Adventures in Bureaucracy

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Great moments in abasement:
"The US needs the investment in Treasury bonds to shore up its economy to continue to buy Chinese products."

Am I overreacting, or is this a national humiliation?

¶ 21:06

Vaclav Klaus has incensed the Europeans again.

¶ 14:49

When politics and Catholicism collide.

¶ 14:32

Current events in Washington make me wish I were away. Far, far away. And coincidentally enough, there was a recent post about a recent escape:
The Skeptical Bureaucrat: Endless Energy, But Out of Our Reach

It may be impractical to pull all the hydrocarbons from Titan and bring them back here to Earth, but it's close enough for a quick getaway. The Air and Space Museum on the Mall has an exhibit of photos from the Cassini probe to Saturn, and Titan featured in the collection. I was quite the astronomy geek as a child (it's just the "astronomy" part that's changed, unfortunately), so I found it fascinating to see how much more we know about the outer planets than they had those big picture books I read a couple decades ago.

¶ 13:50

Interesting piece on Confessions. One Connecticut parish is bringing back the screen. I really like that idea, and judging from the comment section, I am not the only one. It might bring me to confession at my own church instead of one across town...

¶ 13:00

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

How do you feel about this spending bill working its way through Congress?

It is like sitting there watching my house ransacked by a gang of thugs.

There were lines dozens deep trying to get their fat noses inside to sup at the trough of what used to be America's future. They had placards and matching t-shirts, they were all smiling and slapping each other on the back as they stole our fucking prosperity. I went from the bliss that the possibility of riches for me and mine gives to the despair of knowing the weasels were stealing more than I could make right before my goddamn eyes.

¶ 19:58

Sunday, February 08, 2009

As long as they are shovelling great quantities of money about willy-nilly in Congress, I think they should give an across-the-board raise to everyone in federal service.

I would certainly find that stimulating.

¶ 22:03

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Neolithic remains predating the Bosphorus found in Istanbul. Just to give an idea of how very old the human settlement in the area is:

"We're expecting to find more - maybe a small settlement," Yasar Anilir explains. "We have to remove the Byzantine ships first, then we can complete our dig." (via)

¶ 21:24

Snap! But tell us how you really feel...

¶ 21:22

More tension between Europe (i.e., France) and the Czech Republic (i.e., not European enough):

Czech Deputy Prime Minister for EU Affairs Alexandr Vondra today protested against the doubts on the Czech Republic's ability to hold the EU presidency that has appeared in the French press close to the government.
Vondra alluded to the words by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that while France was acting, Germany was thinking.
"Today we proclaim: while France is belching geysers of ideas, thinking of organising one summit after another, Czech EU presidency is hard working so that at least some of the ideas could be implemented without general finances going bust in the EU," Vondra said.

¶ 21:00

This captures my opinion pretty succinctly:

I have mixed feelings about President Obama’s proposal. Government-imposed pay restrictions are a very bad idea. We have 40 centuries of evidence showing that price controls always undermine economic performance.
But in the case of executives who came begging to the feds after mismanaging their companies: Sorry, guys, you asked for it.

¶ 20:49