"Have you commented on the Forest Consumption Plan yet?"
    Angela had just chopped off a nice, fat leaf chunk when Rufus accosted her.
    "Hey, what are you trying to do, break the line?" she asked sharply. "We get evaluated on the integrity of our lines!  You want to get dinged for broken lines?"
    "Uh, no. But this is important, Angie," Rufus insisted. "The Forest Consumption Plan ..."
    "Go on, Rufus!" said Angela, expertly balancing her leaf chunk. "We put that old clunker to rest under the last regime.  Every ant in the colony spoke against it."
    "Well, don't look now," said Rufus, "but it's back.  The new Queen is opening it up again.  If we don't speak up again, she's going to turn the forest over to the termites!"
    "Oh, my!" gasped Angela. "We need these trees.  Just to survive, for Pete's sake.  I can't understand why our Queens keep wanting to give them away to the termites."
    "Maybe because the Isoptera keep selecting our Queens?" ventured Rufus. "Anyway, you'd better put in your comment on the plan ..."

    So, when her shift was over, Angela logged on to the internet and went to www.hymenopteraforestservice.com to comment on the proposed Forest Consumption Plan.  This was the plan:

      Whereas forests are made of trees, which are made of wood,
          Whereas termites eat wood, and ants don't,
          It is hereby proposed that we let the termites chow down at will.

    And Angela entered her comments:

        As I said the last time this hare-brained plan was proposed, this is the stupidest idea
        to come down the pike since plastic plants.  We Leaf Cutters depend on trees for our
             livelihood.  What kind of sense does it make to give them away to wood eaters?  I
             may not have a brain like the higher animals, but even I can see this is screwy.

    A few days later, Angela again encountered Rufus in the leaf line.
    "Hey, Rufe!" she called in between chewing on a leaf. "I put in my comment."
    "Yeah, have you heard the latest?"
    "Sure," she said. "Everyone nixed the idea again."
    "No, since then," said Rufus. "The Queen has designated a tract of forest to give to the termites, effective immediately."
    "Wha-a-at?" gasped Angela. "But everyone is against it!  Can she do that?"
    Rufus shrugged what shoulders he had.  "I don't know.  She's doing it."
    "Well, we'll see about that," said Angela.

    So, Angela determined to see the Queen.
    "Your Highness," she began.
    "Ah, always glad to talk to a subject," said the Queen. "Provided that you aren't supposed to be hauling leaves.  You aren't on duty, are you?"
    "No, Your Highness," said Angela. "Just got off my shift.  I was just wondering about the Forest Consumption Plan."
    "Ah, yes," said the Queen. "The termites are on their way as we speak."
    "But we all said this plan was a bad idea when it was first proposed.  All of us.  Almost to an insect!"
    "Yes," said the Queen benignly, "but that was under my wimpy, tree-hugging predecessor.  So, we had to open it up for comment again."
    "But we all rejected it again," said Angela. "Why did you go ahead with it anyway?"
    "Because ... Let me tell you a joke," said the Queen.
    "A joke, Your Majesty?"
    "How many termites does it take to screw in a light bulb?" asked the Queen.
    "Uh, I have no idea," said Angela.
    "None!" chortled the Queen. "They're all busy eating the house.  The light bulb can go screw itself!"
    "I don't understand," said Angela.
    "Well, you see, the termites aren't interested in light bulbs ..."
    "No, no," Angela cut in. "I understand the joke.  I just don't understand what it has to do with giving away the forest to termites."
    "If I had told that joke to everyone in our colony," said the Queen, "a lot of them would have said it takes several hundred or several thousand termites to screw in the light bulb.  Some of them might have said one, two, or some other number.  A few of them would have gotten the correct answer.  The point is that the riddle has a correct answer.  Just because most insects get the answer wrong doesn't change that fact.  The Forest Consumption Plan is just the same.  There is a right answer.  I gave you a chance to get it.  You didn't, but the right answer is still the right answer."
    "But our forest isn't a light bulb joke," Angela protested. "And how can throwing it away be the right answer?"
   "Let me answer that with a joke," said the Queen.

In 2001, the American public overwhelmingly supported the Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a plan to protect our National Forests from logging.  Apparently not happy with this, the Bush administration reopened the rule for public comment.  Again, the public overwhelmingly supported it .  Now, the Bush Forest Service, in blatant disregard for the public's wishes, is opening the National Forests to loggers.