My Tax Dollars At Work

I have this frequent recurring nightmare wherein the government is staffed entirely by sensible, sane and honest people who never, ever do anything scornworthy. This makes my dream self (identical to my real self, only younger, wealthier and immortal) scream in agonized terror “Jesus Christ my career is OVER!!”

Then I wake up, and in the cool light of morning and reason realize this is a wholly irrational fear. So it is with great pleasure that I announce the Connecticut General Assembly is back in session. Every morning I check their Website to see what new bills have been introduced, and maintain a running commentary which sounds something like this: "Oooh, this looks good! [mouse click] No, that law actually makes sense. Pfft. Useless for me. What about this one? [mouse click] Dammit, that one's sensible too! Bleah. What do I pay taxes for, anyway? ... Whoa. What's this? [excited mouse click] They want to outlaw smoking in cars? Whoa, mama. Jackpot."

Anyhoo, this week I wrote little squibs about two of the more obnoxious laws under consideration: a think-of-the-children bill that would ban smoking in cars, and a think-of-the-police bill that would make law enforcement officers exempt from certain laws they’re supposed to uphold.

Yeah, it's been a slow week.