Adventures in Bureaucracy

2010-12-17T10:21:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been a while. This site has been a victim of a combination of finally buckling and learning to live with Facebook and WAY too much going on in the real world.

2010-08-05T08:47:00.001-04:00

How long after it sells before we see the headline "Whose Sari Now?"?

2010-06-21T09:44:00.001-04:00

When I first saw something about "thirty-two nations, one goal", I figured it was a projection of the accumulated scoring at World Cup. Zzz....

2010-05-25T22:31:00.001-04:00

"If you’re a young person who’s ever thought it would have been cool to grow up in the 1970s, take it from me: it was horrible. Chowchilla. Patty Hearst. Watergate. Manson, Jim Jones, the Son of Sam and Zebra killers. Stagflation. Drugs. Swingers. Deep Throat. Dead hitchhikers every five minutes. The hostage crisis. Powder blue, cap sleeve t-shirts with two ironed-on fried eggs across the chest.

The best way to experience the 1970s, if you insist, is to rent a bunch of movies like Network, Americathon (1979), Winter Kills (1979), Nashville (1975), The Parallax View (1974) (and even The Ice Storm [1997]) but watch them all back to back in a completely darkened room, sitting in a really uncomfortable chair. Shut the drapes, close the windows. No snacks, smokes or booze. Ideally? Put some kind of a bag over your head. Without an atmosphere of sheer claustrophobia, you won’t get the full suffocating 70s experience. If you don’t come away wishing you had ready access to a portable oxygen tank, you did it wrong.
...
You only think I’m kidding. The 1970s actually. Were. That. Bad.

2010-05-23T15:42:00.001-04:00

Good to know there are others out there who have acknowledged a universal truth:

As a rule, all change is bad.

2010-04-07T21:29:00.002-04:00

This just struck me as funny:

When you listen to the performance, you also hear a very creepy, demonic muttering all throughout. ... We think it might be Michelle Obama.

2010-01-31T22:43:00.002-05:00

This is kind of interesting - fifty new states with roughly equal populations.

2010-01-30T16:59:00.002-05:00

Those Romans really built stuff to last. Amazing that things are still being rediscovered 1900 years later.

I think the Aqua Alsietina figured prominently in one of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries, which I really enjoy. Too bad it's been a little difficult to find some of the earlier ones, which seem to be out of print, and I read them out of order anyway. Last time I was in England I stocked up on a bunch of them. And I just now found out - thanks to the author's site - there was a new one last year.

I'm snowbound anyway (dusting my foot), so looks like it's time to check out Amazon.

2010-01-30T16:26:00.002-05:00

Nice to see they've got their priorities in order.

It reminds me of those Congressional hearings on steroids in baseball, when I wondered why Congress was involved at all.

2010-01-30T16:17:00.001-05:00

Some things are hysterically funny because they are entirely outside of my understanding. Like this.

2010-01-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

Once I read the headline, I had to read it to the end.

2010-01-09T17:40:00.003-05:00

So the new year begins with the announcement that the first transsexual has been appointed to a high-level government position. (Apparently despite the rumors J. Edgar Hoover doesn't count.) Fine. But when I saw the picture, I immediately thought about one thing: Emily "I am a lady, I do lady's things" Howard. Seriously, I can't be the only one to see the resembleance, right?

It must just be that particular picture though, because the other picture in the image search doesn't look like that at all.

2009-12-20T21:15:00.001-05:00

Was it Sarah Palin who said there's no place like Nome for the holidays?

Because after one twenty-inch snowfall, I'm ready for an Australian-style Christmas in the sun.

2009-12-14T21:48:00.004-05:00

I am steering clear of the whole issue of the number of federal employees with six-figure salaries, and instead will bring up a related story:

Feds owe Uncle Sam $3B in unpaid taxes.

And the good news is that my department is not the most flagrant offender! Sure, DHS is up there with $35.5 million owed, which is nothing to sneeze at, but that's nothing compared to Veteran's Affairs and the Postal Service. Considering all the other bad press we get, the fact that we are not among the worst is actually a little refreshing.

Just cough up the money, you deadbeats.

Another bureaucrat - a skeptical one - comments on the issue, and the pay issue as well.

Meanwhile, another bureaucrat - an angry, drunk one - gets all philosophical.

2009-12-13T22:08:00.003-05:00

There's a lot of truth in humor:

Tattoos theoretically could be thoughtful additions to your appearance. Unfortunately there are thousands of tattoo parlors (many open 24 hours) and people just don't have that many thoughts. So most are stupid.

Just a little time spent on a beach -- or even in an airport -- is enough to confirm that last statement as objectively true.

2009-12-05T16:42:00.002-05:00

This may be the strangest mental image of the entire week:

"All around the world, mimes are gesturing wildly in protest!"

It reminds me of the good old days in college, when I had a roommate who would prank call mimes and castigate them for speaking on the phone. Good times, good times.

2009-11-26T08:19:00.001-05:00

Fun with pie charts. Among other things.

2009-11-22T21:38:00.002-05:00

Mattel to produce "Burka Barbie"?

"I can't wait to see the girls trying to accessorize this doll. ... We should all just hope that the doll is never caught watching TV with Ken."

2009-11-22T21:23:00.002-05:00

Speaking of malevolent...

"Mars Attacks" was overrated, but it did have some good scenes to it. One that comes to mind is the Martians repeating "We come in peace!" even as they are shooting at everything that moves. I get kind of the same vibe every time I hear about the health care bill: "We're saving money!" even as the proposals add billions and billions (where's Carl Sagan when you need him?) to an already overextended federal budget. I don't believe the words, and I don't trust the motives.

Hmmm.......

2009-11-21T16:48:00.002-05:00

So I was watching television the other day and was wondering whether I was the only one to think Timothy Geithner looked like a malevolent escapee from the Keebler tree.

Apparently I am not the first to have this thought.

2009-09-09T20:46:00.002-04:00

It's been a while, but things have been busy in my corner of the bureaucracy, and I have been too distracted to write anything coherent. But today I saw something that annoyed me so much that I just had to tell it to the world:

They're doing away with suits and ties in Bangladesh.

OK, that didn't really bother me, but it did bring out the swarms of people complaining about having to wear suits and ties. You would think from some of the carping I've heard from grown men that having to put on a tie was like putting a on a noose. I have a theory that the reason so many people hate it is because of our culture's obsession with youth, and putting on a tie means you're not a kid any more. If you're out of college, you're NOT a kid any more, so grow up and act your age.

Thank God there are still others like me, fighting the good fight in the comments:

Neckties are uncomfortable only for those who are too fat for their shirts. If
you can button your top button and be comfortable, then you won’t even
notice the tie - it’s a mere adornment like a pocket square. All the histrionics and
howling about ties come from men who were never taught to dress themselves
properly. Just make sure the collar size of the shirt matches your neck’s girth.
As for forcing employees to abandon crisp and proper business attire in favor of
a slovenly, sloppy-casual appearance, that will impress no one and improve no
one’s professionalism, morale, or productivity.

