The USDA and a Hog's Ass

When you see a Crime punished, you may be inwardly Pleased; but always show Pity to the Suffering Offender.*

Geo Washington, evangelist of political correctness

A friend posted this article reporting that certain documents and information had suddenly been removed from the USDA website; the article brought up a thought.

This sets up an opportunity! When problems can be documented (there are always problems), responsibility for them can be blamed on the withdrawal of pubic info. What did the records affect? How does withdrawal affect things? This information was public for a reason; it was public for a pragmatic reason that affects the wellbeing of people. These kinds of things are boring but when something is clearly documented that is emotionally bad then these little boring things can suddenly have a big effect.

Citizens trusting themselves is the superpower of democracy - as things get out of hand, regular folks get their temper raised. When tempers rise, people get involved - and involved people record and document things. Just as one tiny example - I would so much rather be sharing with you adventures in food, assorted hedonistic arts, failures in fishing and thwarted love affairs but instead my focus is on the crisis at hand. I see it as a crisis while others are fine; after a half century, I've been both right and wrong about things but have come to accept what appears clearly; this is, I'll argue, the power of democracy. Just for fun and for the sake of further argument, I will say that the running of a country is comparable to stroking a wild hog's ass. When stroked in the normal way, or if the hog is moving forward through brush, the many hairs lay close together forming a unified cover which is hard, smooth as enamel and slick; if one foolishly chooses to rub this wild hog's ass the wrong way, that smooth body of hair becomes countless hard hairs, each sticking up and causing friction and obstruction.