Isn’t the Lincoln memorial always open by design? Do they have security guards enforcing the shutdown? The same guards that would be present when it is open?
I mean, slap me for trying to make sense of bureaucratic logic, but there seems to be a degree of theatre here.
Ya think?
It’s barricaded, much like it was when it was recently vandalized. Or when it was shut down in '95 with the previous gov’t shutdown.
Yes.
There are a very small number or park service employees who weren’t furloughed. Nothing like normal staffing numbers.
Perhaps.
What part of “Closed” don’t people understand?
The restrooms are closed. And if you have tourists and old people visiting these places they have to “go” especially the old people. Without a restroom they’ll just poop in place.
IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT? OLD PEOPLE POOPING ON NATIONAL MONUMENTS???
It’s hard to see in this photo, but on either side of the stairs leading up to the monument there are these smooth slabs of marble, perfect for sliding down. There are normally guards to keep visitors from sliding down these slabs of marble. It seems silly when one is there, but the gravitas of the site means that no one must slide down the slabs. No funding means no guards, which means unlimited sliding. It’s hard to imagine that the Republicans would be in favor of unlimited sliding.
So, no, no theater. They meant to shut everything down. They need to own that.
We have a big army base here in town, with maybe five or six or seven gates, entrances where you can drive in if you show a sticker and military ID. When the sequester was going down, they chose to close one lane at each of the multilane gates to save money by having fewer guards on duty. The net effect was that the wait time to get on base during morning and evening rush hours, when all the people had to drive on base to get to their jobs, went up to over two hours. There’s no way that was getting the most out of whatever reduced money was still in the budget. Pure insanity, pure theater, or both.
They don’t have to poop ON the national monuments. They can go in the grass next to them. Duh!
According to my own observation the sun still shines and in general the world goes on in the normal fashion. I think it would be wonderful to shut down the rest of the government just so everybody could watch the government inaction without having to pay for it.
BTW There is nothing in the constitution to authorize national parks.
But where else are we going to see bear arms? We all know that is a right in The Constitution!
“Mr. Obama, Open this park!”
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
They could use steel spikes to prevent the pooping just like for keeping birds away.
Now here’s a fact few people know. It was actually supposed to be “beer arms”. Yes, they had problems with spelling checkers even back then.
You can see what a real paradise free of government “coercion” looks like. You don’t have to play pretend. Also take a look at any failed state:
The portion of Hebrew history known as Judges, the tribes east of the Rhine River known to the Romans as Germanius, the Dutch Empire, and the American colonies all were remarkably prosperous, stable in peace, unconquerable in war, and lasted about 250 years with no central government. Then the people threw away their freedoms and created a government. After that they were eventually conquered or collapsed from within.
The original 13 colonies were bickering and of course South Carolina was talking about starting a civil war before the Constitution was even signed, then they started the Civil War, and as soon as it was over they started talking about starting another civil war. And the Book of Judges is string of wars with a bunch of defeats for Israel.
You do know that all those examples were ruled either by some form of government, or hierarchy, and by FORCE. Whether it was a king, government or “cartel” they all engaged in hegemony and slavery as well? That is how things have gone down since Eridu. Do you think they were a bunch of libertarians who decided to all engage in “war” and to create empires? Free of force and coercion of course…
And “Judges” (there’s that pesky hierarchy/authority again) is not history. Those are stories from a historical era. I can’t even believe that needs to be pointed out, but oh well…
I shake my head at this in amazement, but at the same time there’s wonderful comfort in knowing that libertarians can’t even conjure up a coherent blip in history to root their “philosophy” in, and that debunking their attempts is so unbelievably easy for anybody that has even a passing interest in history.
Having said that, I give you props for not resorting to the usual Rothbardian “Celtic Ireland” cliche. At least it made things more interesting.
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