A frightening idea that has been kicking around the blogosphere from the juvenile buffoonery of Arianna Huffington to the intellectually superior Obsidian Wings has been a rush to advocate for fundamentally re-thinking the purpose of government. They are using the economic crisis, caused more by crony capitalism as opposed to some kind of lack of regulation, as basis for pushing a whole new paradigm for society, replete with more government intervention.
I'm not exactly Mr. Hardcore Libertarian and not completely opposed to the feds getting all up in our face. I pay my taxes, support the military (uh, that's pretty obvious), strongly support law and order, public infrastructure (go sound transit!), protection of civil liberties, and federal response to disasters like Katrina/Ike. I even support some policies that have traditionally been met with hostility by small government advocates (i.e. environmental protection). Call me an ideologue or paranoid nut if you must, but I retain deep hostility and suspicion to a drastic increase in government. Perhaps it's the fact that all of our founding fathers warned us about the dangers of a tyrannical state, or perhaps that a bunch of people with "revolutionary" ideas about the role of government (e.g. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot) left an abominable pile of stiffs in the 20th century, or maybe it's just that some people putting their ideas into public policy would result in me getting shipped off to a gulag. The latest Hollywood creepshow of Obama kids professing their life to "The Leader" is as bizarre as a North Korean gymnastics show, and was filmed shortly before these kids drank the cyanide-laced kool-aid.
Anyways, maybe this whole rant is too far in the realm of paranoia. But lemme tell you about my trip to the DMV today (another fine government institution). They have not figured out how to mail my license to my house for whatever reason, and this was third time I went back there. I tried to go in uniform so I got treated "less terribly" instead of "terribly", and I had to wait for an hour to talk to some 300-lb wildebeest about my situation. While sprawled out on a chair, like a unionized Jabba the Hut, this lady accused me of lying about where I was living (why the fuck would I do that), and I pleaded with her to try mailing my license to a P.O. Box. This cost me an extra 10 bucks for some reason, but I considered it a bargain, as staying there any longer on a Tuesday afternoon would have resulted in me stabbing myself in the face. Think of the medical bills!
Another satisfied customer at the DMV
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