You know, while not strictly on point, it occurred to me while reading this article, how we have permitted the Federal government to simply explode (pardon the pun) since around 1860.

Wars always have unintended consequences and those consequences almost always create a huge growth in state administrative infrastructure and their associated tax revenue requirements.

Now, had we just let the Southern States secede from the Union, there would have been no need for a drastic increase in the military, the military industrial complex, the national railroad and highway systems, which have their roots in the Civil War, ad infinitum, until we're are sickened. In other words, the entire obscene growth of the Federal government with the need for drastic centralization would not have transpired,

The CSA and its bankrupt dependency on human slavery would have collapsed, in any event, in a few short years from its own inefficiency and sloth, and the entire post war reconstruction period, which enabled antebellum southern hegemony to reestablish itself would have made the following 100 years of black American suffering unlikely to have happened at all.

All because of war!

And, on point, Madam Secretary is a sterling role model for the lack of integrity in government service. She deserves no additional comment or attention.

Unintended consequences... Imagine that...One would think that, that is a new concept... Silly, silly people. I so tire of having to pay for the lack of foresight in others... whenever somebody say's "there ought to be a law", or 'somebody ought to do something about that." I think if you don't like something, do something about it yourself. The best of times are when the government does nothing, because that is all they do well...