Hard times help governments become more fiscally conservative. There is an indication the Haywood County Commissioners are recovering from the identity crisis that causes public officials to mistake themselves for Father Christmas. They stalled when asked by representatives of Maggie Valley to partner to haul debris and restore streams by matching a federal grant. The amount of funds needed was not known.
Middle school students learn that precipitation seeps between rocks, and when water expands to its minimum density at 4 degrees Celsius, rocks move under the pressure exerted thereby. Government, however, thinks rocks crack and tumble because people aren’t regulated enough. Perhaps only to politely pass the buck back to the private parties who built on slopes or the taxing authority in whose jurisdiction the rockslides occurred, Commissioner Mark Swanger made it sound as if a steep slope ordinance would make mother nature more obedient to the laws of man.
This brings to mind a couple items from NPR news today. One feature said the reason the earthquake in Haiti was so much more devastating than that in Chile was because Chili had more rigorous building codes. Granted, earthquake engineering is a legitimate field of study. However, news reports of problems with disaster relief efforts usually cite government as the the culprit.
In another feature, a legislator, whose name I didn’t catch, refuted Orrin Hatch’s recent op-ed saying reconciliation shouldn’t be used to nationalize healthcare, with the argument that what is done in Washington, DC is not substantive, but “just politics.” This ties back to the concept that those who take laws lightly are more inclined to support the passing of more and more strenuous ones than those who try to be obedient.
