Ayn Clouter, a few days ago,

gave an example of government (in this case, actually the Kerry-Heinz family, but of course I see them as a branch of government - too bad they don't act as a check or a balance) screwing things up (disguised as a fix, sort of) so they could fix the resulting chaos:

Feed everyone beans at every meal, until the gagging of the olfactorily sensitive causes enough pressure to put through a heavy tax on the resulting constant farting. One part of the family takes your money to give you gas, which justifies the other taking more of your money to clean the air.

I still don't know exactly how to take that lady. I think I have ears to hear, but sometimes my service-worker's habit of practicing obtuseness in order to pass over rudeness on the part of my customers (though I am very pleased with the exceptional bunch I deal with these days) in order to continue serving them with a smile, spreads to other areas of my life. It helps me to remain happy, though sometimes it causes me to miss a good joke. And my main goal in getting a college degree was to make sure I didn't miss any jokes. Ah, such is life...