Speaking of Darwin …

I think these people deserve an Honorable Mention at the Darwin Awards:

Over $78 million dollars has been spent to purchase more than 20,000 acres of land to create Sterling Forest State Park Preserve in the heart of the Highlands. Most of this money has come from our state and federal taxes, along with some private funds. Sterling Forest Corporation maintained 575 acres of land within the park boundaries. Their original plan was to build a golf course and 103 homes. Because of the active work of the Sterling Forest Partnership, which brought the presence of a significant population of the threatened timber rattlesnake to the awareness of the DEC, the golf course was stopped. Now they plan 107 homes costing $1.2 – $2.2 million on 1 to 5-acre plots.

Wait a minute. These local activists, who can usually be found blocking development on the supposed grounds that they want their children to be safe, are now blocking development because of a threat to … rattlesnakes???

Maybe the developer shouldn't build homes there. After all most snake handling fundamentalists can't afford that much. A 107-room lunatic asylum sounds far more appropriate. (It's hard to walk through underbush in a straitjacket.)