See? I knew it.

  I had to laugh at a typo in the following e-mail that I got in response to an e-mail I sent one of my Senators regarding the Patriot Act.  I had sent a brief e-mail to Ben Cardin suggesting it was time to let the Patriot Act sunset.  Of course, he is of the opposite opinion and wants to continue to allow roving wiretaps, etc., etc., “for the safety of America” but with “greater oversight from Congress”.  Ha.  It is to laugh.  As though Congress had sight in the first place, much less OVERsight.  In any case, at least one of his staffers responded with an e-mail on the correct topic, which is better than I usually get from these cats.
But notice, in the response, the typo in the sentence which begins, “At the same time,”…
E-mail from Senator Ben Cardin’s office:

“Dear …,

“Thank you for writing to me with your concerns about the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act.

“On April 21, 2009, I held a hearing as the Chairman of the Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The hearing was entitled “Protecting National Security and Civil Liberties: Strategies for Terrorism Information Sharing.”  I understand that there is a delicate balance between maintaining national security and protecting constitutional civil liberties.  We must make sure that our law enforcement and intelligence professionals have the tools they need at their disposal to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks.  At the same time, we must insure that our government uses its scare resources wisely, and that it strikes an appropriate balance between national security and protecting civil liberties.”

You see the “scare” resources?  I think he meant “scarce” resources, but the thought of Congress allocating funds for the express purpose of scaring the populace sounded at once so outrageous and yet accurate that I laughed out loud when I read it.  I believe I need to answer this e-mail with some suggestion about moving the scare resources to a better fund; perhaps this money would be more wisely used in the S-CHIP programs or education.