What makes a vote stupid?

Over the month or so that I've been operating this website, I've occasionally stopped to explain why I believe votes on certain kinds of bills or resolutions are stupid. However, I feel the need to consolidate all of that information and post it for all to see. I've developed a firm set of criteria on what makes a vote stupid: they come in several distinct categories.

1. Votes for resolutions that recognize birthdays or anniversaries
These are inane, even when you're recognizing the birthday of someone important to the history of the United States such as Lincoln or MLK. If you really want to honor these people, pass a good piece of legislation in their names; don't waste valuable floor time in their honor.

2. Votes for resolutions intended to honor someone after their death
Again, it seems like a terrible idea to "honor" someone's life by wasting valuable floor time in their name. If you really want to recognize and respect the life they led, give lofty speeches on your own time, or pass some useful bit of legislation in their name. Don't hold up the work of the country just to pay them lip service.

2.1. Votes for bills to create government bureaucracies to facilitate the honoring of someone after their death (added on 3/19/09 due to House Bill 131)
Yes, this literally happens. If it wasn't bad enough that congress is prone to honor people by wasting time, sometimes they'll go so far as to create commissions to tell everyone else how best to honor that person. Is this really the purpose of government?

3. Votes for resolutions intended to honor someone before their death
Congress seems to have a preoccupation with declaring heroes now and then. It is usually deserved and never necessary. If someone has done something heroic, we know it. We don't need congress to tell us when someone has done awesome things.

4. Votes for resolutions intended to honor places or institutions
Yeah, yeah, the college you went to just had its hundredth anniversary, or that national landmark is feeling particularly historic today. You don't need to cram it down our throats, especially at the expense of doing the nation's work.

5. Votes for resolutions that establish national days, weeks, months, and years of recognition, or worse, that recognize those that already exist
Do you realize that we're currently in National Banana Bread Day, National Personal Chef Day, National Engineers Week, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, American Heart Month, American History Month, American Music Month, Great American Pies Month, National Cherry Month, National Grapefruit Month, National Scottish Culture Month, National Snack Food Month, National Time Management Month, National Weddings Month, National Parent Leadership Month, National Youth Leadership Month, National Sweet Potato Month, National Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month, National Canned Food Month, National Hot Breakfast Month, National Dental Month, and National Bird Feeding Month? Do we really need more of these insane holidays that nobody has ever heard of?

6. Any, any vote that has anything to do with sports!
Of all stupid votes, this is my biggest pet peeve. It is not the job of the government to police sports, or to congratulate sports teams, or to dictate sports regulations. I don't care that they use steroids in baseball! That's baseball's problem, not the problem of the United States government.

7. Votes for congressional resolutions that congratulate congresspeople
It is a supreme irony that the simple passage of resolutions that congratulate certain congresspeople (or all congresspeople) makes congress unworthy of these congratulations. Come on guys, do good work and let history be the judge. Give me a break.

8. Votes for bills that increase congressional pay
This hasn't happened yet since I started this website, but it will. And when it does, you had better believe that I'm going to have a few words. Yeah, I'd increase my own pay if I could, but that doesn't make it right. As long as congress is wasting their time passing all the stuff I said above, they don't deserve it.

9. Votes for bills to name federal buildings
This is a bit of a sticky one. It currently requires an act of congress to name a federal building. However, it is my belief that that is absurd. Does congress really need to be spending its time picking a name for every post office and federal courthouse in the nation? Let's change that particular law and appoint some independent commission to handle those things. Congress doesn't need to be wasting their time on that stuff.

What a stupid vote is not is any vote that actually influences the way this country runs, no matter how stupid I think that influence is. I'm trying to keep my personal biases out of this (though it has been hard... so very very hard...). I'll be updating this post with more items when they come up. Feel free to leave comments with any suggestions and objections that you may have. I'll listen to them if I feel like it.