The Easier-For-Them Association

John Derbyshire is one of my favorite writers over at National Review. He's observant and curmudgeonly, and bears an unusual resemblance to John Cleese.

One of the best things he's written - at least, of those things I've read - is an expose of the Easier-For-The-Association. What on earth is the Easier-For-Them Association? Derbyshire explains:

The aim of this secret brotherhood is to infiltrate all organizations whose chartered purpose is to serve the public in some way. Once they have taken up key positions in such an organization, the EFTA moles then set about subverting all its processes and procedures — enlisting the aid of corrupt or unsuspecting legislators when necessary — so that the work of the organization, instead of being oriented towards true public service, is redirected towards the ease and comfort of the organization's employees.

In particular, public employees.  If you've ever been tempted to throw a brick through the window of your local motor vehicles office, if you wonder why getting a permit to build a deck on the back of your house is a Kafka-esque affair, if you fume to your neighbors because your local animal control people refused to track down the fox that attacked your two cats but instead fined you fifty bucks per cat because you neglected to buy cat licenses for them,* then you have been the victim of the work of the EFTA.

More here.

* Yes, that last actually happened, here in the Democratic People's Republic of Alexandria, Virginia. But that's the subject of another post.