Hats and Dust

Got the wash Post Sunday magazine today--it had an article on the building of the Pentagon, including a picture showing a bunch of workers building forms and pouring concrete. What was amazing was they are almost all wearing hats. I remember seeing photos of men going to baseball games, all in hats, but this is on the job.

Then Ms. Laskas in her column addressed the issue of dusting, as in: no one dusts any more.

Standards have gone to ??

Databases and Private Enterprise

Apparently private enterprise can do what FSA can't--put its database of farm program payments attributed to individuals on-line. Unfortunately, it requires a subscription, but see this link. From the article:

Echoing this perspective, Jaeger adds that historically, payment data has been published by lobbying organizations that have often presented the data in ways that support their agendas. “We know there are many who have well founded perspectives that differ from those propagated by these groups and our objective at Your Farm is to provide a venue for those views to be expressed,” he says.

The 1614 Database contains approximately 64 million records with information related to more than 2.3 million entities and individuals. The database provides information for $56 billion worth of benefits. Due to the size of the 1614 Database, FSA has indicated an inability to make the information available online.

“We like big ideas,” said Jaeger. “So we figured out how to put the information online. It’s about farmers. We believe they should have access to it.”

And the Rumors Started Flying in the South Building

This bit from the House Ag committee work on farm bill, via Brownfield:

As we've asked other committee members to withdraw their amendments 'til we get to the full committee, I would ask the gentleman to consider withdrawing it until next year," Holden urged Space. "And respectfully, the reason I say that to my friend is that, in consultation with the chairman of the full committee and with Mr. Lucas, next year we plan to have a reorganization of USDA."

Holden didn't say whether the USDA reorganization would focus specifically on the roles of FSA and NRCS in EQIP. But he suggested the reorganization would be much more sweeping.

"Again, after consulting with the chairman of the full committee, we believe any amendments that would come either in this subcommittee or in any subcommittee or in the full committee dealing with the transfer of responsibility or authority," Holden explained, "we'd like to wait 'til next year when we have a reorganization of the entire Department."

Those Despicable Bureaucrats

Shankar Vedantam in yesterday's Post has an article describing how we view others. Here's a quote:

Wesleyan University social psychologist Scott Plous said one dimension of the phenomenon is known as the actor-observer bias. When we do something wrong ourselves -- drive 60 mph in a 40-mph zone, for example -- we explain our actions in terms of situational factors. We say we are speeding because we are running late, or that we got held up at work. But when we see someone else do something wrong, we are far more likely to link the behavior to the nature of that individual.

It's described as the difference between "situational" understanding and "dispositional" understanding. I think it can apply to bureaucrats as well. When people cuss and moan about "faceless bureaucrats", I think it's true that they lack the bureaucrat's understanding of the rules being applied. So the bureaucrat knows the situation and applies the rules. The citizen, who just got screwed (or feels he did), only knows that some bastard screwed him by mindless application of some rules.

Welfare Farmers

The LA Times editorial page makes the linkage that many will make--between welfare (foodstamps) and farm programs.


But Jim Wiesemeyer has a nuts and bolts article on the actual crafting of the new farm bill that suggests opinion may swing towards a straight extension, which will disappoint many. (The logic is that "pay-go" rules mean new programs require new taxes or cuts in old programs, both of which may be too painful to pass. So simplicity is easy and an extension of 2002 may seem attractive.)

And All the Cars Are Shiny

I've another line to add to Garrison Keillor's lines about Lake Woebegon, but this one reflect modern times, not the egotism of the town. I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for my wife to finish grocery shopping (she picks up fruits and vegetables at the Hispanic supermarket after our regular Saturday lunch).
Ann Althouse has been on a recent kick of taking photos of cars, mainly classic cars, and that got me conscious of the cars in the lot. Compared to the vehicles in a similar lot when I was young (ed.--there were no Hispanic supermarkets within 125 miles of where you grew up) they looked newer and much shinier. Newer because I don't think exterior styling has changed as much since 1995 as it did between 1945 and 1960. Shinier because of improvements in paint.

Are US Bureaucrats Better Than Brits?

Far be it from me to say so. Comparing the farm programs in the two countries is comparing apples and elephants. And the British reorganized their bureaucracy and changed their payment system recently. But still, this article reporting that the British bureaucracy still hasn't made 22,000 payments for 2005 says something to me.

