Mutiny!

I made my way to work a few minutes early last night. I wanted to see if my BR350's tiller problems were finally resolved.

I parked and walked up to the shop, noticing the frozen meltwater everywhere. (Uh-oh I thought, Spring Conditions were here!)

Entering the Crew Room, I was greeted by a bunch of formerly happy, way pissed-off groomers.

WTF? I thought...Hero Snow and everybody's up in arms...what gives?

I grabbed the Work Orders and looked at the Remarks at the bottom of the page. There was a sentence that said there was a new sheriff in town and his new rules said: 30 Minute Lunch Breaks and Two 10 Minute Breaks were MANDATORY...and please record you lunch breaks here:...

Oh man, tempers flared...my guys were ready to Storm The Castle with Pitchforks and Torches! Damnit! This is costing me $250 a paycheck howled my All-Star Winch Pilot. "I work six days a week, and this is how they treat me?!"

Everyone had their opinion...their personal gripes, and their push-back solution...I'm old, OK?...57 years in the tank...I know enough to wait and see...

As I suspected, this new edict didn't come from Our Brass, but from our brass reacting to the latest edict from Sacramento...

Look, our consensual governments are overstepping their bounds from Sacramento to Washington DC. Our Public Servants are harassing us now in their misguided attempts to provide us with their mythical Utopia. This plan comes from Sacramento's desire to protect our "Migrant Workers" from the Evil Agribusiness Capitalist Robber Barons... so,it would seem Illegal Immigrants now have more rights than American Citizens, at least in the eyes of our Pols.

Given that our Public Servants are out of control today, and not listening to their constituents...I thought a refresher on the Declaration of Independence is in order.

Wikipedia notes on the Declaration of Independence...ours was the first, and has inspired more to date...there's 71 Declarations of Independence around the world now...

I'm pretty sure our government schools don't teach the Declaration today, so here's the relevant text:

"When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."

Today's Abuses and Usurpations come from our own "Public Servants" not a far off Imperial Ruler by Birth!
Our ruling elites are Over the Rainbow now...good intentions have become the latest incarnation of Tyranny... and if we are to stay free, we must remove these despots from our midst, and shrink our bureaucracies to benevolent levels.

I've been hearing "Keep the government out of the bedroom" from libertines for decades...apparently, the government is welcome in our dining rooms and kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and everywhere else from our highways to byways, schools, businesses and hospitals.

Our Grooming Fleet now wears the "Mark of the Beast" as I refer to it. These are red numbered stickers that show that our cats' diesel engines comply with the California Air Resources Board's latest edicts to ensure that California's diesel engines don't offend the en vogue Environmental Fashions of the day. Many millions of dollars have been spent by business to earn the right to wear the red stickers...alas, many more millions-worth of business has fled California for less imperious climes.

You know I've always been a "Glass Half Full" Guy. This latest intrusion into my business is uncomfortable to be sure, but I see it as another arrow in my quiver with which to convince my Mountain's Brass to stop buying Grooming Equipment and Lease it instead.

There's no upside to owning an expensive diesel machine with a capricious government agency looking for even more to regulate or outlaw!

Look again at the Declaration:
"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed"

Have you given your Consent lately? I didn't think so...