"The Wildlands Project." The phrase is familiar to many and elicits a roll of the eyes, and perhaps a comment referring to "the black helicopter crowd," from others. These reactions should be perceived more as a lack of knowledge rather than anything demeaning, for language can be deceiving. Children know, early on, the advantages to having an agenda that employs such tactics. How many times has the cookie been acquired by using the 'divide and conquer' plan involving asking one parent who's likely to say, "Ask your mother/father. If he/she says it's all right, yes." Of course, that opens wide the door to telling the other parent, "Mom/Dad said it's okay with them if I have a cookie." Language has been used to deceive and win an enticing prize. It also teaches the youngster that 'sleight of hand' can be a manipulative tool.

Sometimes it takes a government source to prove to folks that "The Wildlands Project" was not merely dreamt up by those often dubbed by media as "conspiracy theorists." To that end, I refer you to the following Google Advanced Search results.

When your search for "Wildlands Project" results is limited to each of these domains, the numerical results are of interest. Broaden your search for just the word "Wildlands" and the results, plus the context in which they appear, become far more numerous and disconcerting.

• ".blm.gov" 49 results / 764 results
• ".epa.gov" 65 results / 604 results
• ".fs.fed.us" 211 results / 12,700 results
• ".nps.gov" 20 results / 992 results
• ".fws.gov" 19 results / 1,510 results
• ".noaa.gov" 4 results / 92 results
• ".usbr.gov" 1 result 121 results
• "house.gov" 12 results / 169 results
• "senate.gov" 1 result / 108 results

Please don't take my word for this. Pick your favorite search engine(s) and cast your net. What you'll hook will be sobering, but it is difficult to deny the truth when you've caught it yourself!

Smithson's educational website is www.propertyrightsresearch.org.