Why Good Government Fails

Humans are self-interested. For example, the Bush Administration had some touted initiatives. One was E-government, trying to make better use of the Internet in government operations through various efforts (i.e., usa.gov, regulations.gov, etc.) Another was PART --which stands for Program Assessment Rating Tool. Both were well-intentioned, although I've had my reservations with both.

But what happens--Pres. Bush and his people at the White House have a great idea. So they call up the departments and say: "do A, B, and C".

The department says: "Sounds like a great idea, do we get any money for it?"

Bush: "No, make it happen using the funds you have available".

Department: "Uh, okay, you're the boss"

House Appropriations Committee says: "Why do you need these dollars?"

Department: "Uh, we had to devote x man-years and $y to the President's great ideas"

House Appropriations Committee says: "But that wasn't our great idea"

All of the above is triggered by this note in the House Approp. Committee's statement on the appropriations bill for 2009 covering USDA:

"There is concern that agencies are being required, after appropriations have been enacted for other purposes, to support E-Gov and PART studies. This diminishes, delays, or eliminates the implementation of the activities for which funds were provided. Thirty days prior to any centrally determined charges being applied to any USDA agency that are different from those amounts displayed in the budget justification materials, the Department must submit a detailed explanation' to the committees of the amounts assessed and the method for determining diose amounts. "

FSA Still Wants the Bucks for MIDAS

From NextGov:

"No, it's not enough money," said Jim Gwinn, the agency's chief information officer...." "

Taitano said 60 percent of the stimulus funds will be used to stabilize the current systems and 40 percent will go toward the agency's modernization efforts. Farm Service is planning to pursue the rest of the modernization funds, about $200 million, through the appropriations process. Several lawmakers have expressed support for the additional funds.

USDA Deputy Secretary Merrigan

From this morning's Post:

"Kathleen A. Merrigan, former administrator of the agricultural marketing service at the Agriculture Department, was tapped to be the department's deputy secretary."

(Buried after discussion of the cars Obama's people drive.)

[Updated--Tom Philpott sings her praises.--Leahy, organic, Jim Hightower.]

School Nutrition Organization and Alice Waters

I was skeptical of the Alice Waters call for tripling the amount spent on school lunches. Here's what the School Nutrition Organization is calling for (apparently the people who work in the schools):

“Every school day school nutrition professionals must meet differing local, state and federal nutrition standards; provide quality, safe and healthful meals that kids enjoy; accommodate special dietary needs and food allergies of a diverse student body; all for less than $2.57 per meal,” said Dr. Katie WIlson, SNS, president of SNA. "The time has come to raise the meal reimbursement rate to an amount that reflects the true food, transportation, labor and benefits, training, equipment and indirect expenses necessary to provide a school meal."
The key legislative issues the School Nutrition Association (SNA) is advocating for as part of child nutrition reauthorization are to:

• Increase the per meal reimbursement by 35 cents for all meals in order to keep pace with rising costs and implementing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Update the Federal reimbursement rates semi-annually to better reflect increasing costs.
• Expand the “free” meal category from 130% of poverty to 185%, consistent with the WIC income eligibility guidelines (eliminating the reduced price meal category).
• Provide 10 cents in USDA commodities for each school breakfast served.
• Grant the Secretary of Agriculture the statutory authority to regulate the sale of all foods and beverages on the school campus, consistent with the most recent edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (ending the “time and place rule”).
• Require the Department to implement a consistent, science-based national interpretation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for all school meals reimbursed by USDA.

Hypocrisy Watch

We're all hypocrites, but it's good to point out the failings of the high and mighty. Here in Slate Jack Shafer goes after Bill Moyer (for searching for homosexuals and planting questions while working for LBJ). Of course, we all grow up, sometime.

Titans Fight Over Money and Broadband

Today in the NYTimes Qualcom had an ad boasting their wireless broadband could reach over 90 percent of the population. Meanwhile there was a small news item describing IBM's quest for the broadband dollars in the stimulus package: broadband over power lines. They claimed it would work if there were 6 or so users per mile of line, although the speed of download was about 256K (as they point out, this might be 10 times the speed of a dial up modem).

Of course, if a farm has 1,000 acres in a block, it means it's more than 1 mile square (also known as a "section"), so I'm not sure how well IBM will do in the wide-open spaces.

USDA Caught Spinning

Not that USDA usually goes in circles, you understand, but Obama Foodorama caught Sec. Vilsack and NRCS out on their hyping of the garden.

