Is Government Really this Stupid?…and a True Confession from My Sordid Past (Maybe)

I realize this questions answers itself, but I’m continuously amazed at the bone-headed decisions made by politicians and bureaucrats.

Indeed, I wish I had this example for my recent post comparing incompetent officials in the United States with their counterparts in the United Kingdom.

A kid in Indiana played a prank involving a blow-up doll in the women’s bathroom at his high school. Sounds like a couple of afternoons of detention, right? Think again. Here’s an excerpt from a local news report.

A Rushville High School senior faces a felony charge after bringing a blow-up doll to school as part of what he claims was a prank. School officials called police May 31 after a package was found in a girls’ bathroom. A deflated blow-up doll was later found inside the box. Tyell Morton, 18, was arrested on a preliminary charge of felony criminal mischief after he admitted to bringing the doll to school. …The family’s attorney, Robert Turner, said the charge is excessive. “It’s interesting that had he gone to school with a gun, there would’ve been a lesser charge. It would’ve been a Class D felony with up to three years,” he said.

I’m glad I went to school before this type of nonsense became commonplace, because I was once an immature punk (most people would say I’m now an immature grownup, but that’s a separate issue). Not that I’m admitting anything, because I have no idea what the statute of limitations is on these matters, but I may have once set off a string of 400 firecrackers in a school stairwell. And I may have once let a snake loose in the school library.

Back then, I might have gotten suspended for a couple of days if I had been caught. Today, I’d be at Gitmo. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

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IMF Recommendation for Europe: Double Down on the Approach that Caused the Sovereign Debt Crisis

Many European nations face a sovereign debt crisis because of excessive spending caused by too much redistribution. The obvious – and only – solution to this crisis is to reverse the policies that caused the problem.

So take a wild guess about what the International Monetary Fund recommended: Did the international bureaucracy recommend that nations such as Greece and Portugal impose serious fiscal discipline, such as the spending freezes that worked so successfully in New Zealand and Canada in the 1990s?

Of course not. That would make sense. Instead, the IMF is urging more centralization and redistribution in order to facilitate “economic governance” and “fiscal transfers.”

I’m not a fan on international bureaucracies, and I wasn’t expecting good advice, but even I’m stunned. Here are some excerpts from a story in the EU Observer.

The International Monetary Fund has bluntly warned the European Union…it must integrate faster and more deeply in order to stop a global disaster. …Saying Europe is at a “crossroads”, the IMF’s acting director, John Lipsky, in Luxembourg for a meeting with EU finance ministers, declared: “The euro area needs to strengthen economic governance and may need to be more intrusive in terms of national structures.” …the IMF said that still “more economic and financial integration” and EU intervention in national economies is necessary. …Specifically, the report mentioned that “without political union” and fiscal transfers, “stronger governance of the euro area is indispensable.”

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