This one's for Confucius

When the great ancient Chinese sage Confucius (aka K'ung-fu-tzu) was asked what he would first do if he came into an important government office, he said he would commence by "the rectification of names."

Confucius thought, and I'd have to say that I agree, that a great deal of the evil in the world comes from calling things by the wrong names--and that fixing that would be a big step in setting things right.

These days, one hears a lot of politicians talking about the need of making "tough decisions." This usually translates into taking steps that harm low income and working people while protecting the wealthy and powerful. A case in point is the decision by the Tomblin administration in West Virginia to cut child care and other programs that help ordinary West Virginians.

Here's the deal: kicking people who can't kick back isn't a tough decision. It is a chicken **** decision.

And say what you want about me, I know a thing or two about chicken ****. We've got plenty of it right here on the farm. I could post plenty of fresh pictures of it right here. And it's much more excusable when it comes from real chickens in the ordinary process of digestion than from human beings who should know and do better but don't.

Read up on this here and here.

Meanwhile, word on the street is that the real reason why programs for working people are being cut is because of the mess-ups of highly placed folks at the state Department of Health and Human Resources, whose mistakes are costing millions of dollars and who are passing their own screw-ups on to defenseless children and families.

To quote Shakespeare: "Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame!"