Arr-rony

I find it ironic that the Obama administration recently stepped up its language against the Somali pirates. This is, after all, an administration that has started a trade war with Mexico, said(at one point at least) that it wanted to revise NAFTA, and has no problems discussing tariffs and protectionist trade barriers - even sneaking them into the so-called stimulus bill. I see trade barriers and piracy as two sides of the same coin. Both impede the process of free and fair trade between willing parties through the use of force, taking their unfairly gotten gains for uncertain economic uses.


The only difference is that the pirates do their work by spitting on the rule of law. The government gets to claim it is the rule of law. And then take whatever it wants.

Maybe others should follow their lead

I was really excited about this story, though there's still a lot of entitlement mentality reflected. Out in Kauai, in Hawaii, a group of citizens rebuilt a bridge in a state park. They had been waiting around for state funds of about $4 million to rebuild, and they eventually realized that those funds might be as much as two years away.

Led by a kayaking company that realized its livelihood was at stake, a group got together and built a bridge. Didn't cost them much. And now, instead of the park being closed for another couple of years, it should open in the next few weeks.

Still, some of what was in the article reflects a bit of entitlement and government dependence.

"We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part," Slack said. "Just like everyone's sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn't wait anymore."

"We shouldn't have to do this, but when it gets to a state level, it just gets so bureaucratic, something that took us eight days would have taken them years," said Troy Martin of Martin Steel, who donated machinery and steel for the repairs. "So we got together -- the community -- and we got it done."

The "we shouldn't have to do this" tweaks me a bit. Should it even be a state park at all? Why not make it private. It's clearly a lucrative base of operations for at least the kayak company, and perhaps others. Get the state out and run it your way.

At any rate, good job for rebuilding that bridge. Our recession might just end a little faster if we quit waiting around for the government to tell us the answers and, instead, figured them out for ourselves.