Feds totally inept? No
Bensblurb # 554 6/16/10
Are Feds totally inept? no.
Let me tell you about what happened to me the other day, something I thought reaffirmed my conviction about our god-awful federal agencies.
After all, I used to work for one (most of the time) for some 35 years. Granted, the outfit I directed for two decades did some really neat things, but just down the hallway, you wouldn’t believe the waste, fraud and abuse and I don‘t know what all.
But I do know firsthand about some things people still gripe about even today. Like Larry Kudlow, the CNBC money guy who recently quoted his friend, an obvious expert: “...the U.S. has way too many bureaucrats, making way too much money...governments are all in fiscal trouble in part because of excessive pay for a bloated civil service.”
Of course, you already knew all that. My latest gripe arose when I was fixing to take a trip with my wife to our granddaughter’s wedding in Denver. So, to be on the safe side, lest those airport security thugs take all her vital pills away, I carefully sent a supply of them via Priority Mail from the Post Office, no less, to my daughter in Colorado. That was well before our departure date.
Then shortly before we left, I called her. No pills had arrived. Again at the last minute: Still no pills.
Let me tell you I was livid at those overpaid louts. And I don’t mean those nice folks at Mail & More there beside the 610 Wal-Mart. They have always been accurate and efficient.
Still, no pills, no parcel, nothing. In desperation, I hurriedly packed enough other vital pills in their original Rx bottles and lugged my bloated bag past security without incidence. (Later in Denver, a recession note: our nice big hotel had few guests.)
But what happened to my package? Less than a week later, upon our return to Stafford, lo and behold there it was, on our doorstep. Seems the Post Office had tried to deliver it, but failed, and so returned it.
Why? Well, ahem, in my rush to do things, it seems I scrambled two numbers in my daughter’s street address. Small matter. I then started to gripe that somebody could have at least looked up her name in the phonebook and...but no.
Shoot! It was nobody’s fault but mine. Much as I hate to admit it, in growing older, I’m not quite as razor sharp as you’d expect, given my obviously superior skills otherwise.
And admittedly, roundtrip time for my package was little more than a week. So for once I couldn’t blame my woes on a pokey bureaucracy.
Besides, I had plenty of other big gripes on that trip. We left in one of those so-called airbuses--an accurate moniker. Even better: cattle car. I had even picked our seats in advance from a diagram. It lied. The space was so tight I couldn’t even read a magazine.
Did I blame private industry? Truth to tell, I blamed everyone, except my beautiful grandbaby bride. I must be getting older.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
Are Feds totally inept? no.
Let me tell you about what happened to me the other day, something I thought reaffirmed my conviction about our god-awful federal agencies.
After all, I used to work for one (most of the time) for some 35 years. Granted, the outfit I directed for two decades did some really neat things, but just down the hallway, you wouldn’t believe the waste, fraud and abuse and I don‘t know what all.
But I do know firsthand about some things people still gripe about even today. Like Larry Kudlow, the CNBC money guy who recently quoted his friend, an obvious expert: “...the U.S. has way too many bureaucrats, making way too much money...governments are all in fiscal trouble in part because of excessive pay for a bloated civil service.”
Of course, you already knew all that. My latest gripe arose when I was fixing to take a trip with my wife to our granddaughter’s wedding in Denver. So, to be on the safe side, lest those airport security thugs take all her vital pills away, I carefully sent a supply of them via Priority Mail from the Post Office, no less, to my daughter in Colorado. That was well before our departure date.
Then shortly before we left, I called her. No pills had arrived. Again at the last minute: Still no pills.
Let me tell you I was livid at those overpaid louts. And I don’t mean those nice folks at Mail & More there beside the 610 Wal-Mart. They have always been accurate and efficient.
Still, no pills, no parcel, nothing. In desperation, I hurriedly packed enough other vital pills in their original Rx bottles and lugged my bloated bag past security without incidence. (Later in Denver, a recession note: our nice big hotel had few guests.)
But what happened to my package? Less than a week later, upon our return to Stafford, lo and behold there it was, on our doorstep. Seems the Post Office had tried to deliver it, but failed, and so returned it.
Why? Well, ahem, in my rush to do things, it seems I scrambled two numbers in my daughter’s street address. Small matter. I then started to gripe that somebody could have at least looked up her name in the phonebook and...but no.
Shoot! It was nobody’s fault but mine. Much as I hate to admit it, in growing older, I’m not quite as razor sharp as you’d expect, given my obviously superior skills otherwise.
And admittedly, roundtrip time for my package was little more than a week. So for once I couldn’t blame my woes on a pokey bureaucracy.
Besides, I had plenty of other big gripes on that trip. We left in one of those so-called airbuses--an accurate moniker. Even better: cattle car. I had even picked our seats in advance from a diagram. It lied. The space was so tight I couldn’t even read a magazine.
Did I blame private industry? Truth to tell, I blamed everyone, except my beautiful grandbaby bride. I must be getting older.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
posted by Ben Blankenship at
9:57 AM
