In its defense the Army Corps of Engineers has been warning of the disaster that struck New Orleans for years and people didn't heed them.
You can't justly blame government for everything, any more than you can justly credit the rooster crowing for the rising of the sun. Yes, it is a threat, but so are big corporations, big labor unions, big churches, big universities, big professional associations, big mafias, or any other excessively concentrated and unbalanced powers. The insight of the Framers was that the powers of government could be divided and balanced. However, they neglected the problem of united and unbalanced power in the private sector seizing control of every branch and level of government. It is not enough to address abuse of power in government. We have to address abuse of power everywhere, because any part of the whole we overlook can grow to control the other parts. As Milton Friedman once said in a television interview, "I favor free markets but not large organizations." Victor Bozzo wrote: > As long as Government exists we can count on a steady supply of > Natural Disasters........ > > [During the 20th century] ... 170 million men, women, and children > have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, > crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or > killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted > death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. --/ R. J. Rummel, > Death by Government / > // > Oh, and just a clarification (and there are more sources than I can > shake a stick at to back me up on this) the disaster in New Orleans > was a result of Government mismanagement (chief among them the Army > Corp of Engineers management of the levees) not Hurricane Katrina..... > > It is well known (in Government like fashion) they cut corners to > shore up the levees so the results (given these facts) > is completely expected. If private business displayed such horrific > incompetence they'd be run out on rails. > What do the boobs in Government do? Order more guns and demand more money. > > > "Mother Nature can be cruel, but even at her worst, she is no match > for government. It was the glorified public sector, the one we are > always told is protecting us, that is responsible for this. And though > our public servants and a sycophantic media will do their darn best to > present this calamity as an act of nature, it was not and is not. > Katrina came and went with far less damage than anyone expected. It > was the failure of the public infrastructure and the response to it > that brought down civilization. > > The levees that failed and caused New Orleans to be flooded, bringing > a humanitarian crisis not seen in our country in modern times, were > owned and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. The original > levees surrounding this city below sea level were erected in 1718, and > have been variously expanded since."--The State and the Flood by Lew > Rockwell > > http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/flood.html > > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
