It has recently occurred to me that the single most offensive thing about government in general is its truly impressive ability to accept, codify, and institutionalize massive cognitive dissonance and work toward opposite goals at the same time.

The same president who asks Congress to pay $200 billion in 2008 for operations in Iraq says that an additional $6 billion for expanding child health insurance programs and $22 billion added by Democrats to appropriations are fiscally irresponsible. Just 11 days of the occupation for Iraq could pay for thousands of children to get adequate healthcare, but that's socialism.

Our administration also takes the same stance on fundamental principles, such as democracy and nuclear non-proliferation. It's okay when Saudi Arabia persecutes women and has an absolute monarchy, but Iran has a president elected by universal suffrage and is seen as the biggest threat to democracy in the Middle East. Moreover, the west is currently attempting to stall Iran's development of nuclear energy (not weapons, power plants) because they have the idea that Iran is secretly trying to make weapons, saying a nuclear Iran would destabilize the Middle East and lead to war, but Israel's all but certain nuclear weapons are not at all a problem for the west.

With thinking like that, no wonder the government is dysfunctional.