god’s way of remaining anonymous

It is just as well that I keep up with as many weblogs as I do, otherwise I would have missed an interesting coincidence.
On the one hand, Bob S. points out how the EPA is desperately trying to extend its control over all bodies of water, regardless of whether that water is navigable, seasonal, or simply left over from a recent rainfall:

The Clean Water Restoration Act currently pending in the U.S. Senate could reach to control even a “seasonal puddle” on private property.

Eleven senators and 17 representatives in the U.S. House have sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasting the measure as one of the boldest property grab attempts of all time.

This bill is described by opponents as a sweeping overhaul of the Clean Water Act that could threaten both physical land and jobs by wiping out some farmers entirely.

“Right now, the law says that the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of all navigable water,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Western Caucus and an opponent of the bill.

“Well, this bill removes the word ‘navigable,’ so for ranchers and farmers who have mud puddles, prairie potholes — anything from snow melting on their land — all of that water will now come under the regulation of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency,” he said.

[...]

Aside from striking “navigable,” the bill defines U.S. water as “all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters.”

It adds that any “activities affecting these waters are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.”

I wonder what version of the Constitution these petty bureaucrats have…
On the other hand, zombywolf questions why the EPA is buying Glocks:

NAICS code 332994 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigations Division intends to award a sole source firm-fixed-price Purchase Order to Glock, Inc. under the authority of FAR Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures for 40 Model G-19, 9mm frame handguns with finger grove and rail frames, Tijico night sights, extended magazine catches and 3.5lb/NY1 Trigger magazines.

Of course, it would be great if the government could spell “Trijicon” right…
So, am I saying these two situations are incontrovertibly and inexorably tied together? Not really. I am just pointing out an interesting coincidence. Am I saying those 40 guns are the beginning of the weaponization of the EPA? Not particularly. But I am saying it could be – after all, hoplophobes around the country have long since decried these particular firearms as “only being designed to kill people”, and even I have to admit that if the DC-based pencil-necks were concerned about the safety of their agents in the wild, there are better sidearms for aggressive ursidae. Am I saying that the EPA has absolutely no business regulating a seasonal wet spot in my hypothetical yard that I might want to drain one day? Absolutely. Am I saying that the EPA has even less business arming their agents in any capacity whatsoever? Absolutely. We have police forces and Federal Marshalls for a reason.
And just to add one last flair of borderline-conspiracy to this post, remember how the EPA was founded and the only person to whom it is responsible.