What's Your Sign?

Well, our government(s) are at it again. Let me tell you, when you have the great state of Tennessee and the federal government spending your money, you're in deep kimshee. Let's start with our friends on the state level:

If you've driven around the state lately, you've no doubt seen signs along state and interstate highways that say (for example) "Entering the Upper Elk River Watershed" or "Entering the Old Hickory Watershed". So, you may ask, what is a watershed and why do I need to know when I'm entering one? Well, my tree-hugging friend, a watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. That is, if you're in the Old Hickory Watershed, the water that drains off goes into Old Hickory Lake.

These signs, according to state officials, cost about $350,000. When asked why the signs were installed, the wizards at the state said they hoped people would see the signs and refrain from polluting. Now, as you might expect, I have a few comments:

• First of all, Bubba down at the Jiffy Lube doesn't know what a watershed is (and, frankly, neither did I until I looked it up).
• Second, do you think he's going to refrain from dumping oil on the ground because you put up a sign telling him which watershed he's in?
• Third, do you think the only place pollution takes place is beside a state highway or interstate highway?
• Fourth, if you want to put up a sign to deter pollution, why don't you just make a sign that says "Don't Pour Crap Out On The Ground That You Don't Want In Your Drinking Water"? Keep it simple.

Now for the boys in Washington:

Not too far from my house we noticed a sign that went up beside the road. It looked a little like a state seal or some kind of agency logo, but it had a big piece of duct tape across the bottom. We asked around, but no one seemed to know what it was. They did some road work in the area pretty soon after the sign went up. A few weeks later, I was across town and saw the exact same sign, minus the duct tape. The part the duct tape had covered said "RECOVERY.GOV". It seems that our friends in DC want us to know where the stimulus package money is being spent, so if there's a road project that was funded by stimulus money - you guessed it - they put up a sign. So why did the sign in my area have duct tape on it? Well, it seems that at first, they thought it was funded by stimulus money, but then found out it was just regular old tax money. So we had to pay for the sign and the duct tape in addition to the paving. Now, a few thoughts:

• Wouldn't it have been easier just to take the sign down?
• Wouldn't we get more 'stimulus' out of the stimulus package if we didn't have to buy all those signs?
• Is this an indication that we really don't know what the stimulus money is buying?
• I noticed that Tennessee only got $5 billion in stimulus money, while New York got $18 billion. Man, they're going to need a lot more signs!

And these guys can't understand why we don't want to turn our healthcare over to them? Might be interesting to know whose brother-in-law has the sign contract.

Till next time..........