Mrs. Wolf here.

Chuck has joined up with my husband and Seth in what is hopefully to be the final chapter of a difficulty Seth got himself into (not by fault, but due to his loyalty to a man who was employed by him, but I suppose that was all explained previously, or will be, when it’s all over, by one of the unholy trinity who usually post hereabouts) almost two years ago.

In the meantime, I have inherited the duty of attempting to keep things afloat, as Wolf would say. Chuck disappeared about a month and a half ago and left it all to me, but I’ve been so busy that this is actually my first opportunity to stick my two cents into the scheme of things.

What I want to post today is an article from todays New York Post that, knowing Seth as I have for over thirty years, would be right up his alley. He does, after all, tend to get his hackles up when he perceives that the government (the folks who are supposed to protect and defend us against all enemies, foreign and domestic) exhibits a complete lack of security competence in one matter or another, thereby failing, or potentially failing, in its protective duties.

Here we have a case in point

It’s enough to drive someone mad.

In a stunning security lapse, the federal General Services Administration mistakenly shipped nearly three dozen license plates marked “U.S. Government — For Official Use Only” to a humble Queens accountant, The Post has learned.
The foul-up is part of a troubling pattern of lost license plates at the agency, which handles plates for every federal office except the military.

“I don’t know how it happened. Mistakes can happen, but I guess in this day and age, you want to be careful,” said Antonio Guadagnino, who received the package, addressed to him, via UPS at his small Astoria office.

“If they ended up in the wrong hands, they could be used to get into secure places. Not everyone is so honest,” added Guadagnino, who said that he never held a federal contract and that his business consists mostly of personal income-tax returns.
Unsure of what to do with the plates, he handed them over to state Sen. Michael Gianaris, whose district office is in the same building.

But, Gianaris said, the GSA didn’t appear overly concerned.

“The reaction we got was that this was business as usual,” he said.
“This is not a time in our nation’s history to be screwing around with federal identification. What would happen if they wound up in someone else’s hands, someone who thought he could profit selling them — or worse?”

The GSA didn’t even bother to make arrangements to claim the plates until The Post made inquiries Friday. Only then did it rush over to take them.

Of course “it” did.

While Seth would kind of steam over stupidity like this (just imagine some disciple of Osama bin Laden behind the wheel of a vehicle sporting a set of these “official business” government plates driving through the gates of a nuclear power plant or some other volatile compound with a trunk full of explosives), my husband, having been turned profoundly sardonic by over 30 years of what he terms in-depth military and related “behind the scenes” government experience, would just laugh uproariously as he always does at unadulterated idiocy-slash-negligence, that or just shake his head in utter disgust, then pour himself a glass of Jack Daniels.

Now, just imagine how much more of this kind of thing goes on that we don’t hear or read about.