B over at In the Middle of the Right posted this link yesterday, and it’s definitely worth sharing…
Appears our friends to the north are getting the SAME type of push/BS from their government…
This RCMP officer wasn’t having any of it, and is now done. He says he’s on ‘unpaid’ leave, but he’s got his 20, so I’m guessing he will be retired shortly.
His departure letter is HERE!
I went wandering trying to find accurate numbers of healthcare, EMS, or Fire/Police that have been fired but you can’t find anything ‘accurate’. Some reports say as many as 30% of healthcare workers are not vaccinated, others are saying ‘up to’ 1-2% of workers have been fired.
I wasn’t going to slog through each individual story to try to count them up, as this is just one more incidence of skewed/missing data. The more I look at this, the worse it looks, compared to the previous .gov ability to count job losses…
And for your dose of humor… Now that I no longer live in NOVA…
You know you’re from the DC Metro area if….
You say you’re “from DC”, but you actually live in Maryland or Virginia … it’s just simpler that way.
Your distant relatives (some of whom you haven’t met since your first birthday) call you for someplace to stay for free when they visit Washington. If you haven’t yet gotten used to saying “no” they might … might … take you out for a fancy dinner at IHOP. When they ask if you’d like that, you try to explain the wonders of Salvadorean, Ethiopian, Afghan, Thai and Indian food but eventually you give up and go to IHOP.
You listen with a smile as they rave about their visit to the Air and Space Museum, but you know several that are much better. Likewise, they don’t understand why you’re not thrilled to join them visiting all of the monuments. You have never actually been on the White House tour or to the Washington Monument (MUCH too much trouble). When you say you’re going to the Mall you might mean you’re going shopping, but you probably mean you’re going to a museum.
You know nobody who smokes. This mystifies your out-of-town guests.
You live in Virginia, but it’s Northern Virginia … it’s nothing like the rest of Virginia. The rest of Virginia doesn’t like us and they don’t vote for anything we favor. And we don’t have southern accents! (Exception: When you went to college somewhere else and asked “what are y’all doing?” they laughed at you for saying “y’all”.)
You know instantly who lives here and who doesn’t. The people who live here, young and old, all have photo IDs on lanyards around their necks. The tourists have matching neon shirts and caps and they all shop (filled with wonder) at Pentagon City Mall. Eventually, you find yourself uttering the phrase “damn tourists” entirely too often.
You know where Vietnam is – it’s been re-located to the Eden Center in Falls Church. Most of Korea is now in Annandale. Nobody is left in Bolivia or Ecuador, but you can find them all on the soccer fields of Arlington on Saturdays and Sundays. In off-hours and basement rooms, your church hosts Korean, Vietnamese, Hispanic and Ethiopian congregations.
You not only know what the World Bank, the IMF and EPA are, you know WHERE they are (and where the FBI and the CIA and the Pentagon are). You actually know someone who works for the CIA. Some of your friends don’t know what their parents/spouses do (it’s secret). You know several Congressmen/Senators/diplomats because they’re your next-door neighbors. You can live next door to an “unindicted co-conspirator” and not worry for your safety on that account — for that matter, your kids probably play with his kids and that doesn’t bother you either.
You know that fancy stretch limousines never contain anybody of the least importance. Really important people are driven in quiet black Lincoln Town Cars with reading lamps on the back of the rear seat. They are often seen empty (drivers chatting in a bunch nearby) next to television satellite-uplink trucks (gotta get that speech onto the evening news).
The sight of armed security no longer bothers you. The sight of LOTS of armed security at the Pentagon Metro station doesn’t bother you much, except for the thought that they’re looking at you and considering whether they might need to shoot you.
When people ask for directions, you tell them it’s either “inside” or “outside” the beltway. It is ALWAYS rush hour. You think traffic moving 1 mile in 5 minutes is “not that bad.” You actually know at what times the streets change directions and which direction they change to. You know that in Arlington, the same road can run parallel to itself, and often changes names mid-block.
You can take the subway to another state.
