If you have lost confidence in your Federal Government, this should help...

For those worried that the federal government is full of inefficient bureaucrats spinning in endless loops of paperwork, never really getting anything done, you may now rest easy. The agencies of government really are able to come through when the chips are down and make a decision of crushing importance when needed. For instance, the Federal Communications Commission has decided to fine ABC for indecency on one of its premier prime time television series. With a thumb of the pulse of American decency, the FCC has decided that a nude scene in ABC's prime time series NYPD Blue has crossed the line and ABC will have to pay a fine of $ 1.4M for their lapse in judgement.

Wait a minute, what is wrong with this picture? What is wrong is that the NYPD Blue episode in question ran in 2003, during the first George W Bush Administration, when Donald Rumesfeld was still Secretary of Defense and the Atlanta Braves still were contenders to win a world series. Well, that is impressive. The FCC has finally passed judgement on the decency of television episode that ran 4 years ago, in a series that ended 3 years ago. If that is not effective, good government, then what is? I wonder how many man-hours were spent on this monumental decision? Did they start contemplating "action" right after ABC ran the episode or did they have to ponder their next move, for a year or two before mounting their crusade to save American culture, from a television episode that everyone forgot about, like 3 and a half years ago.

Relevant, good government like this really inspires me, makes me want to serve the best interests of humanity. I mean, if the FCC come come to this kind of a blockbuster decision in 4 short years, imagine what each and everyone of us could do to better mankind over that same period of time. Besides the inspirational value of this decision, this also makes me wonder, what are these same people working on right now? What other obscure, long since forgotten television tidbit is under review?

I also wonder, are the action-oriented FCC employees getting a tax rebate? The reason I ask is that if the goal of the stimulus package is to get money back into the economy, the FCC circus clowns should have a decision about how to spend their rebate checks by the end of the decade. Of course by then, they probably will have lost the checks anyway.