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(copied from Michael Blankenship) Tennessee folks: You probably know the Youtuber whistlindiesel. About two years ago he and a friend were using jetskis on some lake (probably Dekalb County) when some authoritarian department of TWRA ticketed them for reckless driving. They thought the minimum distance between vehicles was 150 feet but the judge in the case corrected them that it was 100 feet. The TWRA agents from a mile away guesstimated the distance to be 90 feet of separation. Cody has already paid out $75,000 in legal fees over this. Dekalb County is threatening a year in jail over what appears to be a minor infraction. They tried to coerce him into using his YT channel for free advertisement for the TWRA Certification for their own Boat Safety Exam ($40 for every person who might be in a boat). Obviously, this is a big money-making scheme for Tennessee. With over 250,000 boats registered in Tennessee that's at least ten million in revenue if everyone took their exam. The statistic, though, is that one in thirteen boaters will get a ticket for not having the certificate on them and that results in probably even MORE money for the accumulative citations. Add to this the boat registration which runs between $13-$25 per year, a significant increase from 1998 numbers of $4-$8 per year. In short, Tennessee is engaging in racketeering with respect to boating.