Your Freakazoid Government at Work

So, in order to avoid the dreaded "does not work and play well with others" mark on their next evaluation - and to get a dry biscuit and greasy sausage in lieu of the raises they're been denied for the past 10 years - state employees will troop to Frankfort to pay obeisance to an invisible sky wizard.

This email message went out to every Kentucky state employee:

A MESSAGE FROM GOVERNOR STEVEN L. BESHEAR

Dear Fellow State Employee:

Jane and I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the 47th annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast. For almost fifty years, Kentuckians have come together in prayerful humility and reflection to ask God’s wisdom in guiding the future of our Commonwealth, and 2012 is no different.

This year’s Governor’s Prayer Breakfast will be held Tuesday, March 6, 2012, at the Frankfort Convention Center. The doors will open at 7:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 8 a.m.

The theme for the breakfast this year is “A Humble Resilience.” This theme was chosen in honor of our fellow Kentuckians who have endured natural disasters, a global economic recession, a crippling prescription drug epidemic, and so many other troubles. They faced these with a prayerful and humble resilience that should inspire those of us entrusted with leading our Commonwealth to come together and work beyond party lines and electoral-season politics to, with God’s guidance, build a stronger future for all Kentuckians.

I hope your schedule will allow you time to attend this year’s prayer breakfast. Please go to http://governor.ky.gov/Pages/prayerbreakfast.aspx to make your reservation.

Jane and I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,

Governor Steve Beshear

Political appointees, of course, must attend or lose their jobs, but that's the price of a political job.

Merit (civil service) staff can't win: if you want to attend, your boss will make it a special privilege that you have to earn with some kind of humiliating service; if you'd rather take a beating than attend, you're accused of not being a team player and making your boss look bad.

Either way, the continued existence of this abomination delivers yet another blow to plurality, reason, rationality and reality in the Commonwealth.