Watching the Federal Government “shutdown”

I’ve been watching this farcical shutdown show this week and I just can’t help but shake my head in disgust and disbelief.

First, how is it that it’s considered a “shutdown” when 83% of the Federal government is unaffected by it?  That’s like me shutting down my front porch and saying my house is unlivable.  Stupid on the face of it.

Second, we have the Chicago politics aspect of the thing.  The deliberate closures of outdoor memorials,the ocean and scenic overlooks, at a cost that is actually higher than leaving them open, is a totally transparent slap in the face of the American public.  A public that is starting to wake up and realize (at least to some extent) just how asleep at the switch they’ve been for the last several decades.

The third and biggest thing that strikes me is this–revolutions sometimes start from something small and inconspicuous.  Think about Libya–one guy setting himself on fire eventually brought down a government.  That one guy, doing something that we look at as desperate and foolish, started a cascade of events that ended in the toppling of a government.

You elected idiots in DC might want to consider doing your jobs for a change.  It’s a while yet before we can clean house the nice way.  You don’t want it cleaned the other way, and you never know when you’ve just done or said the stupid thing that starts that process moving.  I don’t think people are angry enough or scarred enough to start cleaning house just yet, but the weather will still be warm for several weeks, and things can go to hell in a handbasket a lot faster than you seem to think.