Bringing British Cuture and Cuisine to the French

Dirk Beauregarde reports that Marks and Spencer is opening a store in Paris, trying to alleviate the serious French deficiencies in food and fashion.

The Deficiencies of Non-Bureaucratic Organizations

Accusing terrorists of being bureaucratic is not a common move.  But this post at the Monkey Cage suggests that's what they need, more bureaucracy.  If I follow the argument, a terrorist group which is united on a common goal could safely coordinate its actions by the typical "cell" organization common to subversive movements.  But when some in the movement have their own ideas, or become motivated by money or the search for prestige the organization becomes less effective, because the cell structure limits the flow of information back to the leaders of the organization and makes it hard for them to allocate money to the best places. So what terrorist cells gain in security, they give up in efficiency.

Do We Import Farm Produce, or Farmers?

That's the question the food movement should be asking based on this Hmong high tunnel project in MA. It's  true that immigrants are more likely to work hard for lower returns, thus fitting the niche for locavore agriculture.

India Isn't Really So Populous

Look at the map in this Roving Bandit post, showing the population of the various Indian states, but don't scroll below the map.  You'll conclude, if you're like me, Indian states aren't really populous.  Then scroll.

Our Weak Federal Government--States Control Fed Employees

In any rationally constructed bureaucracy, the leadership of the organization can control the hiring and firing of the people who do the organization's work.
Right?  Anyone disagree?

So we're all in agreement the Social Security Administration is not a rationally constructed bureaucracy.  As the FederalComputer Week reports:

"Under a joint federal-state funding relationship, SSA pays the full salaries of state employees who do initial processing of disability claims under the federal Disability Determination Services program."

 Because they're state employees, not Feds, some 19 states have furloughed these people, meaning SSA can't timely service these claims.

The Food Movement's Dilemma

 I think it's fair to say the food movement is mostly left, sometimes libertarian, but still mostly left.  As such I'd expect them to be responsive to this post at Understanding Government, noting an article on hunger in America.

But I'd also expect them to appreciate this guy's efforts, serving as a middleman between his neighbors who grow food and make artisanal products and the residents of the DC area:

A longtime foodie and serial entrepreneur, Kostelac is convinced that his old neighbors in yuppie Washington will pay premium prices for produce and meat from the small farmers who are his new neighbors. Now, in this refuge from his failures in the city, he sees opportunity — in the leaves of the grapevine that wraps around his front gate, the morel mushrooms that sprout beneath a shade tree and the wild raspberries that grow faster than ones he planted — that he might have overlooked before.

 So,  the dilemma is: what does the food movement support? Do they want to raise taxes to provide more food stamps to low-income people so they can pay some of the "premium prices" ($3.25 for a bunch of basil, $29.25 a pound for brisket)? Do they want to spend money to subsidize Mr. Kostelac's neighbors so they can reduce their prices?

A cynic, and I'm occasionally one, might say if everyone is eating organic basil in their pesto, what's the point--where does one turn in the effort to prove one's taste is superior?

Members of Congress Receiving Farm Payments

EWG has released their list of current members of Congress who are directly or indirectly receiving farm program payments. The majority own shares in some sort of legal entity(ies); few get payments directly.

Past Sins Recalled

Katrina Vanden Heuvel in the Post on having standards for pundits:

Fox News trumped even that, trotting out retired Marine Col. Oliver North, the former Reagan security staffer who orchestrated the secret war in Nicaragua, to indict President Obama for — you can’t make this stuff up — failing to get a congressional resolution in support of the mission in Libya.

Predicting the Future, Achenbach Is Prescient

See his last paragraph quoted here.

Nitpicky Morning

First Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution writes "cache" when he means "cachet" and then Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy writes "principle limit" when he means "principal".  Standards is gone all to hell.