(One comment on the idea of gardens at all USDA offices--mostly these facilities are rented, not government-owned, so USDA would need to get the landlord's permission. And I'm very skeptical of any top-down initiative like this--I've seen too many people full of enthusiasm for gardening in the spring, only to drop out by summer.)

Childless Amish Farmer

There is no such term findable by Google (until now).

USDA Fails to Meet Deadline

From Government Executive:

"Agencies have had mixed success at meeting one of the first deadlines related to the massive economic stimulus package: the goal of selecting by Feb. 13 a high-level official to oversee spending.

A number of agencies contacted by Government Executive have placed someone in charge of economic recovery act activities, as requested by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag in a Feb. 9 memorandum. But at least several others missed the Feb. 13 deadline."

One of those missing is USDA, presumably because only Vilsack has been named.

Definitions Matter: What Is a Farm

A former employee of USDA's Economic Research Service elucidates the definition of a "farm" in the 2007 Ag Census. It's a reminder that statistics are usually tricky to use, because the users aren't familiar with how the data was obtained and massaged.

Elsewhere he hits more strongly on the fact that farm prices increased dramatically between 2002 and 2007, which would affect farm numbers.

Score One for Obama

One of the worst features of the Bush administration was its dishonesty in accounting--using only the 5-year window, fudging on AMT, keeping the Iraq/Afghan war off budget in supplementals. Obama is, at least for now, promising to correct those errors according to this NYTimes piece. The last paragraph breaks new ground:

He will also budget $273 billion in that [10-year] period for natural disasters. Every year the government pays billions for disaster relief, but presidents and lawmakers have long ignored budget reformers’ calls for a contingency account to reflect that certainty.

I wonder whether they'll split it between FEMA and USDA? We'll see, but it's a good first step. We should also budget for California to split off and fall into the Pacific, but this is progress.

Sen. Leahy and How Politics Works

Leahy nominated the new head of FSA in Vermont. Here's the language in the Burlington Free Press:

The job is one of four patronage appointments that change hands when a new president is elected. As the senior Democratic senator from Vermont, Leahy nominates candidates for farm post as well as for U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal and head of the Rural Development Office. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will make the USDA appointments.

And Leahy's press release.

What the Alice Waters of the world must realize is the importance of infiltrating their converts into the jobs of aides to Representatives and Senators, both so they can advocate to their bosses as bills go through Congress and cross over to the executive branch when their party wins the Presidency.

27 Billion for Good School Lunches

That's the prescription of Alice Waters and Katrina Heron in an op-ed in the NYTimes. That's about 3 times the current school lunch subsidy cost. That amount would allow: "Washington ... to give schools enough money to cook and serve unprocessed foods that are produced without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. When possible, these foods should be locally grown."

I've no comment on the political realism of their remedy.

Best Calvinist Sentence Today

From Kevin Drum:

"In fact, I'm basically on board with nearly any idea that's based on taking away the punch bowl in boom times and spiking it in bad times."

Norwegian Bachelor Farmers, CSAs and Goats

Piece in the Mankato Free Press on Minnesota farms, where the very small and very large both increased in number:

Minnesota’s growth in small farms is largely concentrated in the Twin Cities area and is beholden to the state’s strong organic product movement and its large immigrant populations in quest of ethnic meats and vegetables. For example, inventories of goats have quadrupled in the state during the past decade.-their "tiny" farms grew in number, as more farms grew through Community Support

This relates to a book I just finished, a good read: Hit by a Farm, by Catherine Friend which sort of encapsulates the trend, although the two women who owned the farm went with sheep, not goats. It was blurbed by Garrison Keillor, to whom I look for an update on his "Norwegian bachelor farmers" (an uncle was a German bachelor farmer) to include the Hmongs and women crunchies now popping up around Minneapolis/St. Paul.

WHIP and Payment Limitation, NRCS and FSA

NRCAS published an interim final rule updating the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) regulations for the 2008 farm bill changes and other input. (This is a program whereby NRCS pays part of the cost of improving habitat for wildlife.) It includes this:

Section 638.7

"(f) Payments made or attributed to a participant, directly or indirectly, may
not exceed, in the aggregate, $50,000 per year.
(g) Eligibility for payment in accordance with 7 CFR part 1400, subpart G, average adjusted gross income limitation, will be determined prior to cost-share agreement approval."