Part of the intent of formal dress is to convey respect to others. Given the
lack of respect by many - including their wardrobe - does this mean
slang/jive/hip language is also expected to go along with the new “relaxed” work
environment. And we can play heavy metal rock or rap music instead of Muzac to
go along.

having been in the workforce (American) for the last 44 years, I have witnessed
the dressing down of American business and don’t like it. The envelope has
been pushed off the table. There is no place, in my mind, for women in business to go
sleeveless. Plus, most folks dress for work as though they’ve either done some
gardening or haven’t been home from the night before. I guess I’m old fashioned
(as well as old!). America, for the most part, looks as though they have dressed
out of my rag bag.

Dress codes exist for one reason: most people have no idea how to dress properly
or appropriately. It is unfortunate but true. The ‘professional’ uniform at least for men is simple and can be successfully adopted by the most sartorially challenged. Although a full suit and tie combination may be over dressing for many circumstances, it never detracts from a man’s presence.

I know I’m more comfortable sitting around the house in my boxers, but I hardly
think that it’s respectful to meet with clients or superiors in such form. Being
dressed is a sign of pride in oneself and a sign of respect of those with whom
you transact. If you want to be treated as a professional, and get paid as a
professional, look like one; to do otherwise demonstrates that one has no since
of dignity or professional purpose.

Many of us believe that casual dressing is not necessarily a positive. For one
thing the idea of looking slovenly casual is not conducive to reinforcing a
seriousness of purpose. I’m starting to see people wear shorts to work and
wrinkled shirts and filthy shoes. I generally don’t take what people this
careless about their appearance very seriously. They would certainly not try
it in our company. Our standards are way too high. People need to seriously
grow up and become professional adults. Our current dress code reflects the
deteriorating social mores and dignity in the culture.

And as for ties - they are ties, not tow-straps. There is no need or point in
cinching them down into the skin of your neck. That way lies idiocy and
auto-erotic asphyxiation.The fear of suits is one of the silliest superstitions
of the modern day.

2009-07-22T21:49:00.002-04:00

Ann Coulter has written about something I've been thinking about for quite some time:

The whole idea of insurance is to insure against catastrophes: You buy insurance in case your house burns down -- not so you can force other people in your plan to pay for your maid. You buy car insurance in case you're in a major accident, not so everyone in the plan shares the cost of gas. ... Insurance plans that force everyone in the plan to pay for everyone else's Viagra and anti-anxiety pills are already completely unfair to people who rarely go to the doctor. It's like being forced to share gas bills with a long-haul trucker or a restaurant bill with Michael Moore. On the other hand, it's a great deal for any lonely hypochondriacs in the plan.

It reminds me of an altogether less funny article from Jonathan Kellerman, saying that the insurance system is a big part of what's wrong with health care in America today:

Some of us are old enough to remember visiting the doctor and paying him/her directly by check or cash. You had a pretty good idea going in what the service was going to cost. And because the doctor had to look you in the eye – and didn't need to share a rising chunk of his profits with an insurer – the cost was likely to be reasonable. The same went for hospitals: no $20 aspirins due to insurance-company delay tactics and other shenanigans. Few physicians became millionaires, but they lived comfortably, took responsibility for their own business model, and enjoyed their work more.

Maybe the people in Congress will think about some of these issues before cramming through another massive piece of legislation. Or possibly just take the time to read it before voting on it.

2009-07-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

Tragedy strikes Los Angeles as a brush fire narrowly misses the Getty Museum. ... Next time!

2009-07-05T21:17:00.003-04:00

Mark Steyn talks about "America the Beautiful", which we belted out in church today. The hymnal said the tune was called "Materna".

2009-07-05T21:17:00.000-04:00

Note to self: do not fly through Charles de Gaulle Airport.

2009-07-05T21:05:00.002-04:00

Here's a potentially interesting issue: the Canadians may reinstitute the visa requirement for Czech nationals because of a surge in refugee claims by Czech Gypsies. However, the United States followed the Canadian example and dropped the entry visa requirement for Czech nationals in November 2008 by putting them in the Visa Waiver Program. Has there been a similar increase in Czech Gypsies asking for asylum in the United States since then? And what will happen to those numbers if the front door to Canada is closed to them?

2009-07-05T20:51:00.004-04:00

Glad someone else is saying it, even if it was said several months ago:

I am indeed saying something, and it is this: I hate Facebook and everyone on it, including my friends, who I like. My wife just joined it, and I dearly love her. But scratch that. I hate her too. After all, right is right. Sometimes, we courageous few must make a stand. ... The hardest to watch fall, however, has been my wife. I'll call her "Alana," since that's her name ... .A few months back, she became a hardcore Facebook addict, as our late 30s age group has become the fastest-growing Facebook segment ... . There are worse things she could become, I suppose: a Meth dealer, a UPS delivery-man groupie, a Twitterer.

2009-06-06T14:46:00.004-04:00

I can't argue with this. That's one reason I barely watch any more. Even the news programs are crap.

My disengagement from popular culture is far more advanced than I had suspected. I recently saw a cover for "People" magazine and had no idea who the woman was on the cover. Unfortunately, since then Kate and Jon have somewhat intruded on my consciousness, though still not enough to figure out who they are or why they are on television.

2009-05-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

The Skeptical Bureaucrat is happy to work for one of the happiest Departments in the entire federal government. Guess who works on the other end of the scale.

Only four of the large agencies surveyed fell below the average on every single measure used to create the index: the Small Business Administration, Department of Homeland Security, National Archives and Department of Transportation.

Yay, team.

2009-05-19T21:36:00.003-04:00

Funny to read this:

Within a consular section, if we don't get a complaint at least once a week about a visa decision not going the way an applicant wanted, then the adjudicators aren't doing their jobs.

I always loved meeting consular officers who realized that they could in fact deny visa applicants every now and again, since when I was an inspector, we sometimes wondered whether that type of consular office actually existed at all. I guess it was all a matter of perspective, since we never saw the ones who didn't get visas.

Well, actually we did, but by the time we found them, they usually didn't have any sort of identification at all.

2009-05-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

Who knew Leonard Bernstein could be funny?

2009-05-09T10:53:00.001-04:00

Something else that came in the inbox, and since I have a certain fondness for words and grammar...

2009-04-18T17:14:00.002-04:00

After getting this link several times in my inbox, I finally watched, and it is fantastic. How is it that even the most impenetrable accents melt away when someone sings?

I heard a version of that song done by Aretha Franklin -- with twice as many notes, I think -- and this one beat it by a mile.

