Malicious indulgences

Buttercup quotes Charles W. Cooke writing at National Review:

Yes, government shutdowns have consequences — even shutdowns that leave 83 percent of the government operating as usual. But, consequences or not, there really is no good reason for the federal government to send barricades and wire-ties to unguarded open-air parks, to close off unmanned scenic overlooks, to evict homeowners from their private property on public land, or to threaten the livelihoods of hoteliers whose sole crime is to own a business on an unsecured public route.

There is no good reason, either, for the government to shut down the index pages of some, arbitrarily chosen, websites while leaving the rest of the pages running. No good reason for the federal government to try to close Mount Vernon and Claude Moore Colonial Farm, neither of which it owns or runs. No good reason for the federal government to threaten to cancel the Air Force–Navy football game when there were private donors waiting on the sidelines. And certainly no reason for armed rangers to hold senior-citizen tourists hostage inside their Yellowstone Park hotel for the high crime of stepping outside and taking photographs.

Buttercup then adds:

Who gets hurt and to what extent seems to be the president's prerogative. By any measurement, it appears that people who love this county, who fought for this country, and even those who died for this country --oh! and children -- are all crowded into the first place spot on the list of recipients for our Beloved Leader's malicious indulgences of spite.

But really, if you can't screw with people when you're annoyed with them, what good is power?