In the Army, I found that things, the way government regulations require things be done, sometimes things got unnecessarily complicated. Let me give you an example.
Suppose you received a document and initialed it on the line where it indicated that it should be initialed. Like this:
ABC
Now, suppose that you received it in error, or initialed it where someone else should have initialed it. What do you do?
You erase the initials and initial the erasure.
Let me explain.
To “erase” something, you draw a single line through it, then you initial your erasure. Like this:
ABC ABC
So, if you initial something in error, you can correct it if you erase your initials and initial your erasure.
I admit, there’s a certain logic to this. But step back for a minute and look at it in the whole scheme of things. It’s silly.
The fact of the matter is, things sometimes go wrong. I mean, if people are involved, things can go wrong.
Government involvement doesn’t accommodate certain things. Like errors. Or common sense.
And that’s the real irony of liberals and their desire for government to “help.” Liberals say that they truly care about people. Or snail darters. Or baby seals. Or Gaia. And they want to use the government to make it all better. Like the government is your mommy taking care of your skint knee.
That’s why the idea to let government run things — car companies, banks, health care — is a bad idea.
Your mommy cares. Government regulations don’t care.
This is what people continue to vote for. Ninnies to run a nanny state for them. To make everything safe.
We’ll end up in one giant day care center. George Orwell certianly saw it coming a long time ago.
I’ll bet if you ask most people if they like that idea, they’d say Yes.
That was basically Obama’s entire campaign.
special helmets for everyone.
Skint? Do you also “warsh” your clothes in the “crick”?
Those words remind me of growing up in rural Oregon…kind of refreshing to hear, actually!
[Actually, “skint” (if you follow the link) is an alternative spelling of “skinned.” Yes, it’s quite common in the South. And, apparently, Oregon. – B]
It is my opinion (worth less then the price of air, I know) that liberals have way too much leisure time on their hands. They don’t seem to have hobbies, if they have children many have only one, two at the most, work seems to be an iffy concept but if they work they are obsessive about it. They go to therapists to find out why they are unhappy and unfulfilled and are told to step out of themselves. This they take as a mandate to “improve the lives of those of us less fortunate then they. In college they are taught how smart they are and how they try to “fix” the rest of us. Of course they don’t bother to find out what the rest need, they “know” what we need.
They don’t have problems, we, the great unwashed masses need them to tell us how to live, because we are too stupid, ignorant, and close minded to make the right decisions.
But hey I’m a right wing, conservative, God and gun clinging woman. I’m the new danger. Yea me!
seanmahair everything you just said about liberals and their problems is oh so ture. My sister is a liberal(disowned her for being a liberal) and your post fits her to a tee. She keeps trying to fix my mom, my dad, and I because there is something wrong with us because we don’t think like her. She told me I’m ignorant because I belive in freedom of choice, smaller government, and the Constitution.
Well, if you love the local motor vehicle bureau or the zoning board, you’ll really enjoy their peers determining whether or not you can get the health care your doctor told you you need when you’re sick or injured.
I’m sure it’s just a simple matter of filling out forms, waiting in lines, writing letters and pleading your case before being rejected. All to “fix” the best health care system in the world.
Hi we’re form the government we’re here to help.
Well, I grew up in small-town Oregon, and “skint” sounds like something that’d get my mouth warshed out if I said it in front of my parents.
chiefly British : penniless
Um. Uh oh. I was thiking of something else . . .
[Yes, the British have some different meanings for words. It’s amazing what they’ve done with the American language. – B]
2. IH8Socialist says:
July 12th, 2009 at 10:47 am
special helmets for everyone.
Special helmets. LOL.
I see you’uns talking about words like “crick” and “warsh”, I forgot what I was going to say (nice post, Basil!), and I instead wonder why everyone here is from Central PA – like me!
BTW, “up there” is pronounced as “uppair”. And, if I were you, I’d throw the cow over the fence some hay.
[Thanks. But, since you brought it up, what’s with folks from parts of Pennsylvania acting just like regular folks? Except for electing Specter and Murtha and such. Y’all need to work on that. – B]
“In the Army, I found that things, the way government regulations”
Basil, thank you for your service. If I wasn’t such a pu$$y, I would serve too.
