Thankfully, the standoff known as the "Nevada Range War" has ended peacefully.  But what about next time?

Cliven Bundy is a rancher who has allegedly declined for years to pay grazing fees for the privilege of allowing his cattle on federal land.Bundy believes the feds have no jurisdiction over the land; instead he has tried to pay his fees to the county.

All of this came to a head a few days ago with an armed standoff around the Bundy ranch.  In the meantime, numerous supporters of Bundy (with much encouragement from the usual squawking heads) showed up, some with firearms.  Eventually the feds backed off.

Now some folks on the right claim it's all a plot by Senator Harry Reid to grab Bundy's land and run him off.  Many on the left call Bundy a welfare bum of sorts, living off the fat of the land without putting in his "fair share" - whatever that may amount to.

I'm not sure what to believe.  Here's what I do know...

Whether Bundy is correct in his beliefs about the Constitution is irrelevant.  The feds do things this way and have since the Civil War.  That horse is out of the barn.

If Cliven Bundy had been a man of principle, he'd have told his followers on national television to go home, get on with their lives, and petition for a redress of grievances via the tools provided by that same Constitution.  He didn't do that.  That tells me all I need to know about the man.

Surely I can't be the only small-l libertarian who thinks Bundy and his fan club are a bunch of grandstanding asses who only serve to embarrass the rest of us by association (and play right into the hands of the pro-big government types who can use this example to smear their opponents as nutjobs). As long as there is a First Amendment and a court system, the right place to fight this battle is in the courts, the legislature and the marketplace of ideas...

...not in the streets, waving guns like an idiot.

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