One of my left-leaning friends forwarded the following to me:

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the Public Power Monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the Municipal Water Utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Atandards [sic] and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed [sic] by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local Police Department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

The implication, of course, is that government institutions are wonderful, and without them we would have miserable lives.  I read this shaking my head, because for every government agency listed that is designed to solve an issue (safe food, education, security) there are wonderful free-market alternatives that would work so much better.  I hesitate to list them all because it’s going to offend someone deeply, someone who has benefited from one of these government programs, who is convinced that they would be homeless/sick/uneducated/unemployed/dead without them.  Even my husband disagrees with me (which is what I get for marrying a Democrat!), and I’ve given up trying to change people’s minds about it.  People WANT to have things regulated by the government (people, of course, who aren’t me).

One thing that really puzzles me, though, is this: To the folks who are horrified at socialized health care but have no problem bringing your children up with socialized education (aka public school) I gotta ask: why?  I think both are egregious levels of “taxation without representation” (theft), but if someone stole, oh, let’s just say 40% of what was in my paycheck, and said they were going to use the money to fund either education or health care, and I got to choose what my stolen money was going to go to, I’d pick  healthcare.  Is it just a matter of “the devil you know”?  Why the double standard?