I find it interesting because, as the AGI regs are FSA's responsibility, it implies a sharing of information, possibly an exchange of paperwork between the two agencies.

Wikis and Facebook for FSA IT?

Here's a post at the Federal Computer Week discussing the possible use of Web 2.0 technologies by federal agencies. I note most of the examples cited seem to be on intranets, not accessible by the public. I think I don't like that, but am open to discussion.

It's true enough that the enthusiasm of a President and a Secretary can affect the bureaucracy, but in my experience unless the enthusiasm goes down the line, the effects die out. The cautionary lesson in this regard is the "tempos" on the Mall. When I first toured the Mall in 1965, there were these disgusting grey buildings, wood and metal, not stone, lining Constitution Avenue at the west end of the Mall. Turned out these were temporary buildings, or "tempos", occupied by the military. Oh, you say, being smart readers, they were erected in World War II as a stopgap before the Pentagon was finished.

Oh no, smart readers, you are wrong. They were erected in WWI, and were still there 50 years later. The military wasn't about to move out of them and away from their proximity to power. And no leader had the power to move the military bureaucrats. Finally, in his single greatest domestic achievement, President Nixon set his German on them (I think Erlichman, but it might have been Haldeman) and finally got them emptied and torn down. Constitution Gardens and the Vietnam Memorial occupy that area now.

The bottomline: unless the new administrator of FSA is a computer nerd, FSA won't be using Web 2.0 in the next 4 years.

[Updated--this piece in Government Executive is also relevant.]

Make Pay Limit Regs Tougher?

So says North Dakota's Agriculture Commissioner, according to this piece in Farm and Ranch, reporting on his comments on the interim rule submitted to FSA. Apparently there's no cotton grown in ND (see my previous post on the Cotton Council reaction to Vilsack). He even had some kind words for the FSA bureaucrats in DC!

Chris Clayton and Vilsack on Pay Limits

Chris Clayton at the DTN blog covers Secretary Vilsack's talk to the Cotton people. He seemed to indicate no change in pay limit regs for 2009. The cotton people will talk to their friends (Chambliss, R and Lincoln, D) to try to get a provision requiring USDA to revert to 2008 rules. That's the sort of lawmaking tailored to specific interests which gives Congress a bad name, but don't be surprised if it doesn't get added as a rider somewhere.

Interestingly, from a philosophical viewpoint (that is, in my humble opinion) farmers should not be changing their operations at all because of payment limitation rules. They should organize the way to be the most efficient operation possible, then the rules should apply. I know that's never going to happen, it's like saying someone shouldn't decide whether or not to buy versus renting a house based on the tax deductibility of the interest. Economists point to such changes and say the government is making the economy less efficient. And it is.

And All Our Employees Are Above Average--DOD

From Government Executive:

According to figures issued by the Pentagon on Wednesday, 98 percent of the more than 170,000 employees rated under the National Security Personnel System received performance-based payouts for 2009, meaning their supervisors graded their work as a 3 or better out of five possible points. The majority of those employees -- 55.4 percent -- earned a rating of 3, defining them as valued performers.

I'm overly cynical, since the best year I ever had, in terms of accomplishments, was the worst year according to my boss's evaluation. Designing a good pay system is hard, particularly when the bureaucracy being evaluated doesn't produce measurable outputs. Look at the pay system for investment bankers.

Claims by the Corn Growers--We're Crunchy

According to a piece via EWG:

"Specifically, corn has seen the following changes between 1987 and 2007, Dickey [President of National Corn Growers] noted.

1. Land use: The amount of land needed to produce one bushel has decreased 37 percent.

2. Soil loss: Manageable soil loss per bushel of corn has decreased by 69 percent.

3. Energy: The energy used to produce a bushel of corn has decreased by 37 percent.

4. Climate impact: Corn production has seen a 30 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions per bushel."

Fertilizer Use

So, when we say "fertilizer", which countries use the most?

The U.S. is obviously first, with Argentina and Brazil close and India and China far behind, right?

No--it's China, India, U.S. in that order. Source.

FSA Procedures

Are available on the Internet, and Chris Clayton reads the new handbook on Adjusted Gross Income and other payment limitation rules. I wonder a little bit--the lawyers would say the regulations in the Federal Register are legally binding, the handbooks aren't. ASCS and FSA always took the approach of making the handbooks more detailed and more explanatory than the regs. (The former FmHA, however, was operating as a financial institution, which meant their lawyers forced them to publish their "handbooks" as regulations. Such publication made it harder for the bureaucracy. The gain in public notice resulted in a loss of flexibility.) Now that the public can easily see the handbooks, indeed more easily see the handbooks than the regulations if it comes to that, I wonder what the long term consequences will be.

Smarter Bureaucrats?

That's one of 13 consequences of the current world recessionDan Drezner foresees. For his rationale, and the other 12 (including longer skirts), see here.

Prof. Mankiw Proves the Point

From his website:

Gross makes another, unrelated mistake. He suggests that, as a Harvard professor, I am an example of a person with a particularly stable income. (That is why, he intimates, I fail to appreciate the consumption decisions facing real people who face substantial uncertainty.) It is true that my university salary is reasonably secure, but more of my income comes from book royalties than salary, and that income is anything but stable. Any day now, someone could come along with a better textbook and put me out of business.

On this last point, of course, I am speaking hypothetically.

Perhaps Prof. Mankiw has something to fear from the open textbook effort described by Timothy Burke. (Although the wikibooks macroeconomics discussion page has not been updated since 2005.)
But maybe his textbook is more like the one Kevin Drum describes:

I only have one of my college textbooks still in my possession, but I just got it off the shelf to see if it had a price in it. It did: $17.25. That was in 1976, and adjusted for inflation it comes to $64 in today's dollars. So what does it currently cost on Amazon? Answer: $132. It is, as near as I can tell, the exact same book. Same binding, same number of pages, same charming lack of color. In fact, browsing through it, it looks as if it's being printed from the same plates as it was in 1976.

This, then, is obviously a book that ought to be cheaper today than it was three decades ago. The costs of production have long since been paid back, there's a ton of competition from the used book market since the book hasn't changed in 30 years, and I imagine that author royalties are the same as ever. For reference, a similar size commercial hardback would run about $40 these days.

Bottom line: I don't believe Prof. Mankiw's textbook sales are nearly as volatile as say: the income of a small dairy farmer, or even the average crop farmer, or a restaurant owner, or a construction worker, or a waitperson, or... Mankiw, like me, has a good income (mine not quite as good as his) from a nonprofit institution plus somewhat more changeable income from investments (his time, my savings) which puts us in another category than employees of profit-making enterprises now facing losses. Somehow it assuages the guilt if we pretend to be insecure.

Musicians as Bureaucrats: The Definition of "Now"

From a Washington Post article on assembling an orchestra to play Carnegie Hall through YouTube auditions:

Tilson Thomas observed that even experienced orchestra players can have trouble shifting from one ensemble to another. He recalled a Carnegie Hall tribute that he conducted shortly after Leonard Bernstein's death, with members of all the orchestras Bernstein had conducted: musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and other top-flight ensembles.

At the first downbeat, he said, they had trouble coming in together: "There were at least five discernible attacks, because people had such different assumptions about where 'now' is."

Can the universality of music, and of YouTube -- or a strong conductor -- trump 70 different national definitions of "now"? The answer to this question should, at the very least, make for an interestingly different kind of concert.

It's an unexpected example of the importance of shared definitions, and the problems of merging institutions. It also shows musicians being bureaucratic, which they are.

HFCS, Corn Subsidies and Obesity II

Tom Philpott channels a Tufts University study. Some sentences:

"Take them [farm program subsidies] away, I've argued more than once, and you'd still have a food system that mainly produces junk churned out by a few big companies...."

"Get this:

Today, HFCS represents just 3.5% of the total cost of soft drink manufacturing as measured by the value of shipments. Meanwhile, the corn content of HFCS represents only 1.6% of this value. Thus, the impact of corn prices on the final retail price of a food product is not as high as one might think.

That means even if you take away the 27 percent discount HFCS producers got for their corn, you'd only be adding a penny or two to the final price of a Big Gulp."

Moderation in All Things--Locavore Gives Up

An Oregon man gave up his attempt to eat only locally-grown food after 8 months according to this piece in the StatesmanJournal of the Williamette Valley (HT Treehugger). Give him credit for the try. Part of the problem was he used more gas to get the food than he saved by eating food grown locally. He also, apparently, missed bananas.

Saving Energy, One Woman's Experience

Liza Mundy has an article in today's Wa Post magazine on her household and her attempts to save energy. She digs into some issues, points out some of the problems in cutting energy usage (i.e. her daughter and son have very different tolerances for low temperatures), and is amazed by how little it costs to do so much. (She's thinking as a professional woman freed from the tedium of washing, ironing, etc. etc.)

The household ends by adopting some conservation measures and resolving to spend on their biggest problem--they live in an old house in Arlington, VA, which wastes heat and cooling. That's pretty much the conclusion: focus your energies on the biggest consumers, usually heat/cooling.

One Newspaper, Separate Worlds

In today's Post, Kari Lyderson has a story from the AAAS meeting, leading off:

The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday.

And George Will attacks Prof. Chu (Energy Secretary) and others who warn of global warming. (If I understand this post the scientists are saying the global sea ice in the Antarctic does not necessarily mean no global warming, it might be consistent with it.)

Owner's Footsteps Are the Best Manure

That's the saying (or something like it) I heard from my parents growing up. But if you've got a couple thousand acres it's pretty hard to walk all the land. But modern technology comes to the rescue, as described in this post from Extension on "site-specific farming" (i.e., using GIS and computers to keep track of the specific characteristics of your land).

Broadband for Farmers

One thing the 2007 Ag census did was identify farmers with broadband access. Tim Murphy at the DailyYonder has a map showing the rural counties by level of access here. From the article:

Over 2.2 million farms were included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, which is conducted every five years. In 2002, the Census found that half the farms in the country were connected to the Internet in some way (broadband or dial-up). By 2007, the percentage of farms with some kind of Internet connection inched up to 56.5%.

However, only 33% of farms in 2007 had broadband connections.

The map shows what seems to be a pattern of greater access west of a line running NNE SSW from Minnesota to the Texas Panhandle--not sure why that pattern. Kansas has good coverage. I know 15 years ago the state was big into GIS--whether there's a relationship between state government policies and access I don't know.

Only $50 Million for FSA

From Nextgov.com, on the final stimulus package:

But Congress cut some IT funding, including money to modernize the Farm Service Agency's computers to process payments to farmers. The final bill set aside $50 million for the effort, far less than the $245 million the House originally set.

Malamud for GPO Head

This is in connection with making Federal court records available online.

Unfortunately, Congress controls GPO, not the President, so Mr. Malamud can't be named GPO head by Obama, as he suggests in this NYTimes article. But otherwise he has a case:

Mr. Malamud said his years of activism had led him to set a long-shot goal: serving in the Obama administration, perhaps even as head of the Government Printing Office. The thought might seem far-fetched — Mr. Malamud is, by admission, more of an at-the-barricades guy than a behind-the-desk guy. But he noted that he published more pages online last year than the printing office did.

IMO, if data generated by the government is to become public, it ought to be free and easily searchable, as through Google. I strongly dislike operations like PACER, which charges a fee to access court records. (In their defense, it appears in 1988 they asked Congress for money to provide the records free, Congress said "no", get the money by user fees. But technological innovation has outstripped the courts ability to push IT solutions.

Crop Insurance Subsidies

I knew we subsidized crop insurance, but not this much:

USDA subsidies have been changed for some crop insurance policies which may cause you to adjust your decisions on coverage. William Edwards at Iowa State says whole farm and enterprise units used to have lower premiums than basic and optional units. For 2009 they will have the same dollar value subsidy, which will be 55% for basic units, 77% for enterprise units, and 80% for whole farm units when selecting 75% coverage.

The Worth of a Male

In farming, not much. Brownfield on dumping bull calves.

If Crunchies Join the Military

Maybe we do need a draft. I don't suppose there's any other way which would lead the greens and organic food people to join the military voluntarily. The greens do have kids, so they study and criticize the school lunch program. (See here for an Asian comparison.) But our men and women in uniform are left with the Iraq 20 and comfort food such as:

Barbecue ribs, fried chicken, rib-eye steak, lobster tails, crab legs, roast turkey, stir-fry, cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, egg rolls, breaded shrimp, buffalo wings, chili, crepes, pancakes, omelets, waffles, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, quiches, bacon, polish sausages, pulled pork, corned beef hash, milk shakes and smoothies — and that’s just for starters. (From Edge of the West post quoting a Chicago Tribune article, also going back to GI's in Britain in WWII.)

Makes me hungry just to read it. If it's okay for the military to eat comfort food in a war zone, is it okay for the lower class to eat comfort food in their daily life?

