{"id":101055,"date":"2017-08-29T00:46:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T07:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=101055"},"modified":"2017-08-28T17:41:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T00:41:18","slug":"harvey-and-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html","title":{"rendered":"Harvey and the State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s something to look at:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of NASA)<\/p>\n

In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm<\/a> slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked millions of dollars of havoc as well as killing 46 people.<\/p>\n

The reason it did so without warning was because there was no such thing as satellite imagery that could tell us it was coming. \u00a0But then, evil Big Government Liberals created NASA and the entire system of weather forecasting we now take for granted. \u00a0Had it not existed, Houston would likewise have been completely surprised by Harvey.<\/p>\n

Not just NASA and our immense weather monitoring system is the creation of Evil Incompetent Government that can never do anything right. As reader Ron Belgau points out, \u201cThe lifesaving didn\u2019t just start this week. Billions have been spent over decades on the storm defenses that have protected many in Texas already, and will do a lot to mitigate the final damage toll, as well as contributing billions to getting the survivors back on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider also the Evil Invaders from the Government of Mexico, who have offered their help<\/a>. \u00a0More worthless state actors when all Texas really needs is band of libertarians helping themselves.<\/p>\n

Then, there are terrible government bureacrats like this man, living off the tax dollars of hard-working Americans:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

(Courtesy Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

This heroic deputy worked 12+ hours thru the night, doing high water rescues. Worked until he couldn\u2019t stand anymore. \u00a0 He is what Libertarians are referring to when they say that that we can get rid of the worthless incompetent government and bands \u00a0of Libertarian individualists can meet the challenges of world-historical disaster without the government.<\/p>\n

Then there is\u00a0FEMA, National Guard, Coast Guard, and federal disaster aid.\u00a0Multi-state, federal, and now international, all directed in coordinated, evidence-determined hierarchies. \u00a0There is emergency management with manuals inches thick on the proper structure and management of such and this works and works well. There is the Incipient Command System<\/a> that the \u201cWe don\u2019t need government\u201d crowd has never even heard of that is saving thousands of lives right now.<\/p>\n

Nothing more powerfully illustrates the sheer blinding power of ideology than the mantra that\u00a0\u201cwe should not depend on government\u201d even as a massive state effort is underway to rescue the millions being harmed by Harvey. The lie depends on hyperfocusing on the inevitable failures and screwups that will happen during such mass chaos while deliberately ignoring the many many successes. Left to libertarians, thousands would be dead right now and Texas would look like a third world population drowned in a monsoon. \u00a0As terrible as things are right now, they would be a thousand times worse without the blessing of a modern, organized, technological state to meet the challenge.<\/p>\n

Remember that when, as will certainly happen, some Libertarian tells you \u201cgovernment should be small enough to drown in a bathtub\u201d or the President of the United States decides to shut down the government in a fit of pique.<\/p>\n

The myth that we can get along without the state is a ridiculous myth. \u00a0Do individuals and private actor play a huge role? \u00a0Of course. But without the state, their efforts would be massively undercut.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked millions of dollars of havoc as well as killing 46 people. The reason it did so without warning was because there was no such thing as satellite imagery that could tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[945],"class_list":["post-101055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-romans-13-not-libertarian-lies"],"yoast_head":"\nHarvey and the State<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harvey and the State\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-29T07:46:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-29T00:41:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full_width\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/harvey-goes-82517.jpg?itok=bHeSudoa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html\",\"name\":\"Harvey and the State\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-29T07:46:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-29T00:41:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Harvey and the State\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Harvey and the State","description":"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Harvey and the State","og_description":"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2017-08-29T07:46:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-29T00:41:18+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full_width\/public\/thumbnails\/image\/harvey-goes-82517.jpg?itok=bHeSudoa"}],"author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html","name":"Harvey and the State","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-29T07:46:04+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-29T00:41:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"Here's something to look at: (Photo Courtesy of NASA) In 1962, the Columbus Day Storm slammed into the Pacific Northwest without warning and wreaked","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/harvey-and-the-state.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Harvey and the State"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}