Monday, September 05, 2005

A government run by Vogons

As I continue to hear and read reports of aid being turned away or prevented by FEMA, and the reason for aid not being delivered explained as a failure of local and state officials to follow the proper channels of action, I can't help but think of Douglas Adams' parody of bureacracy in the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Vogons, an alien race who
are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.

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