WordFeeder

Thursday, August 4, 2011

FYI, “The Wordfeeder” is neither a Democrat or Republican, Tea Party or otherwise, but an honest-to-goodness registered Independent. As such, I just call ‘em as I see them, regardless of who I agree with or offend.

That having been said, consider the following TV drama scenario. Large men wearing ski masks, what else, … Just ski masks. They’re naked from the waste down. ..break into your office demanding that the President of your firm, who doesn’t know you from Adam, turn over the key to the men’s room which is kept locked at all times, precisely to avoid having thugs like them from going to the bathroom without permission. Okay, I think we can all agree that the large men are “holding you hostage.” Or can we?

Suppose, from the point of view of the large, masked men, you (your firm) posed a much greater threat when your management leased lobby space to a Starbucks and then withheld access to your lavatories. Maybe the large, masked men are basically nice guys who just feel they have no choice. Having made repeated polite, entirely civil requests for the lavatory key, they are at their wits end and feel, quite possibly correctly so, that they’ve run out of options.

Management, who considers you dispensable, particularly when issues as significant as public restroom access are on the line, tells the masked men that they should put their guns down, leave the building and they’ll talk about it later, maybe.

Who’s responsible for this crisis? The hostage takers, or the people who have acted, depending upon your point of view, with reckless disregard to the welfare of the general public?

As you probably know, our Congress went on vacation immediately after passing their debt limit extension legislation, leaving over 70,000 Americans without income pending resolution of a dispute over renewed FAA funding. Not only are these Americans temporarily out of work, there is over $1 billion of taxes which our government desperately needs that will go uncollected until the House and Senate get back from vacation. This is an example of audacity, of self-serving politics, of reckless incompetence of biblical proportions.

The Democrats in the Senate are claiming that the Republicans in the house are “holding them hostage” by approving additional FAA funding contingent upon putting an end to government subsidies of minor airline routes which we can’t afford to continue. (My wife believes that no one should be allowed to fly distances of less than 500 miles, and I agree with her, at least in principle.) Well, I think the Democrats are confused. I think it’s the Democrats, President Obama included, who want the Republicans to drop their demand and pass yet another “clean” funding bill, and they’ll talk about cutting expenses later. To which I say, at the risk of sounding like a Republican (ick), “Oh, yeah. When?”

Time’s up.

-wf