State Forcing Flood Victims to Obtain Permits Before Fixing their HomesBy Claire Bernish Before Hoosiers can pick up the pieces by reconstructing their property, the City of South Bend is forcing them to also pick up a building permit. According to a media release from the South Bend/St. Joseph County Building Department: Repairs and/or construction activities to structures that are located in the floodplain and were damaged due to the disaster will require a local building permit from the South Bend/St. Joseph County Building Department as required by local ordinance. Worse, In addition, depending on a propertys location, a permit may be required from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources prior to the start of any reconstruction activity. Failure to obtain the necessary permits could result in fines. Leave it to Big Governmentto exponentially worsen an already difficult and costly situation. On Monday, the South Bend area received its highest rainfall total for a single calendar day since records began, the Weather Channel reported, officially 7.69 inches of rain, which broke the previous record set in September 2008 by a full inch. In one day, meteorologist Jim Erdman noted, the city received more than twice its average rainfall for the entire month of August, which is 3.76 inches. When including rainfall that continued into Tuesday morning, that total climbed to 8.49 inches and needless to say, the water inundated local storm drains and paralyzed any ability to alleviate resultant floods. Margaret Fosmoe (@MFosmoe) August 17, 2016 Many of the toughest days are actually in the days to come because its going to take a very long time for some of this water to go away, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said. In the days coming ahead frustration is going to set in. People need to understand this is a thousand-year rain event. With the amount of water in some roadways and in some basements, its not an amount of water that can be removed by a pump or a truck or draining operation. You just have to wait for it to recede. Traumatized residents trying to contend with expensive and horrific damage one reported eight feet of water in his basement now also have to cope with the burden of overbearing state bureaucracy, not to mention penalties for failing to comply. Although such an unprecedented rainfall would be expected to overflow city storm drains and sewers by its nature, one business blames the State for damage incurred. Chris David, manager of Around the Corner Auto Service, said construction work on a nearby highway bypass left the closest storm drain cordoned off by a fence in the shops backyard which, when record-breaking rains began to fall, acted as a dam for debris, leaving water nowhere to go but inside. David and three employees have been working nonstop to clean the damage, but he faces an arduous road ahead to reopen the shops doors to customers. As he told local CBS affiliate WSBT, Total estimated damage to the auto service store has already climbed to a whopping $120,000. Should any reconstruction be necessary, of course, David would also be forced to obtain what amounts to the States permission slip to repair damage the State haphazardly caused in the first place. But the Indiana Department of Transportation disagrees with David and his insurance company, placing blame for his woes solely on the rainfall, itself. We had record breaking rainfall and many areas flooded, explained Doug Moats, public information officer for INDOT, and I dont think that fence was directly responsible for that. Despite Davids description of the dam effect the fence caused during the torrential rainfall, Moats claims the storm drain would have overflowed regardless. Utilizing that fence as an excuse as to why that there was additionally flooding there is maybe convenient, he said. But to be completely honest, it was the fact that we got 8 to 10 inches in a short amount of time. Shaun Gallagher (@ShaunGalWNDU) August 16, 2016 Both fortunately and surprisingly, no injuries or deaths were reported as having resulted from the rains and subsequent flooding. Damage to properties is nevertheless understandably extensive two homes collapsed after being inundated forcing those who can and cannot afford to rebuild into a sudden scramble to file insurance claims and, of course, building permits in order to avoid the further expense of state-imposed fines. It would be difficult to justify additional red tape during the aftermath of tragedy nevertheless, the government didnt even pretend to be apologetic for its additional imposition on the beleaguered residents of South Bend. Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. So where is the VP nominee , gov of IN,on this ? You can thank the Government for the disaster, Lookup Geoengineering The city will not be able to timely process the flood of permit applications they are demanding under threat of force. You can be sure that the city council will belatedly find they have no real authority over the other government service corporations telling us what to do when they try to appease the angry mob. That is where the state comes in to help, or FEMA. When the 89 earthequake hit the Bay Area, my house was destroyed, as were many. Blanket condemnations are no replacement for thinking and making distinctions between good government and bad, rather than just condemn something you depend on every day for your health and safety, transportation, and communications. When Hurricane sandy wiped me out, I did not need any govt. agency to get me back on my feet, I picked myself up by my bootstraps and rebuilt without asking anyone to spend a dime on me. I wish no taxpayer to have to come to my aid for it is not their responsibility, It is because of this belief