Some highlights:
The American Forces Network (AFN) that provides American sports and entertainment programming to our troops stationed abroad, has been shut down. For some reason, though, AFN News will still broadcast news, just not any of the popular and fun stuff.
the D-Day memorial in Normandy has been barricaded.
Obama Closes Privately-Owned Hotel, Police Block Parking Lot
Park Service Ranger: ‘We’ve Been Told to Make Life As Difficult For People As We Can’
Obama Forces Residents Out of Private Homes
There is, it seems to me, a straightforward long-term solution to this sort of thing: eminent domain. About two years ago, the Utah state house passed a bill that would allow Utah to use eminent domain to seize federal land, though I believe the bill was struck down in the state Senate. This is a big issue in Utah, since the Feds “own” about 70% of the acreage, and this prevents considerable economic development. I believe it can now be argued that eminent domain can be used on a whole lot of Federal land and property, using the Kelo vs. City of New London decision.
Clearly, the FedGuv cannot properly utilize a lot of the land under its control. States should thus appropriate those lands under eminent domain for the purposes of furthering economic development. As described in the list at the top of the post, the Feds are shutting down places that are not only largely private, they are *profitable,* which is of course ridiculous when the issue is a lack of money. States should thus start with these lands, and seize them from the Feds. If the Feds then show up with armies of lawyers, it can be clearly demonstrated that the Feds have *too* *much* money to burn.
If there is one clear message to be learned from government shutdowns like this it is that the government is far, far too powerful. The functions being shut down are considered “non-essential.” Fine. Good. The Federal government should *not* be spending money on non-essential functions. If they are non-essential now, they should be non-essential when the shutdown is over, and should no longer be done by the FedGuv. Let private enterprise do them without interference. Let states do them.
It should be pointed out that while food and entertainment for active duty troops is being shut down, the golf course on Andrews Air Force Base is being kept open. You know, the course that Obama spends considerable taxpayer time at.
