ranting, ranting ,ranting

I watched an episode of Law and Order last night about a suburban militia group. Ordinary guys that become radicalized due to the way our government is operating. I was surprised at how much it hit home. I have been saying (a lot to myself) that the REAL problem with this country is the culture of government that we have here. I mean it's all about money and restrictions on this and that. It was reinforced by the receipt of our property taxes statement last night. Looking through the list of "neccassary" expenditures by our local government it is astounding how much money they want. $200+ for the school board!? Let's see, what can I say about this. Several years ago I noticed that one of the nearby schools had a brand new, fancy facade redone for the entrance for the school. Knowing how these things worked it was probably VERY expensive. Yet there are portables in the back of the school! Oh I'm sure there is a very compelling argument for why money is spent this way. I work the for government. I have watched them mismanage, piss away and generally waste an ENORMOUS pile of money in the years I have been here. One example. A year or so ago some overpaid moron decided that a competancy test would be the way to go. So, at great expense they contracted with a private company that developed an on-line assessment that a chipmunk could have passed. They also spent millions building training rooms in all the offices statewide with state of the art computer desks and nice fancy new machines for this test. We all took it once. That's it, once. Then they decided, well maybe we'll go in a dramatically differnt direction since this doesn't seem to have the desired outcome. Millions spent for a test (I heard $6 million) millions more for an enormous number of facilities and computers and furntiure for NOTHING! This is one department in one state in our country! How much overall money is wasted by our government (local, state and federal). We can't provide sufficient equipment for our boys in Iraq but we can build stupid training rooms for dumbass state employees! I hate to be so negative but I'm watching our country get sucked down the drain by politicos that are in it for themselves (wallet, prestige, retirement, whatever) and not in it for our country. Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves at about 200,000 rpm at this point. Don't even get me started on our "justice" system. Well since you mentioned it I will rant some. Have you noticed that it's all about the process of law and not really about justice? Innocent men spending years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit. Prosecutors refusing to reopen cases because someone might look bad (read as stupid, criminal, etc). Hemming and hawing about DNA testing because it might (again) make them look stupid. Overbearing, power hungry cops. man it just seems like such a mess. And what's worse there doesn't seem to be anyone on the horizon that will be any better than the bunch we already have in Washington......., we're doomed..........

However, the kennels doing just fine.......

Upon reflection the above makes me feel like a hipocrite since I, too, feed off the public teat. I guess I better hope that the kennel does well enough so I can get out of here. I would prefer to work with the animals and to help advocate for stronger animal cruelty laws.....perchance we all dream....