Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!cca!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!trc From: trc@houti.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Smile and say . . . Message-ID: <299@houti.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Jun-83 17:15:36 EDT Article-I.D.: houti.299 Posted: Fri Jun 10 17:15:36 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jun-83 12:55:26 EDT Lines: 16 Did you all catch the "cheese scandal" on the news? It seems that someone has been stealing cheese intended to be given to the poor, and selling it to restaurants. I couldnt help but laugh. My taxes and yours were already gone, so far as any benefit I might get from it. And yet the commentator decried the theft of taxpayers money. I do not condone the actions of the thieves, but at the same time, it seems like a small bit of poetic justice - there would not be any wasteful cheese surplus if it were not for government subsidies, nor would there have been the opportunity for the thieves if there hadnt been a giveaway program. While I doubt that the thieves had the same motives, I was reminded of Ragnar Danneskjold, the pirate of "Atlas Shrugged", who took only relief shipments bound for "People's States", which he counted as having been stolen from the productive to support the unproductive. Tom Craver houti!trc