Considering today's gas prices, is it worth driving 140 miles to watch a T-ball game?
Someone (in the media) really needs to sign Erin up to write/photograph for them.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Signs of Hope for Locavores
Having put down locavores, it's time to toss them a bone of hope. Michelle Slatalla, one of my favorite columnists in the NY Times, has this article. If the future is California, we'll find the Internet becomes the intermediary in matching organic/local food growers with those customers who are willing to pay extra. Apparently there are already several operations going in her area.
Someone Anderson (senior moment) has written of the "long tail"--the idea that the Internet makes it possible for Netflix to have an incredible inventory of DVD's which they find people willing and able to rent. Even though the plurality of rentals are the most current and popular things, the distribution curve has a very long tail. The same thing may occur with food. Most people won't like the service Slatalla describes, but some will, just as most people don't rent "Kelly's Heroes", but a few will. (Snuck in my favorite movie.)
Someone Anderson (senior moment) has written of the "long tail"--the idea that the Internet makes it possible for Netflix to have an incredible inventory of DVD's which they find people willing and able to rent. Even though the plurality of rentals are the most current and popular things, the distribution curve has a very long tail. The same thing may occur with food. Most people won't like the service Slatalla describes, but some will, just as most people don't rent "Kelly's Heroes", but a few will. (Snuck in my favorite movie.)
"Peter Rabbit Must Die" Says the Times
It's an interesting piece (a bit fluffy) on how people deal with those creatures which eat their gardens.
It brought back memories of my mother and her campaign against the woodchucks. I never quite figured it out--yes, they did raid her garden but she tried to gas those in our hayfields as well. It may have been memories from childhood of a horse breaking his leg in one of their holes.
Woodchucks, for those who have never killed one, burrow (particularly in gravelly soil such as we had) and make two kinds of entrances. One has all the excavated soil, it's sort of a front porch from which the woodchuck can raise up on his rear and survey the surrounding landscape for possible predators. While a woodchuck has teeth that can give a dog a nasty bite, they're basically easy prey if cornered away from their burrow. But the other hole is just a hole, very much hidden, and that's the sort of thing that's dangerous, particularly for a horse walking through grass.
It's a reminder, though, of the cross-currents that run through the organic/locavore movement, as is this piece in Slate entitled: "There Will Be Chicken Blood, The gritty truth about urban farming". To the extent that vegetarians are a part of the movement, there's a conflict with the battle to protect the fruits of one's labors. Life is not simple, but I suppose people know that already.
It brought back memories of my mother and her campaign against the woodchucks. I never quite figured it out--yes, they did raid her garden but she tried to gas those in our hayfields as well. It may have been memories from childhood of a horse breaking his leg in one of their holes.
Woodchucks, for those who have never killed one, burrow (particularly in gravelly soil such as we had) and make two kinds of entrances. One has all the excavated soil, it's sort of a front porch from which the woodchuck can raise up on his rear and survey the surrounding landscape for possible predators. While a woodchuck has teeth that can give a dog a nasty bite, they're basically easy prey if cornered away from their burrow. But the other hole is just a hole, very much hidden, and that's the sort of thing that's dangerous, particularly for a horse walking through grass.
It's a reminder, though, of the cross-currents that run through the organic/locavore movement, as is this piece in Slate entitled: "There Will Be Chicken Blood, The gritty truth about urban farming". To the extent that vegetarians are a part of the movement, there's a conflict with the battle to protect the fruits of one's labors. Life is not simple, but I suppose people know that already.
Pollan on the Farm Bill--Can't Beat Something with Nothing
Michael Pollan writes at EWG on what went wrong with the farm bill. His basic answer is: his camp didn't have a constructive proposal for replacing the current system. And proponents of the current system did a good job of "logrolling", also known as co-opting people by throwing them a bone.
I suspect that's about right, although I'd add another factor: the opponents made a lot of noise, but never showed a good, big organization. You get the attention of politicians by whacking them with grassroots support, not posts on blogs, etc., or even best sellers.
