Saturday, May 27, 2006

A Brilliant Idea

Maybe we should all relax, just a little bit.

The Rayburn House Office Building was locked down for more than four hours today after a New Jersey congressman reported hearing the sound of gunfire in the building's garage.

The noise apparently came from construction work being done in the building, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said.

"There were some workers . . . in the area of the Rayburn garage, in the elevator area, and in doing their routine duties they made some sort of a noise that sounded like shots fired," Schneider said.

She said that while the police investigation is continuing, the construction work is a "plausible explanation" for the noise that also briefly closed the Capitol building and locked down D.C. public schools.

At first glance, it seems ridiculous that construction work could shut down the Capitol building as well as the D.C. public schools. At second glance, I don't know whether to be more surprised that there were actually representatives in the Capitol building or that D.C. actually had schools.

Third glance: if this is all it takes to shutdown D.C., I have a suggestion for the Minutemen. Send people with jackhammers to work just outside where our honored representatives do the lobbyists', er, our bidding. This will shut the government down completely, which is essentially what libertarians would like. Yes, this is highly theoretical, but a man can dream.

Liberty sounds like construction. Who knew?

2 comments:

troutsky said...

Don't the Minutemen want the government to help protect them? Do you think one in ten Minutemen could describe libertarian ideology? They are just overgrown toddlers who want all the benefits of government ( order, stability, infrastructure, protection etc..) without having to pay for any of it or be responsible for any of it.They love the idea of a militaristic society, regimented and simple, a benevelont leader, churches and liquor stores in a white, wasp world.

A Wiser Man Than I said...

There's a large amount of truth to your comment. It's almost hysterical to see those who bemoan the destruction of Judeo-Christian morals cry to the same government for protection. In fact, it is through this realization that my views on gay marriage have changed. Post pending...

Still, I would argue, as an admittedly less than pure libertarian, that it is just for a government to defend its citizens from invaders. If the government cannot do even that, we descend to anarchy, something libertarianism is distinct from.

Curiously, the Libertarian Party supports open borders. Sometimes their idealogical purity can be self-defearing, but you have to hand it to them on their refusal to compromise.