A Tale of Two Vanities

I bought my house over 30 years ago, new. More than 15 years ago I replaced the vanity in one bathroom.

While I hadn't done such work before, I had watched my father do all sorts of work on the farm, carpentry, plumbing repairs, concrete, painting, fixing farm implements. The Army in its infinite wisdom considered my test scores and disregarded my college background in American studies to decide that I would best serve the country as a generator repairman. (They then decided I could teach, as they started running both day and night classes, but soon realized my monotone was putting all my night students asleep so shipped me off to a warmer zone.) After buying my house, I decided to save by building some of my furniture, which I did and reasonably well. We still have a couple of chairs.

Finally, although I couldn't refer to the Internet for help, I could go to the Reader's Digest "How To..." series. So I assured my wife and my self that I could do this replacement. Unfortunately I didn't realize how interdependent plumbing systems are. If you decide to replace a 24" deep vanity with a 21" deep vanity (small bathroom), the drain pipe is no longer aligned with the sink drain.

No problem, I went off to the hardware store to find the proper parts. Unfortunately, I failed to measure before I went. And I never asked for help, not on my first visit to the store, not on my second visit to the store, not on the third visit to the store.

The more problems I ran into, the more frustrated I got and the more urgent it was for me to finish the job. So I threw things together, installed everything, spent a couple days trying to remedy a leak at the connection between the sink drain and the trap, and finally called it good enough for government work. And I regret the job every time I look at it.

Fast forward to yesterday, when my long-suffering wife decided she could put up with my replacing the vanity in another bathroom. After we bought the vanity and top, I went to the hardware store and asked for help. I got all the plumbing parts in about 10 minutes. And I'm doing lots of trial runs, dry fitting of the vanity and the plumbing together. I'm also taking breaks, as now, because I still get very frustrated (perhaps more than I used to) when I run into problems (like floors and walls not being perfectly plumb and square).

So I say with Ecclesiastes: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

Farewell Tony

Tony Blair officially announced the end of his prime ministership yesterday. I'm sorry to see him go.

I'm glad I wasn't writing a blog in 2002/3, because I wavered all over the lot on Iraq. Read the liberal hawks, like Kenneth Pollack, or the reluctant hawk Bill what's-his-face who's now editor of the NYTimes and I'd support Bush. Watch Bush or Cheney or Rice, and I'd start to remember Vietnam. I'd think, just because you were right (or so it seemed at the time) about Afghanistan doesn't mean that Iraq is a good idea. I'd think, what about Cap Weinberger (who set some famous criteria in the 1980's for using US troops), what about the Powell doctrine (which was a development of Weinberger's criteria) of using overwhelming force? How does that Republican doctrine fit with Wolfowitz's dismissal of Shinseki's warning?

But then I'd watch Blair, both in the US and in the C-Span coverage of Britain, and he was convincing. He didn't use Bush's simplistic, moralistic language of battling evil men. (Yes, I believe in evil, but analyzing one's enemies as simply evil is not the way to truth.) But he made a moral case, one that appeals to the moralistic liberal in me and that seemed more realistic about the effort needed.

What I failed to see was that Bush was in charge of implementation. Fatal error, fatal for many.

I'm not sure I mentioned reading the book "Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. Blair sent troops into Sierra Leone to stabilize the situation. That was an achievement, which one can appreciate from reading the book. (Though Blair isn't mentioned.)

The assessments of Blair in the papers haven't been particularly kind. They lean towards describing a glib politician who didn't achieve much and stuck too close to Bush. All that may be true, but I have to salute someone who got Paisley and Adams to the bargaining table in Northern Ireland.

Random Thought--Bonds and Sosa

I have the proper disdain for Barry Bonds and his effort to surpass Hank Aaron, whom I remember surpassing the unsurpassable (as it seemed in the 1950's) record of Babe Ruth. Steroids have no place in baseball.

Yet, and yet. Sammy Sosa is back playing and he and Barry are in the top ten homer hitters in their respective leagues. Now there seem to be two alternatives: either they're still on steroids, so the current testing routine is ineffective, or they're no longer on steroids, in which case their hitting exploits seem a bit more legitimate.

Why can't things get simpler as you get older.