that we have far to much govt. Man up the state the people the federal govt.are not here to take from one and give to another, be responsible for your problems. I think you are lying by omission: you had insurance, which was required by the government. I agree government is too big.will you join us in demand defense spending (a trillion) be cut to only twice that of China and Russia, and an end to the hundreds of billions in subsidies to Big Corporations, which have hijacked the government and created laws and regulations to avoid taxes, etc. Yes, less unnecessary government as in wars and spying and free money to the richand more government help in education, healthcare, and empowering the 99%. Drag those making the demands out of their offices, and hang them, bet you wont have to hang more then two and the rest of the scum will scurry like rats on a sinking ship. anonymous calls for lynchings! This is criminal incitement compounded by cowardice: take off the mask.perhaps those like you should be first! I can tell by your postings who the coward is Dale you depend on others to help you through life I do not. There is nothing criminal about what I said, have you not heard of the first amendment? like it or not what i say what anyone says cannot be determined by you or anyone or any govt. If you only believe the bill of rights exist when people say and do as you think, and you wish to prevent people from speaking their minds then you are part or a problem and not a solution. I normally dont waste time responding to others but you resounded in a way that led me no choice. You may not like what I say, but you must as a believer in God almighty who gives all rights not govt. to my right to say it. And if you dont; believe in God then the Constitution says the same and if you deny me under it, then you are the coward and the traitor. Goodbye I will not respond again as this is a waste of time and effort, but I had a few spare minutes so live with it. anonyous calls for lynchings and I, Dale Ruff, call him out as a criminal coward, hiding under his cyberhood. He responds I Dale Ruff am a coward for calling him a coward. Can someone explain how incitements to lynchings by anonymous is any different from the KKK? God says love they enemy.I urge you to come out of the closet! You believe in God ???? He created the universe can he not control the temp of the earth.. God invented the oxygen / CO2 cycle did he lose his notes ?? Youd think that the local govt would have more important things to do thanbreak your legs too (metaphorically speaking) as the Libertarians were fond of saying. This is a great example ofthat. Wonder what VP Pence thinks about this? You can thank global warming for the disaster, tho the fossil fuel industry shills will claim it was chemtrails When the government permits, it inspects and thus performs the essential service mandated by the Constitution: to promoteand provide for the general welfare. The worst danger with flooding is black mold which is lethal. Ordinary homeowners and handymen are untrained to deal with this toxic danger, but the county will make sure the repairs do not leave your family in danger. Other structural projects, of course, benefit from inspections to make sure that safe construction methods are being used. When we criticize government for doing the right thing, it weakens our legitimate criticisms. And they come and change your diaper every hour. Ugly trollall you got, to insult the disabled (which I am not)???? Where did you get your GED? People who dont have time to wait for the incompetent bumbleheads our bureaucracies churn out or multiple inspectors who each want you to do it their way. Temperatures are not up so its definitely not global warming as you well know . https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201513 The hottest 15 years on record have all been since 1998. The Berkeley Project set out to show these official data as flawed; it found they are totally accurate! In any given year, 2/3 of earth is warming, 1/3 cooling, with a net result of global warming. Its fact, whether you believe it or not. Thats the great thing about science. On whoe record ???? How far does your record go back ? This is patent made up nonsense by you . There was no global warming in the 1/3 + 2/3 for the last 17 years . No sea level rise but the sea is well below previous raised beach records. Glaciers always melt since they cant go on forever lol 90% of rivers flow into the sea lol Storms are not more intense I saw much worse storms in my childhood . The heatwaves were worse when I was younger. Science is TRUE facts and you just made up your own . It is impossible to measure the temp of the earth sea and sky accurately especially 100 years ago. I count 8 falsehoods in your post, all stated without evidence and in naked contradiction to empirical evidence. Dr Muller was a climate skeptic hired by the Kochs to show the government data was flawed. He found the opposite. Exxon scientists in the 70s found global warming and the logical cause as burning of fossil fuels. They buried the research and funded anti-science, along with the Kochs and others whose profits depend on shifting costs of damage to the public. I will quote Dr. Muller, who came to refute the data but as an honest scientist, found it rock solid. Since then the Kochs no longer openly fund their anti-science campaign but do it thru dark money. Heres his opening paragraphs; I urge you to read the full op ed (NY Times): CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. Im now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause. My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earths land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases. These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming. In