2009-03-25T10:07:00.001-04:00

Thoughts About Depressed Americans sums up a lot of the things I have been thinking recently.

2009-03-15T21:35:00.002-04:00

I just went into the trash room to drop off a pile of old newspapers and saw a book in a box, so I went over to see what it was. It wasn't just any book, it was the Kama Sutra, illustrated. Also in the box were some DVDs of "Great Sex!" and an opened box of some sort of Trojan products.

Kind of makes you wonder. Did they finally figure it out or did they just give up?

2009-03-05T22:06:00.002-05:00

Well this is certainly weird, and it doesn't sound like the normal port of entry routine. After all, based on my experience, there are annoying people who go through every day without getting pepper sprayed.

2009-02-22T21:06:00.001-05:00

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?

2009-02-22T14:49:00.001-05:00

Vaclav Klaus has incensed the Europeans again.

2009-02-22T14:32:00.000-05:00

When politics and Catholicism collide.

2009-02-22T13:50:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-02-22T13:00:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-02-10T19:58:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-02-08T22:03:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-02-04T21:24:00.002-05:00

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)

2009-02-04T21:22:00.001-05:00

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

2009-02-04T21:00:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-02-04T20:49:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-01-28T21:00:00.001-05:00

Looks like Wesley Snipes is in trouble again. I wonder what that passport file looks like. Not that I would recommend having a look.

2009-01-28T20:55:00.002-05:00

Aha! I knew it! All those password protocols aren't as great as they are cracked up to be:

What these rules do, mostly, is give the impression that the IT people are doing something about security, and thus make everyone feel safer — a trick known in the trade as “security theater.” But this piece of security theater is particularly odd, because on balance it actually makes systems less secure.

Between home and work, I have at least fifteen different passwords I am supposed to keep track of without writing any of them down. I wish they'd just switch to some biometric access and be done with it, because I can never remember how to get into the systems I don't use very often. I sometimes suspect it's all a ploy to keep the Help Desk people employed.

2009-01-28T20:03:00.002-05:00

Looking at the news these days is enough to make me want to find some remote place in the mountains and learn to live on canned goods and forest creatures. Washington is getting to be too scary.

Case in point: the stimulus package. Can anyone even comprehend the astronomical numbers being bandied about? The latest number seems to be nine hundred billion dollars -- only $3000 per American, what a bargain! -- not counting the other hundreds of billions of dollars committed on the TARP and other guarantees to the financial system. I only have two questions about it: how are we as a nation going to pay for it? And how close are we to the point where China and the other creditor nations stop extending the credit? Which leads to a third question: then what?

There is an interest piece that lays out the case for doing nothing, saying that as a rule, stimulus programs are ineffective and that it's immoral to plunge into such vast debt in order to be seen to be "doing something". The whole DO SOMETHING NOW! mentality is really getting on my nerves, but at least some on the Hill are aware of its use as a legislative tactic. Remember when they used to call the Senate the world's greatest deliberative body? At least the Senate is taking longer than the House on this one, although I wonder what they'll come out with in the end.

Some economists are recommending against the whole deal:
Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's "lost decade" in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today.

I thought the triumph of hope over experience was what the last election was all about.

Still, at least I agree with Obama on something. Just not the stimulus plan.

2009-01-28T07:56:00.002-05:00

The weather's bad here in Washington, but not bad enough for an outright snow day. No, it's just an unscheduled leave policy, which means that I can look at the ice-covered driveway and contemplate whether it's bad enough to merit a vacation day off. I can't really fault OPM for it, since the stuff is supposed to start melting later in the day, and we've had three extra days off in January already.

It's enough to make me wonder why I didn't take a longer Inaugural vacation. My overriding mental image for the big day was a croupier waving a hand over a roulette table saying "No more bets" as the ball started plinking into the wheel. Not that I was actually gambling in my escape to an undisclosed location. It's just that now all the talk about the new administration is going to have to translate into action, and I have no idea what we're going to get.

Although, just like a trip to Las Vegas, I am expecting to come out poorer at the end.

2009-01-15T00:18:00.002-05:00

The Inauguration is almost upon us, and it is now a full-fledged EMERGENCY.

Luckily it is not the kind of emergency that means I have to show up for work, so I will be heading for the hills and pulling the plug on the outside world for the next week or so. Somebody tell me when Oprah leaves town.

2009-01-15T00:10:00.002-05:00

Most unexpected headline of the day:

Do You Trust the Chinese with Your Erection?

There's a joke in there about those massage parlors with Asian names that advertise in the sports section, but I will not be the one to make it.

2009-01-14T23:38:00.002-05:00

Everybody's a critic. Remember that art project that I mentioned a few posts down? The one that the Czechs were presenting to Brussels to mark their presidence of the E.U.? Turns out it was a success.

If you judge "success," that is, by the ability to cause a strong reaction, because it's become quite controversial. Apparently a work that was supposed to "demolish national stereotypes by mocking them" has just made everyone mad.

Maybe it's a subtle way to shift all that negative attention away from Vaclav Klaus. He's a very clever man, you know.

There's a picture of the work ("Entropa") here, and a better one here, all eight tons of it.

In unrelated art news, Vladimir Putin paints for charity. I would guess his medium would be oil. And perhaps natural gas.

2009-01-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

Internal migration. California has its fourth year of net outflow to other states.

2009-01-12T20:47:00.001-05:00

When it comes to illegal immigration, the famously tolerant populace in Montgomery County is becoming less tolerant.

2009-01-12T19:57:00.002-05:00

A brief round-up of Visa Waiver news... because if you come to this site, there's a better than even chance the VWP means something to you!

Nationals of all 35 Visa Waiver countries must now register on the internet before arrival. Possible problems because up to half of all British travellers are not aware of the new rules.

The Czechs are reporting that the Visa Waiver Program is working out pretty well for them: only 140 refusals from 3400 arrivals since getting into the program in November. I wonder how the other new entrants are faring.

Bulgaria in the Visa Waiver Program? Consul at Arms II links to a story from the Sofia News Agency, and the facts look pretty garbled to me:
"After the signing of the agreement, Bulgarian citizens would be able to submit the required documents and fees with the US Embassy, but what is new here is that Bulgarians would also be able to submit a visa request via the Internet 72 hours before their trip to the US. However, the US side is not going to commit to giving an answer, and the answer could be "yes", but could also be a "no."
Um, no. My guess is that the Bulgarians signed on to the MOU, which would make them formal candidates for VWP status. The 72-hour Internet thing sounds a lot like ESTA, and that's only for approved member countries. Unless of course Consular Affairs in the State Department has changed their visa-issuing guidelines -- it's not like I would get that memo -- but somehow I doubt that any consular section is going to guarantee a decision on a visa application in 72 hours. The all-important question now is what the denial rate is in Sofia. If it's anywhere north of ten per cent, I doubt that they will get in within the next few months.

