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A Christmas Gift for the Bureaucrat You Love

Radley Balko | 12.7.2007 8:41 AM

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From the National Archives. 

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Radley Balko is a journalist at The Washington Post.

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  1. Episiarch   18 years ago

    A Christmas Gift for the Bureaucrat You Love

    Silly Radley, no one loves a bureaucrat.

  2. sage   18 years ago

    I guess they'll put this next to the original "bullshit."

    Actually, I'm not sure that belongs in quotes.

  3. Guy Montag   18 years ago

    Thank you Radley!

    There is this hottie IT Portfolio Manager gal over in Army DCS G-3/5/7 Battle Command - Futures that I had my eye on.

  4. cynical bastard   18 years ago

    Episiarch: Maybe, but they sure are out of stock on it.

  5. Reinmoose   18 years ago

    OUT OF STOCK!?

  6. sage   18 years ago

    That's ok, guys. I have some extras I could send you for a nominal charge. But before anyone accuses me, I didn't take some duct tape, paint it red, and shove it between two pieces of lexan with a sheet of paper off my word processor.

  7. LarryA   18 years ago

    We are currently out of stock on this item. Please check back later.

    The item they're out of is the bits of tape encased in lucite. Thy have plenty of red tape, but it's required for its original purpose. They'll run out of lucite before they run out of red tape.

    This encased bit of "red tape" is from Civil War documents found in the records of the Union Army, by volunteers of the Civil War Records Conservation Corp at the National Archives.

    Proof positive: Red tape never wears out.

  8. Guy Montag   18 years ago

    Out of stock 🙁 Guess I will just have to buy her a drink instead.

  9. sage   18 years ago

    Guy,

    Buy her two. Or five.

  10. Guy Montag   18 years ago

    sage,

    I don't know if regular drinks will do it. Might need a bottle of this stuff.

  11. John   18 years ago

    Anyone else find it ironic that this stupid piece of red tape has been preserved in glass making it near impossible to actually cut through in the name of preserving a stupid idea? At least now I have something to hurl through the window at the DMV.

  12. Guy Montag   18 years ago

    John,

    My fellow Tennesseeians now have something to hurl at the Capitol during the annual income tax attempt by the Legeslature too.

  13. Abdul   18 years ago

    I tried to order some, but I didn't have the time to submit a passport, retinal scan, application forms in triplicate notarized by a bilingual attorney and mailed by registered mail to seven different agencies.

  14. sage   18 years ago

    Abdul,

    Don't forget to use a ballpoint when filling out those forms.

    "Impossible. A ball cannot have a point."

  15. lunchstealer   18 years ago

    Silly Radley, no one loves a bureaucrat.

    Yes, but is it possible to build a relationship between bureaucrats that, when questioned by an outside observer, cannot be distinguished from love?

  16. Guy Montag   18 years ago

    lunchstealer,

    That so-called 'love' concept, does it require more paperwork than lust?

  17. lunchstealer   18 years ago

    Absolutely. That's the beauty of it.

  18. Just sayin\'   18 years ago

    Silly Radley, no one loves a bureaucrat.

    my father was a bureaucrat

  19. Episiarch   18 years ago

    my father was a bureaucrat

    My condolances.

  20. J sub D   18 years ago

    Proof positive: Red tape never wears out.

    No, but it apperas to fornicate and multiply. (Too much fucking red tape!).

  21. R C Dean   18 years ago

    Dean WANT!

  22. bergamot   18 years ago

    Um guys?

    This is nothing new; I bought one of these at the NA gift shop years ago. It was in an envelope instead of a plastic block, but same red tape, same caption, etc.

  23. Kwix   18 years ago

    To be a pedant that fabric is not a twill, it is a plainweave.

    Figures, bureaucrats making gifts for other bureaucrats can't get their shit right either.

  24. K.   18 years ago

    If I'm gonna get a cool block of glass, I'm going to get this one:

    http://michaelgr.com/2007/11/19/in-the-mail-dna-crystal/

  25. Red Tapist   18 years ago

    Painted with the menstrual fluids of Lady Liberty herself!

  26. Anita   15 years ago

    Do you still have this available? I'd buy this as a gift in a heartbeat.

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