Big Government Orders People to Leave Homes!

Oh, no. It's finally happened. Big government is forcing people out of their homes!

Oh, the horrors of it. It's the stuff of stories usually only seen in futuristic novels that someone like Orson Welles would dream up. But it's happening, right now.

On the Eastern seaboard, millions of people have been ordered out of their homes. Sure, there's a hurricane bearing down on them, but shouldn't it be up to the people themselves whether to leave? I mean, if somebody wants to stay in their home and watch the roof blown off or the storm surge sweep the building off its foundations, isn't that their constitutional right, even if they keep their young children there, too? Isn't that what Libertarians like Ron Paul are arguing when they say the government shouldn't criminalize street drugs or operate FEMA? Figure out on your own where Hurricane Irene is going to strike and how high the water will be. After all, everybody has the same skills as a meterologist, right?

New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie, however, was doing a pretty good imitation of an intrusive big government official, telling people to "get the hell off the beach" as the hurricane approached.

Natural disasters are one of those instances when Republican hatred of government action meets a reality check.

Would Less Govenment Have Saved Lives in Japan?

Japan is reeling from the devastating earthquake and tsunami. It's people are suffering mightily from a 9.01 magnitude quake.

The deathtoll is likely to be well into the thousands. Horrible.

But it could have been much worse. Skyscrapers in Tokyo, nearly 175 miles from the epicenter, swayed, but did not collapse. Why not? Those pesky government regulations required them to be built to meet tough earthquake codes.

Buildings housing nuclear reactors at power plants are collapsing and fuel rods may be melting down. But radiation leaks -- at least those the companies are admitting to -- are at elevated levels but not yet lethal ones. Why not? Those pesky government regulations that required containment shells to be built around the reactors.

As horrible as the devastation is in Japan, it is not at the scale of Haiti. Why not? Those pesky government regulations.

Things are horrible. They could have been worse. And right now, I wonder how many people in Japan are wishing the government would get off their backs by repealing earthquake codes and nuclear power regulations.