New Idea: Farmers Markets

Not so.  As the Universal York blog reminds us, in the old days there were market buildings, some of some distinction.  See here for the interior and here for exterior.  Those who push farmers markets today need to examine the reasons why they almost vanished in the first place. (DC has the Eastern Market and I think a couple others, so they didn't quite vanish, but there's a fine balance of population density, transportation, refrigeration, economy, female cooks, household help, etc. which formed the ecology in which such buildings could be erected and maintained.)

The All-Powerful President

"Although departments and agencies are supposed to adhere to the president's priorities, they do so only half heartedly."  Quoted in a discussion at OMBWatch of the relative non-importance of the president's budget. Although CJennings quibbles with the description, I think it's fair.  Certainly with DOD there's a long history of gamesmanship between the DOD and the committees on the Hill that hardly qualifies as even quarter-hearted, much less half.

The Louisiana Purchase Versus the Alabama Holdup

The "purchase" refers to the deal Sen. Landrieu got for her support of health care reform; the "holdup" refers to Sen. Shelby putting holds on all Obama's nominees until he gets two projects for his state.

First He Killed His 51 Cows

And then himself.

See the story in today's NYTimes. Peter Applebone is fairly restrained in his piece on the suicide of a 59-year old dairyman north of New York City. The article says 51 cows is about the limit for a single person.  My uncle ran a similarly sized dairy by himself, at least until his barn burned and he had a heart attack. That tells me there's not been much productivity improvements over the last 60 years, except of course the cows these days probably produce 2-3 times the volume of milk.  But milking 51 cows, minus those dry, twice a day, every day of the year is an intimidating prospect.  It scared the hell out of me.  And at 59, and alone.  (Dairy isn't the most social occupation.)

I assume he raised his cows from calves and he knew them, knew their personalities.  That hurts. [Paragraph revised to clarify.]

Indian Cotton Production

One of  the "memes" of the sustainable ag/organic farming movement is the belief that genetically modified cotton seeds failed in India.  So I found this interesting:

The statistics of cotton production and consumption in different countries across the world were recently revealed by the International Cotton Advisory Committee, showing a steady decline in cotton production in Pakistan from 2.194 million tons in 2005 to 2.08 million tons in 2009. India on the other hand increased its cotton production from 4.097 million tons in 2005 to 5.34 million tons in 2009. Accordingly, India’s cotton export has increased while that of Pakistan is facing difficulty. China too has increased its cotton production while its indigenous consumption has decreased, allowing a greater margin for cotton export.
The increase in cotton production in India and China is said mainly to be the result of cultivating pest-resistant varieties of cotton seeds, which have not yet been introduced in Pakistan. On the other hand, Pakistan’s cotton cultivation has declined due to several factors ranging from cultivation of traditional varieties and via traditional methods, poor marketing, and failure in making timely payments to cotton producers.

A Time Long Ago

Orin Kerr at Volokh tips the Time article on an argument before the Supreme Court (apparently one of the cases which became known as  Brown v Board of Education case).

Government PR

Government Executive has an article on government PR, particularly in light of Congressional restrictions which date back to when Public Roads was part of USDA.

... the More Things Remain the Same

Andrew Rudalevige at The Monkey Cage posts a memo from Dave Stockman to President Reagan explaining why the big deficit for 1985FY wasn't the Republicans fault with the suggestion Orszag would sympathize.

What's intriguing is the reminder that "Human Events," a conservative mag, was attacking Reagan back then. (I've a vague memory it was a publication to which he paid lots of attention, so the critique must have hurt.)  I also found interesting Stockman's explanation for the explosion of spending on agriculture.

Who Woulda Thunk It--Germans Less Prolix

Kevin Drum has an interesting post on health care reform which I recommend.  But in the comments, one observer claimed the German health care law was 200 pages.  To which another commenter said:

It´s a bit more than 200 pages by now. Although it includes a chapter dealing with German reunification. In time these paragraphs will be "deleted" again.
As a German my trust in German bureaucracy returned when I discovered that the original "mandatory health insurance law for blue-collar workers" from 1884 consisted of just 13 pages.
At least we managed a 15-20 times increase in pages in 126 years. :)
While of course covering everyone by now...

Sometimes a Politician Just Can't Win

The Post this week has reported poll results:  the good news is that people think DC government and DC schools are improving and doing better.  The bad news is that people think less of DC Mayor Fenty and Schools chief Rhee than they used to.

Neither one has been warm and fuzzy during their time in office, but they seem to have improved the operation of government.  As someone who once voted for Marion Berry for mayor, give me performance over personality any day of the week.