The State can’t Protect you, …but it doesn’t want You to Protect YOURSELF, either

Two news items, both from Oregon, and both dealing with the right and ability to defend yourself. Apparently, the fine folks in Oregon are intent on having you as defenseless as possible.

The first one is from a week or so back, and received scant attention before the Memorial Day Weekend. From CBSLocal.com:

An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place, because of budget cuts.

Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.

“Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, …can you ask him to go away?

The Rule of Law vs. “Calvinball”

I’ve been swamped all week, so I’m re-posting an item from last summer, back before our readership really started to climb. And given much of the news we’ve been seeing lately, this post is even more applicable now than it was then. 

Please note its author is Dapper Dan, a buddy of ours who blogs over at Principles, Not Men. Any and all kudos should be directed to him. 

I’ll simply mention what I said six months ago: anytime you can combine Hayek, the Federalist Papers AND ‘Calvin & Hobbes‘ into a single, highly cogent post, you’re doing somethin’ right.

Happy Friday, gang.

—JTR

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Rule of Law

The term “Rule of Law” is an important term in political dialogue.  Accepting this belief or not will determine where you stand on many, if not most, of the issues.

In The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek describes it thus:

Have a nice day!

You may wish to sit down for this one.

Last year, southern Arizona fell victim to a natural disaster. Dubbed the Monument Fire (since it started in the Coronado National Monument), it claimed roughly 30,000 acres in a two-week period.

 

From WND.com:

(The Monument Fire)…denuded the hillsides of vegetation. After the fire, record-breaking monsoon rains hit the region, triggering huge mudslides that left boulders the size of cars tumbling down hillsides.

The slides crushed Tombstone’s mountain spring waterlines and destroyed reservoirs for the town’s main water supply network.

And from kvoa.com:

Tombstone’s main water source are springs bubbling up in Miller Canyon, but the recent flooding after the fire has messed it all up.

Jack Wright, Tombstone’s Water Operator said, “It’s moved some boulders through here. You have seen caverns that didn’t exist. This was a drivable road a month ago.”

And then, …the real disaster happened. A Federal Government agency showed up.

From the dailycaller.com:

George Barnes, Tombstone’s city clerk and manager, explained to The Daily  Caller that since many of the pipelines are in a “wilderness area,” the U.S.  Forest Service will not allow the mechanized equipment needed to fix the  water-lines into the area for environmental reasons.

“We began working with the Forest Service but then we realized and found what  an incredible boondoggle that could be, even though we are very confident we  have a special status because our rights there pre-existed the Forest Service  and even the BLM [Bureau of Land Management]. We were there long before anything  and all we are asking is to fix our stuff,” Barnes said.

And perhaps my favorite quote:

……instead of allowing repairs as has happened in the past, “federal bureaucrats are refusing to allow Tombstone to unearth its springs and restore its water-lines unless [city officials] jump through a lengthy permitting process that will require the city to use horses and hand tools to remove boulders the size of Volkswagens.”

Got all that?

A town, here in the United States, in the year 2012, needs to get their drinking water back, and a Federal agency says, “Sure, but please use machinery from ….the 1800’s, okay? Have a nice day!”

Tombstone is fighting this in court, but they need to win quickly, since a slow victory will still be a loss for whatever townspeople are left.

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This whole fiasco is eerily reminiscent of the California case back in 2009 with the San Joaquin Valley vs. the delta smelt, the main difference being this time the concern isn’t people’s livelihoods but rather their lives.

I have no idea whether this is merely typical, everyday environmental extremism, or just the latest example of federal overreach gone mad. And I really don’t want to consider the possibility that it has anything to do with President Petulant’s previous issues with the state of Arizona.

That would be impossible……wouldn’t it?