It is (and will always be) “NATIONAL AIRPORT” not “Reagan National”.
There are at least four 7-11’s on your road, about ¼ mile apart. Next to each is a McDonald’s.
You turn on the “local news” to hear about the latest national scandals/events.
The parking lot at work looks like an auto importer’s showroom.
You laugh every time you see the “Surrender Dorothy” regularly obliterated and then re-painted on the bridge over the beltway approaching the Mormon Temple.
You can go to school or work every day and see at least 5 people you’ve never seen before. The same number of people have suddenly moved away.
h/t Stretch (another escapee)
Boy, ain’t that the truth (I’m one of those very rare “Native Washingtonians” – born and grew up in DC and worked in the ‘burbs for 3 decades before successfully staging my escape.)
DC’s so different from the rest of the universe I’m a little surprised that the laws of physics work there.
I’m a 7th generation Washingtonian. We were here before the city.
“You’re now part of the Federal Territory.
What’s that mean?
Taxes are going up and roads are going to Hell.”
5th generation that was federal employee or contractor (or both). 2nd generation CIA (mom was a staffer, I a contractor).
We’ve been here so long we remember when the government was white and corrupt. (Hey! They put up an 8′ statue of Marion Barry in front of the new District Building.)
I’ve seen every iteration of the dreaded Springfield Interchange. All sucked.
A great-great-grandfather died of a heat stroke suffered on the Capitol Dome. Another ancestor was a contract pilot to the Federal Navy during the Civil War.
SO happy in our new home in southern Appalachia.
If you’ve ever commuted via Metro, you don’t even question government agencies being staffed by utterly useless people. Finding someone competent who still cares is the astonishing bit.
Sounds like a Good Reason for a moving ‘MX’ Capitol… perhaps with starting by moving things to dry western states to EVAPORATE the d@mn swamp.
The simpler solution is to turn off the A/C systems “inside”, for global warming. All of them, beginning with EPA headquarters. Then turn off for the agencies scattered from Columbia to Fredericksburg.
“Swamp people got,
Swamp people got,
Nobody to love them …” (Takeoff of Randy Newman)
Things are… weird in the land of the ice and snow, to put it mildly.
And I used to “live in DC” (Bladensburg MD). Hahahahahaha 🙂
Another Native here.
Recent escapee…. I hate DC, it is a wonder I lasted so long there…
Strong message from Canada.
All- Good points and yes, that was a STRONG message from that Mountie to his peers.
I traveled to DC for work several times. Never felt the need to visit any of the monuments. The closest I came to the Washington Monument was the tee box at the 16th hole, a par 5 that looks straight at the obelisk.
The traffic is horrendous and the other people in the road, rude and obnoxious. All the times I had to drive up I-95 from the south, didn’t matter what time of day or night, right around Quantico, the highway became a parking lot.
Potomac golf course ^.
Wife and I went to DC a few years back and will NOT ever go back. We’re too old for that.
I read the RCMP bit a couple days ago.
I spent 20 years in the AF, and had no interest in being in the Pentagon.
My dad turned down a commission and a chance at flag-level positions because the AF really wanted him to go to DC for 2-6 years. Instead, he chose wisely and retired out.
After hearing stories of 1970’s level DC stupidity, well, my dad chose wisely.
As to going anywhere near DC, I speak my mind too freely to take the chance of being misunderstood, or worse, being understood by the folks in DC. Nope.
May God bless and keep those people… far far away from me.
Hah! It’s pushing 30 years since I lived in Northern Virginia, and every statement rings true from even way back then. I laughed out loud about the “Surrender Dorothy” graffiti; I’d forgotten about that.
All- Thanks! Mike, I’d forgotten about that little golf course. Short but fun, with some nice views!
I lived more or less at the intersection of the beltway and BWP for 2 years. Two years of my life I’ll never get back.
Glad I saw the monuments and museums – now I never need to go back.
What a miserable hellhole – no wonder the politicians try so hard to get there.
Denver’s now “Back East” on the other side of the Divide.