elchase

You guys really need to stop obsessing. Do you have pictures of me lining the walls of your bedrooms too? Do you Google my name first thing every morning when you turn on your computers? You both apparently spend all your waking hours on this "Anti-Speed Limit" forum, so when do you get time for the hi-speed boating that you supposedly enjoy so much? All this mention of me just tempts me back, and I know you don't want these "Anti-Speed Limit" threads tainted by people who believe in the rule of law.


Exactly.
Could those really be the causes? Could "peace and harmony" really have reappeared because of some rain in June? Because of an economic recession? Nice theories, but I don't think so. Isn't it much more plausible that they returned because of the change in the law that forced a return to "peace and harmony"?

Here's a well-articulated story from the same paper that you guys conveniently missed that explains it better;
ftp://www.laconiadailysun.com/Laconiapdf/2009/9/29L.pdf

"For those who need to pilot a boat at 90 MPH, the ocean is nearby
To the editor,
The letters from Mr. Verdonk and
Mr. Stewart exemplify the problems
the high speed boating crowd faces
trying to find fault with a speed limit.
They just don’t know how to find a
problem with such a sensible law, so
they make things up.
While I appreciate that Mr. Stewart
at least had the fortitude to admit
that boaters slowed down because of
the speed limit, saying that the only
thing that did was erode her shoreline
is just plain silly. Why would a “ginormous”
boat going 45 erode her shoreline
and the same boat going 85 not?
If “ginormous” boats are going anything
over headway speed that close
to his shoreline, then he has other
causes to complain besides a speed
limit. If “ginormous” boats were going
that close to my shoreline, I certainly
wouldn’t want them to be going 85
MPH.
And as to Mr. Verdonk’s letter, it is
a common debating trick to start off
with a mischaracterization of your
opponent’s position, then disprove the
mischaracterization. But if one reads
Mr. Verdonk’s letter with my actual
statements in mind, it all falls apart.
I never “attribute the reduced boating
activity to the success of the new
speed limits” as he asserts to set up
his whole letter. In fact, as I said, I was
referring to the times I was seeing as
many if not more boats out there. Several
weekends in August the lake was
as crowded as I’ve ever seen it, but it
just FELT LIKE it was less crowded
because almost everyone was going
slower, as Ms. Stewart also saw. How
did the economy do that? More civility
during sunny days when the lake
is just as crowded has nothing to do
with the economy or bad weather. The
economy and rain might have affected
the boating numbers this year (at
times), but it could only have been the
speed limit that slowed them down, as
Mr. Stewart himself admits.
The typical Granite Stater new to
this whole discussion will ask how
anyone could rationalize opposition to
a reasonable limit of boating speeds
on a lake so crowded with such big
boats. But of course, those who make
a lot of money over-crowding our
lake with over-fast boats and those
who boast about the “need for speed”
are not your typical Granite Staters.
They don’t think rationally. Their selfish
interests and “needs” cloud their
common sense. And they are not interested
in the activities that most Granite
Staters enjoy or that NH wants to
offer tourists to attract them to come
here.
The brochures one picks up at our
rest stops show the natural beauty of
our state. Photos depict our beautiful
lakes and mountains as safe and
open to family recreational activities.
You see canoes and sailboats. You see
families water skiing and fishing. You
see loons and sunsets. Imagine how
many tourists we’d attract if those
brochures instead showed 6-ton boats
flying around at 80-90 mph amongst
the canoes and kayaks? That is not the
NH I grew up in, or that my summer
neighbors want to come to. For every
one tourist such an image attracts to
NH, it will send 100 somewhere else.
See what that does to our economy,
Mr. Verdonk.
Forty-five MPH is a very reasonable
top speed for a boat on Lake Winnipesaukee.
It’s the typical speed limit
on lakes like Winnipesaukee around
the country and has proven effective
over and over. There is not a single
lake-appropriate boating activity that
one cannot enjoy at 45 MPH. And for
those with “the need” to go 90 MPH,
the ocean is just 50 miles down the
road. Anyone who argues that 45 is
too slow for this lake, whether blaming
it on shore erosion, the economy,
the weather, or some other nonsensical
reason, is just not being honest.
As Mr. Chase’s letter said, the bottom
line is that NH’s citizens asked for the
law and seem to love its effects, while
the offenders are obviously unhappy
with it. How many laws can we say
that about? And doesn’t that prove it’s
working?
Jack Weeks
Meredith"


PS; I bet it will take less than one hundred and twenty seconds for OCD to respond.