its 2007 report, the I.P.C.C. concluded only that most of the warming of the prior 50 years could be attributed to humans. It was possible, according to the I.P.C.C. consensus statement, that the warming before 1956 could be because of changes in solar activity, and that even a substantial part of the more recent warming could be natural. Our Berkeley Earth approach used sophisticated statistical methods developed largely by our lead scientist, Robert Rohde, which allowed us to determine earth land temperature much further back in time. We carefully studied issues raised by skeptics: biases from urban heating (we duplicated our results using rural data alone), from data selection (prior groups selected fewer than 20 percent of the available temperature stations; we used virtually 100 percent), from poor station quality (we separately analyzed good stations and poor ones) and from human intervention and data adjustment (our work is completely automated and hands-off). In our papers we demonstrate that none of these potentially troublesome effects unduly biased our conclusions. You have been duped. The temp of the earth sea and sky has allegedly gone up by 1 c in 100 years. The poles have more ice than ever and your hero al gores prophecies are dud but hes a billionaire and youre still a boring troll. The earth was warmer in the past AND there was much more CO2 so how are we still here. Termites let alone the whole animal kingdom and volcanoes put out more CO2 than all the human race and industry . While Al Gores et al spouts out more CO2 than a nation state. Stop being a pretentious phony Gore is doing it for cash whats your motive Temperature increases in the past century in the past roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming. I know you are immune to facts but a rise of 1C results in a positive feedback loop which accelerates heating: more heat means more moisture in air, which acts as a greenhouse gas. As 90% of worlds glaciers melt,and ice caps melt, they lose their reflective (ie cooling) ability and the underlying methane is released into the atmosphere and the darker background now absorbs rather than reflects heat. And methane, the gas produced extensively by the livestock industry worldwide, traps up to 100 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide within a 5 year period, and 72 times more within a 20 year period.. IN science, it is known that small increases cause major disruptions. Water suddenly burst into bubbles at a certain temperature. The positive feedback look makes a quick rise in global temperature to have radical effects. Its a factthousands of climate scientists from 180 nations, from oil companies, public and private universities, and other agencies have determined that global warming is an empirical fact with significant threats, already being played out. Clearly, you are afraid to read the Muller op ed or check out the Exxon research which proved global warming 45 years ago. Clearly, you have no science background and are addicted to the anti-science propaganda campaign, funded by the fossil fuel oligarchs, who shift, according to the IMF, over 6 trillion a year to the public and governments for the damage they do. So long as people believe the billionaires instead of their scientists, we will be unable to respond, and millions will die and billions will suffer (melted glaciers provide water to over a billion people: what will happen when the glaciers are all melted? BTW, all that melted ice goes into the ocean, and with most people on earth live near the coast. I write not for you, who clearly is allergic to evidence but to those with open minds, whom I urge to read the Berkeley EArth project and Exxon research for starters. ICE caps are increasing. The thousands of scientists that promote GW are the ones with their snouts in the trough. If we look at old paintings of venice the water has not risen for hundreds of years. AND IN THE MIDEVAL WARM PERIOD THE SAME CITIES DID NOT FLOOD . You make up the numbers to agree with your preconceived CO2 fear mongering instead of worrying about americas war mongering. More moisture means more clouds which are 99% of global cooling. You aint no scientist but an Al Gore idolater. You didnt read the Dr. Muller explanation, did you. Are you afraid of the truth? Why Is Antarcticas Sea Ice Growing While the Arctic Melts? Scientists Have an Answer Global warming is global: 1/3 cooling, 2/3 warming. Ice is melting on 90% of worlds glaciers and the Arctic. If you read the article (or are you afraid?), you will learn why global warming can lead to more sea ice (as ice caps break up) and more flooding and more drought. Gore reported what climate scientists, since the Exxon researchers in the 70s, have discovered. I am not a scientist which is why I honor their knowledge. You dismiss it tho you have no science background and are immune to facts. You are repeating stale right wing anti-science propaganda. eaten South Florida MIAMI BEACH, Fla. On a recent afternoon, Scott McKenzie watched torrential rains and a murky tide swallow the street outside his dog-grooming salon. Within minutes, much of this stretch of chic South Beach was flooded ankle-deep in a fetid mix of rain and sea. Welcome to the new Venice, McKenzie joked as salt water surged from the sewers. There are few places in the nation more vulnerable to rising sea levels than low-lying South Florida, a tourist and retirement mecca built on drained swampland. pbs.com Venice has sunk 23cm in the last century as a result of sea level rises and subsidence, largely due to the extraction of groundwater, which stopped in the 1970s. We havent had a problem with Venice sinking for the past 50 years. Now our problem is the sea-level rising, he says. With these barriers we will be