This is why I will always have a job: because the EPA employs idiots. (Names have been changed to protect the idiots).
So Mr. Client calls me with a situation: he has discovered asbestos in an apartment house he owns. Joe EnviroPro (that would be me) springs into action. We do all the things you gotta do in this situation: notify the Agency, test the air, encapsulate, remove, clean up, etc. And we do this quickly, because there will be a lawsuit coming and it’s best to get this stuff done before the lawsuit is filed.
By the time the lawsuit is filed, we’re done, save a small amount of asbestos containing material that’s sealed in a vault underneath the basement. Not really a threat to anybody, but it’s gotta go. Getting to it will take some special equipment and, unfortunately, we couldn’t get that done before the lawsuit was filed. Eventually, we get the right contractor and equipment lined up and we are ready to finish the job. You might conclude that this is a good thing. You would be wrong.
Because EPA is filing an injunction to keep us from finishing the job. They don’t want us to “destroy evidence”. Why this evidence is necessary, since we’ve already given them a written confession is beyond me (Floyd might be able to explain this), and I kinda thought that the whole point of the game was to protect the environment, but what do I know.
So, now, Mr. Client will be forced to spend thousands of dollars paying for my time, and an attorney’s time, in order to go to court so that a judge can order him to do exactly what he was going to do anyway. Except this time, EPA will be TELLING him to do it, which makes it all better.
And, when this case is eventually reported by the media, it will no doubt paint Mr. Client as an evil sumbitch who is wantonly endangering the lives of innocent residents and fighting the EPA. No doubt about it.
Yep, I’ll always have a job.
And, yep, it’s a really, really stupid job.
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Well this pretty much sums up why Administrative Law is my least favorite class
If Britain is any indication, as the number of people getting money from the government accelerates past 50 percent, the number of government employees will mushroom. Not because there’s any kind of need, but because the process itself gets people elected. But what will these people do? Why help out their fellow citizens by increasingly regulating, directing, taxing (with fines and fees) and bullying them.
Your experiences with the EPA is a prevue of the future.
I was an administrative lawyer for a few years in the mid 90s bh it was a really excit…. naw who am I kidding. It blew chunks. I did have some power though — that was invigorating, but over administrivia — which was emasculating. It made me scared of the bureaucracy to be sure. Josef K never sees it coming.
And this is why I will always have a job. No need to wait for lawsuits, just take the money!
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1208/574712.html
K,
When I look at it purely from a cold, analytic approach I wonder if Rome isn’t the model for all Republics, Democracies and Constitutional monarchies. Britain just may be further along the path than us. If my jaundiced model is correct, and human entropy leads all systems towards mediocrity the only real question to be answered is which group of barbarian hordes will be at the gates when we cease to have the civic spine to hold them shut.
the only real question to be answered is which group of barbarian hordes will be at the gates . .
There’s a long list, but it would be more fun to start our own barbarian tribe, preferably someplace with a climate like Maui.
It’s always balmy in Threedonia. Our streets are filled with tourists visiting from Maui. We call them Maoists.
We actually run PTS reports at the new job. Damned if I don’t slip up and keep calling them the Office Space way, though…
Ri-i-i-i-i-g-g-h-h-t.
PTS Reports? That’s too good. No. That would be grrrrreat.
At the office grab bag a few years ago, my little bro contributed a red Swingline stapler to the swag.
The recipient was thrilled.
When I look at it purely from a cold, analytic approach I wonder if Rome isn’t the model for all Republics, Democracies and Constitutional monarchies. Britain just may be further along the path than us. If my jaundiced model is correct, and human entropy leads all systems towards mediocrity the only real question to be answered is which group of barbarian hordes will be at the gates when we cease to have the civic spine to hold them shut.
Not necessarily. Egypt lasted three thousand years, which included several “mini-dark ages” and the total collapse of the political system, several times. China has also weathered weathered many dark periods in its thousands of years of history as a single nation. We’re too young as a country to know where things will leads us, for good or ill.
I believe he’s talking Republics, David and the mechanisms which eventually bring them down.
And by the way, I commented once at your blog and you quit. I’m feeling so empowered right now.
And by the way, I commented once at your blog and you quit. I’m feeling so empowered right now.
I just let you think that…
But seriously, I haven’t quit. I just don’t know what direction to go with it. Not much significant is happening right now. We have several candidates for the RNC chair. We have the ongoing squabble between the secular/fiscal and social conservatives. We have some grassroots energy building. And we have now numbers for a filibuster. So, other than that one significant development, we have a lot of ongoing things, but no big changes and hence nothing for new discussion. And everything I might have brought up has been said on other major blogs.
I believe he’s talking Republics, David and the mechanisms which eventually bring them down.
Well, for half of Rome’s history, it was a monarchy, not a Republic. That also happens to be the half that saw its downfall.
The United States is now the oldest constitutional democratic republic in the world and it hasn’t yet reached 250 years old. We certainly have a great deal of history from which to draw lessons, but we should be slow to make predictions and should not take historical parallels to be analogues.
Maybe we should marginalize the atheists, blame them for Katrina and other such disasters and then make them fight monster trucks in the middle of our huge stadia. Bread and circuses for the masses. Now that’s a parallel.