Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was “closed” due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown.
The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban… of access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.
This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government’s ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.
At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off. Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you “close” 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so?
Apparently, according to an anonymous Park Service ranger, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
Centuries ago, King Canute famously failed to command the ocean tide to stop. His display was actually a means to educate his subjects on the limits of royal power. Today, however, our President actually believes he has the power to control the oceans.
A vindictive government is a tyrannical government. We do not accept tyrants and dictators. Let is give them the same respect they have given others in the past.
Saddam Hussein was hung, Momar Gaddafi was murdered. Osama Bin Laden was murdered (supposedly). Do our representatives deserve any less?
It should by now be chrystal clear that Barack Obama is using the budget impasse to inflict as much pain and inconvenience on selected groups as possible to keep the nation focused away from the Benghazi, IRS and NSA scandals that were all serious impeachable offenses. So far, Obama has been very successful at directing unnecessary and outrageous government behavior and blaming the House Republicans for it. Though the GOP has a winning message, it is not understood by low information Americans.
Sureal