Good grief! Was Hurricane Sandy really nine years ago? It seems like only yesterday.
We just had a week of dodging branches blown off the trees in stormy weather. Maybe that’s what brought Sandy to mind.
And the lesson? Well, see if you can finish this sentence:
Depending on the government in times of crisis is __________.
I can’t wait to see what you say!
I’m supposed to write a Newswithviews piece today [cue hysterical laughter]. I have no idea how that’s going to get done.
Last month, see, we made a slight error in filling out our tax forms, which has led to us being embroiled with the IRS. My wife corrected the error, but we need to have that acknowledged.
On Friday we were supposed to get a letter from the IRS. So said the official email from the Postal Service. But of course we didn’t get it, we don’t know what the IRS wants, you can’t get through to them by phone, the post office disclaims all knowledge of anything except for how to run a national election, they’re cool with that, and the sage advice I got from the clerk was, “Wait till it comes.” What is this–Bleak House?
Yeah, wait. Wait till the marshals show up with handcuffs.
See, here we have two government agencies involved, the IRS and the Postal Service–doubling the chances for the whole thing to go wrong. We are in the Age of Nothing Works.
Maybe if I sit outside and smoke a cigar, I can think of something to write about.
Are you stupid enough to be in state government? Here’s a test to help you find out.
Let’s say your motor vehicle inspection stations have been closed for three months and only just re-opened. Do you decree that everybody who would’ve ordinarily shown up for inspection during those three months… all come now?
That’s precisely what the idiots running New Jersey have done. The result is colossal lines at all the inspection stations. At some stations, drivers kept their cars in line all night and slept in them, in hopes of getting the agony over in the morning.
Would it have killed New Jersey to announce, “Due to unforeseen circumstances that are not going to be repeated, motor vehicles that would have been inspected in April, May, and June need not be inspected until next year”?
But as usual the knot-heads running the show lay grievous burdens on everyone but themselves. Drivers can wait for hours and hours, maybe even all day, all night, as employees toil through the scorching days of July trying to get all these cars through the test and very likely getting blamed for it by motorists who’ve been tried beyond their strength.
Yeah, let’s give more power to the government… They’re so clever with it!