the only city in the world which will be protected if the sea-level rises up to 1 metre if water goes up more than 1m it is not Venice that is in peril, it is Italy. However, not everyone agrees that Venice has stopped sinking. In 2012 a study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego found that Venice had not stabilised as previously thought, but was continuing to slowly sink and to tilt eastward. Venice appears to be continuing to subside at a rate of about 2mm a year, says Yehuda Bock, a research geodesist with Scripps who has been studying Venice subsidence since 2001. Its a small effect, but its important. he added. The sea level is rising in the Venetian lagoon at a rate of 2mm per year, so this slight subsidence doubles the rate at which the heights of surrounding waters are increasing relative to the elevation of the city, he observed in the study. theguardian.com Most of the world is heating up, most of the ice is melting, the sea is rising, Venice and South Florida (and coasts everywhere) are experiencing unprecedented events in record times. Ignore at your own peril, but dont stop the rest of us from acting in self-defense. I do not need to make up numbers, since I research 10 hours a day and have done scholarship for 50 years with a world class education. Every number I give is reported from actual scientists, not right wing websites, which is where you hang out (and are duped.) More moisture means more heat, as it acts as a greenhouse gas. Cirrus clouds not not cool but heat the atmosphere. You really do need to read at least one article or book on climate and atmospheric science More moisture means more heat and more rain. Florida has 330 sunny days a year.only 10 are cloudy. The sea is rising around Florida, where most of the people live a few feet above the old sea level. Salt water intrusion, rising hides, and an epidemic of lethal black mold. Venice is building a wall to protect the city from rising waters. Anti-science clods like you are part of the problem in preventing action in the US, as you prefer to believe corrupt billionaires rather than actual scientists. My idol is not Gore but the state motto of Missouri: Show me! Show me the evidence? I worship none, but honor those who spend their lives in pursuit of knowledge and those wise enough to use it. BTW, Gore pushed the government developed internet through Congress.so had it not been for him, you would still be tinkering with your Atari and unable to attack him. Greenhouse gases heat up the globe. Lets curb the emissions as we curb the pollution, which kills tens of millions each year. All that it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservative philosophy. I excuse you for you are ignorant, but the rest of us are going forward to deal with global warming, pollution, and the 6 trillion a year subsidy to the fossil fuel energy. The idiocy of you global warmists is that you find ways of totally ignoring the history of the world . The arctic had camels in the past and was covered in vegetation . You honour Gores knowledge ???? Hes a scam artist for carbon tax and credits . Stand in front of a mirror and say a thousand times There has been NO warming for 17 years , therefore any dramatic climates cant be caused by warming The sun is the only major input it alone decides our weather and cloud cover is 99% of cooling. You should do a standard grade in biology. I am into science but not fake agenda driven science like you you are the epitome of gullibility the forest gump of blogging THEY only inspect because its THEIR house!! AND they want YOU to take care of it for the next SUCKER. Just like a car!! Its the STATES vehicle!!! Instead of the Keystone XL pipeline pumping oil to the Gulf, why cant we pump water to the West Coast which desperately needs it, or both. Americans can walk and chew gum at the same time. The Bureaucrat Plague.. Thank God big corporations do not have bureaucracies: I just called Comcast (no other service available: monopoly? ) and it only took 40 minutes to reach the right person, and that person was unable to explain why my $99 deal I signed up for now costs $188. Fortunately us non-Comcast folks dont have to pay their saleries, to boot.. Its called regulatory nullification everyone. Overwhelm the system with common sense. They are supposed to be working for us, not at the exclusion of common sense. This is ridiculous and everyone knows it, except the bureaucrats that have become parasites on those working to make a living, and supporting families. Lets get out of the blame game and make these events game changers to improve our lives, and eliminate the red tape garbage developed of 50+ years. Even more ridiculous is that government has insinuated itself as the building code enforcers. Not many people know that it is the insurance companies that created the building codes, plumbing codes and electrical safety codes. And the insurance companies still update and maintain those codes. The idea was originally that a building built to code was insurable at a lower cost. There is no reason at all that South Bend could not hand-over code enforcement for the re-building effort to the insurance companies paying for the work. The insurance companies have every incentive to ensure all work is done to code. Well, maybe there is one reason. Allowing insurance companies to inspect the work they pay for would highlight the cities bureaucratic inefficiencies and might lead people to question why the city is involved at all in code enforcement for insurance funded repairs or even new construction. .because its another group they can unionize and get them to mass vote and donate through dues for the party that wants more government, hence more votes! There is no other way for workers (ie most of us) to leverage