Truth may be the first casualty of war, but in peacetime government is still busy butchering language. You see, they have to kill the words first before they can destroy more material things like roads and dams.
Yesterday we told you about the way the Clinton Administration is trying to evade its commitment to pull out U.S. military troops from Bosnia by renaming the force. (i.e. Ifor becomes Sfor becomes Dfor.)
Today the Outrage language analysis team is once again stumped. We had always thought that the word MAINTAIN means "to keep or keep up." Silly us.
Let's take the United States Forest Service, for example. For many years they have been using road "maintenance" funds not to "maintain" or, God forbid, build roads, but to destroy them.
Forest Service Engineer Skip Coghlan says that in fiscal 1998 the Forest Service plans to build 400 miles of new roads while destroying 1,500 miles of old roads.
This net destruction does not strike us as the way to improve an allegedly crumbling national infrastructure.
The problem is not that the roads are not functional. The problem is that the roads are too functional. They're being used by people who like to visit the national parks and are disturbing the parks' primary clients, grizzly bears and other animals.
Using millions of dollars in tax money to tear up functional roads leaves the grizzlies in peace, and what could possibly be more important?
However, old logging roads are not where the real action is. Environmentalists are focusing on tearing down existing dams with great success.
Last month the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended that the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River be removed. A number of other dams have already been removed or may be in the near future. While it's true that these dams generate a lot of power for parasitic human beings they also stop salmon from swimming upstream.
If all this destruction frightens you, don't worry. As you can tell by our Quote of the Day, government employees really have your best interests at heart.
(Source: Christian Science Monitor .)
