So Congress just passed another $95 billion appropriation for Iraq. What have we spent now, as we pass the (no doubt to be largely ignored) milestone of 2500 dead soldiers? And how little a dab of that $95 billion would have taken to hire a few more folks to mow grass and do maintenance at parks that honor victims of previous wars? Per the NPS Morning Report:

On the evening of Saturday, June 10th, after working in the park all day, Don Turner, a maintenance employee at Manassas National Battlefield Park, died from a massive heart attack. As the maintenance staff in the park dwindled because of tightening budgets, Don worked harder to make sure that the park always put forward its best appearance for its visitors. He was so dedicated that when we had to bring our employees in from the field during heat advisories, we had to go out and find him and get him off his tractor.

Any of you in northern Virginia have any idea how much 5000 acres of open, pristine landscape would go for in that market if it were put on the auction block to developers?

That’s next. Mark my words. Gettysburg’s already in the process of being privatized with their new “public-private” financing for a hopelessly overblown visitor center. Hey, maybe the Disney folks could run this more efficiently, don’tcha think?

And little dumps like Manassas were nice in their day but c’mon, who really needs all those memorials to some long ago war that nobody is all that interested in. And besides, the NPS can’t take care of them, being bloated gummint bureaucracies whose overpaid employees just laze around sucking at the public teat.

Look at all that litter. They must be letting the grass grow high to cover it up.