Another View of Local Food

It's always instructive to see what's going on in other countries. We (Americans, humans?) so often think that we are the embodiment of wisdom. Anyhow, I question Bill McKibben and his dedication to local food (thought I did--it may be one of my unfinished draft posts). But here's how some Frenchmen do it (along with some nice pictures, once you get past the introductory logo).

As long as I'm on the French, my impression is that in both Britain and France people tend to go to the store very often, even daily. It's the epitome of local food--the bread is baked, the meat is butchered daily, the refrigerators are small, so you practice "just-in-time cookery". Very different from suburban and country patterns here, where you make one big shopping trip a week to stock up, have big refrigerators, etc.

Bureaucrat as [Biased] Umpire II

In contrast to the Will piece on Froemming (see prior post) the New York Times reports an academic study (somewhat similar to the previous one on NBA referees) which shows umps biased in favor of their own race.

"Specifically, an umpire will — with all other matters such as game score and pitcher quality accounted for — call a pitch a strike about 1 percent more often if he and the pitcher are of the same race."

Apparently the bias would seldom affect the game, particularly as umpires are less biased when the situation is tightest (and not biased at all when the new electronic device that checks their accuracy is running).

Bureaucrat as Umpire

George Will writes of the glory of the umpire, focusing on Bruce Froemming, the ump with the longest career:

"Consider Sept. 2, 1972, when Froemming was behind the plate and the Cubs' Milt Pappas was one strike from doing what only 15 pitchers have done -- pitch a perfect game, 27 up, 27 down. With two outs in the ninth, Pappas got an 0-2 count on the 27th batter. Froemming called the next three pitches balls. An agitated Pappas started walking toward Froemming, who said to the Cubs' catcher: "Tell him if he gets here, just keep walking" -- to the showers.

Pappas's next pitch was low and outside. Although he did get his no-hitter, the greater glory -- a perfect game -- was lost. Another kind of glory -- the integrity of rules [emphasis added]-- was achieved."

That's one cardinal virtue (and vice) of the bureaucrat, upholding the integrity of the rules.

Economists Reinvent the Wheel

Brad DeLong is an interesting guy, a former Clinton bureaucrat, an economics professor, and prolific blogger. He posts a handout for an economic history class to be given this fall. There's lots of formulas and logic, but I'll excerpt the two key pieces:

The Puzzle:

"In the context of Economics 113—American Economic History—we have a
definite puzzle: it was Britain that was ahead in technology and was where
technology was moving ahead the fastest in the first half of the nineteenth
century, and yet it was America that appears to have had the fastest perperson
economic growth. According to eh.net, British growth in real GDP
per capita averaged 0.50% per year in the first half of the nineteenth
century; American real GDP per capita growth averaged 0.86% per year
from 1790-1850.1"

The Conclusion:

The westward expansion—the Erie Canal, the steamboats, expulsion of
Indians from the near midwest and the inland southeast, et cetera—thus
looks absolutely key to the form that economic growth took in pre-Civil
War America.

(The reasoning involves looking at capital, natural resources, level of technology, and labor.)

Seems to be that was Turner's "frontier hypothesis" of American history.

Office closing--miscellaneous articles

Office closing--on Long Island--take the ferry to Connecticut is one alternative.
Closing ten offices in NE approved by Johanns--apparently he has no further political ambitions in his home state. And 16 in Georgia.

I'm still not seeing news of closing of NRCS offices at anywhere near the same rate as FSA. I don't know why--whether they aren't doing as much or it's not as controversial. The FSA mythology had the soil conservationist driving around to his clients so it might well be that office closings don't rate the notice. Why should I care whether the conservationist drives 20 miles or 40 miles to my farm?

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Via Marginal Revolution, here's an amazing set of pictures.
See also here.

Disaster Waivers

Much of the regulation on government is well-intentioned (maybe even all of it) and has a purpose. We can argue about whether the regulation is wise or effective. But as I thought after Katrina, and said in this very blog, there ought to be two sets of regulations--one that applies in ordinary times, another for emergencies.

Government Executive reports:

The Homeland Security Department inspector general is urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to streamline information sharing to help law enforcement agencies locate missing children, registered sex offenders and fugitive felons during disasters.

A report released by the IG this week showed that after Hurricane Katrina, law enforcement agencies struggled to get information from FEMA that would have helped them track down missing children and criminals. Among those missing after the storm were 5,000 children, more than 2,000 sex offenders and a number of fugitive felons.

Slatalla and IT Systems

The Times' Michelle Slatalla tried to implement an IT system in her family (3 daughters, husband). Her attempt was prompted by conflict over a scarce resource (a car). So she tried to use the Google calendar software to establish coordinated calendars for each family member, with a master calendar. It failed. Her story is a reminder that humans, not IT, are in the drivers seat. Or, to change the metaphor, you need to win the hearts and minds of the people.

On the other hand, if there were an interface between the Google calendar and the car's ignition, such that the car could only be started by the driver who had reserved the time on the calendar, your IT system would have the people by the short and curlies, as the Brits say.

Actually, her story may be a parable of the dangers of overreaching--she apparently has fallen back to a calendar for the car and a spreadsheet for gas, which may have worked.

Farmers and the Internet

A paper on farmers, PC's, and the Internet is here. Broadband is spreading but still has a ways to go.

I remember Sherman County, Kansas (Colorado border) where we were doing an "Info-Share" project in 1991-2. Some farmers had PC's, but it was easy to overestimate. So many farmers are so old, and it's well established that us oldtimers don't like change. Judging by the fuss over closing county offices, it's clear that the Internet has yet to replace the need for warm blooded help from your local friendly bureaucrat.

(Buried in the depths are figures on the extent to which farmers in various states use the Internet to do business with USDA, or other websites. Amazon is doing lots better than USDA.)

Bureaucrats Causing the Civil War

I'm reading a frustrating book by William Freehling, on the road to the Civil War. (It's frustrating because of his writing, not the content.) But he offers a theory on the causes of the war that's new to me: bureaucrats. He argues that Southern political leaders knew Lincoln might be elected, as he was. And if he was elected, he had extensive patronage powers (remember the "spoils" system?)--appointing postmasters and customs collectors, etc. And they knew that these bureaucratic posts would attract people willing to serve, even in the South. Thus Lincoln (who indeed spent much of his time after being elected and in the early months of his administration dealing with office seekers) could create a Southern Republican Party, through use of patronage. That would quickly erode the appearance of southern unity around slavery.

It's an interesting theory, as well as a reminder that Presidents used to have much more power over bureaucrats than they do today, even though our esteemed [sic] current President has been accused of politicizing his administration.