interesting natural features of this country weren't plowed over by self important assholes 100 years before you were even born.

SPK loves his horribly un-relatable analogies.

You do realize, SPK, that what you just posted makes you an idiot? You too, hooker.

Talk about missing the point. I thought you guys were more intelligent than this.

But that's okay, you can fall back on wordplay. It's what you're good at when you run out of actual points to make.

Like I said: You are getting boners over rock formations. Rock formations that can easily be destroyed by a natural occurrence. And you're actually trying to equate me not caring with whether a rock falls over with intentionally dumping oil in the everglades or setting fires to peoples homes while they sleep.

Yeah, you're the fucking intelligent one here.

I love how Gmork thinks the matter of opinion makes him immune to any criticism. And rather than make any valid point, simply berates his opponents.

Just like Melvin Just!

"I honestly don't give a fuck if "The Devil's Chimney" were to be the next to topple. Who fucking cares."

The people who get angry about this probably care.

No doubt Gmork would have been outraged if it was a video of a bunch of guys burning some WW2 guns.

It's just baffling to me that you keep falling back on this "easily destroyed" by nature crap when the whole fucking point of something that has been created over a period beginning at the start of the fucking Jurassic period has _not_ been "easily destroyed" by nature. You are dumb beyond my ability to describe.

Hooker your concept of luck, chance and the universe are really fucking shallow. It's alright, I know you all cling to fantasies of being significant in the grand scheme of things.

You aren't very smart, are you, Hooker? Surviving this long doesn't prove it's strong, it proves it's lucky. Some fatso just toppling it like that kind of proves the point.

I'm almost positive you people that are foaming at the mouth in this thread are making the assumption that I'd be okay if I witnessed someone trying to topple it myself, or that i'd take part. Nope. I, like most people, would leave it because it's cool. What i'm not doing (that you are all doing) is having a shit fit about it. It sucks, it happened, but it doesn't fucking matter.

This is for you guys: www.youtube.c om/watch?v=_i8-t5biK10

Hahaha it thinks it's winning the argument. It thinks its opinions on the inherent worth of something actually matter even a little.

"You aren't very smart, are you, Hooker? Surviving this long doesn't prove it's strong, it proves it's lucky."

That's the very point that has literally been thrown at you but you can't seem to realize that this formation was able to survive what ever wind storms were thrown at it, what ever animals climbed on it, for 200 million years, and even after that it actually took effort for a fat hick to topple it. If this rock was a different shape, it wouldn't be up. It literally was a rock that eroded into an aerodynamic shape, with it's only connection to the earth below it being loose sand and debris.

Seriously, Gmork, have you even seen a sports car or do you think the only reason people use bikes is to "preserve the earth."

on the inside, I imagine asian hick filled with ramen and bile

You guys will go to great lengths to attempt to demonize something on an issue that's ridiculous to begin with. Kudos.

this reminds me of the senator tree from florida. i actually got to see it before it burned down and it was impressive.
just google senator tree flordia burn

gmork- i think it is important because yes, it is just one rock but the act itself from a boy scout leader is so astonishing. i think more reasonable associations would be cutting down a historic tree.

was anyone physically harmed? not at all, but our society has deemed this tree significantly important to protect as sources of history or culture, so even if we cannot see the inherent value in it ourselves, we want to protect them because we know there is value in it.

we have an unanimous agreement (and possibly mandated on the little booth with the drop down arm when you enter a park) that when we enter a public park-we will not treat it like it is our own property and we will respect and do our best not to alter it while we are there.

perhaps the scout leader was really doing it for the best interest because he was afraid it would hurt someone- but i think people balk at that explanation because he appears so delighted and eager to tumble it and also we are presented instantaneously with measure of its value. it is hard to stay neutral when we watch something we perceive as valuable being destroyed, even if we just learned that it was valuable.