All my heroes are government employees

[jmowreader]

One of the stranger yet nicer effects of George Bush's reign of error is the elevation of three groups of Americans to hero status.

They are, of course, police officers, firefighters and our military.

Who elevated them? The hard right, of course...the same hard right who has lambasted the government as a waste of money.

It's certainly within the hard right's...well, rights...to call the government a buncha dirty crooks. Everyone else does, but to go around telling people that the police are wonderful, the fire service is wonderful and the military is wonderful, but the government is scum, doesn't make much sense considering that the police, fire and military are all government agencies.

Let me introduce you to a few more of my heroes.

I'll start with the water service. Y'know, I just can't remember the last time I had dysentery. I can't remember anyone I know having it, or anyone else in the United States. There's a reason for that: when you live in America, the government makes sure your water won't cause you to be able to shit through a keyhole.

I worship the meat inspectors of this great land of ours. Because of them, I can go to the store, buy a steak, cook and eat it, and have total confidence that if the steak kills me, it'll be the cholesterol, not the cow shit it was lying in for six hours after they killed the animal who originally owned it, that does me in.

Let me give a shout to my heroes at the Department of Transportation. We do a whole lot less dying from blown-out car tires now than we did thirty or forty years ago--because car tires don't blow out all that often anymore. The only people who are responsible for this are government employees--tire makers would make 'em blow out faster if they could, because every blown-out tire means a purchase.

I have heroes who keep snake oil out of the pharmacies. Who make sure that when the gas pump says I bought a gallon of gasoline, a whole gallon was pumped. Who do government's business every day, toiling away for two-thirds of what they could be making on "the outside" because being on "the inside" is more important. And who get called a waste of space by wastes of time like Grover Norquist.

Who are your heroes?

[nam78_two]

1. I am not so sure about meat inspectors

They seem to have done their bit in downplaying some of the horrific practices involved in the production of factory farmed meat :shrug:
I keep also seeing all these stories of how a few cases of mad cow are found and the solution seems to be to stop testing :eyes: (I guess so we don't find anything we don't like).....
I am sure there are good and honest meat inspectors out there but some have to be complicit in some of the awful practices of a large portion of the meat industry.

[jmowreader]

4. Google "streamlined inspection system"

This really cut down the amount of time it takes to inspect a carcass and the number of inspectors who do it.

It also increased the amount of cow shit in the hamburger.

Fortunately, if you cook cow shit long enough, it's edible. Fucking disgusting, but edible. Unfortunately, the length of time required to make shit edible is also the length of time needed to turn meat rock hard.

[Monkeyman]

2. The Nurses and Doctors at the VA

They may not have a job for long. By 2008 the VA may be gone if we don't win this one

[annabanana]

3. I'm partial to the NOAA

and those overworked, underappreciated air traffic controllers too. Oh yeah, and the Coast Guard!

[AnnieBW]

5. CIA Analysts

Not the ones who are doing the torture - the ones who are jeopardizing their careers to get information out to the public. :patriot: