Friday, November 09, 2012
Call Me Stick-in-the-Mud
I have to admit a shameful fact: I don't own a mobile device, no iPhone or iPad or Android or anything.When you stay as close to home as I do, there's not that much point. In other words, if you're not mobile, you don't need a mobile device.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Margaret Chase Smith Is Happy
20 women senators in the new Congress, she was the only one when I became conscious of politics.
Thank Goodness Washington's Not Battleground
I see the great bureaucrats in Washington state have now succeeded in counting 58 percent of their ballots.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
My Own Prediction
Nate Silver's book will hit the NYTimes best seller list. (I'm about a third through and it's very good.)
Voting
Voted about 1:45. Took about 30 minutes. The line was wrong [sic], but I can't say it was the longest ever, but possibly it was. Memory fades. They used both touch screen and paper ballots. Unfortunately people irrationally choose the touch screen so there was a 10 minute wait for those, while if you were smart enough, I wasn't, to vote paper there was no wait after your eligibility had been confirmed.
[Updated to note my freudian slip.]
[Updated to note my freudian slip.]
Monday, November 05, 2012
The Value of Female Leaders?
Apparently Bangladesh has been doing quite well over the last 20 years, during which they've had mostly female prime ministers.
The Distraction of Politics
Election day tomorrow. I'm voting for Obama, Kaine (Senate) and Connelly (House). Does it make a difference? From the perspective of 71 years, and probably 64 or so following politics (don't ask why the early interest) I'd say it does and it doesn't. The bottom line is that the country is like a big ocean liner with lots of momentum and we tend to overestimate the influence of our elected officials. It's rather like ASCS/FSA, very hard to make significant changes in the culture and organization.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Many Varieties of Federal Employees
Sarah Kliff at the Post reminds of the varieties of Federal employees.
The point is that FEMA uses "reservists" who are temporary employees and not eligible for FEHBP for most of its disaster response. It's rather like the Forest Service which has a similar deal for its firefighters. And FSA/ASCS which used to have a big slug of temporary field employees for summer compliance work. And the other variety is, of course, the county office employees who aren't technically Federal for some purposes, meaning they're usually excluded in counts of federal employees.
"FEMA has 9,106 disaster assistance employees. Only 770 get federal health insurance."
The point is that FEMA uses "reservists" who are temporary employees and not eligible for FEHBP for most of its disaster response. It's rather like the Forest Service which has a similar deal for its firefighters. And FSA/ASCS which used to have a big slug of temporary field employees for summer compliance work. And the other variety is, of course, the county office employees who aren't technically Federal for some purposes, meaning they're usually excluded in counts of federal employees.
Friday, November 02, 2012
Disasters, Climbing Mountains, and the Poor
I'm not a mountain climber, but it seems it me mountain climbing is a good metaphor for being poor, and disasters.
Imagine a big high mountain and the game of life is to try to climb it. The mountain has various nooks and crannies, easier routes and harder routes, and most of all it has a lot of loose stones, so it's very easy for a climber to dislodge a stone which falls, sometimes triggering more rock falls. Now where you start on the mountain is a matter of luck, your ancestors and your inheritance. Some people just find a cranny near their starting point and rest there. Others are able to make mad sprints up an easy route. But most people toil away at whatever level they're at on the mountain.
Unfortunately, as they toil they knock the stones off, the stones go bouncing down the side and they can hit the people below, knocking them backwards down the mountain.
The poor are at the lowest levels of the mountain and therefore have the longest climb and face the most stones falling down. That's life, that's unfair, that's disaster.
Thinking of filing insurance claims for damage caused by Sandy, that assumes people have insurance. But the poor are less likely to have insurance, that's a luxury you can't afford Lose all the food in your refrigerator; that's particularly hard if your food budget is tight. Lose the car to the flooding, unlikely to have comprehensive insurance. Have the apartment flooded, no renters insurance. The local restaurant is flooded, lose weeks of work as dishwasher or waiter until it gets going again.
Imagine a big high mountain and the game of life is to try to climb it. The mountain has various nooks and crannies, easier routes and harder routes, and most of all it has a lot of loose stones, so it's very easy for a climber to dislodge a stone which falls, sometimes triggering more rock falls. Now where you start on the mountain is a matter of luck, your ancestors and your inheritance. Some people just find a cranny near their starting point and rest there. Others are able to make mad sprints up an easy route. But most people toil away at whatever level they're at on the mountain.
Unfortunately, as they toil they knock the stones off, the stones go bouncing down the side and they can hit the people below, knocking them backwards down the mountain.
The poor are at the lowest levels of the mountain and therefore have the longest climb and face the most stones falling down. That's life, that's unfair, that's disaster.
Thinking of filing insurance claims for damage caused by Sandy, that assumes people have insurance. But the poor are less likely to have insurance, that's a luxury you can't afford Lose all the food in your refrigerator; that's particularly hard if your food budget is tight. Lose the car to the flooding, unlikely to have comprehensive insurance. Have the apartment flooded, no renters insurance. The local restaurant is flooded, lose weeks of work as dishwasher or waiter until it gets going again.
Thursday, November 01, 2012
Robo Call to Vets: Poor Research
Somehow the opponent of my Representative (or someone backing him) discovered I'm a vet, so I got a robo-call this noon alerting me to something despicable Mr. Connelly had said about the military. Guess their research didn't find out how firmly committed to the Dems I am.
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