The self-modifying code of government...
December 17, 2008 10:09 AM 12/17/08
First - my condolences to anyone in NY who enjoys a luxury like beer:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/12/16/2008-12-16_gov_david_paterson_unveils_dire_new_york.html
Apparently it’s not possible to cut pork in a budget but instead taxes have to be raised and then school and hospital funding must be cut as well. I’m hoping some sanity from the people will prevail there before that gets enacted.
*ahem*
In other political news once again I notice that it’s harder to keep track of these critters every day.
Take this for instance:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-7327
That is bill H.R. 7327 that supposedly makes some changes to ERISA and the 2004 Pension Protection Act.
First - without having both acts handy and printed out how the hell am I supposed to know what the hell they’re doing. It wouldn’t be significantly harder overall to publish a “proposed amended text” of the original law with the changes highlighted but they don’t do that. Instead they publish the “cliff notes” version of their changes and expect you to sort it out.
Second - what the hell are they screwing around with pensions and ERISA for? It looks like they’re tightening up loopholes in those laws and restricting people’s pensions in such a way as to disallow more things. I notice in one section they mention specifically that with their amendment that pensions to railroad employees will not be continued after the person is dead. If that’s true then what happens to the person’s remaining family? Does some 70 year old have to wear a paper hat or a WalMart vest after their partner dies?
This sort of stuff smells of deliberate obfuscation.
See what I mean about this becoming a second full-time job? This is why I’ll always vote for simpler government.
I’m all for creating a single organization consisting of 9 year old children going through every federal law or act or presidential signing and saying YES/NO to if they can understand them or not. If they can’t then the law gets re-written so that they _can_ understand it. By extension that means the average American should be able to understand it with little or no education.
But having laws understandable to the average citizen doesn’t seem to be important to this government. And that needs to change as well if this grand experiment is going to continue.
Change of topic....
IT’S COLD OUT HERE!
It’s warmer than it was earlier this week but I’m still quite ready to move to the desert or a tropical paradise.
On top of that I paid the “stupid tax” earlier this week by running out of gas and then having to walk 1/4 mile to the gas station to buy yet another gas can and some gloves. In -20 wind-chill weather. Then walk 4.5 gallons of gas back to the truck so I could fill up at another gas station. (The station that I bought the gas can from only allows one use of the same debit card per day. Thus they don’t get to fill up my tank even though they were closest. They fail due to bad policy.)
It snowed again last night. I plowed the driveway part of the way through so the plowing I have to do today won’t be as bad. I really need to find the chains for the rear tractor tires because even with my *ahem* natural ballast the tires slip on the asphalt of the driveway.
The cold weather has twisted my arm to watch more anime on Netflix. (Yes it was such a burden. *sigh* ;-) But I’ll carry on.) I watched this series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utawarerumono
Which turned out to be pretty darn good. It went from what appeared to be feudal Japan+alternate world to...elsewhere. It had good character development and moved fairly fast. I liked it.
Well...since my phone consultation with someone re-sceduled to next Monday I’m off to plow the driveway again. Then maybe...some tea in the garage. ;-)
First - my condolences to anyone in NY who enjoys a luxury like beer:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/12/16/2008-12-16_gov_david_paterson_unveils_dire_new_york.html
Apparently it’s not possible to cut pork in a budget but instead taxes have to be raised and then school and hospital funding must be cut as well. I’m hoping some sanity from the people will prevail there before that gets enacted.
*ahem*
In other political news once again I notice that it’s harder to keep track of these critters every day.
Take this for instance:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-7327
That is bill H.R. 7327 that supposedly makes some changes to ERISA and the 2004 Pension Protection Act.
First - without having both acts handy and printed out how the hell am I supposed to know what the hell they’re doing. It wouldn’t be significantly harder overall to publish a “proposed amended text” of the original law with the changes highlighted but they don’t do that. Instead they publish the “cliff notes” version of their changes and expect you to sort it out.
Second - what the hell are they screwing around with pensions and ERISA for? It looks like they’re tightening up loopholes in those laws and restricting people’s pensions in such a way as to disallow more things. I notice in one section they mention specifically that with their amendment that pensions to railroad employees will not be continued after the person is dead. If that’s true then what happens to the person’s remaining family? Does some 70 year old have to wear a paper hat or a WalMart vest after their partner dies?
This sort of stuff smells of deliberate obfuscation.
See what I mean about this becoming a second full-time job? This is why I’ll always vote for simpler government.
I’m all for creating a single organization consisting of 9 year old children going through every federal law or act or presidential signing and saying YES/NO to if they can understand them or not. If they can’t then the law gets re-written so that they _can_ understand it. By extension that means the average American should be able to understand it with little or no education.
But having laws understandable to the average citizen doesn’t seem to be important to this government. And that needs to change as well if this grand experiment is going to continue.
Change of topic....
IT’S COLD OUT HERE!
It’s warmer than it was earlier this week but I’m still quite ready to move to the desert or a tropical paradise.
On top of that I paid the “stupid tax” earlier this week by running out of gas and then having to walk 1/4 mile to the gas station to buy yet another gas can and some gloves. In -20 wind-chill weather. Then walk 4.5 gallons of gas back to the truck so I could fill up at another gas station. (The station that I bought the gas can from only allows one use of the same debit card per day. Thus they don’t get to fill up my tank even though they were closest. They fail due to bad policy.)
It snowed again last night. I plowed the driveway part of the way through so the plowing I have to do today won’t be as bad. I really need to find the chains for the rear tractor tires because even with my *ahem* natural ballast the tires slip on the asphalt of the driveway.
The cold weather has twisted my arm to watch more anime on Netflix. (Yes it was such a burden. *sigh* ;-) But I’ll carry on.) I watched this series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utawarerumono
Which turned out to be pretty darn good. It went from what appeared to be feudal Japan+alternate world to...elsewhere. It had good character development and moved fairly fast. I liked it.
Well...since my phone consultation with someone re-sceduled to next Monday I’m off to plow the driveway again. Then maybe...some tea in the garage. ;-)