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The Ministry of Confusion
Townhall.com ^ | October 9, 2013 | Brent Bozell

Posted on 10/09/2013 6:26:10 AM PDT by Kaslin

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1 posted on 10/09/2013 6:26:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

A w-9 is required anytime there is a check more than $600—it is stupid but it is a way the government tries to track every cent


2 posted on 10/09/2013 6:47:13 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Kaslin

Ah, this reminds me of the hoops we had to jump through when we were finishing up a tour at Naval Station, Rota, Spain, and wanted to bring our 3 pet cats back to the states.

Although they already had rabies shots and certificates, the fact that they were issued by an American vet invalidated them. So we had to go to another city to a Spanish vet who would vaccinate them and give them new certificates. The Spanish certificates, however, had to be dated at least a month before our departure. The vets were nice enough to place a suitable date on the certificates.

We also had to have health certificates and a variety of stamps from various offices. This all had to take place in another, further, city. One of the stamps had to be acquired in a bar. (Heaven only knows why official Spanish government business had to take place in a bar.) During our overnight stay in the city, the bar was never open, so we did not get that particular stamp.

On to the airport, where, thanks to a series of unforeseen events beyond our control, we were trying to board a flight on a different airline than originally planned, and we were late for it, so the plane was being held up at the gate for us. We were trying to run—with our infant son—to the gate. We were stopped by a La Guardia Civil officer, who took our cat paperwork and examined it. He was about to prevent us from going, while we were bouncing around nervously, afraid of missing our flight. Finally, he saw where we were trying to export cats, and said “Ah, gatos!” and let us through.

In New York, the customs officials didn’t even care that we were bringing cats into the country. At least back in the 1980s, one could freely import cats...


3 posted on 10/09/2013 6:55:46 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: yldstrk

A few years ago I rolled over an IRA from one bank to another. But because of some kind of mix up $25 dollars did not make it into the IRA.

So that $25 dollars was put into a savings account connected to the IRA.

Because I do not want to add or take anything from that savings account it stays dormant.

Every few years I get a letter from the bank telling me since there has not been any activity in that account my $25 dollars will be turned over to the state (California gets all loose change).

I have to write back and explain it is not abandoned I just have not figured out how I am going to spend that $25 and would they be so kind as to hold on to it for awhile longer.

Two points, 1) I have other accounts at that bank that are quite active, and 2) they send me quarterly reports on the IRA account. They know what it is, they know why it was created they know where I am. Yet, the law is the law and they must threaten to take my $25 (now $25.02 with all the interest I have earned over the years, but don’t get me started on that subject)unless I can confirm I am still alive.


4 posted on 10/09/2013 7:07:39 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I do not doubt that our climate changes. I only doubt that anything man does has any effect.)
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To: CIB-173RDABN

are we doomed?

unintended effects of laws

I am sick of it

I wish I could set up a practice just to straighten out this crap

there are a ton of bizarro child support stories, such as two dads supporting the same child

child has been adopted

adopt records sealed so biodad can’t prove it

and his check keeps getting dunned

your 25 dollar account story

so stupid

someone should dedicate themselves to getting these things fixed

maybe Kellog foundation could do grants for it

or Gates foundation

some foundation with more money than sense


5 posted on 10/09/2013 7:11:44 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: sickoflibs; NFHale; Perdogg; GOPsterinMA

Me: But...but... but...You know my address. You have my address. You sent this letter to me at my address, referencing a job completed at this address.

Her: But we need confirmation.

Me: (Dumbstruck) So ... how about I hereby confirm it.

LOL!!!

6 posted on 10/09/2013 7:13:53 AM PDT by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN)
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To: Kaslin
“The Ministry of Confusion” - that is one of Satan's aliases.
7 posted on 10/09/2013 7:22:03 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: exDemMom

Ah, gatos!

This thread would be funny were it not sad.


8 posted on 10/09/2013 7:29:18 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (Actually, they lie when it suits them! The crooked MS media must be defeated any way it can be done!)
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To: Kaslin

I can beat that easily.

I worked for the local county govt. once.

We had a guy whose job it was to:
1) print the monthly reports
2) stack them in boxes.
3) take last months monthly reports to the shredder.
4) take the shredded reports to the incinerator.
5) repeat at (1) next month.

No one ever looked at these reports.
No one knew what was in them because he was not allowed to let anyone see them citing confidentiality rules.
(he was later busted for a $60,000 a year crack habit- but he KEPT HIS JOB)


story #2
We had a nepotism hire who was technically our MANAGER in the software development department.

He had no idea how to develop software. He called a meeting once to have the entire team debug a problem he was having for 3 weeks that he could not fix.

It turned out he was writing 100 characters into a space allocated for 80 - it took me 30 seconds to spot.

I needed an interface module he was working on- he spent 6 months on it and it still was not working- I finally wrote it myself in 3 hours. The did not use mine- they let him continue to work on it for 3 more months- he eventually stole mine and presented it as his.


story #3
we had a database and hardware systems administrator that did not know how to turn on the database, or protect it. If you knew the default oracle passwords of “scott/tiger” you could get in, he had no idea how to change them

He spent $50,000 of the end of the year “use it or lose it” budget spending spree on a 50 Meg disk array storage drive. It sat there for 3 years because no one could figure out how to turn it on.

