07:49 – I just checked, and I’m still here. What with the government “shut down” and all, I figured I might be missing. Everyone else I’ve checked with is still here as well.
What scares the federal government, of course, is that old hippie question: “What if the government shut down and no one noticed?” So the feds are doing everything possible, as always, to make sure the impact is felt by ordinary people. I mean, shutting down the PandaCam? Way to save a few cents, guys. The feds could have RIFd a million faceless bureaucrats, but hardly anyone would have noticed for years, if ever. Instead, they close down the national parks and so on, actions calculated to have the maximum visible impact. And they make a big point about furloughing 845,000 federal employees who are not “essential”. Since no one else is apparently asking, I’ll do it: if these 845,000 employees aren’t essential, why were they employed in the first place?