Disastrous Response | American-Rattlesnake

One of the tragedies of Hurricane Sandy, in addition to the enormous human and material cost it has exacted from our city, is the misery which the chronic inefficiency and incompetence of our government has wrought. From the economically incoherent and historically ignorant institution of price controls to the resuscitation of policies as intellectually vapid as the men who impose them, the specter of the state making the lives of those already suffering even more unbearable is everywhere.
Even the federal bureaucracies established to ostensibly aid people who have been the victims of natural disasters arewoefully incapable of executing even the most elementary aspects of their missions. No one grasps this concept more acutely than the residents of Staten Island, who have seen firsthand why relying upon the generosity of government bureaucrats is such a risky proposition.
I’ve experienced the ineptitude of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at least once today when I encountered a group of no doubt well-intentioned FEMA volunteers who were canvassing my neighborhood. To what end? I honestly can’t answer that question. Granted, there have been sporadic power outages throughout the past two weeks-Internet connections are still patchy-and there aren’t many local gas stations in operation. However, I can’t think of anything in my town which necessitates emergency services-least of all those provided by a six billion-dollar federal agency, especially when there are blocks less than a five minute-long drive from my house which resemble ransacked villages...