And here's a curve ball, there's also the less-well-known Guam Visa Waiver program... and it looks like the program may be opened up to allow visa-free entry to Chinese and Russian nationals. I wonder whether they factored in the possibility that upon entry to U.S. territory, some of the visa-exempt travellers would immediately ask for asylum and gum up the processing system for that even more.

2009-01-11T17:37:00.001-05:00

The funniest take on bailout mania I have seen so far:

Ron Jeremy in The Big Threesome - They said he was too big to fail, until the day he too needed a stimulus.

2009-01-11T17:06:00.003-05:00

Festung Washington tested out the defenses today, and I was unlucky enough to be caught up in the exercise. The traffic reports and the news reports all said that Pennsylvania Avenue would be closed between the White House and the Capitol, which is the parade route that will be taken on Inauguration Day. What they didn't say was that they were also closing it beyond the White House. I found out about it when I drove in to the city and saw some soldiers in camo on one of the streets near the State Department, and then saw a caravan of busses going up 18th Street. The busses could go onto Pennsylvania Avenue, but cars were diverted away. I got stuck on one of the alphabet streets while the busses came back down 19th Street.

The hysteria about the whole event is ramping up (see Countdown to Barackalypse), and it's approaching snow day proportions. By that I mean that all the news reports concentrate on what a mess it's going to be, which scare people away, so there's a good chance that it will ultimately turn out to be nothing in the end. At least, that's what I thought this morning. Now I am glad that I will be one of the refugees leaving the area until the whole thing is over.

I overheard a woman on her cell phone today after the exercise: "I'm gonna have to stay out in the cold all day for it. It's gonna suck!" My thoughts exactly. Which is why I am leaving town for it.

2009-01-11T16:52:00.004-05:00

More fun with tax money, this time in Europe: a giant puzzle of an original map of Europe created by Czech sculptor David Cerny along with another 26 European artists each of whom has made his/her vision of the native country. ... Cerny depicted the Czech Republic as a blue country that is "intoxicated by its head of state" (Klaus) with a display in the middle where Klaus's controversial statements, for instance those challenging the global warming theory, are shown ... The artists have presented sometimes very shocking and ironic visions of their countries. The Netherlands is flooded by the sea of which only tops of minarets stick out, the British author cut out the UK from the European map to hint at the Britons' dubious relations to the EU, the German artist shows Germany as a paradise for highway fans, the map of France is covered with the inscription "Strike!," Sweden looks like an IKEA box with the Gripen fighters and Austria, well-known for ts strict anti-nuclear stances, is presented as country full of nuclear power plant towers.

The good news is that the Czech government only paid two million crowns (about US$102,000) for it, while the other ten million crowns came from a Czech businessman.

Once again I wonder about what passes for art these days. The grand unveiling in Brussels is supposed to be tomorrow, but I am guessing that the works are not going to be anything for the ages. We can just hope that no non-traditional media (like the bodily expulsions of man or beast) will be used in the creation of this installation.

ADDENDUM: Theodore Dalrymple has written a piece that crystallizes the problems I have with modern art -- and no doubt with the aforementioned installation when it's displayed. A few snippets:

The successful modern artist’s subject is himself, not in any genuinely self-examining way that would tell us something about the human condition, but as an ego to distinguish himself from other egos, as distinctly and noisily as he can. Like Oscar Wilde at the New York customs, he has nothing to declare but his genius: which, if he is lucky, will lead to fame and fortune. Of all the artistic disciplines nowadays, self-advertisement is by far the most important. This is reflected in the training that art students now undergo. Rarely do they receive any formal training in (say) drawing or painting. Indeed, from having talked to quite a number of art students, it seems that art school these days resembles a kindergarten for young adults, where play is more important than work. The lack of technical training is painfully obvious at the shows the students put on. Many of the students have good ideas, but cannot execute them successfully for lack of technical facility. Indeed, their technical incompetence is only too painfully obvious. (Via)

2009-01-11T16:24:00.002-05:00

Your tax dollars at work: Homeland Security is going to build its new headquarters in Southeast D.C.

Advocates say it would generate economic activity in one of the city's poorer corners and provide a secure workplace for 14,000 Homeland Security employees scattered across the Washington area. ... Historical preservationists have said the project would ruin a national landmark site with panoramic views of the District, where the first federal psychiatric institution was established in Southeast Washington in 1852. Some questioned whether a high-security facility tucked behind two layers of fencing would produce much of a payoff for the neighborhood.

Ironic that security is one of the main issues for the new DHS headquarters campus, but not the kind it usually deals with. The main problem is the fear of crime, because there's a lot of it in Southeast Washington. Consolidating offices in that part of the city means new commutes for lots of people, and that will be really difficult for the people now used to easy drives in from Montgomery County. I vaguely recall departmental e-mails saying that the new headquarters would NOT have parking enough for all the people who would be working there, so riding Metro would be encouraged. Unfortunately, the new headquarters is not going to be built on top of a Metro station. They were talking about shuttles from one of the Green Line stations, and I think walking was given as another option. They didn't mention your chances of making it from the Metro station to the front gate and back unmugged.

2009-01-11T12:54:00.002-05:00

Where there are taxes, there are people who try to evade them. Cigarette taxes vary widely from state to state, and that makes cigarette smuggling a profitable criminal enterprise. A Korean smuggling enterprise based in Annandale shipped them from low-tax Virginia to high-tax New York City. It's interesting to see the associated crimes included identity theft, sweatshop labor, and even murder for hire. The funny thing (not ha-ha funny, but the other kind) is that it also connects to the whole mortgage mess, except that instead of taking the loan money and walking away, it looks like they paid on them to establish good credit scores for the false identities.

2009-01-10T20:29:00.001-05:00

Amateurs. The proper response to most e-mails at work is to ignore them. If it's important, they'll write back.

2009-01-10T19:48:00.001-05:00

Nothing says that the holidays are over quite like that first five-day workweek of the new year and the arrival of that special New Year’s greeting from the IRS. Yes, the 1040 booklet came in the mail this week, and it leaves me with mixed emotions. After all, taxes are necessary to the functioning of government in any form, and I say that not only because tax payments are how my own bread is buttered. I believe it was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. who said, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” At least that’s how he was quoted in the 1040 instruction booklet right inside the front cover, and I am not going to pick a fight with the IRS unnecessarily.

However, as a taxpayer, I find the whole exercise infuriating, especially this year. The IRS Commissioner has a lot more to say besides quoting Holmes, including defining the duty of the agency as making “the process of paying taxes as easy as possible”. This would be easier to take if the message were not followed by ninety pages of instructions, worksheets and tables, not including the extra instructions, worksheets and tables for schedules A and B. But for that I don’t blame the Internal Revenue Service. They don’t write the tax laws. No, for the ever-increasing complexity of the tax laws we get to thank our elected representatives in Congress.

