FoxPolitics.net - Appleton, WI News - What's really going on in the Fox Cities

FoxPolitics.net Blogs

FoxPolitics News

Local/State Govt Links

Salaries

• Appleton School District, 2007-08
• City of Appleton
• Town of Grand Chute
• City of Menasha
• City of Neenah

Candidates

City of Appleton

• Elected Officials
• Salary Watch
• Directory
• Mtg. Agendas/Minutes

Advisory Board

Blogroll

Selected News Sources:
Business Jrnl of Milw
Christian Science Monitor
Daily Caller
Drudge Report
La Crosse Tribune
Milw Journal Sentinel
National Journal
New York Times
Public Policy Forum
Real Clear Politics
Stateline
The Hill
TPM
Washington Examiner
Washington Post
Washington Times
WI State Journal
Selected Blogs - from the Right:
American Mind
Blaska's Blog
Boots & Sabers
Charlie Sykes
Dad29
Freedom Eden
Heritage Foundation
Jerry Bader Blog
Life Voice
Marketplace of Ideas
Marquette Warrior
Natl Review Online
No Runny Eggs
Patrick McIlheran
Real Debate Wisconson
RedState
Rhymes with Clown
Shark and Shepherd
The Lote Tree
Vox Populi
Wall Street Jrnl, Opinions
WI State Jrnl, Opinion
Wigderson Library & Pub
Wisconsin Family Voice
WPRI
Selected Blogs - from the Left:
Big Money Blog
Blogging Blue
Brenda Konkel
Caffeinated Politics
Capital Times
FightingBob
Folkbum's rambles
Griper Blade
Huffington Post
Lost Albatross
MAL Contends
Mid coast views
Moneyed Politicians
One Wisconsin Now
Open Left
Playground Politics
Political Environment
Rock Netroots
Talk to Tony
Uppity Wisconsin
Waxing America

Today's Blog: Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie
My husband and I and a couple hundred friends watched in Green Bay as ...(more)

Search Archives

Blogs

Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie (6/28/2011)

Time for Gov. Walker to talk more about the cake (3/4/2011)

Today, reality hits home (3/1/2011)

FoxPolitics News going on hiatus (1/28/2011)

Brown County Executive candidate forum Feb. 8 (1/28/2011)

Education done right (1/27/2011)

To Obama, the ‘We’ is Government (1/27/2011)

(more)

3/30/2010
Burri: What do the U.S. Census and Chicken McNuggets have in common?

If you've watched any television lately, you've seen the U.S. Census commercials. Get those forms filled out, people. It’s important, and it only takes ten minutes.

Maybe I’m making too much of this – it wouldn’t be the first time – but these commercials leave a bad taste in my mouth. Here are a few quick excerpts:

If we don't know how many kids there are, how do we know how many classrooms we need?

If we don't know how big our community is, how do we know how big our hospitals need to be?

If we don't know how many people there are, how do we know how many roads we need? The census helps us know what we need.

Okay, so…what? We’d better get those forms in, or else…we won't be able to add (or subtract) any classrooms at all? For the next ten years?

So, wait…does that mean we haven't changed the number of classrooms, the number of teachers, since the last census? For ten years?

We've made no improvements to our roads? No additions? No new hospitals, or beds? No changes to health care infrastructure?

The last census was ten years ago. No wonder educrats nationwide are screaming for more money. No wonder we have a health care crisis. No wonder major highways in major cities become parking lots around a single stalled car during rush hour.

Oh, but wait: we have added hospitals, beds, classrooms. We have improved and expanded highways and roads. Spending in all those areas has grown rapidly. We know how big our communities are, and how many students we have, and so forth, etcetera. We don’t need the feds to tell us that we need more. Or less.

Do we?

A little over a year ago, a woman called 911 because her local McDonald's didn't have any McNuggets. A month before that, a Florida man called 911 because the Burger King where he stopped for lunch didn't have lemonade.

In the first case, at least, there was a dispute over whether the McDonald’s should refund the woman’s money. She’d already paid for her food before being informed of their McNuggetlessness. But whatever happened, she was unlikely to leave satisfied.

Still. To call 911 over McNuggets; or over lemonade; or over any four-dollar purchase…doesn’t that seem…juvenile?

Indeed, it does. To expect the police to make that right; to expect that any dissatisfaction – any problem, no matter how small – has a solution, and that all one has to do is call the nearest parent-like entity for help…that’s a child’s expectation of all-fair, all the time, or I’m gonna tell.

Maybe I’m making too much of it, but I wonder if it isn’t a symptom of what’s wrong with us these days. We have problems, and we automatically look – child-like – to a parent for help. We look for someone with authority, who can be trusted to Get Things Done.

Because it’s easier to call on Government than to figure out how to handle things ourselves, or worse: go without.

Hey, the Census Bureau is just trying to be helpful. Get those forms in so your cool Uncle Sam can take you out for ice cream. So your local community will have the things it needs. Because that can’t happen unless we – the Federal Government, who loves you and wants nothing but the best for you – make it happen.

Like a parent, holding a child who just scraped his knee.

Now go clean up the yard, Junior, or no dessert or TV for you tonight.

Lance Burri blogs regularly via his site, The TrogloPundit.

COMMENTS

First of all, as you point out, it should be no concern of the federal government what roads, hospitals or schools we want to build in our (formerly) sovereign state. I agree with your assessment of the public's need for a 'big brother.'

I got the 'long form' census questionaire, where you're asked for everthing from how many people live at your address to the sizes of their socks and knickers. I had a bad reaction.

After I N/A'd it half to death the phone calls started. At least three times a week I was advised via voicemail (thank God for caller ID) to call an 800 number and refer to case number such-and-such. After about a month the calls stopped. I sense it's the lull before the storm.

The sparks will fly when the live person starts harassing me at my back door. If one of you reading this happens to be that unfortunate person, save yourself a great deal of pain and embarrassment. Only one male human lives at my address, along with a small, elderly cat. There, now you've 'enumerated' me. Further questions that are both unconstitutional and none of the federal government's business will result in parts of your face being chewed-off my either me or the small, elderly cat.

Duke (Tue Mar 30 07:48:04 2010)

Duke,

Don't engage in hate speech like that! You know "we" are being watched closely for this type of behavior.

PETA will take you to task for making it eat part of a Federal Employee. That's going to leave a bad taste in the cat's mouth!

Jeff (Tue Mar 30 08:40:59 2010)

They are also harassing my son, who lives with 2 others in a duplex they rent. I told him to tell them he's an American and that's all they need to know. When I filled out the form, I indicated "other" for race, and wrote "American" or "British". Nothing else. That's all they need to know.

Apparently, some of the harassment is not actually from the Census Bureau, according to my congressman. If they come to your door, you must ask to see their ID, and they should be carrying a black bag with "US CENSUS" written in white on it. Also ask them their name. Apparently, there are false "workers" going around being nosy.

emily matthews (Tue Mar 30 10:50:38 2010)

Post a Reply

Print this Article

Email Article to a Friend