Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 5:34pm

Two Reasons Why Government Drives People Crazy

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1.  Lack of Common Sense: Lisa Synder, of Middleville, Michigan, pictured above, decided to help out a few friends get their kids safely on the school bus.  For free she allowed three other moms to drop off their three kids at her house.  The kids wait for an hour and then Snyder and another mom escorted the three kids and Snyder’s child to the bus.  Some neighbor with way too much time on his or her hands complained to the State and now Snyder faces possible misdemeanor charges for running an unlicensed daycare center!  That’s what you get for being a good samaritan Lisa!  A Republican state rep.,  Brian Calley, is attempting to pass legislation so that the resources of the state are not arrayed against moms helping each other gratis to keep kids safe.

Kitty Porn

2.  A strong suspicion that we are not getting what we paid for.

Unlike the kitty pictured above, some federal workers at the National Science Foundation are not content to look at salacious internet material on their own time, but do so during the time that you and I pay them to work.  The size of the problem can be judged by this factoid:

“For instance, one senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected, the records show.

When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women. Investigators put the cost to taxpayers of the senior official’s porn surfing at between $13,800 and about $58,000.

“He explained that these young women are from poor countries and need to make money to help their parents and this site helps them do that,” investigators wrote in a memo.”

Glad to see this public thief had a sense of humor.  What isn’t so humorous is that he retired, presumably on a government pension, and no one apparently is concerned with having him repay the at least 331 days salary he stole from the taxpayers.

This year the cost of government day was August 12, 2009, the day when the cost of government was paid for the year.  We spent 61.34% of national income on government this year.  I am curious as to how many of our readers believe we are getting our money’s worth.  My own view, in favor of not sending more money down the government money hole, is best set forth in this oldie but goodie from the only reliable source of news on the net, the Onion.

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Tito Edwards
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 8:16am

The Senate Finance Committee (with 5 democrats) shot down the Government Option.

We still have hope.

American Knight
American Knight
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 8:58am

Tito,

Zombies are already dead but they keep coming at you. The so-called public option is a zombie.

You cannot kill it until you kill its master. The master of the Zombie is socialism and socialism’s masters are ignorance and Lucifer.

Without a fundemental addressing our the philosophy of government we are only chopping at the branches. The root is still sick and no matter how many sick branches you purge the tree will still die.

This is why people who are becoming aware of the sickness, finally, are seemingly being driven crazy by government.

We need leaders who follow the rules – The Ten Commandments and the Constitution.

We get the leadership we deserve. Obviously we don’t deserve much that is good judging by ALL the elected idiot’s actions.

Pauli
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 9:05am

LOL @ “Pro-hole agenda”

Pauli
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 9:09am

The reason they attacked Lisa Snyder is because she’s white and all those kids are white. I’m telling you… it’s RACISM.

Phillip
Phillip
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 9:32am

Pauli,

I didn’t know you were a liberal. 😉

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 10:03am

It should be fairly easy for these neighbors to identify the neighborhood kid-hating curmudgeon who called the law. Someone might be cleaning raw eggs and toilet paper off his house and lawn the day after Halloween.

j. christian
j. christian
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 10:48am

You can criticize corporations all you want, but you have to admit there’s no private sector equivalent to this kind of meddling. Only government can be this boneheaded.

On that note, I’ll share a little personal anecdote about a recent government experience of mine: I recently applied for a position with a large, local law enforcement agency as a statistical analyst. I have completed graduate work at the Ph.D. level in a very rigorously quantitative discipline (including extensive work in statistics, although it’s technically a degree in policy analysis). I’ve also done quite a bit of research on criminal justice policy and law enforcement — in fact, I co-authored a book about the LAPD. So I was probably a bit overqualified for the job — but hey, it’s the worst recession since the Depression, right? Any job is better than no job.

Guess what? This agency said I was not qualified for the position because — wait for it — I didn’t have at least an associate degree in statistics! Never mind that I could probably teach statistics and econometrics at the university level — I didn’t go to a community college and get that stats major on my diploma.

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Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 10:51am

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American Knight
American Knight
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 11:16am

Government always chooses form over substance and judging from the last election so do a majority of the people (of course most, if not all, were ‘educated’ in government schools).

Credentials have their place; however, competence is often measured by the actors efficacy and not their assertions.

j. christian, count your blessings that they rejected you. Sure it is better to have income than not have income; however, being trapped in a job managed by people who are more interested in your 13th grade math skills than your adult analytical skills will kill you — slowly.