Finally, the history of farm legislation is that changes occur incrementally--the institution of the Conservation Reserve Program in the 85 bill and Freedom to Farm's direct payments were, in my opinion, the two biggest changes we've had since 1965.
I suspect that's about right, although I'd add another factor: the opponents made a lot of noise, but never showed a good, big organization. You get the attention of politicians by whacking them with grassroots support, not posts on blogs, etc., or even best sellers.
Finally, the history of farm legislation is that changes occur incrementally--the institution of the Conservation Reserve Program in the 85 bill and Freedom to Farm's direct payments were, in my opinion, the two biggest changes we've had since 1965.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
$4 Gas
Just filled up with my first tank of $4 gas. Long time since gas was $.30 and the stations competed for your patronage with freebies. (I guess I'm showing my age.)
When you look at Europe you find $8-$9 gas so I'm not complaining, but I understand the anger of those who have no choice but to put diesel in their 18 wheelers and tractors. As I've said, I think the high prices will dampen demand enough that prices will fall for a good while. But back in the 1970's we thought we were seeing a permanent change in our economy. Turned out that oil was below $20 for several years, before the latest rise.
When you look at Europe you find $8-$9 gas so I'm not complaining, but I understand the anger of those who have no choice but to put diesel in their 18 wheelers and tractors. As I've said, I think the high prices will dampen demand enough that prices will fall for a good while. But back in the 1970's we thought we were seeing a permanent change in our economy. Turned out that oil was below $20 for several years, before the latest rise.
How Bureaucrats Are Made--Kris Koth
One of the things I find fascinating about bureaucracy is how it is staffed. I'm going to make a generalization--for 100+ years the role of the USDA has been to provide jobs for children of farmers. Instead of farming full-time, they leave the farm and go to work for USDA, in the last 50 or so years after going to college and graduating from their state's land grant university. Sometimes they stay in their home state, sometimes they move elsewhere, to DC or Hawaii.
I don't mean that everyone who works for USDA in the field was raised on a farm, but that's the pattern. I suspect other bureaucracies have other patterns (like the Catholic church used to attract one boy from a large Irish family).
Here's a piece on someone who's following the pattern in Iowa.
I don't mean that everyone who works for USDA in the field was raised on a farm, but that's the pattern. I suspect other bureaucracies have other patterns (like the Catholic church used to attract one boy from a large Irish family).
Here's a piece on someone who's following the pattern in Iowa.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The Iraq Index Today
Here's the May 29 version from Brookings. It's interesting--lots of the tables haven't been updated recently. I suspect it's because people have lost interest in the subject. (The people at Brookings just assembled data from various governments and organizations, they didn't do research themselves.)
The headline news is, of course, the 19 U.S. deaths in May are a low for the war since the first year. And there's been several optimistic articles and op-eds in the past few weeks, even though most of them don't get the attention of the past. I don't think that's liberal bias particularly--it's mostly the idea that conflict and bad news is lots more newsworthy than good news. It is true, though, that we liberals have a hard time fitting the news into our overall narrative so it's often easy to ignore.
Personally, I've a bureaucratic narrative--there's a learning curve, it's taken us 4-5 years to learn, but we're at last much improved over what we were at first. (You can see this in Vietnam, the last few years under Abrams were much more effective than the first years under Westmoreland.)
A couple factoids, without links: NYTimes had an article on the US prisons in Iraq--we're holding over 20,000 prisoners, of which about 1 percent are foreign. It's possible we killed most of the people who were willing to come to Iraq and die, or people just got tired after so many years, but it doesn't fit with a war against international terrorism. Attacks against oil infrastructure are way down this year--good news for the Iraqi economy and for our gas prices.
The headline news is, of course, the 19 U.S. deaths in May are a low for the war since the first year. And there's been several optimistic articles and op-eds in the past few weeks, even though most of them don't get the attention of the past. I don't think that's liberal bias particularly--it's mostly the idea that conflict and bad news is lots more newsworthy than good news. It is true, though, that we liberals have a hard time fitting the news into our overall narrative so it's often easy to ignore.
