Over ruled?

Two steps forward, one step back.

“Two steps forward one step back” is an old catchphrase about a tale of a frog trying to climb out of a water well. For every two steps he climbs, he falls back one step, making progress slow at best. Today, some folks cynically say “One Step forward, two steps back”, which means that frog would never get out of the well and in fact, it reflects a situation where attempts at progress may also be viewed as going the wrong direction.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon the “Louisiana Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Regulations for 1973-74”, the year that I graduated from college and actually began work at the Monroe newspaper. I actually wrote some about the outdoors. A much simpler outdoors, I might add.

The complete regulations fit on a 12 by 16 inch piece of paper, folded four ways like an old road map with information on all sides. You could read the whole thing in about 5 minutes. It had every rule, season, limit and regulation for deer hunting, duck hunting, turkey hunting, WMA usage and all fishing, commercial and recreational.

Today, the 2014-2015 “Louisiana Hunting Regulations” ALONE is a 122 page book. There’s another whole book for fishing regulations that’s 62 pages. I don’t know how long it would take to read it because I haven’t. In fact, I have a feeling it’s a lot like Obamacare. Maybe nobody has ever read it all.

“One step forward, two steps back?”.

Methinks the frog is dead. By the way, in case you are interested,  regulations for frog “hunting” are printed in the “fishing” regulations, page 45. . .

Wildlife professionals would argue that all the rules and regulations are necessary to properly manage wildlife and fisheries resources in today’s complex world. I don’t want to argue. I just want to go hunting and fishing. Legally.