Could “Government is the problem” be part of the problem?
Like so:
Government is bad,
therefore,
We should cut its funding whenever we have a chance to do so.
Of course, then …
Government agencies end up under-staffed, under-equipped, and unable to keep up (years-long immigration-hearing delays come to mind, or the Katrina response, or …)
And,
Government’s best and brightest administrators get fed up and leave, finding industry positions that ask less and pay more,
Which opens the door for …
Incompetent, patronage-appointed bureaucrats become administrators (“Great job, Brownie!”)
And, Presto!
Proof! Just look at how badly this agency functions! Government is the problem! It can’t do anything right!
Maybe the idea that “government is the problem” needs to be replaced with “bad government is the problem.”
Finally, a related quote:
(Newser) – Barack Obama’s former car czar says he had no choice but to fire GM’s Rick Wagoner. “Everyone knew Detroit’s reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures,” Steven Rattner writes in an essay for Fortune. “Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company.”
Aha! “Business is the problem?”
‘Course not. Bad business is the problem.
Whose conversion is this?
Here’s a story of a Christian conversion. Can you guess who’s talking?
So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to [a church]. And I heard [a pastor] deliver a sermon … And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.
It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of [this church] one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross [at the church], I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works […]
Answer after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Responding to Concerned Nazarenes
For my Nazarene friends, here’s an index to some thoughts about the “Concerned Nazarenes” DVD that was distributed at General Assembly. CN is a fundamentalist group with strong ideas about the emergent church phenomenon and its relationship to the Church of the Nazarene. Their DVD is reviewed by a fellow named Jeffrey at A Considered Response to the Concerned Nazarenes. The comments seem thoughtful and respectfull.
Index to the Review of the Concerned Nazarene’s DVD