Great waste of taxpayer money!

This is an update to yesterday's post... I calmed down a bit and did some research.


I could still go into a diatribe about the stimulus money used to see the effect cocaine has on monkey brains, which was a brilliant idea of one college professor. It has something to do with how addiction works on brains. I am thinking that there are how many rehab centers? How many people who are addicts that would jump at the chance to participate in a study? Why do we need to get a bunch of monkeys high on crack and what how their brains react to the addiction? Give me the grant money. I already know the results. Crack Cocaine is addictive. The addict will do anything to get more to feed the habit. It takes a deliberate decision to want  to quit before breaking the addiction can begin and even then it might not happen. Okay? Where's my money?


However it was brilliant because he wrote a grant and it was awarded. The Stimulus Money is supposed to create jobs. How many did this one create? ZERO. Oh, but it saved one professor's job. Any bets on it was the grant writer's job that was saved? But, that isn't what I'm writing about...


I received my letter from the U.S. Census today. It said that I would receive my 2010 form in about a week and that I should fill it out and return it promptly. It was postage paid by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bulk mail that would be about $.26 each or maybe $.24 each for non-profit status I am not sure how much the government rate is for bulk mail, plus the printing, folding, envelope stuffing, plus the cost of paper, cost of envelope, cost of black ink. Let's just say that it went out to about 115 million households to "Resident".


What are they thinking??? 


Why do I need a letter to tell me I'll be receiving another letter in about a week which will include the form and I should respond promptly???


Are we idiots? Oh, yes, of course we are. We can't think for ourselves... even though we have seen what the effect that crippling debt will have on our own incomes not to mention our great-grandchildren's incomes. We have told our Congressmen that we do not want this health bill to PLEASE start over and do it right! We saw that there were lots of senators bribed, placated, coerced and bullied into passing the present senate bill. But, no one is listening. Obviously. This latest political gaff which has wasted tax payers money is a huge clue that Big Government which H.G. Wells named Big Brother is muscling in on our pay checks so the huge gorilla sitting on our check books can have fun getting high on cocaine. What exactly would a drug crazed monkey do? Oh, sure! Use the political hammer and mash this huge square peg into the tiny round hole of our empty pockets.


We are now paying $57,500,000 if each letter only cost $.50 to print, fold, stuff, mail and the manpower to do it all, and the cost of gasoline to bring the mail to the post office (do you think the mail carrier could carry all that mail?) just to let me know to check my mailbox in one week.

2 comments:

Stan said...

On the monkey brains thing without defending it, here's their thinking (and how it radically differs from yours). If they can determine what physical effect the drug has on the brain, perhaps they can either block it or repair it. Your approach would do neither.

Of course, their approach is "all things are physical in nature and, therefore, we should be able to remedy it with physical means" and our approach is "these kinds of things are generally the product of sin and require a spiritual remedy." Still, try to get a grant on that premise. Not gonna happen.

Overall, there is no telling what could be accomplished if the government stopped wasting so much money. And people wonder why we don't want to hand our money over to the government? Please.

Refreshment in Refuge said...

I fully understand what you are saying, Stan. I also agree that is probably what the guy wrote in his RFP. On the other hand, I have read numerous study findings (especially on the "Homosexuality is Physical" premise without seeing even one study turn up concrete evidence to uphold the presumed theory. In fact, usually the findings are wrapped up in jargon so technical that it is hard to see what the results actually were...

I don't see that this will be any different--AND, it didn't create ANY jobs! That's the main thing.