From five dollars a ticket 83 years ago… Part II

Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane
Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again
Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Britt
Whistling tunes we hid in the dunes by the seaside
Whistling tunes we're kissing baboons in the jungle

    -Peter Gabriel, Games Without Frontiers

Poor Justin Bieber, they put a microphone in front of him and asked a question or two. The answers show an incredible vulnerability on the “Celebrity Credibility Gap.” You can make excuses because he still is 6 to 18 months away from pubic hair… Yet he isn't that much different than listening to Alex Baldwin or  Binko the Dancing Clam.

When Justin was asked about the US healthcare system, he said it was terrible because his bodyguard's wife was going to have difficulties with her pregnancy and the bodyguard was going to have a hard time paying for it.

Justin being fabulous, was perhaps unaware that he didn't hired a Canadian bodyguard… The Canadian bodyguard would be covered under their universal healthcare.

Justin being such a unique performer (so much more unique than Donny Osmond or Leif Garrett) could using his own money, provide for any short fall in funding.  Better yet provide a more generous benefit package to his goons and staff.

When Sarah Jessica Parker and her cleavage were asked about the safety net for the poor,  and she responded that her aunt and uncle lived in poverty and there were no programs to help them.

Because Sarah was obviously busy, she could've asked Justin  Bieber to let her family live in his basement, until they could get Canadian citizenship, and then at least be somewhat  covered... or instead of figuring out which clever pun could be inserted in the next episode of "SiTC"… She could have demanded the studio make them "Accessory Wranglers" For this series she produced.

Sheryl Crow followed Larry David's wife around to promote the idea that a single sheet of toilet paper, per bowel movement, was the only way to heal the planet and stop global warming.

Because of this cornucopia of interesting and often poorly conceived commentary from the celebrity class, there needs to be systems and controls...  or the directors of biotechnology and pharmaceutical development firms need to go on tour with banjos and Frisbee catching dogs to entertain and delight stadiums full of screaming fans. In many cases, their lack of talent would be less obvious than the sophomoric comments of singers and actors.

A Modern Day Parable Part III

Quinn Martin had a remarkable career, over 21 straight years of having at least one television show in production covering three decades.  Often featuring Ford products, The Fugitive, 12 O'clock High, The  FBI, The Invaders, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones and my personal favorite Cannon all featured epilogues and prologues.

Not that the plots were so overly complex that no one could figure out what was going on, Mr. Martin fancied himself a man of the theater, more than just a guy making a lot of cop shows.

Epilogue:    (May Quinn Martin smile down on us from heaven)

Production versus expression is about to come to a head.

Back when work was about production and providing a useful service, compensation was obvious. The more unique and necessary your skill, the more you made.

When work became an extension of expression, rules and regulations served a new master. The axiom  “form follows function” was shelved. Two or more bureaucrats, left to their own devices, were allowed to create new standards, and new policies to “correct” problems.

The new policies, standards and directives all needed new staff to license, inspect and enforce the new edicts. Productivity was sacrificed because Form 526(R) was not filed before the quarterly deadline. Because of this failure, Schedule 12000-250 was never initiated, as a result the Bureau has no record of you ever having requested the permit.  Of course the good news is  by providing notarized copies of your application filing form, your tax returns for the last three years, your voter identify card and deed to your property, we can initiate a DR-45/6609(s) which will allow you to reapply for the correct permit,  please pay at the window.

The bureaucracy exists to create regulations and regulations exist to support and justify the bureaucracy.

In time when all 50 states had money to burn, they acted like Charlie Sheen and dabbled with stimulants and hookers. When they ran out of money, they borrowed. When they ran out of borrowed money, they borrowed more.

With each dollar, each borrowed dollar and each borrowed dollar, after the original borrowed dollar had been spent came a new and wonderful statement of expression.

1% of the cost of all government construction would go to art.

Mandatory raises were tied to inflation and increases in the minimum wage.

Municipal governments reached the point where they would go to the mat to ensure all covered employees would be entitled to sexual reassignment surgeries.

In Wisconsin the average total compensation package of state workers is 20% higher than the people they serve. If the work they did was on par with scientists studying nanotechnology or providing breakthroughs in composite materials…   God love them, they earned every dime.

But if their unique skill is complying with the rules they invented, that's not that unique skill. If their unique skill is advancing a political agenda at the cost of complicating the lives of citizens, that's not a skill, it is an annoyance.

When the people of Egypt riot because they are hungry and the make less than $3,000 a year, is cause for revolution. When state workers riot because their complete compensation package is “stuck” at $80,000 a year, it is also cause for revolution.

Without political correctness,  50% of what government does would be described as the unnatural union between sus scrofa and mongoloid, or at the very least the excrement created by diuretic chicken.

With political correctness,  the same assessment is both accurate and heartfelt… The difference is we choose to express our frustration as opposed to working on a solution that reestablishes the correct and natural order between the governed and the government.

Now is the time to express our work.