posted by perkiset on Mar 4

So this morning I am greeted on my local politics threads and radio with the unfortunate news that Arizona must cut 67 million from its budget next year. This is a necessary measure be try to get towards our goal of a balanced budget every year.

This news was sandwiched between two stories that I felt complimented each other nicely.

The first was how we’re going to save a bunch of that money – we’re going to pull 22% from our libraries. Essentially, we’re looking at closing all of our public libraries on Mondays and dropping the budgeted items for new books. Those pesky books probably contain liberal-leaning hogwash anyway, so no big worry. Books in general are just a real sore thumb around here, and are probably single most horrible offender in us losing our proud status as 50th worse in the nation in education – we are now 49th. Damn. And we worked so hard for that. But I digress.

The other story was how we are going to have to spend just a titch more of your beloved tax dollar because campus police on ASU will now be equipped with riot gear and assault rifles. Yes, you read that right – the campus police will now have semi-automatic assault rifles much akin to what is being used in Iraq today. Well, we are in the desert, so I guess that was one of the few remaining items we needed to implement to make the façade complete.

In other news, our AZ congress recently passed a bill that was hotly contested along partisan lines. The bill essentially allowed all children in all schools to carry guns. I know you’re not going to believe this, but one Republican congressman actually said that there are “kindergartners that are sitting ducks without the means to protect themselves.” The arch rivals to these benevolent protectors of the people, the Democrats, managed to get the bill amended in heated debate so that K-12 children are not allowed to carry weapons, but college kids can. Now call me silly, but in a world where a change in your depression meds can make you go on a killing spree, is it really a good idea to put more guns in school?

Perhaps I’m just a worry wart. Have a nice day!