Bureaucracy

Town Says It Will Prosecute Official Who Did Something Useful

George Simolaris is a member of the Board of Selectmen (the town council) in Billerica, Massachusetts. According to him, some of the crosswalks around town have become unsafe because the paint has faded, and it's been taking forever to get…


TSA Can Improve Aviation Worker Vetting

You think? The headline of this post is also the slightly understated title of this DHS Inspector General report, which notes that TSA failed to block someone on the terrorist watchlist from getting a job at an airport. And by…




Of Course We Have No Ticket Quotas, But ….

… you may wish to consider the following information in re: your salary. You won't be surprised to learn that Edmundson is a "city" in St. Louis County, about a ten-minute drive from Ferguson (might take a lot longer, of…




Siberian Tax Collectors Reportedly Holding Cats Hostage

Well, this may be a new low, even for Siberian tax collectors. The Itar-TASS news agency (via the BBC) reported in August that cотрудники Томского управления Федеральной службы судебных приставов, не найдя у должницы другого имущества, наложили арест на четырех…


TSA Confiscates Ray-Gun-Shaped Belt Buckle

As I've said before, we can't just assume everyone at the TSA is an idiot and/or a petty bureaucrat drunk on his or her semi-power. This story confirms that. It suggests that only 40 to 80 percent of them are….


You’re Paying for a Nazi’s Retirement [or Are You?]

Well, that headline isn't entirely accurate. You paid dozens of Nazis and you're still paying at least four of them. According to the Associated Press, "[d]ozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards collected millions of dollars in U.S. Social Security…