All the laws they pass get translated into regulations, and all that gets turned into instructions for the 1040. This year there are instructions for dealing with the economic stimulus payment (not taxable, but may reduce your recovery rebate credit), the recovery rebate credit (worksheet for which is nearly two pages), the withdrawal of economic stimulus payment from certain accounts, the increase of the standard deduction by real estate taxes and net disaster losses (although wasn’t real estate its own net disaster loss for a lot of people over the past year?), the reduction of the personal exemption and itemized deductions phaseouts, and of course the dreaded alternate minimum tax. It’s no wonder that so many people hire professionals to do their taxes for them.

And that’s really what is galling to me. I don’t think it’s particularly controversial to say that citizens have responsibilities and obligations, and payment of one’s fair share is something I think all but the most die-hard libertarians would agree needs to be done. But when trying to figure out what that fair share is leads to the creation of a multi-billion-dollar industry and/or hours of wading through forms, schedules and the rest, something is seriously wrong.

And when he made the statement about taxation, I don’t think Oliver Wendell Holmes envisioned having literally unimaginable sums of money being thrown around to the banks, the car industry and God alone knows who else. Because Paulson and Bernanke don't appear to.

2009-01-04T14:18:00.002-05:00

An aside from the Angry Drunk Bureaucrat:

Why must we perpetuate the lie that offices (whether for-profit, non-profit, or governmental) are "open for business" between December 23rd and January 2nd? Seriously, no one is really open, and those that are can't get any work done because no one else is open.

It's the same every year. I go into work for a day or two in that period between Christmas and the New Year, thinking I will get stuff done because there aren't many other people in the office to distract me. But it never works out that way.

2009-01-04T13:48:00.002-05:00

The Skeptical Bureaucrat has found a worrying development -- government is now moving in on virtual worlds. I have to agree with most of the assessment he gives:

So, I could enter Arlington County's Second Life virtual world and ... do what? Go to a job fair, attend a meeting with a government official, research toxic chemicals and so forth? That's the kind of thing I do all day in Real Life. Why should I do it in Second Life, as well? ... I have a suggestion for its virtual world. They ought to allow people to fight parking tickets in a virtual traffic court, complete with Second Life lawyers, cops, and judges.

I say move civil suits into the virtual world, and let the avatars settle the cases with virtual death matches. This could give Court TV or Tru TV or whatever it is they call themselves this year an endless stream of new programming.

2009-01-03T16:25:00.001-05:00

Wasn't it Whitney Houston who sang, "I believe the children are the future"?

If so, we're screwed.

2009-01-03T12:11:00.002-05:00

The inauguration is less than three weeks away, and it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. In the sense that hurricanes and blizzards are fun.

If you want to go to the event, you should be comfortable answering, yes, to these questions:
Can you stand possibly eight hours shoulder to shoulder in large crowds?
Do you have warm, dry, comfortable shoes?
Do you have appropriate clothes for extreme cold or wet weather?
Can you walk three to five miles between shuttle drop offs and Metro stops?
Inauguration planners also say you should give extra consideration before bringing small children, senior citizens and anyone who has a weakened immune system.

Most of the people I know in this area plan to hunker down at home or leave the area entirely for the event. I have already made plans to evacuate to an Undisclosed Location.

2009-01-03T11:55:00.002-05:00

Uh oh. More flag-related hijinx in Prague. Is there subtle editorializing in this piece? You be the judge:

...the blue flag with yellow stars, hoisted in the place of the former giant statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, had been vandalised on January 1.

Not comparing the European Union with the period of Soviet subjugation, just mentioning that the statue of Stalin used to be in the same place.

You know, they haven't had a defenestration in Prague for quite some time. I hope they can go the next six months without having another one.

2009-01-03T11:25:00.001-05:00

Visa waiver for Poles?

This is one of those things that would never have gotten serious consideration back when I was at the airport and seeing some of the visa violators we got. The usual period of admission for a tourist was six months. I remember seeing Poles who stayed FIFTEEN YEARS on tourist entries, then went back home and got new visas (apparently neglecting to mention how they spent the last two decades when going to the visa window).

However, going from the source article, I would say it sounds more like wishful thinking than anything else. At one point, I had practically memorized section 217 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, but it has undergone some serious revision since then. Still, the criteria are spelled out pretty clearly for who is eligible: the country's passport has to be of a particular technical standard, the country must be willing to share data with the U.S. government on stolen passports, the country must not present a substantial law enforcement or security risk to the United States, and the denial rate of U.S. visa applications has to be low -- under three per cent as a threshold. There is a section on "refusal rate flexibility", which allows admission of countries with refusal rates under ten per cent, but it looks like there is a lot of other stuff that goes along with it.

My guess is that the denial rate is going to be the sticking point for Poland, even with the relaxed ten per cent standard. There's also something on a "maximum visa overstay rate", which I don't think is going to help Poland's cause much either.

A lot of countries got added to the program in 2008, including Malta, which apparently just squeaked in before the new year. Now the European Union is pushing for the remaining E.U. countries who don't already have it to get the visa exemption. That includes Poland as well as Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. Unless things have changed A LOT since my days at the airport, those last two are not going to get into the Visa Waiver program any time soon, at least under current legislation. I don't see how there's any way to get Poland in during the few remaining weeks of the Bush Administration. The Poles have been great friends and allies, and I certainly wouldn't mind having more Poles in this country, but the laws on the issue are pretty clear. If they don't meet the standards as currently defined in law, then Congress would have to change the law to get them into the program -- and with everything else going on in the world, I don't think the Visa Waiver program would be at the top of any legislative agenda.

Then again, I never thought the Slovaks, Latvians or Hungarians would make it into the program either, yet there they are.

2009-01-03T10:22:00.002-05:00

Some interesting views on blogging while federal over at Consul at Arms II, and it's not bad advice, so I will add my own two cents here. This site is entirely personal, and nothing here represents the viewpoint of my employer. In fact, I usually stay away from making any sort of comments involving my current job and my current responsibilities. However, Washington is a company town, and I happen to work for that company, so it would be kind of difficult to refrain from commenting on government work entirely. It's just that here I speak for myself and not for my department. That said, it's always good to remember that old advice is still sound advice: don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Not being in the Department of State, I don't really worry about public diplomacy issues, but I would say that the executive branch of the U.S. government in general -- not to say DHS specifically -- could do a better job in explaining itself and defending itself in public. Long, long ago I worked as an immigration inspector in a fairly busy airport, and even though I don't do that any more, I am still interested in the whole issue, and I will comment on immigration-related stories.

