I'm a Rare Civil Servant

I don't mean that I am a stunningly handsome man, which is obvious (despite the porcupine that attached itself to my chin last Winter). I mean that I am a civil servant who is surrounded by competence.
The overwhelming majority of those with whom I have the privilege of working are extremely competent people.
Government employees often are the butt of jokes - more often than Rednecks, Nuns, Lawyers, and Catholic Priests. Well, maybe not Catholic Priests. They're pretty funny, unless you happen to be a 9 year-old altar boy.
Have you ever heard the expression "close enough for government work"? I don't know what that means. I mean, I know what it means - that half-assed work is acceptable if done by government employees working to government standards. I mean, I don't know anyone or any job in Government that the aforementioned expression accurately depicts. Unacceptable work is unacceptable work, whether or not the Government is behind it. Between military service and Federal Civil Service, I have been on the job for nearly twenty-five years, and I can can say without a moment's pause that I can count on one hand the number of truly stupid, lazy, incompetent people who cannot be pried away from the Government tit (for those of you who object to the word "tit," please insert the word "teet," but avoid using the words "suck" or "suckle" in conjunction with "tit" or "teet" at any cost). My problem is that I can count, and each one of those bozos who I do know is drawing a Government paycheck, which is like flushing cash down a toilet. I don't mean like flushing Recovery Act dollars down a toilet that is being designed and constructed next to a highway paving project that doesn't really need to be done (trumpeted by really nice signs that cost millions to produce and place along the route of the road to be paved). I mean like flushing actual cash down an actual toilet.