Mensch tracht, un Gott lacht

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Who Is The President, Anyway?

It must be a slow news day, in that a number of bloggers are bemoaning old news, to wit, that our airport/air travel security system is a repository of idiocies driven by the asinine dogmas of political correctitude. I refer specifically to Michelle Malkin and to Jimmie at The Sundries Shack, who are criticizing Mickey Kaus for criticizing Norman Mineta a year late for imposing million dollar-plus fines upon the airlines for having singled out a handful of Middle Eastern/Muslim types for extra scrutiny. This is, again, old news, as is the wholly-warranted abuse now being heaped upon Thomas Quinn, the head of the Federal Air Marshals Service, who decided that air marshals should dress "professionally," thus sticking out on airplanes like sore thumbs. Quinn, by the way, is so dumb that he is lying about whether he issued a written directive on the dress code, apparently not realizing---where has this guy been for the last thirty years?--- that said directive would leak out immediately. Which, of course, it did.

Well, I have never read Jimmie (my loss), but, as usual, Ms. Malkin is asking the wrong question. Precisely why are we criticizing such fools as Mineta, Quinn, and other similar types who spend their lives providing evidence in support of the Peter Principle? Who appointed them? At whose pleasure do they serve? Whose policies, presumably, are they implementing? (Hint: John Kerry lost the election.) This reminds me of that amusing episode around 1990, when the Agriculture and (I believe) Interior Departments sued each other. That's right: The federal government sued itself. Why? Because the White House---that Great Statesman of The Inbox, George H.W. Bush---simply did not want to make a decision. It is ridiculous to blame the bureaucrats, however low their IQs, for the stupidity of government. This is George W. Bush's administration. He is responsible for it, certainly he is responsible for things so visible, and it is he who should bear the opprobrium. Non?

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