Bloody Peasant
Alabama has something called the “Alabama Virtual Library” which is a portal site to various subscription-based online information databases—companies such as Grolier, EBSCOhost, SIRS—which is available from computers in public schools. This access has recently been expanded to allow access from student’s homes, which leads me to the whole point of this post.

Your child fills out a form which gets sent to Montgomery and later you get back a little blue library card. It has your name and a password and the web address, and then an interesting little bit of additional information: “Funded by Governor Don Siegelman and the Legislature.”

Hey guys, the wallet you’re pulling that cash out of is mine, not yours. It’s called MY TAXES! I don’t mind paying for it, but at least give me the credit.

It used to be that projects like this got a “Your Tax Dollars at Work” sign—now apparently we owe gratitude for these wonderful benefits not to ourselves, but to our beneficent leaders who deign to scatter largesse onto the roadside from their bulging purses. Thank you, o wise ones—would you like us to give you a pay raise? You already got it? Oh, good, would’ve hated to keep you waiting.

Divine right is nice in theory, but it’s like Dennis said—“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

posted by Terry at 10:27:00 AM