Common Sense

When you decide to go to work for the government, (whether state, local, county, national, whatever) how long does it take for you to lose whatever shred of common sense you used to have? You could be Mr. Wizard, know how to frame a house, fix the transmission in a 68 Nova, weld a statue of a box of popcorn, do calculus problems that nobody else can do (not even the savant janitor who works construction in his spare time), run a multi-million dollar business, and then go to work for the government, and BOOM! Overnight you've turned into a moron!(at least it seems like it happens overnight. It might actually be a much slower process)(probably is a much slower process, because now you work for the government, and NOTHING moves quick in the government!)

Case in point: Some thoughtful baboon in our local city development office has decided that I can't get a permit to construct a house, because the framing details I call out are MUCH GREATER than what is called for in the code book! I (politely! :) ) pointed out to him that I was always under the assumption that the code book was minimum performance standards. His response? How can I know if this is higher than the minimums! HOW CAN YOU KNOW IF IT'S HIGHER THAN THE MINIMUMS????? How about that's what you get PAID FOR!!!!!

My question to him should have been, "how can you work here and accept a paycheck if you're too stoooooopid to actually know how to do your job? (Good lord I hope he isn't a breeder!)

He was probably a very smart guy on the outside, then when he joined up with our great city, he was put into some kind of brain sucky-thingy that coverted his grey matter to ranch dip. I kinda doubt this though. Having met him on several occasions, and (tried) had conversations with him about various things, I'm pretty sure he was a ranch dip head long before he came to work here. As a matter of fact, he was probably holding up a sign on a street corner one day, and a building official the next. (He applied for a job at Valero, but wasn't qualified)

And trust me on this, tomorrow he'll probably run for State Representative and win. (because he's currently still WAY ahead of most of that group) So my theory is this: You start at the local level, and they just convert a small part of the grey matter to ranch dip. Then you move on to the county level, and they convert a little more. Then state, and it's pretty much the whole thing! If you get past state, you get to move up to Cottage cheese! Don't even ask about the President!

Just once, we need somebody at some level of government to resist the forces of the brain sucky, and hold on to whatever common sense they once had!