was a bust. Awful. Hardly worth writing about. Certainly not worth a pic.

It was billed as “Marica’s Veggie Surprise” on account of the fact that when Mr. Big Food pressed me Sunday morning for the name of Marica Cooks Monday’s dish I had nothing. Calling nothing a surprise seemed honest. Surprise! I’m going to cook a veggie dish!!

Mr. Big Food proclaimed that the meal was awesome. I appreciate the at-a-boy but that does not change the fact that you get what you pay for. I paid about 10 minutes thinking about Marica Cooks Monday, and we got about 10 minutes worth of a dinner that took 30 minutes to prepare.

And speaking of getting what you pay for. …

I would like for someone to tabulate just exactly what I am getting for the $$ I pay the United States Government. In real market dollars. Not USgov’t dollars.

What is the job of a federal government?

I know. Response #1 is defense. Dude. Insofar as me, myself, and I have to defend me, myself, and I, I can do that myself– though it would be easier if I could buy 550 rounds of .22s for approx. $25 as I could back in the crappy good old days.

#2 Settle disputes. The only dispute we’ve had in the last few years that couldn’t be settled over a beer on the patio was a dispute with the IRS. I blame Mr. Low Man on the Totem Pole Who Was Tasked with Monitoring My Little Blog. Remember Him? In the end, the nice lady at the IRS acknowledged that my fellow citizens at the IRS had made a mistake.

Roads. Here– on what I would call the #3 job of the Feds– I get iffy. It’s nice that there’s an interstate highway system. Should it be managed by the Feds? I dunno. I go back and forth. And thanks to Ike, it’s probably a moot question at this point. In a do-over, I’d never have granted monopolies on roads or telecommunications to the Feds or anyone else. But here we are.

Defense. Contract disputes. What else?

Commerce. Really? That is fundamentally antithetical to Liberty. Why– oh why?– should a Federal government (or a State government?) be in the business of business?

Why?

And it of course follows that there should not be a Federal bank.

Have I mentioned lately that I hate that bastard son of a Jamaican whore?

That said, I strongly oppose changing the imagery on the 10-dollar bill.

And there you have it my friends.

In other news: I caught Tiger in a dumpster dive. Stupid cat didn’t have enough self-control to keep his nose– let alone the whole entire top part of his body– out of the wastebasket which contained the paper plates from last night’s supper. You should have seen the look on his brisket-covered face when I screamed, “What the hell… ?”