Here's what I don't understand...

Why would an otherwise 'socially conscious' dog walker take the time to pick up the poo in a little plastic bag, tie the top of the bag off carefully in a knot, walk over to the curb or the side of the trail and drop the plastic bag there... and walk away? The poo would have disintegrated with the next rain. The plastic bag remains on the trail for a very long time.

Why are things that taste great, bad for you - and things that taste bad, good for you?

Why do we generally get sick on Friday afternoons when it is too late to call the doctor?

Why do the same people who drive 10 miles an hour under the speed limit still drive the same speed through a school zone - which is now 25 miles per hour OVER?

Why do we have to ADD taxes specifically to pay for police and fire protection and schools and road repair? Aren't those the things we actually pay taxes for in the first place?

And so, the corollary to that - why are police, fire, schools and roads the very FIRST things to get cut when government has to cut back? (When money is tight for me I stop splurges - going out to dinner, buying more clothes, or heating the house as warm as I'd like. I don't stop paying my mortgage or buying food. I certainly don't fund research into turtle migrations. Or keep paying battalions of middle managers whose job it is to think up tax hikes and cuts in services. Washington's governor - and her entourage - is once again out gallivanting on a world tour, courtesy of the taxpayer, 'promoting' the state to the Japanese and the Germans and whoever else has a place she'd like to visit, all the while giving soundbites to the press about how it is too bad that the voters in this election just didn't 'get' that we need new taxes because the budget troubles for the state are running so deep that no one will get even basic services without them. Presumably she'll get her travel budget though.)

Oh dear.

Why do we have to have winter? That's what all this lack of understanding is really about.