It's interesting to me to see how other feds balance their professional obligations with their on-line lives. That's why I have been adding more federal and bureaucratic sites to the list at the right as I come across them (not that I am trawling for reciprocal links, since if traffic were the main goal here, I would probably not let four months go by with only one post) (though I should also mention that this site is now in its seventh year, which means that eventually I will always come back).

2009-01-01T10:19:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's 2009 already. I also can't believe that it's both so hard to stay up past midnight any more AND hard to sleep past eight in the morning. You'd thing the tinge of hangover (champagne does that to me) would have kept me under the covers until at least noon.

2008-12-29T23:31:00.003-05:00

Immigration, the board game! It actually looks like a pretty good distillation of the various avenues to legal residence in the United States, and it's a lot cheaper than consulting an immigration "advisor" or whatever it is those people who charge $1000 to fill out an application and mail it call themselves. My only quibble is that the visa lottery -- oops, sorry, the diversity immigrant program -- was not mentioned. I guess the designers didn't have room for the chance cards.

I wish I had had this during my imm law courses. The chart definitely would have made that slog a little bit easier by demonstrating the "big picture" aspects. Then again, it may have deprived me of the joys of committing the citizenship transmission charts to memory...

2008-12-22T10:50:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas from Washington.

2008-12-22T10:11:00.001-05:00

This is interesting. Apparently the legacy of the Kaiser lives on.

2008-12-21T23:04:00.002-05:00

More neologisms (see a few posts down). Those wily Dutch think that nobody else is going to catch them making up new words, but they've been ratted out by an English-speaker.

This list shows a few things. One is that my Dutch is horrible, but so is Google's Dutch to English automatic translator. Well, at least for doing the entire web page. Put it in a few words at a time, or a few word parts at a time if you want to figure out what het geslachtsdeel is, and you can probably figure out most of them. Though not necessarily all of them. I may have to consult with my Irish friend who has been living in the Netherlands for the past few years to get the scoop on some of these.

I kind of like"gastrosexual" and may try to incorporate it into my own conversations. And "hufter" is good to know as well, since I've been looking for some new terms of abuse. Especially now, with the holidays coming up.

2008-12-21T18:01:00.002-05:00

Back to "It's A Wonderful Life". Here's someone else who says they don't make movies like they used to:

"Seeing the complete list of everything banned makes me realize why movies of yesterday, even the so-called “B” pictures, seem to be so much better than most big blockbusters of the today: filmmakers, prevented from filler such as lengthy sex scenes or detailed depictions of criminal activity meant they had to actually be creative in their plotting and scene settings, and not being allowed to salt the script with numerous “fucks” and “shits” meant they had to write interesting dialogue."

Most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood has no interest for me. Not only do I not want to see things in the cinemas, even on airplanes when I've got a choice of eight movies to see and a huge chunk of time stuck in front of the screen, I still cannot muster the interest to watch most of the dreck that comes out. Recently when I've watched movies at all, it's been the stuff from the golden age of Hollywood, when they still knew how to tell a story. I've watched the first two in the "Thin Man" series, and they're terrific. Most of the movies I get from Netflix (first thing on the chopping block if I need a tighter budget next year) are at least thirty years old. There are only two movies coming up that I plan to actually see in the theaters - "The Hobbit" and "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", and that's only because I loved the books.

2008-12-21T17:57:00.002-05:00

Tax policy in easy-to-understand terms.

There is a long article on real-life consequences of driving away the tax base here. Something they might want to think about in New York and California before all those sweeping increases in taxes, fees and the rest are instituted.

2008-12-21T16:02:00.002-05:00

'Tis the season... to argue about Christmas movies. A piece on "It's A Wonderful Life" suggests that maybe things would have been better if in fact George Bailey had not been there to influence life in Bedford Falls, and that's stirred up some passions.

"It's A Wonderful Life" is my father's favorite movie at this time year, and one of his top three of all time. And naturally that meant that growing up, I could not take it. Too treacly, too sappy, yadda yadda yadda -- I would not sit through it. Besides, there were so many parodies of the movie (plus the lost ending) that I figured I didn't need to see the original all the way through. However, a couple years ago we all watched it on Christmas Eve, and I loved it.

I will say that the movie is a good one for adults -- do they even make movies for adults any more? -- and I think that's what makes "It's A Wonderful Life" such a perennial favorite. There's a lot of nuance to it. It's not "a pitiful, dreadful life" at all (which is kind of the whole point of the movie, isn't it?). Is there anyone who reaches the age of George Bailey who doesn't look back at those crucial moments in life and wonder what might have been? Anyone who has been swept up in the course of events that carried him away from his dreams at the time down a much different path than planned? The movie for me has highlighted the importance, and maybe even the nobility, of duty, although that seems like a word not much in use these days.

"It's A Wonderful Life" also throws a spotlight on the split between youth and adulthood. Things change over time. If they didn't, the world would be full of astronauts and firemen, ballerinas and fairy princesses. It's natural to look back wistfully on the dreams of one's past, and even to feel trapped at times in the life one now has (I know of which I speak -- I am after all a bureaucrat!). Nothing can bring on a midlife crisis quite like the holiday season, and I think this may play a role in the movie's popularity. Because George really acted like a jerk for quite a lot of the movie, and even so he was redeemed in the end.

Unfortunately adulthood as a concept is one that also seems to be out of fashion, and the arguments in the piece are very much from the perspective of the young. Pottersville would be "cooler and more fun" than Bedford Falls? Well then. Anything to be cool. Forget about the long-term. But being better off economically by becoming a resort rather than having manufacturing? That's a strange argument, and one that ignores the thirty or forty years of prosperity that manufacturing brought to upstate New York. Saratoga may be doing better than the rest of upstate these days, but there is another place in the region that today is probably a whole lot closer to Pottersville: Atlantic City, New Jersey. It went for all the flash of Pottersville, and it's got all the sleaze, too! I'll admit that Atlantic City looks like it could be fun... for a weekend, I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

Also, there's more to life than just economics, and I am tired of seeing so many issues ultimately reduced to simply dollars and cents. There's a lot more to life than economic interaction, and just because those things are hard to quantify doesn't mean they don't have value. There is another Christmas movie that I find extraordinarily depressing, because it's almost the inverse of "It's A Wonderful Life". "The Family Man" has Nicholas Cage discovering the pleasures and rewards of family life with Tea Leoni, helped along the way by his adorable daughter, only to find that once he's accepted that life and learned to love it, that it never happened at all! The magic of "It's A Wonderful Life" is found when George Bailey rediscovers the magic in the corners of an ordinary life and learns to appreciate the things life has given him, not the things that went wrong or the things that might have been.

2008-12-20T13:34:00.002-05:00

Uh oh. As part of the impending Goetterdaemmerung that is Inauguration Day, in addition to ten thousand tour busses and burdensome security requirements, there is also going to be an official poet.