economic growth (ie profits and productivity) to higher wages. Median wages have fallen 40% since 1989; housenhold income is down 10% since 1998.and all of this is a result of the crushing of the private sector unions, leaving workers with no voice,no power, and declining shares of the national pie. Claiiming unions are no corrupt is a false argument because the private union membership hardly exists! When it was strong, wages and benefits rose with profits. Since 1989, labor productivity is up 100%,, profits up 100%, the top 1% have tripled their income and wealth, and the median wage is down 40% This is engineered class warfare. Until there is a voice for workers, individual workers will have no voice and continue to have their wages stolen by the corporations such that the Walton family, which built nothing and does not work, has more (Walmart inherited) wealth than 100 million working Americans! That is not Gods plan or natural law. That is, to quote Warren Buffet, class warfare. Our only tools in this war are unions or revolution to create a state which serves the workers, not the billionaires. Corporations, for 25 years, have used their control of government to fashion laws to limit union growth. Its the right to make less. Unions say throw out all these laws and go back to the laws of the 50s-70s (our economic Golden Age of rising wages), when unions were strong and workers wages rose for over 30 years. Who benefits from trashing unions? You figure it out. Enforcement and adoption of building codes is local, with democratically elected supervisors. This is the one level of government that DOES work! I have owned property for over 50 years and have been found that inspectors are usually well-informed and have no interest in the NWO or Agenda 21, just local people whose job is to make sure building is safe. If you come in with the attitude that all inspectors are petty tyrants, you will have a different experience that if you start with respectyou are dealing with an individual first, a civil servant second. If you think you can get rid of the lethal black mode yourself, proceed! Two houses collapsed in the flood. If you think you can rebuild and have no duty to follow the rules, then perhaps you would happier where that is possible, as in Haiti where in 2011, 300,000 died in collapsed houses which were unreenforced and uninspectedjust let people build and to hell with the government. Millions die from such folly! I agree with you Dale. Ive dealt with 100s inspectors for 40 years. I know major contractors and the subs usually have a reputation in the minds of most inspectors. Id say 95 % are really good people, unless you really piss them off. Then theres the other 5% that no matter what you do, isnt good enough. One guy I know used glue and butt sticks for drywall. In my opinion this is the best, unless you have to demo it.) He wanted one in the middle, and then wanted it pulled after the glue was set, so youd never get a screw pop. He failed a dry wall inspection because of this. LOL Yes some cities have this. 10 years ago this was new to me too. But its just another fee for the cities. 40 years ago, I worked for one clown that thought I was to slow plumbing. That was due to my using 95/5 solder, when hed use 20/80. Greed over safety of water. My God, the worlds full of them. What is glue and butt sticks? Ive never heard of it, but would like to know more if you have the time. You put glue on your trusses, wall studs, and joists. Rock it, then when the glue dries, pull the screws. Butt sticks is a stick usually one foot long and one inch square. I usually tack hammered two one inch square pieces of roofing shingle on one end of that stick. Break your drywall joint in between the studs. put five butt sticks on that joint. When the other piece of drywall is screwed, that gives you a concaved butt, making it like a recessed edge, and easier to tape. This will save time and joint compound, because instead of finishing a butt joint three feet wide like normal, its about a foot or less. This is also less sanding, and actually makes the wall or ceiling flat, instead of that hump. The glue aka construction adhesive vastly improves the structural integrity, and you never get a screw pop. They do plywood subflooring in a similar manner. Dude, NOWHERE did I suggest the local government code authorities were inept or corrupt or suggest going to battle with them. However, that said, the chances that the local building department will become a serious bottleneck in the rebuilding effort are (in my opinion) very high. The local building department cannot possibly be prepared for the quantity of work coming their way. Now, re-read my original post. And tell me if you honestly think allowing the insurance companies to inspect the re-building work they (the insurance companies) are paying for would be a bad idea? If so, why on earth do you oppose it? Yes, the bureaucratic inefficiencies of local government vs. insurance companies might make the local building department / code enforcement look bad. Would that hurt anything other than some bureaucrat egos? Government = Parasitic Sleazebags Poli-Tics= Many-Tics Govern-Ment=Control-Mind It is easier to condemn than to think..Emma Goldman Say that to your sons teacher or the fireman who saves your house from fire! Say that to the 10 million who got medical coverage through the ACA. Say that to our troops. And if you dont like the government, get off our goddamned roads! Likely, hes referring to the sleazebags at the top. Not the chair warmers at the bottom. . My point is that condemnations of government per se must include the many layers, levels, compartments,and battles over policy within departments: its a complex/fractured system designed by the Founding Fathers to prevent a total