Anti-Locavore Pork

Interesting post on Ethicurean justifying the importing of Midwestern pork to west coast restaurants. Arguments:

• smaller carbon footprint (more efficient to ship pork than grain to feed pigs)
• more efficient use of by-products
• superior taste and texture
• more humane (Temple Grandin has worked on Iowa slaughterhouses)

Sort of boils down to the economists "comparative advantage"--CA does grass well, not grain.

(The commenters say: well, Californians shouldn't eat pork. Or they should accept the ununiform taste and texture of pigs fed a varied diet.)

IMHO, if you accept these arguments, you accept something like a global agricultural system, because similar arguments can apply to other foodstuffs.

Immigration and Housing II

Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution joins others in suggesting that encouraging immigrants who want to buy houses in the U.S. is one way out of the recession. That's the same logic as mine, in arguing that anti-immigrant agitation helped take the steam out of the bubble.

In the long run, you only get rid of surplus housing inventory by finding more buyers at the bottom of the ladder or taking the time to work off the surplus.

Your Friendly Bureaucrat Coming to on YouTube

NextGov has a piece today saying YouTube and the Feds are near an agreement to permit Feds to post videos. The next step will be requiring all Federal bureaucrats to be personable and video-ready.

Should I start a pool on how long it will take for FSA to post its first video?

Us Tightwad Seniors

Just got an email from the Cinema Arts theater in Fairfax City--the manager uses it to flog his coming attractions. Here's a line:

Our $4 ticket price for folks over 60 (which I found out today folks over 62 are seniors at the E Street Cinema in DC) has been wonderful for attendance, but nobody buys any snacks.

I feel guilty but my wife and I never buy snacks at the theater.

Labor Mobility and Immigration in a Recession

One of the arguments some economists (like Gary Becker) make against the stimulus bill is that it funds work in areas which are short-staffed, and not in areas of unemployment. (That's roughly put.) The LA Times has an article on farm labor, yesterday, which starts:

What a difference a bad economy makes. The collapse of the construction industry and a slump in the restaurant and food service sector have sent thousands of people back to looking for work on California farms, which not so long ago were hurting for workers.

Apparently there's some mobility in labor at the lower end. I don't know why this surprises me, but it did.

IT People Are Human Too

Technology Review interviews the woman touted to be Obama's Chief Technology Officer, Padmasree Warrior, currently Cisco's CTO:

"TR: But can you get rid of skips in voice calls and jitters in streaming video?

PW: Quality of service continues to be important. One of the things we believe, that we've put a lot of effort into...

TR: Hello?

PW: (a minute later) Hi, sorry, I didn't plug in my cell phone last night!"

Some nominees forget to pay all their taxes, some forget their cell phones. The problems a new President faces. As an increasingly forgetful senior, I suggest a blanket amnesty for all memory lapses.

HFCS Debunked, It's Sugar Says the Times

Jane Brody in today's NYTimes says "sugar is sugar is sugar" and it's bad for you, regardless of whether it's high fructose or not. The column is the first of two.

High fructose corn syrup makes a convenient target for those who would blame our ills on big business, but the reality is we love sweets.

Foursquare for Morality

That's John Phipps, who argues it's in his interest to honor his rental contracts:

All told, 2009 offers a unique chance for renters to differentiate from many competitors. And contract fulfillment is a tactic at least as practical as meticulous roadside maintenance or colorful newsletters.

So how about this alternative guideline for 2009: A deal’s a deal.

Stimulus and Broadband

The Daily Yonder notes that the House and Senate both allot money for rural broadband. Except they give it to different agencies, House to USDA, Rural Development and the Senate to Commerce, NTIS.

Shot Across the Bow

For fans of Horatio Hornblower, a shot across the bow was the signal to stop (being fired by a warship in front of another ship). That's the way I read this letter to Vilsack from the Senators. And it's a reminder to the greens, who are pushing for stronger rules, who really has the power. (Hat tip to Chris Clayton at DTN and a nod of recognition to Sen Lincoln, who has it posted on her website before Sen. Chambliss.)

[Updated--fixed link.]

Best Sentence Today

University Diaries: "The lesson of Rancourt is that professors and administrators typically have little trouble discerning the difference between dissent and dysentery." (From a discussion of a Prof. Stanley Fish post on an academic.)

Worst Web Site Design?

See here (hat tip to Treehuggers).

Go North, Young Man, Go North

That's not Horace Greeley reincarnated, it's Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek, making a good case for why Canada is a society that works better than the U.S. (One example, its banking system is rated #1 in the world, ours is 44.)