When they finally did, you could buy 200 meg hard drives for $120. It is probably still sitting there - it is the size of a large microwave oven.


story #4
They spent a quarter million dollars on an XML interface to move data from one oracle table to another. At the meeting where I complained about this I manually did it in less than 5 minutes.

They admitted we were basically funding their XML interface programming so they could market themselves as having one. THERE WAS NO WAY TO RETURN MONEY *EVER* so they gave us free hours of tech support instead. (to move the 5 minutes of data from one table to another)


story #5
We bought some mapping software for $15,000 that did not work. The company flat-out lied to us. When I realized it, my manager said “oh well” because there was NO WAY TO ACCEPT REFUNDED MONEY.


story #6
We had a FULL-TIME accounts receivable accountant on staff with a company car (new Chevy blazer) and free parking in front of the building.
There was no accounts receivable because THERE WAS NO WAY TO ACCEPT MONEY.

He spent every day running his private accounting business behind closed doors in his office. He had customers meet him in there.


There is more but it is too frustrating to think of. We could have done twice the work with half the people. Which is in-line with general estimates that govt. is only 25-30% efficient at all levels.


9 posted on 10/09/2013 7:32:38 AM PDT by Mr. K (Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and then Democrat Talking Points.)
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To: Kaslin
Democrats love government . democrats trust government .And democrats want government idiots like the ones in this article running their healthcare.

It's not just in bureaucracies that government doesn't work. even if there is saintly super smart teacher in the government schools he/she can't teach the students to read or to learn anything of value. Government must be limited to only a very few functions at the federal , state, and local level. Government should never be involved in the economy , nor education , nor healthcare nor hardly anything, just military , border control, international issues and just to block the use of force by individuals or groups and to protect property rights. so only a few laws should be enforce by governments, “no murder” , no stealing , no trespassing , no assault. contracts and patents part and property rights disputes settled between parties in a court of law. So the only laws government should be allowed to write about is those that prevent the use of force , and those dealing with international issues, military, border control and that's it what i listed here. I don't see how the free market cannot do everything else people might need , to trade to , work , etc.

10 posted on 10/09/2013 8:00:57 AM PDT by rurgan (give laws an expiration date:so the congress has to review every 4 years to see if needed)
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To: yldstrk
. Just eliminate all laws (especially federal laws) that were passed after 1900. also eliminate the 16th and 17th amendments. then we'd have no more problems and the economy would take off as businesses won't have to wade through the literally room fulls of government laws and regulations.
11 posted on 10/09/2013 8:11:39 AM PDT by rurgan (give laws an expiration date:so the congress has to review every 4 years to see if needed)
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To: Kaslin

I might be able to top this.

I took my 17-year-old son to the DMV to get a state-issued ID. After standing in line for hours, I got to the clerk - a sow of a Somali woman — who told me — through an interpreter since she could not speak or understand English — that she could not issue a state-endorsed photo ID unless I could present a state-endorsed ID with a photo on it.

I failed to convince Amamdoulo Mahabuffalo (or whatever her name was) that my son was a legitimate US citzen.


12 posted on 10/09/2013 8:12:05 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: Kaslin

Great story. And Spain is not the only bureaucratic spaghetti maze. I am sure most of Europe, if not all, is that way.


13 posted on 10/09/2013 9:04:02 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator (Producing Talk Show Prep since 1998.)
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To: Mr. K
True story

When I entered active duty (Navy), I was assigned to "compartment cleaning". I received a set of orders to:
1. Go to storage locker and get 50 sets of brand new sheets.
2. Take the brand new sheets to laundry and have them cleaned, pressed and folded.
3.Deliver all 50 sets of brand new sheets to the incinerator and have them burned.
14 posted on 10/09/2013 10:32:21 AM PDT by Foolsgold (Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber)
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To: Foolsgold

?

weird


15 posted on 10/09/2013 11:36:16 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: Kaslin

They know exactly what they not do


16 posted on 10/09/2013 11:40:03 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: Mr. K
Which is in-line with general estimates that govt. is only 25-30% efficient at all levels.

I have heard those same numbers used before, I can believe it. I read multiple times that of the welfare budget that's about how much goes to the end-user (can't call them "the poor" any more with all the fraud), the rest is eaten by bureaucracy.

17 posted on 10/09/2013 11:50:35 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: IronJack

send that story to Bozell!


18 posted on 10/09/2013 11:51:37 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: VRW Conspirator

and now they have the EU, yet another layer of bossy bureaucracy and one of the things it does, I bet, is to make sure that member provinces keep making their bureaucracies even more dense


19 posted on 10/09/2013 11:53:20 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: Mr. K

I did some website consulting for an organization whose website designer had gone off to some foreign country to find himself. I won’t go into how poorly the website was designed, but the really hilarious thing was when they downloaded me a copy of all the website files off their server (they wouldn’t give me access to the server), I found two completely separate websites that had nothing to do with this organization that were hijacking space on their server. They were shocked that their former employee would do such a thing.


20 posted on 10/09/2013 11:58:27 AM PDT by Hoffer Rand (There ARE two Americas: "God's children" and the tax payers)
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