Let’s Be Friends

There's waste of taxpayers' money and then there's waste of taxpayers' money...

By Daniel J. Mitchel

While most of my disdain is focused on the clowns in Washington, I enjoy poking fun at the policies adopted by the various nitwits and thugs that can be found in other governments.

** That’s why I’ve mocked the British government-run healthcare system for letting a woman die when officials failed to notice a six-inch toilet brush handle embedded in her buttocks.

** That’s why I’ve laughed at the German tax police for spending 30 times as much money as they collected in an investigation of untaxed online sales of coffee beans.

** That’s why I’ve heaped abuse on Japanese regulators for arresting people for providing coffee enemas without government licenses.

But this story from Norway may be the worst example of government stupidity. The taxpayers apparently are going to pay money to provide friends for a piece of human refuse who murdered 77 people.

"The Norwegian prison where Anders Behring Breivik may be locked up for massacring 77 people last year will hire people with whom he can socialise, to keep him away from other inmates, media reported Thursday. …To avoid keeping the confessed killer in total isolation, the high security prison, northwest of Oslo, could let him play sports with the guards and hire someone to play chess with him, among other things, he added. “We are planning a professional community around him, with employees and hired personnel,” he told the paper. Bjarkeid did not say how much the measures would cost. Norwegian law forbids keeping prisoners in total isolation for long periods of time because it is considered an unduly cruel punishment."

I would think “unduly cruel” is a grossly inadequate description of what he did when he killed dozens of teenagers, but I’m old fashioned. So forgive me if I’m not overwhelmed by grief at the thought of Mr. Breivik living an isolated life in prison.

But I guess the Norwegians are running out of other ways to waste their oil revenue, so why not squander some of it on a buy-a-friend program for a killer.

P.S. If you like outrageous examples of government stupidity, check out this post comparing nutty policies in the United States and United Kingdom.