It's a Diverse America

Whenever my mind starts making assumptions, along come things like this (a Blog for Rural America Post on a 23,000 acre "farm" in Louisiana) to remind me of the differences among us.

Rights of Government Bureaucrats

Relative to the controversy over FSA employees using government PC's and Internet for their own purposes, Slate has this piece explaining the rules for the military. The New York Times recently published an op-ed by 7 enlisted personnel on Iraq. We don't know how they did what they did--whether they used personal PC's during off-duty hours or what. The Slate piece focuses on rights to publish opinions.

What Is Happiness? Slow Food?

A commenter [who's fooling whom--the commenter] on my post on local food writes with evident longing of experiencing the small shops in Europe. It raises the question--what's happiness?

Certainly the idea of strolling the streets of France (something my wife remembers fondly), stopping in at the chocolate shop, or the bakery, or the pastry shop is fine. Maybe I'll experience the reality one day.

Some argue that Europeans are happier than we, having consciously decided to opt for a society that is slower, works fewer hours, enjoys life more, and has a smaller gap between rich and
poor. That may be true. But from my age, I suspect there's also a bit of "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence". There's no paradise on earth.

Not really related, but here's a NYTimes article on the overlap among religions in their concern for the way food animals are reared and slaughtered. And a Post article on "terroir"--the idea that where food is grown makes a difference.

Another Politician Heard From

Mulch reports another politician has written Secretary Johanns about the Pigford emails.

Washington Monthly and Rating Colleges

I like the Washington Monthly's rating scale for colleges. And this year it has a good piece on community colleges, particularly one in Washington. See here. (My liking is entirely independent of the fact that my alma mater ranks higher on their scale than on the U.S. News one.)

It's too bad the education cartel doesn't release data on student achievement. I'm tempted to tweak some of the libertarian/conservative economists I read about that fact.

The Proud Citizens of Mahomet, IL

One wonders if there's any pressure to change the name. One of their own was in the Lehrer News honor roll last night.

Improper Use of Government PC's--Northern Ireland

Bureaucrats in Northern Ireland got themselves into trouble by using government PC's to edit wikpedia. See this article

Using Government Computers

I've not followed up on the Pigford flap of 2 weeks ago. Based on links a reader graciously sent me, it seems that the rules for PC/internet usage generally follow those for the phone: personal use permitted on a limited basis, provided you use your common sense (work comes first, use during personal time, don't run businesses or distract co-workers).

So, is the woman in VA in trouble? Maybe, maybe not. Seems to depend on how close she came to lobbying Congress. My reading would say that, if she had gotten an email expressing a political opinion (for or against the war, etc.) she would be in her rights to send it on to a friend. Multiple addresses and more direct criticism of Congress would be questionable.

Will be interesting to see what the "independent investigator" appointed by Administrator Lasseter comes up with, and whether Congress buys it.

The Revenue Option

The House version of the farm bill has an option for producers to choose between the current program structure, where payments are triggered by, and computed based on, the amount by which national prices for the crop is less than the target price for the crop. That is, if wheat has a $4 target price, and farmers get $3.75, there's a $.25 per bushel payment. (Lots and lots of specifics ignored in this summary.)

The option would say, if wheat has a $4 target price and the national yield target is 25 bushels (being unrealistic to make for easy computation), the expected revenue per acre is $100. So if the national prices for wheat and the national actual yield are such as to make the actual revenue $10, there's a $10 per acre payment. See these links for more specific discussion:
Brad Lubben at U of Nebraska.
and U Of Illinois extension

I can think of lots of complications, particularly as the bill is written to make this a one-time option. But then, since I've left USDA, FSA has had experience with one-time options, so maybe I'm wrong about the complexity.

Another View of Local Food

It's always instructive to see what's going on in other countries. We (Americans, humans?) so often think that we are the embodiment of wisdom. Anyhow, I question Bill McKibben and his dedication to local food (thought I did--it may be one of my unfinished draft posts). But here's how some Frenchmen do it (along with some nice pictures, once you get past the introductory logo).

As long as I'm on the French, my impression is that in both Britain and France people tend to go to the store very often, even daily. It's the epitome of local food--the bread is baked, the meat is butchered daily, the refrigerators are small, so you practice "just-in-time cookery". Very different from suburban and country patterns here, where you make one big shopping trip a week to stock up, have big refrigerators, etc.