Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Some random government stupidity acts that have occurred recently:

• Last Friday, close to Pentagon ceremonies remembering the attacks on 9-11, the Coast Guard decided to do a boat-related terrorist drill while President Obama and other VIPs were at the Pentagon. The drill was so real that CNN and other news outlets picked up the story and began broadcasting it as a real terrorist attack near where the President was to be. Apparently the Coast Guard never informed any law enforcement agency of the drill. Who thought it would be a good idea to do a terrorist drill on the one day of the year, the anniversary of 9-11, which has the highest probability of a real terrorist attack occurring? Stupid act.
• This stunt was similar to an event we reviewed in an earlier post where Air Force One with a trailing fighter plane flew low over lower Manhattan to get a picture of Air Force One and the Statue of Liberty together. The low flying planes spooked thousands of NYC workers who thought they might be reliving the terrorist attacks. Never mind that the same photo could have been inexpensively attained by using Photoshop and not freaked out citizens and wasted over three hundred thousand dollars in gas and other expenses. This cost does not include the lost productivity of workers being distracted. Stupid act.
• From the October issue of Reason magazine - An Austrian tourist in London was forced to the delete pictures he had taken of the city's double decker buses by police. The police told him it was forbidden to take such pictures because of terrorist concerns. Did it not occur to British lawmakers that maybe the terrorists could get on the Internet, go to the library, or go to any other sources to get a picture of the buses? Stupid law.
• Another entry from October Reason: "I certainly don't claim to know everything that's in this bill." This is a quote from House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman relating to the climate change cap and trade bill THAT HE CO-AUTHORED! Stupid is not a strong enough word. If he did not read what he co-authored than who really wrote the bill? I think the American taxpayer should know who really wrote it since they are going to pay for what it does to energy in this country.

Comedian Bill Engvall once said that there is no cure for stupidity and given these examples and thousands of others, the political class is severely infected. That's why "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" proposes that government be severely reduced (by at least 50% in five years = Step 1), not only to save taxpayer money but to also significantly reduce the stupidity level that current exists today.