I think I may have expressed my own thoughts on modern poetry once or twice before, but for those of you who aren't keeping track though the weeks-long dry periods in this space, I tend to think most of it is
crap
with oddly positioned
words
placed on the page
trying to express
EMOTION
often without proper punctuation.
A literary effort without rhyme or reason.

Anyway, I am not familiar with the works of Elizabeth Alexander, the woman selected to prepare the inaugural poem. Yale Professor of African American studies, winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize and finalist for a Pulitzer, friend of the President Elect. My first thought was that she's properly credentialled and probably totally unreadable. So I decided to find out, but I will withhold my comments and let you decide for yourself.

There have been a few poets at other inaugurations, and by and large the experiences have not been great ones. There's an interesting take on the whole thing by someone who seems to like Alexander's writing... but not the idea of having her participate in the event:

On all these occasions, the incoming President seemed to be claiming more for his arrival than he deserved, and to be doing it by pretending that poetry means more in American life than, alas, it does. ... Alexander writes with a fine, angry irony, in vividly concrete images, but her poems have the qualities of most contemporary American poetry—a specificity that’s personal and unsuggestive, with moves toward the general that are self-consciously academic. They are not poems that would read well before an audience of millions.

As if I needed another reason to leave town for all this.

2008-12-19T08:28:00.002-05:00

I just realized where I have seen this whole Vaclav Klaus situation before. And despite the assumptions of Herr Poettering, it wasn't the Soviets who were the heavies in the original version.

It was the Nazis.

In "The Sound of Music":
"Herr Detweiler!
-Heil Hitler.
-Oh, good afternoon, Herr Zeller.
Perhaps you've not heard. I am now the Gauleiter. Heil Hitler.
Heil Hitler.
I've come from Captain von Trapp's house. The only one in the area not flying the Third Reich flag. . . . . .since the Anschluss."

I think I may be the first person -- and possibly the ONLY person -- to compare Vaclav Klaus to Captain Von Trapp. Somebody get that man a guitar! But I don't think this version will end with anyone escaping over the Alps.

2008-12-18T23:41:00.002-05:00

Speaking of New Europeans, I loved this description:

U.S. and Afghan soldiers in Zabul Province give high marks to the Lithuanian Special Forces, who like to ride these captured Taliban motorbikes to sneak up on, and chase Taliban fighters. The “LithSof” are on their way to becoming living legends: Both Afghans and Americans report that the Taliban are afraid of the Lithuanians. Stories about them are filled with dangerous escapades and humor. Americans say that the Lithuanians are sort of a weaponized version of Borat, who think nothing of sauntering around a base in nothing but flip-flops and underwear. “They look like mountain men. They never shave, sometimes don’t bathe, and often roll out the gate wearing nothing but body armor and weapons. Not even a t-shirt,” an American soldier told me. The Lithuanians may be a little bit nuts, but the Americans love to have them around because Lithuanians love to fight, and when you need backup, you can count on them. (via)

2008-12-18T22:11:00.003-05:00

I miss the old country. Politics in the United States are just flat-out depressing, with only a small number in office who seem to think the issues through and who know -- and can articulate -- what it is they stand for.

Not so in the Czech Republic, where they have Vaclav Klaus as President. He's the Czech Republic's answer to Margaret Thatcher, and he is not exactly shy about expressing his thoughts. Like Thatcher, he's also a Euro-skeptic, but at least the other Europeans showed the Iron Lady some respect, which is more than can be said for President Klaus of late. Apparently some Ministers of the European Parliament went out of their way to insult President Klaus in his own capital. The transcript is just amazing. And it's even more amazing that the President of France is throwing his support behind them.

The really scary thing for the Europeans is that the Czechs will take over the presidency of the entire European Union in January. The prospect has other Europeans (which according to most of the press reports I found in a quick search means "the French") in a tizzy. The critiques are damning:

"Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a narrow-minded defender of sovereignty, a fundamentalist liberal and a genuine Thatcherist, is firmly determined to do his utmost to turn the Czech (EU) presidency into a nightmare," Duhamel points out. He adds that Klaus is a strong personality, speaks loud and uses strong words, he likes to provoke and he will do all to complicate the matters.

The horror.

The whole situation promises to be interesting, mostly because of what the European Union is becoming. U.S. policy has always been to support the idea of European unity, probably because when the Europeans aren't united, they tend to start killing each other and we would probably get dragged into that yet again. Unfortunately, now the Europeans seem to want the E.U. to be a counterweight to the United States, and it looks like it's becoming less and less democratic as power is pulled from the individual countries to the pan-European level.

The Czech presidency could gum up the progress towards the goal of a continental superstate. There's the whole Klaus factor of course, but it could also highlight yet again the difference between Rumsfeld's Old and New Europe. It came out in the run-up to the Iraq War, when leaders of came out against Chirac and Schroeder, but that was all papered over as the new countries tried to become more integrated with the European whole. But many of the new countries still have more Atlanticist foreign policy views than the old countries, and now arguably the leader of the New European pack gets the next six months to be the voice of the entire European enterprise. The Czechs are open to hosting parts of the U.S. missile defense system on their territory, and they were the first country to sign on to the data-sharing provisions of the Visa Waiver Program (to which the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary, as well as Korea, were admitted last month). The countries of New Europe placed greater emphasis on maintaining a positive relationship with the United States.

They were still keen on becoming integral parts of the European whole. The prospect of economic benefits obviously helped keep their eyes firmly toward Brussels, but there's also the emotional component of the whole thing. I've been trying to figure out why countries that were so recently under the Soviet yoke would willingly transfer away their sovereignty so soon after 1989, so the idea of a united, democratic and prosperous Europe has to have some sort of claim on the public imagination. Except that it's looking less and less democratic. And the Czech presidency will coincide with a time when it's probably going to become a lot less prosperous as well.

So fasten your seatbelts, the first six months of 2009 could make for a bumpy ride!

2008-12-17T21:41:00.002-05:00

One day not so very long ago I was sitting on an airplane, flipping through the in-flight magazine, when the woman sitting next to me asked whether I supported a bailout for the auto companies. I hesitated for a moment, since I didn't want to set off a diatribe that would take up the whole flight, but in the end I gave my honest opinion: no. She said she didn't either, and that all the people she had asked gave the same answer.

But the thing looks like it may go through anyway, regardless of the fact that it got squashed in the Senate. It seems like another one of those undead bills, like the one for amnesty, which keep moving forward even after you think they've been killed.

