You know those state budget deficits that people like Paul Krugman have been whining about? The ones that are causing states to have to slash desperately needed services? Ever wonder what causes them? Well, if you're Krugman, of course, you don't wonder: it's George Bush's fault. All of it. But for the rest of us, read this story of state bureaucracy run amok, and get a slightly different perspective on why state budgets are in the red, and why their "desperately needed services" aren't always so.
So whose religion is more rigid and archaic: those who worship a pre-industrial era, or those who worship the nanny state? I'm not sure, but I do know that only one of the two is trying to impose personal religious beliefs on others.
(On the other hand, kudos to the town officials, who injected some desperately needed common sense into government.)