consolidation of government, as under the King. Today, local school boards choose Common Core or not and if they do, they design the curriculum, which focuses on problem solving and critical thinking skills. Counties may decide whether to spend more or less on roads or adopt new earthequake codes or provides parks and swimming pools to its citizens. In none of this, is the state or Federal government, or minimally. This is the only level of government which is democratic. The state can distribute billions to schools or raise taxes on the rich long enough to create surpluses (as Cali did: 3 straight yrs of surpluses, etc), or build a high speed rail from LA to SF (with taxpayer approval) but corporate and special interest money no doubt influences state politics. And the Federal government ends up, say in education, having no control over state or local education, and the Dept of Educations main function is to provide grants and student loans for the needy and to feed hungry kids from poor neighborhoods (1 in 4 kids comes from a poverty level home): that is 90% And even in healthcare, the ACA only enables a consumer to sign a plan with a private insurer. Government sets up exchanges to increase competition, and while healthcare costs have not stopped rising, they are rising much slower than in many decades.and we can do better: Medicare for All pays for itself. And so many NEED the government: the elderly, the disabled, the unemployed, the violent, etc. But most of all Big Business needs Big government, to bail it out when reckless gambles fail, and keep our taxes low when they succeed, and to be the mask for obtuse tax laws which permit the most profitable corporations in all history (GE, Exxon, Bank of America, et al) to pay low, or in some years no taxes due to write offs, tax breaks, blah blah blah the stuff corporate attorneys write for lobbyists to come to a politician they have funded in the past and show him the desired loophole, made incomprehensible in archaic legalize, and a check for his.campaign, to help keep him in power. Money talksand so the corporations have taken over the government..they took it over from the wealthy elite of slave owners after the War of Freedom when the feared (by the FF slave owners and all Presidents but 3 up to Lincoln) bankers and corporate barons took control.and still have it. And some departments are farces: My point: its all government in the abstract but there are major differences depending on whether an agency has been taken over by commercial interests . And within the Congress: divison, paralysis, 10% approval, blah.nothing to fear if nothing is what you want. And the Executive: underneath the exterior, which breaks down with the first yer of any President, it is a life or death battle between the C:IA and those who want to tame it (they murdered JFK for threatening to splinter it), between the hardcore pro first strike generals in the Pentagon and the President, and even within the Presidents staff, there are different agendas, political combat going on with losers and survivors and the point is that government is a thousand things, a hundred thousand different entities, each itself a battle ground. And so when talking about government, it is necessary to specify which level, which layer, which compartment, which faction is being judged. Just my 3 cents of froth dale is a liberal troll Do NOT rebuild ..leaveand put all the government scumbags out of a job.imho Over here in the UK, when someone I knew had to have a new PVC door and doorframe fitted to replace a door and frame damaged by intruders, they then had to contact the local council, who then sent out someone to inspect the work after if had been carried out. The man from the council took about 5 minutes to carry out his inspection and then said the work had been done satisfactorily, in compliance with building regulations, and issued them with a building certificate for which the council charged them about 150. So much for bureaucracy. Even a TV tax, UK has got a case of government bad UK bureaucracy is at its worth with its socialized medicine, government doctors and hospitals: when you need to see a doctor, you have to show your card. No insurance, no forms, no co-pays, no premium: just show your card and you are treated. Such a bureaucratic nightmare as this should be the last thing we in the US would want! Thats a cleaning up your place tax. This is a jobs program for their extended family.When you outsource whole segments of the economy,you need to make things up to keep people working. World War III will be starting any minute,so the war effort will get more people working. Are Hoosiers having second thoughts on government? Chris David, manager of Around the Corner Auto Service, said construction work on a nearby highway bypass left the closest storm drain cordoned off by a fence in the shops backyard which, when record-breaking rains began to fall, acted as a dam for debris, leaving water nowhere to go but inside. The city may not know it, but since their fence and the debris it collected in essence became a man made channel which redirected the water redirected to Chris Davids business, the discharge is a simple matter of trespass, and the city government is liable for the damages from that discharge or dam effect. Its no different than installing a water pipe to collect rain water and then allowing it to discharge onto the neighbors property. Natural overland flow, unconstrained by nothing more than the natural grades and surroundings is fine. Man made channels and dams which result in the collection and concentration of that flow is a liability for the person or agency which installed it. This is a simple engineering reality which we deal with all the time and which the courts have already ruled on. 