The biggest problem with the entrenched government fiefdoms is that if they actually become efficient and effective at their stated mission then they might actually end up undoing their own fiefdom. Preservation of the status quo and expansion of the budget rules the day with government. Incidentally, that also rules the day with corporations that seek government monopoly-guarantess instead of market competition.

Many Americans cannot articulate that but they know it in their gut – that is why so many, and not just the right-thinking intellectuals (boy that is a loaded term, perhaps thinkers is better) are upset and seemingly being driven crazy by government.

As a wise leader once said, “government is NOT the answer, government is the problem.”

John
John
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 11:18am

Where did you get the 61.34% number? Fox News? Forgive me if I don’t take ol’ Grover’s facts and figures at face value. Fox is propaganda, pure and simple.

#1 leaves me wanting more information. The way the information is presented makes me a little suspicious (not of the government, but of the context).

#2 is simply picking the WORST example and then assuming that the entire federal government is the same across all agencies. I’ve seen a lot of “waste” in private business too.

I guess nowadays a socialist is anyone who doesn’t hold the government in complete and utter contempt. There used to be a little more nuance in our political beliefs than there is now. Because I can’t hold the government with the same contempt that you all do (I’ve seen a lot of waste in private business- it just doesn’t get reported like government figures do- it doesn’t make me feel better just because my tax dollars didn’t go to it), I guess I must be a Marxist…

Tito Edwards
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 11:20am

John,

74.317% of what you said is hyperbole.

😉

American Knight
American Knight
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 11:31am

Distrusting government is an American principle.

Socialism isn’t. Being an active socialist isn’t the same thing as being ‘tolerant’ of socialism but the result is the same.

Private business does waste and it is punished for it by competative forces.

Government is a monopoly – there is a reward for waste and no consequence.

That is the difference. Humans are fallen and weak in the government and in private industry. One rewards our fallen nature, the other doesn’t.

Distrusting government and encouraging anarchy are not the same thing. The drafters of the Constitution distrusted government because they knew it would be administered by sinners. They didn’t advocate anarchy becuase anarchy is free reign for sinners.

The developed a balance – LIMITED government. Any logical, God-fearing, patriotic American loves their country, wants a limited government and inherently distrusts it.

As for Fox News, if that is in fact where the statistic came from, may be better than most mainstream ‘news’ outlets, but it still sucks and is probably a tool for controlled opposition.

Nevertheless, the fundemental philosophy of politics is far more important than temporal results and statistics.

John, you may or may not be a Marxist, but accusing the rest of us of painting ALL government with that brush is ridiculous. I haven’t seen one post that espouses that. I also think you have to be blind not to see a Communist conspiracy working in the shadows under the guise of liberalism and progressivism.

j. christian
j. christian
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 12:06pm

John,

The title of the post is “Two Reasons Why Government Drives People Crazy,” not “Two Reasons Why All Government Is Socialism.” True, the tone can be a bit contemptuous at times, but that’s the frustration talking — springing as it does out of anecdotes like the ones shared here.

As for the percentage of the year worked for the government: I have no idea what the exact number is, but some groups estimate and publish it, and it’s certainly not a low figure when you add in federal, state, and local taxes on property, income, sales, etc. Not to mention fees, fines, and other hidden “taxes.” It’s a fair question to ask: Do we get our money’s worth from all this spending? Maybe there is a better allocation of resources, maybe not. With federal budget deficits running into the trillions, I’d say it’s worth asking.

Blackadder
Blackadder
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 12:15pm

I’ve seen a lot of “waste” in private business too.

No doubt. However, when a private business fails, it tends to go out of business. When a government operation fails, it tends to get a bigger budget. That’s not a recipe for success.

foxfier
Wednesday, September 30, AD 2009 12:57pm

No doubt. However, when a private business fails, it tends to go out of business. When a government operation fails, it tends to get a bigger budget.

Plus, if a gov’t–well, any non-profit-based-funding group, I suppose– agency manages to slim down for a year or two– they lose their funding, which screws them when something big comes along that they _do_ need to spend on.

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Friday, October 2, AD 2009 1:35am

“This year the cost of government day was August 12, 2009, the day when the cost of government was paid for the year. We spent 61.34% of national income on government this year. I am curious as to how many of our readers believe we are getting our money’s worth.”

We’re not, and as the blessed William F. Buckley, Jr. once noted, “Thank God we don’t get all the government we pay for.” Off to your rosary now, American Catholic but before you go, thanks for the opportunity to see more examples of why a constitutional republic based on any principle of equal rights for all citizens is inconsistent with a welfare state.

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