At Home in Hespeler

I like to use the phrase “the pimply minions of bureaucracy,” on this blog. It comes from a 1799 quote from an unknown naval officer, regarding the introduction of an income tax:

It is a vile, Jacobian, jumped up Jack-in-Office piece of impertinence – is a true Briton to have no privacy? Are the fruits of his labour and toil to be picked over, farthing by farthing, by the pimply minions of bureaucracy?”

It seems a Pimply Minion Rebellion is on.

From Ezra Levant:

First came the health department. They poked and prodded, and even took water samples. No one has ever got sick at a Jaworski barbecue — the opposite; everyone comes for the food — but the government ordered that no home cooking would be allowed. The Jaworskis complied with these costly and ridiculous demands, catering the whole weekend and serving only bottled water, at great cost. But bureaucrats travel in packs. A local bylaw enforcement officer waited until the barbecue itself, and marched right onto the property — no search warrant needed! — and started peppering the guests with questions. He wasn’t a health officer; he was a bylaw officer. Yet he demanded to know what the guests had for lunch. In the name of the law! Armed with this devastating information, the officer charged Peter’s parents with running an illegal “commercial conference centre,” which carries a fine of up to $50,000. The officer, a burly, tattooed, six-foot-something man, told Peter’s mom to “be very careful.” She burst into tears.

In using the pimply minions part of the quote, I sometimes forget the second, also wonderful, portion of it, and it fits here. This is a “vile, Jacobian, jumped up Jack-in-Office piece of impertinence,” if ever I have seen one.

Brian Gardiner Jacobian Piece of Impertinence, pimply minions of bureaucracy Clarington, Ezra Levant, Liberty Summer Seminar, Peter Jaworski