Have I missed something basic here? Things have been busy in my non-financial corner of the bureaucracy, so I haven't read much beyond the first few paragraphs of any story. I keep hearing the term "bridge loans", but a bridge to what, exactly? After getting several billion dollars in taxpayer money thrown at them, are GM or Chrysler expecting a big change in business conditions, with some sort of increase in revenues or profits in the spring? It looks to me like it's just a move to delay the inevitable. They need to change if they're going to survive, and I would rather that change came without incurring even more government debt, thank you very much.

2008-12-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

English does not have a lock on neologisms. It seems that German is also creating new words. Massive, polysyllabic new words.

Including "Gammelfleischparty", which literally means "spoiled meat party" but refers to any gathering of people over the age of thirty. I wonder whether there's something for agglomerations of the young.

Not that I would go to one of those. I've never liked the young, even I could use that adjective to describe myself. Whippersnappers.

2008-12-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

Today was the "Day without a Gay", but apparently it did not succeed in bringing the nation to its knees.

Or perhaps I should rephrase that...

2008-12-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

And while I am on the subject of the end of the world, Washington's version of it is apparently taking place on January 20th. The population of the metro area could double for the Inauguration, and the news is full of stories about how the city will cope.

The latest problem: Where exactly ARE all those people going to, er, go? The Metro system apparently has bathrooms in every station, but they are hidden away and only available to people who get the platform attendants in a generous mood. Then there's the Mall, the touristic center of the city, so you would think there would be a number of places to make a stop. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. (I always recommend going into the Hirschhorn, because there's never a line to see modern art.) The businesses north of the Mall keep their toilets locked away for customers only, and south of the Mall is mostly government office buildings, and those will be closed and locked on inauguration day.

My advice is to bring an empty Snapple bottle and a trenchcoat.

2008-12-09T23:16:00.001-05:00

In other news, the world is about to end.

It's like the Apocalypse here in Washington every time it snows, and we're good for two or three decent-sized storms a season. I can't even imagine what the TV news shows are going to be like in L.A. We might have to start shipping bread, milk and toilet paper out west now in anticipation of a spike in demand.

2008-12-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

A quaint European tradition that luckily was not adopted in the New World.

Then again, has anyone really checked out all five hundred of these?

2008-12-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you don't supervise the Public Affairs people.

For the record, I have no plans to watch. Unless they decide to show what goes on in the headquarters units, in which case it might be worth it to find out what goes on at the NAC.

2008-12-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

While clicking around the internet this morning (it's COLD outside, and I don't want to go out there) I saw two posts that just seem to go together.

First was this one:
"...the word “bespoke.” It means “custom made for a specific person” and originally was supposed to refer to articles of clothing. I know this because I looked it up. It’s not a new word. However, I have only noticed its use recently in publications sold to the public, and the word as used is applied not only to jackets and such but also to furniture, carpets, and other products for the home. And it PISSES ME OFF to no end. ... Come on, doesn’t reading the phrase “the foyer, with its red wallpaper patterned after a 13th century Kyoto wall hanging and containing a charming bespoke divan upholstered in chartreuse dupioni silk” make you want to find the person who wrote that and beat them with a tire iron?"

Which goes so nicely with this one:
"Solve a man's problems with violence, help him for a day. Teach a man to solve his problems with violence, help him for a lifetime!" (via)

So break out that tire iron.

2008-12-06T08:20:00.000-05:00

"New England border protection chief charged with hiring illegal immigrants"

Another DHS employee runs afoul of those pesky immigration laws, and a pretty high up one at that. My guess is that she came out of Customs before DHS was created, so she may not have put that much weight on the immigration part of the job. Another article says that she was reported by another DHS employee, and that's what led to the investigation.

The article also demonstrates why I take everything I read in the news with a grain of salt. According to the original article, she was identified as the "regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection". Customs and Border Protection is a component of the Department of Homeland Security. If they misreport the simple stuff that I know about, what does that say about their reporting on the other issues?

2008-12-04T21:32:00.001-05:00

One (of many) non-work-related topics that raises my blood pressure is history. More specifically, the lack of knowledge of history unless it's something that is being used to try to frame some other, more modern point. Like this:

Climate history may explain empires' fall, in which scientists speculate whether climate change may have played a part in the end of the Roman and Byzantine empires. It seems the climate in the eastern Mediterranean was drier than usual between the years 100 and 700 A.D.

First of all, I think the time line is a little iffy, since the zenith of the Byzantines came after this period, but there you are.

But how was the climate a big factor in the fall of the Roman Empire? I could see it if the argument was that changes in the climate were what ultimately pushed the waves of barbarians west into Europe and onto the borders of the Roman Empire, but I don't think that was the case. Corruption within the Empire played a much bigger role than any changes in climate, and I don't think that had much to do with the levels of rainfall at the time.

The Arabs were certainly on the move towards the end of that period, but as I recall, they had a more ideological motivation for their conquests. And that's probably a topic that is not as acceptable to discuss these days.

2008-12-04T21:32:00.000-05:00

2008-12-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

And speaking of homeland security, how did I miss this over the Thanksgiving holiday?
Kentucky law requires Homeland Security to credit God.

Which predictably was followed by this almost immediately thereafter:
Athiests want God out of Kentucky homeland security.

2008-12-04T20:50:00.001-05:00

Once again things are busy in my corner of the bureaucracy, so it doesn't look like my office will be coasting between now and the holidays. It looks like everything is going to be even busier as my agency prepares for the new administration. So there hasn't been much time for me to write anything here, what with all the memo and e-mail writing at work. How long until Christmas gets here?

I haven't heard any real departmental gossip yet about what to expect when we get a new secretary, but even though Chertoff is advising against making any changes to the structure of the Department, a lot of people seem to think some big changes are coming to the bureaucratic org chart in the not-very-distant future.

2008-11-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

So not one week after the Democrat is elected as our next president do I go down to the Mall and see what looks like a large hippie encampment in front of the Capitol.

I immediately had a South Park flashback, especially when I saw a circle laid out in the grass. There was some music on a stage, but there were only a handful of people on the wide, empty lawn in front of it. It turned out to be some sort of event for Darfur. I guess the painted tents (a number of them with Hebrew) are going to be shipped over to the Sudan when the weekend is over.

2008-11-09T14:17:00.000-05:00

My thoughts on the recent presidential election.

You know that saying about better the devil you know than the devil you don't? I guess it no longer holds true.

2008-09-22T21:59:00.000-04:00

All the news these days seems to be bad, and there's so much of it that I want to turn off the computer and withdraw from the world. But then along comes some little gem to make paying attention worthwhile.

In this case, I now have a new favorite term of abuse:

"A sad little lettuce heap of worthlessness."

I will now try to work that one unobtrusively into daily conversations, e-mails and Congressional responses.

2008-09-10T23:11:00.000-04:00

I really like this:

The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. Leftism has outlived its own failure by hiding itself within the most labyrinthine construct of social delicacy since Victoria was queen.