Personally, I've a bureaucratic narrative--there's a learning curve, it's taken us 4-5 years to learn, but we're at last much improved over what we were at first. (You can see this in Vietnam, the last few years under Abrams were much more effective than the first years under Westmoreland.)
A couple factoids, without links: NYTimes had an article on the US prisons in Iraq--we're holding over 20,000 prisoners, of which about 1 percent are foreign. It's possible we killed most of the people who were willing to come to Iraq and die, or people just got tired after so many years, but it doesn't fit with a war against international terrorism. Attacks against oil infrastructure are way down this year--good news for the Iraqi economy and for our gas prices.
The Process of Certification and Proofing
I posted yesterday on the Iraqi bureaucrat whose signature is known all over. I post today on the explanation (in part) for the screwup on the farm bill. (The trade title was omitted in the version sent to the President.) This article from Politico describes the process by which a bill is sent to the President and blames Newt Gingrich for the penny-pinching which opened the loophole resulting in the problem. In brief, instead of printing two copies on parchment, proofing one, and sending the other to the President, he had them print the bill twice, once on plain paper. Somehow, between the first and second printing the title was dropped. Probably because each title was being treated as a document (or perhaps a subdocument with a master document). And the usual bureaucratic routine was being upset by the call for haste. As mom always said: "haste makes waste".
Forgive my enthusiasm for this detail--but it recalls the days when my office had to certify true and correct copies of regulations to be published in the Federal Register.
Forgive my enthusiasm for this detail--but it recalls the days when my office had to certify true and correct copies of regulations to be published in the Federal Register.
DC Gets Organic Fast Food
One of the interesting developments since the 1950's when mom first subscribed to Organic Gardening is all the cross-cutting currents in this area. There's the development of big food chains like Whole Foods that focus on the organic area, there's the development of Community supported agriculture chains, there's the "locavore" movement that would seem to reject organic food shipped in from abroad and accept hothouse food grown locally, there's the infighting among the various elements of the organic community over what the term means, there's the possibility of genetically modified organic food. And now, coming to DC, is organic fast food.
(I recognize this is an oversimplified summary. The bottom line is folks should be happy at the confusion and conflict--it all means people see a bandwagon passing by and they're jumping on.)
(I recognize this is an oversimplified summary. The bottom line is folks should be happy at the confusion and conflict--it all means people see a bandwagon passing by and they're jumping on.)
Monday, June 02, 2008
A Faceless Iraqi Bureaucrat
The Post has a fascinating (to me) article on an Iraqi bureaucrat:
What's fascinating? Well, he is a faceless bureaucrat, but as he says, his signature is known. And before bureaucrats had signatures, they had seals, authenticating a document (i.e., like the Great Seal of the U.S. or the "signet" ring which was a more personal seal). Some movies make a big deal of the application of seals--like the warrant for execution of someone in British politics (Queen Mary, Cromwell, whoever). So on the one hand you have the anonymity of the bureaucrat, the document stating a bureaucratic rule without a hint of the author, but on the other hand you have the authentication, tracing the document back to some process with legitimacy.
The looped and dotted script of Abdul Ghani's signature is etched in rubber and slicked with ink. His signature is the final stamp of approval for many foreign matters involving Iraqi citizens.
"Every embassy in the world has a record of my signature," says Abdul, 28, leaning forward on his thick arms.
Apparently, he and other "authorizers" have to sign documents, like high school diplomas being used to apply to college abroad.
What's fascinating? Well, he is a faceless bureaucrat, but as he says, his signature is known. And before bureaucrats had signatures, they had seals, authenticating a document (i.e., like the Great Seal of the U.S. or the "signet" ring which was a more personal seal). Some movies make a big deal of the application of seals--like the warrant for execution of someone in British politics (Queen Mary, Cromwell, whoever). So on the one hand you have the anonymity of the bureaucrat, the document stating a bureaucratic rule without a hint of the author, but on the other hand you have the authentication, tracing the document back to some process with legitimacy.
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