I could not have put it better myself

"A bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, regardless of the bureau."

 Indeed they are. And a pox on all of them too.

(Via the Getting Your Hands Dirty blog)

You can lead a horse to water...

Abandon all hope ye who enter here

...but you cannot make them drink it. Michigan's education bureaucracy is considering withholding badly needed funds from Detroit Public Schools because of their persistently high rate of truancy it has been reported. Threats and sanctions such as this are likely futile though; if there were anything the DPS could do about this chronic problem they would have done it already.

Pasadena cops: That's our job and you can't do it. Even if we won't.

A citizen is ticketed for directing traffic, clearing up a mile long road jam in Pasadena, California. "Oh hell no!" explains the chief of police.

"South Pasadena Police Chief Joe Payne said he did not have the man power needed to staff officers at Fair Oaks and Huntington Thursday and that is safer to allow traffic to back up." 

Safer for who? We live in frustrating times. To paraphrase Claire Wolfe: "It's too late to work within the system, but it's still too early to start shooting the bastards." Just barely though.

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Police and firemen are a necessary evil at best.
"Apparently," says libertarian journalist Steve Greenhut, "Americans are desperate for heroes, even ones who only occasionally act heroically and who are paid handsome sums for their heroism ($100,000 retirements at age 50, three-day work weeks, paid while sleeping, salaries with overtime that often top $200,000). There's not much sacrifice going on here. But perhaps the more the public sees the response, or non-response, to fires in places such as Roseville, the less apt they might be to continue with this silly hero worship."

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I'm from the government and I'm here to help you: U.S. government bombs Guam with frozen mice loaded up with tylenol to kill snakes. What could go wrong?

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Why a working-class led overthrow of this society won't happen any time soon -

"Rejection of the Welfare State on behalf of abstract ideas of freedom is hardly convincing. The loss of the economic and political liberties which were the real achievement of the preceding two centuries may seem slight damage in a state capable of making the administered life secure and comfortable. If the individuals are satisfied to the point of happiness with the goods and services handed down to them by the administration, why should they insist on different institutions for a different production of different goods and services? And if the individuals are pre-conditioned so that the satisfying goods also include thoughts, feelings, aspirations, why should they wish to think, feel, and imagine for themselves? True, the material and mental commodities offered may be bad, wasteful, rubbish – but Geist and knowledge are no telling arguments against satisfaction of needs."

Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man ,(1964)

PA Troopers raid bars looking for "unregistered" beer. - Philly.com
"Maida said that the State Police also confiscated bottles of Duvel, a popular ale imported from Belgium that is widely advertised and available in at least 200 bars throughout the city and suburbs. The beer appears on the PLCB list as 'Duvel Beer,' while its label reads 'Duvel Belgian Golden Ale' ". And that therefore makes Duvel un-registered in Pennsylvania. No shit.

Instapundit says that Washington losing the "consent of the people" to govern. - Washington Examiner (Glenn Reynolds)