[Thanks. There are lots of veterans that comment here … and post here as well (right, Harvey?). Maybe that’s one of the reasons so many like this blog: quality folks. Oh, and I hang around here, too. – B]
IH8Socialist: Hi, we’re from the government and we’re here to FUBAR it. More accurate?
seanmahair, air’s going to be pretty pricey under cap ‘n trade, so stock in your opinion should skyrocket!
B — using “government” and “common sense” in the same thought — now THAT’S some audacious hope!
I hate to burst your bubble, but common sense’s dead, stinkin’ corpse is out behind the shed.
Hmm… When I accidentally initial a document in error, my policy is to shred it. If anyone comes looking for the doc, I deny I ever saw it. If they doubt me, I just call them a big fat liar. I should totally work for the government.
Although I did my service in the USAF rather then the army, the two services are very much the same in some respects. I once signed a document in the wrong place and when I suggested using ‘white out’ to fix the problem the reaction to my solution couldn’t have been more negitive if I’d have suggested overthrowing the government.
The problem with Pennsylvania, Basil, has been the same for a while now. The regular folks out here in the country spend their time working, hunting deer, preparing to hunt deer, watching the farmer next door cut hay, and voting for Republicans. The people in Killadelphia, er, I mean, Philadelphia and union dominated towns (such as Johnstown in the heart of Happy Jack’s district) vote for the Democrats.
The problem has been compounded in recent years by people moving into PA from NJ, NY, MD, and Northern Virginia (here in the Susquehanna Valley, it’s mostly MD and NOVA). These people flee taxes, only to vote for Democrats. Oftentimes, they also make an effort to take over the zoning boards and such, so farmland (or, worse yet, my precious dirt-surfaced racing ovals) is turned into acres and acres of cookie-cutters – which are usually bought up by more Democrats.
At least we still have the mountains. They won’t try to build uppair.
What we need is some type of Agency to protect us from the evil machinations of the government. Yeah, that’ll do it.
MarkoMancuso – Now that we have the casinos, everything will be roses and sunshine! No more property taxes, YAY! /s
Remember when Rendell demanded they push that bill through literally in the dead of night? Why, it’s almost as if he didn’t believe his own words about the people loving his idea.
I had an idea for a Protect Us From the Government Agency.
Concept: A special body of officers would be created. Every county (or equivalent subdivision of a State) in every State holds a public referendum on how many officers to support – no less than two, no more than the county budget can support. The sheriff of that county would appoint the officers. Collectively, though, the combined body of these officers across the nation would operate as a federal-level agency with jurisdiction to investigate suspected Constitutional violations by any civilian government employee or elected official, and carry out arrests when appropriate.
MikeLL – not serving doesn’t make someone a pussy. Not serving and then denigrating those who DID makes someone a pussy.
Basil – having one-lined and initialed my share of initials, I’ll just comment that in the military, a rigid, unthinking uniformity regarding unimportant details is a GOOD thing, because miscommunications can cost human lives. However, this is ONLY true because the military is in the business of killing people and breaking things.
Which is what ends up happening in other government programs when they make the mistake of maladapting military methods and attitudes to their missions.
Well said, Harvey. I wish I had said it that way.
I received an email from the now guvment-run GM (they’re calling themselves “New GM”).
It states that New GM “has substantially the same privacy policies in place” as the old GM. Which simply means that now the NWO guvment has collected, in one fell swoop, GM owners’ names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, ss numbers, workplace info, income, credit scores, VIN numbers, and all info about a purchased vehicle (year, model, type, mpg, green rating, etc.).
It’s just a matter of time before additional “taxes” are levied on those of us with “substantial” cars and trucks, then we’re hauled off to OPrius land and forced to watch happy little Al Gore clones driving 25 mph in the fast lane.
Where do I initial off?
In the service making mistakes was forgivable, as long as you caught it, corrected it, and didn’t try to hide it.
(line through and initital).
I once committed an “action likely to cause compromise of classified information” so original and ingenious, so complexly detailed in it’s execution, and so naively retarded in its innocent intention, that my supervisor had to call all the way up the chain of command to Washington, DC to get advice on how to fix it.
He was told over and over again that no one had ever heard of anyone doing what I did so they weren’t sure how to fix it.
However, since I hadn’t tried to hide it, but rather logged, inititaled, and kept all the evidence of what I’d done as per regulations for review, all I got was a letter of reprimand for my personal file.
If I’d used the cyber equivilant of White-Out instead and hoped nobody noticed … odds are nobody would have noticed.
But you never know.