Let us take a moment of silence and just give thanks for our good fortune: Congress is finally out of session for the summer.

The big news is that Congress failed to “deal” with the gasoline crisis. Oh, drat.

Now the country is in really big danger because Congress couldn’t save us from those evil, greedy, soul-sucking oil companies who somehow discovered how to pipe up all that muck of old dinosaur bones. You know, that “black gold”…”Texas tea” the liberals will need to transport themselves to the Democratic National Convention, and that stuff even the green-loving Pope uses to run the Popemobile.

So, just what did Congress do? Well, between the House and Senate, they managed to craft 7,192 bills. According to GovTrack.us, there are over 10,000 bills introduced during each 2-year Congressional term, and in 2008 17 bills became law.

(Busy little bees, weren’t they?)

Check out these websites to see what bills are still being processed in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. And that doesn’t even count what’s going on at the state level.

I warn you though, prepare yourself for a dizzying experience that must resemble the overwhelming suffocation of getting caught in an avalanche. The sheer volume and breadth of issues being addressed by Congress is smothering.

But they seem to have no problem with it. Does this bother any of you, by chance? Should we have the kind of social system in which our government hyper-super-micro-ultra-manages our lives?

What should be a proper social system? Ayn Rand, the famous novelist and philosopher, says the following:

A social system is a code of laws which men observe in order to live together. Such a code must have a basic principle, a starting point, or it cannot be devised. The starting point is the question: Is the power of society limited or unlimited?

Individualism answers: The power of society is limited by the inalienable, individual rights of man. Society may make only such laws as do not violate these rights.

Collectivism answers: The power of society is unlimited. Society may make any laws it wishes, and force them upon anyone in any manner it wishes.

When Congress returns, they will continue their inexorable, frenetic push towards a collectivist society—structured not on the basis of rational principles, but according to a massively tangled and matted web of laws and regulations.

So, I wish the members of Congress a long and lovely summer break. Maybe they could relax with nice summer afternoon naps. Perhaps a little gardening in the early morning while it’s still cool would be invigorating and refreshing.

Or how about those Congressional members catching up on some reading with a really good book–an epic novel of our times written over 50 years ago: “Atlas Shrugged.”