Without permission

Ignorance depletes America’s stored up treasures of time and talent. Its expense results in waste beyond the imaginary loss of Eldorado. I cite 2 instances. The first calls forth my rage. Try the fact that Senators will now be reimbursed with taxpayers’ money for travel to funerals of service members in their home states. Why am I paying for what should be private grief? My private griefs have not been publically financed. Common sense says that such travel basically just wastes our elected officials’ time, taking them away from the jobs they’re paid to do. Senators think and act like elites who live in an hedonistic, self-important world, alien to the common people who daily slog out their pursuit of peace of mind and their personal version of happiness. The loss of a loved one in the service of this country should not offer elite politicians a chance to score points with the electorate. Another example by an economist from Slate magazine depicts the separation of perception from the reality. Analyzing the drop in fall and winter gun sales, an economist notes that "higher temperatures slow deer movements and raise the risk the meat will spoil." Though technically correct in his data, this elitist plays at being expert, wasting time on analysis of a phenomenon - hunting - that he knows nothing about. Trust me! Real men hunt and eat their kill; the loss of gun sales is no indicator of inherent interest in a sport. Ignorance explains the lack of understanding of the popularity of deer hunting and venison tasting and of the need for a family’s privacy when grieving. We waste salaries on Senators and economists. But all hope is not lost. Judging from the response of call-in radio and TV shows, blogs and Web sites on the Internet, a significant number of citizens have awakened to the theft of our country’s intellectual treasures. Three cheers for speaking up and out against elites who take our money without our permission.