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Some Pennsylvania bureaucrats have lost their minds, probably somewhere in the stack of papers their shuffling, after noticing how much money the state was losing by not enforcing an arcane law established long before anybody ever heard of eBay.

A Pennsylvania woman, eBay seller, and mother to an infant with a brain tumor is the government's target. That was sort of the whole point of finding an at-home form of income, which eBay provided for her. But the pencil-pushers, like the claims adjusters, aren't there to feel for anyone, they're there to make sure their reports look good to their superiors.

In this case, a Pennsylvania regulator (bean-counter, egghead, extortionist, Vogon, revenuer—whatever) from the Department of State is prosecuting Mary Jo Pletz for running an eBay store without an auctioneer's license.

You know, one of those licenses that says you've been trained in rhythmic speed talk only intelligible to the people who've been around a bit, those who know the price per pound of their livestock and know what that rapid cadence is saying because it's a rhythm they've known all their lives.

Pletz does her auctioneering online, the State Department doesn't see much of a distance—after all, it does contain the word "auction" in it. Let's hope they don't run across a wombat or a mongoose anytime soon; God knows they'll classify them as birds of flight.

If pushed to the letter of the law, Pletz could owe the state government $1,000 per selling without a license infraction, would amount to around $10 million, but, if convicted, another source says the fine would be limited to $2,000.

The last we heard of something like this was back in 2005, when several states had planned to crack down on online auctioneers. We've come at least a little ways in the past couple of years, though. There's at least one Pennsylvania legislator is looking to remedy the situation, calling Peltz' case "bureaucracy run amok."

As if bureaucracy, in whatever anthropomorphic guise it takes, would ever "run" anywhere or anyhow. Perhaps he should have said "bureaucracy stuck in muck," which is always more accurate.