This is Why You Can't Have Nice Things

I don’t care how hard you cry. I don’t care how long it takes. You need to learn how to not share.

Not sharing is really important. It’s how people get along. Children who share make it bad for everybody. Sharing is selfish, because when you insist on sharing, you are infringing my liberty. Besides, sharing is unnatural. Everyone knows people are motivated through competition. It says so in the bible. I'm pretty sure it does. Sharing makes people weak. When you share, you are letting children whose mommies and daddies didn't work hard for their toys have something they don’t deserve. That's not fair, is it?

I know it’s hard to not share, but you’re going to have to get used to it if you want to play with the other children.

When you can say “mine” and mean it, you can go back to play. Until then, I’m going to hold my breath. When I turn blue, you’ll know how serious I am.

Yesterday I was talking with a student who is studying how categorization in libraries and in Wikipedia reflects cultural assumptions about gender. I showed her authorities.loc.gov, where she could search subject headings, and had to catch myself. “If the shutdown happens, this site will go down.”

The nursing students who are studying community health can't use American Factfinder, either. That’s down, too.

Google has one of its clever doodles up today, this one celebrating the 123^rd anniversary of the opening of Yosemite National Park. But today, the park is closed, like every other national park and museum.

This is what happens when people who do not believe in government are elected to government. They refuse to lose when a law they opposed is passed. They don’t value government services because governments pass laws and laws infringe on their freedom. They took an oath to defend the constitution and discharge the duties of their office, but they don’t believe in the system for which the constitution is a blueprint and so refuse to carry out their duties. On principle.

Their salaries will still be paid so they can finish the work that the British failed to complete in 1814 when they attacked and set fire to Washington.

Well, not all of Washington. Just public buildings, including Congress and its library.  

There are few institutions that are open to all and beloved by Americans regardless of their political views. Libraries and parks are among them. But the very idea of sharing, of having goods in common, is contrary to a worldview that believes individual freedom trumps everything else and caring for those who cannot care for themselves is a betrayal of the natural order of things.

So as of today, we no longer have access to public information and public land, which are officially non-essential.

That'll teach us.