Obama's officious Oregon owners...

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BigThink - Strange Maps [Link]

Probably not making it onto many people's radar in current news was the take-over by ranchers in Oregon of a state wildlife protected area (Malheur); even if your read about it I bet nary an eyebrow was raised or you just thought a bunch of US hicks were restless. For me, having historical family farming connections both here and in the US (in England going back centuries) and being involved with cattle in one respect or another most of my life, it is of great interest; especially because if I had the money I'd retire to my own ranch! What many don't realise about this issue (not the first) is that the government owns most of the land (see map, click to enlarge): an average of over '47% of the 11 coterminous western states' (including 84.5% of Nevada!) and over 69% of Alaska. Now you know why Texas (only 1.9% federal owned) wants independence.

"The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink" [Keith Nantz in the WaPo]. You can sympathise when you realise that the Obama government does what governments do, especially and more religiously when it comes to the pointless and prejudice weight of regulations, usually following the modern Gods of 'green' and man-made climate change. Keith adds,"Most of the time, those regulations are written by people with no agriculture experience, and little understanding of what it takes to produce our nation’s food. The agencies that control these lands can add burdensome regulations at any time. Often, they will begin aggressively enforcing them before ranchers have a chance to adjust." If you're interested in the full story go HERE (it's a long one: pictures, maps and videos included). The capacity for problems arising with the government is immense when - as mentioned above - you look at who owns the land; read Frank Jacobs: "Imbalance of Federal Land Ownership Sheds Light on Oregon Militia".

Update: more interesting reading and maps; How The Feds Got All That Western Land (and Why It's a Problem) [Link] by Ryan McMaken at Mises Institute and Nobody lives Here: "...4.61 million square kilometers were reported to have no population living inside them. Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, 47 percent of the USA remains unoccupied."