Campbell, I agree with your first statement. The government should be going about the business of fixing problems and making life a little better for the nation as a whole.

For instance, if a guy could get a decent manufacturing job in this country without worrying that his livelyhood could be shipped off to Mexico without a moment’s notice, there might not be so many people willing to work for the government at a crappy wage with expensive insurance and a half-assed retirement. But it sounds to me like you guys associate every government employee with the “Big Brother” image created by recent failures on the part of Congress to protect our best interests. Go on then, make your generalized statements about working men and women in this country. Let’s leave cops, firemen, and soldiers out of the “We the People” part of our national dialog. After all, they chose to be a part of the government and not the great and glorious revolution that you two guys are leading here.

As for lost laptops, I would certainly never leave mine unattended in my car, but then I care more about my property/personal information than any government employee.

You would put the family of every policeman at risk from every crackhead seeking revenge, all because you believe the media hype that the police are bad people.

I should not have to explain to you that all cops aren’t out there violating people. Not all government employees have power, and not all of those who do are irresponsible. You seem to have a problem with authority of any kind, even that authority necessary for civilization.

You argue well, and you are obviously an educated person. How can you justify blaming working men and women for a problem that is obviously out of their control? How can you justify putting policemen on the same level as pedophiles?

Most of these Federal and State employees that you wrote about are low level technicians, but the title and first paragraph of your article lead the reader to believe that you are presenting information that is related to the so-called amorphous ill-defined entity that we all know and love.

The problem IS one of competence, but I would be willing to bet that you have a shortage of that in any work environment in America.

As for accountability, I do know that the employee with the stolen laptop was fired, along with two supervisors.

Maybe the “childish” comment was a bit harsh, but you let a bit of rage shine through in your comments about cops. As for publishing all government employees’ home addresses, that would be completely irresponsible.

The truth is that “government” isn’t some amorphous ill-defined entity out there somewhere. It’s comprised of individuals, each of whom thinks it’s perfectly okay to rule over you with their iron fists, small or large as they may be.

And when these people make mistakes, people get hurt. Sometimes, they die. And unlike when a private individual makes a mistake, they are almost never called to account, because they are part of the government.

Looking only at systemic issues ignores the simple fact that there are individual people out there wielding unjustifiable power over others’ lives.

I have no idea why you think these obvious truths sound childish.

Why do you sound so childish in this article. You are lumping government employees into your obvious hatred for the government itself. Sure, we should be angry about the incompetence you have written about in this article, but you mislead us with your title. You aren’t ranting about government at all. You are bitching about federal and state employees screwing up.

Don’t pretend to be hard hitting just to get us to read your silly complaints about people who work for a living and make mistakes, no matter how serious the mistake.