I took a rare trip to a Minneapolis strip joint the other evening.<\/p>\n
I was sitting at the bar drinking a vodka\/sour when I saw a prominent DFL legislator getting a lapdance from Maria, a cute latina who’s been working there for a couple of months.\u00a0 He was enjoying it in the way that DFLers always express enjoyment – by complaining and demanding.<\/p>\n
“Tell me your little hermano needs to have his croup looked at, and could I preese herp he see a docta!”<\/em>, he yelled, not a trace of mirth in his face.<\/p>\n “Er”, Maria said,\u00a0 “Sure.\u00a0 You gonna tip me?”<\/p>\n The DFL legislator shouted “Everybody!\u00a0 Pony up so that I can tip Consuela, here!”<\/p>\n Maria got up and walked away.<\/p>\n “Hah, hah, hah<\/em>” yelled the prominent DFL legislator.\u00a0 “Your Hermano or whatever his name is will never see a doctor!<\/em>”<\/p>\n He got up and finished his drink, and started staggering toward the door.\u00a0 I followed him, intending to ask what his problem was.<\/p>\n We walked out onto Washington Avenue and walked toward the parking ramp.\u00a0 I was walking to catch him when he stopped by a drunk sitting on the sidewalk leaning against the wall of a plumbing supply store.\u00a0 He leaned down and grabbed the bum’s bottle of Mad Dog and took a long, greedy swig.\u00a0 He then tossed the bottle into the street.\u00a0 “When you win elections, you get to keep your booze.\u00a0 When I win, I get to take your booze!\u00a0 Hahahaha!”<\/p>\n He staggered away as the bum looked, nonplussed.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I rule the woooooorld<\/em>!”, he bellowed as he walked through the door of the ramp.\u00a0 “I can do anything I waaaaaaaant<\/em>!”<\/p>\n I bring this episode up only because Charlie Quimby of Across the Great Divide\u00a0<\/em>is working so tirelessly to improve America’s supply of metaphorical observations<\/a>. He was writing about a tweet by Kevin Watterson, who is a communications guy for the House GOP Caucus.<\/p>\n Quimby:<\/p>\n That means he is a government employee who works for people who derive at least part of their livelihood from the government, and he draws a pay check from the tax payers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Right.\u00a0 Because as libertarian as I am, even I <\/em>would balk at privatizing the legislature.<\/em>\u00a0 Perhaps I should aim higher?<\/p>\n I digress:<\/p>\n So it’s curious that he would tweet something like this:<\/p>\n Sat on a bench in Target for 20 wating for pharma 2 open. Guy next to me the whole time gets up & opens it. Imagine when he’s a govt worker.<\/em><\/p>\n Got that? A guy who’s a government worker observes a private-sector employee and uses him to impugn government workers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m trying to figure out what the problem is.\u00a0 Is it that Quimby believes government workers (and future ones!) should all march in solidarity with each other?\u00a0 That a government employee has no right to criticize his fellow employees or future\u00a0colleagues\u00a0(much less the legislation that our current pack of nutslaps are trying to pass into law?)\u00a0\u00a0 That a government worker should lead the lesser proles by example?<\/p>\n What was Watterson’s offense?\u00a0 That he,\u00a0a “government worker”, doesn’t want to waste time (yaaay, Kevin!), and sees, correctly, that government healthcare will be an even more catastrophic time-suck than it is today in the not-too distant future?<\/p>\n I’m not going to argue that government at any level is a total paragon of efficiency, enterprise or long-term decision-making.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (And yet they’re the ones Quimby’s side wants running your family’s healthcare!)<\/p>\n But the people arguing the loudest for defunding the public sector seem to believe that government is incapable, while the private sector is a model of efficiency, creativity and adaptation that will save America from the cesspool of creeping socialism.<\/p>\n Got that? Watterson sits apparently inert waiting for a private business to open \u2014 presumably at the time it has established its business hours \u2014 and uses the occasion to demean any government employee who might do the same.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yep.<\/p>\n And better yet, Watterson is right to do it<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because Kevin, today, can go to the sluggard’s manager and complain, and likely get results; ever tried to complain to government <\/a>about <\/em>government<\/a>?<\/p>\n Because Kevin today can voice his disgust at Target by turning on his heels and going to WalMart, DVS, Cub, Walgreens and dozens of other pharmacies who are happy not only to fill his prescription but will do it when they say they will, if Target won’t.\u00a0 (And so Target will, too – or they’ll leave the business).\u00a0 What imperative is there for government to improve service?\u00a0 To whom is government accountable?\u00a0 Fellow bureaucrats, themselves accountable to more layers of bureaucrats.<\/p>\n Watterson was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next week: My evening with three prominent DFL legislators at a dog fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I took a rare trip to a Minneapolis strip joint the other evening. I was sitting at the bar drinking a vodka\/sour when I saw a prominent DFL legislator getting a lapdance from Maria, a cute latina who’s been working there for a couple of months.\u00a0 He was enjoying it in the way that DFLers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism-v-socialism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9511"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9514,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9511\/revisions\/9514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}