When I started writing about public policy, I never realized that …um…human waste would be a frequent topic.
*But we examined (not too closely!) the story of a Postal Service employee who defecated in someone’s yard and got to keep his job.
*We wondered why the Greek government wanted stool samples from entrepreneurs starting online companies.
*We mocked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for pushing a multi-billion dollar regulation to help “pee-shy” employees.
*We contemplated the story of a 30-year old man who wanted government handouts to subsidize his fetish of wearing adult diapers.
*And even though it had nothing to do with public policy, I wrote about my inability to figure out a foreign toilet.
So with that track record, you know I have to give some coverage to a report about EPA bureaucrats pooping in hallways.
Here is a passage from a story published by Government Executive.
Environmental Protection Agency workers have done some odd things recently. Contractors built secret man caves in an EPA warehouse, an employee pretended to work for the CIA to get unlimited vacations and one worker even spent most of his time on the clock looking at pornography.It appears, however, that a regional office has reached a new low: Management for Region 8 in Denver, Colo., wrote an email earlier this year to all staff in the area pleading with them to stop inappropriate bathroom behavior, including defecating in the hallway.
This somehow hasn’t been a problem anyplace I’ve worked, and I even spent some time on Capitol Hill in 1989-1990 (there was a lot of you-know-what in Congress, but it was the figurative kind).
But at least we can count on government to use any excuse to waste money. The EPA pissed away (no pun intended) some of our tax dollars so that a so-called consultant could state the obvious.
Confounded by what to make of this occurrence, EPA management “consulted” with workplace violence “national expert” John Nicoletti, who said that hallway feces is in fact a health and safety risk.
Gee, I wonder how much Mr. Nicoletti got paid to produce such brilliant analysis.
But let’s look at the silver lining to this story. When EPA bureaucrats are pooping in hallways, that’s a relatively non-destructive use of their time.
If the bureaucrats were industrious, we’d see more horror stories such as:
1. Persecuting a family for building a pond on their own property.
2. Persecuting a family for trying to build a house on their own property.
Let’s close by making fun of extreme environmentalism. For instance, green crazies have produced hand-cranked vibrators to fight global warming. And they also want us to use uncomfortable recycled toilet paper.
This makes them easy targets for satire, such as this video mocking Al Gore and this Hitler parody video about global warming.
We also have this joke about a modern-day Noah trying to build an ark, this satire about a “dam” beaver,” this humor involving the Pope, loggers, and an environmentalist, and this R-rated humor about a tree hugger.