Lord, save us from ourselves

State fish?
Please don’t
waste the time

Shame on the Legislature. Pox on their addled heads.

Taxpayers money was actually used recently to gather information and debate whether or not to make the blue catfish the official state fish.

A House of Representatives committee heard testimony and deadlocked 10-10 on pushing the catfish into governmental notoriety. Testimony and comments by dissenting committee members joyfully pushing for brown trout and smallmouth bass.

What of the channel cat? Rainbow trout? Crappie? One must not forget pond perch and sunfish! More of those bobber-pullers are caught in Arknasas than any other fish. Shoot, perch are the catch-and-release-and-catch-and-release-again king of Arkansas fishdom.

It’s nice to see the members of the legislature having fun.

Good for them. Now, quit the shenanigans and get to work on the important stuff.

Like what? Don’t know off-hand. But anything the legislators work on will be more important than which fish deserves to be at the top of the fish pecking order, so to speak.

ANOTHER CABOT FAUX PAS

I made a bet with myself recently about a road project in Cabot.

I bet that the turning lane expansion on Campground Road heading into Pine Street would not relieve much traffic. I bet that the “planners” and construction folks would not think of putting a wide, white “stop here” bar across the left-hand lane for traffic going straight or turning left.

I bet that people in the turning lane would not be able to see to the left because of cars pulled up to the intersection, prohibiting a safe right turn on red.

I won the bet.

Effort to ease up on a problem or alleviate it altogether isn’t worth much if the end result is practically the same as it was before the effort was made.

Come on, Cabot! You’re better than this.


STIMULUS MONEY COMING

Arkansas is going to get a big chunk of economic stimulus money and that’s a good thing, right?

Depends on your perspective.

Remember the hoards of money passed to state, county and city entities from the new Department of Homeland Security following 9/11? Like many government gimme programs, some of the money was well-placed. Too much of it, however, was nothing but rat hole money.

It seemed during the initial shelling-out period, that all a government entity had to do was send in an application and money fell from Washington-on-the Deficit like rain. Cities from Arkansas to Washington state received funds to purchase HazMat vehicles; some sheriff departments got submersible vehicles to check out . . . what? . . . reports of poison being dumped in reservoirs?

Just like the deficit-building windfall back in 2002 and beyond, the stimulus money will awaken the greed in public officials and billions will be handed out that will accomplish little.

It’s the way of government, regardless of who is in office, to spend and waste. And, yet, though the cycle is clear and ever-present, the taxpayers simply sit back and take it.

The abuse of power, that is … and the money, of course.