Ohio State Gets Armored Fighting Vehicle: “Specifically Designed for Asymmetric Warfare”

If we're not living in a militarized police state, then please explain what Ohio State University could possibly need with one of these:

The Ohio State University Department of Public Safety has acquired an armored military vehicle that looks like it belongs in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gary Lewis, a senior director of media relations at OSU, told The Daily Caller via email that the "unique, special-purpose vehicle is a replacement" for the "police fleet." He called the armored jalopy "an all-hazard, all-purpose, public safety-response vehicle" with "obviously enhanced capabilities."

http://sgtreport.com/2013/09/ohio-state-gets-armored-fighting-vehicle-specifically-designed-for-asymmetric-warfare/

Public Waste and Collapse

No wonder municipalities across the country are going bankrupt at a faster rate than ever, during a time in which politicians are telling us we are in a recovery. Dropping off trash a a monthly neighborhood collection, the county employs three sheriff deputies to open a gate and check residents' papers. This is the sort of waste that is overloading the public governments around the world.

Fukushima cleanup workers’ radiation feared 20% higher

Japan's government may have underestimated by 20 percent the internal radiation doses Fukushima cleanup workers received after the plant's nuclear disaster, a panel of leading UN scientists says in its preliminary findings.

More: http://rt.com/news/fukushima-nuclear-radiation-higher-119

It seems that many contractors working on the doomed nuclear plant have long ago failed to report testing results, and many waited far too long to test many workers. 

Shutdown shows the Civil War never ended

Alternet sometimes get it right. Here, they posit that the latest government "shutdown" is simply a continuation of the division that led to the US Civil War. I won't argue against the idea, but will argue that the government never gets shut down, only a handful of services that it shouldn't be running do. If they are considered non-essential, why should the government run them at all? Why not let the private sector take over, since public debt and out of control spending is what causes these supposed shutdowns every few years?

http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/47699083/0/alternet_breaking_news~Shutdown-shows-the-Civil-War-never-ended

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

With the government shutdown, and the theatrics surrounding it, now would be a good time to explore Bastiat's essay The Law, and his concept of legal plunder. As specific government services are shut down, seemingly to draw the greatest public outcry, it is worth understanding the nature of the state, and of those with vested interest in keeping it going. Those receiving benefits from the state support its entrance into all aspects or private lives and the market.

But the state has no wealth itself, it can only give to one party by first taking from another. That forced redistribution of wealth is what Bastiat warned would be a nation's downfall, and the sentiment remains constant through the centuries. Even Margaret Thatcher believed that redistribution only worked until we run out of other people's money. The irony is that in fighting communism, the US embraced socialism fully.

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html

Democide: Death By Government

"Armed with this understanding, the authors of The Black Book present the following statistics regarding how various communist governments killed their own citizens by the millions (p. 4):"

U.S.S.R.: 20 million deaths

China: 65 million deaths

Vietnam: 1 million deaths

North Korea: 2 million deaths

Cambodia: 2 million deaths

Eastern Europe: 1 million deaths

Latin America: 150,000 deaths

Africa: 1.7 million deaths

Afghanistan: 1.5 million deaths

"Rummel has studied more than just the former communist regimes, and includes Nazi Germany's 21 million civilian murders, among others."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/11/thomas-dilorenzo/death-by-government

If murder is immoral, and rightly outlawed, and governments are statistically far more likely to be responsible for murder than any other group of people, does it follow that the state should also be outlawed? I think democide is a significant enough reason to consider it.

Everyone Wins When The Government Shuts Down

"Democrats and Republicans are united in the belief that fiscal drama in Congress that's transfixed both Wall Street and Main Street over the past few days is crazy."

"The government is on the verge of its first shutdown in 17 years because some Republican members in the House are insisting that President Obama either delay or repeal parts of Obamacare, his signature legislative achievement. Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have vowed to quash any efforts to gut the law, technically called the Affordable Care Act."

The political theatrics between both parties are nothing more than theatrics. All of the issues coming up now with the threat of a shutdown have been there for months or years, and are simply being used to scare the public into accepting more inflation, regulation, and big government.

"If the federal government shuts down, CNN estimates that about 783,000 government workers will be furloughed as will thousands of contract employees that support them. People who need everything from a passport to a gun permit to a federal loan would have to wait as would paychecks to members of the Armed Forces. National parks would be shuttered as would the Smithsonian Museums, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Washington. Processing of oil and gas permits on federal lands would grind to a halt."

Most services offered by the government should be allowed to shutter, shifting to the private sector. With more and more public employees, and fewer taxpayers in the private sector, this game of legal plunder only has one end, and its not pretty. The government won't shut down, but it wouldn't be such a bad thing if it did.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/093013/nobody-wins-if-government-shuts-down.asp?utm_source=newstouse&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=NTU-10/2/2013