“It is amazing that neither the D.C. GOP or any of the doctors’ groups have yet organized such an effort, but the Beltway creates and reinforces an insiders’ ethic that enervates otherwise sensible people. But the peril to medicine is real, as the e-mail below indicates. So do something about it.”

Via (and, via via, naturally)

Honestly, I think we haven’t seen doctors organize against any coming plan for multiple reasons – doctors are notoriously difficult to organize (think herding cats), doctors are demoralized and super busy, and a big chunk thinks a single-payer system is the answer to health care woes. A lot of bad blood exists between the powers-that-be in health care, today, and the average doc. So, a big group, I’m betting a little more than half, are sick of the system as it is, and think a government option might be better.

*I’m of the opinion that, hey, careful what you wish for! It can always get worse. Never forget that…..

**I am also of the opinion that you SHOULD hate the playa, but that’s a different discussion.

Prince Harry visits New York

A slideshow of Prince Harry on his official trip to New York (in the Chicago Tribune).

*I have a distinct memory of discussing Princess Diana’s wedding dress, passionately, around the time of her wedding, after a school swimming lesson in the early eighties. I was a preteen, then, and, like many a Gen X preteen girl, completely obsessed with her clothes. I’m still a fan of  the early eighties Sloane Ranger and ’Romantic’ looks she cultivated, before she moved on to a more adult and formal look: lots of polka dots and padded shoulders. Remember, it was the eighties.

**I feel kind of bad about the fascination, now, given the distress all of that attention caused. We were just young girls, though, we woke up early to watch the televised wedding, and read innocent little People Magazine articles (articles that were very staid and ‘managed’). It seemed so innocuous at the time.

***I can’t stand the current crop of People-y magazines, the proliferation of celebrity mags everywhere. Is it a function of my age that pop culture today seems coarse and vulgar? Well, I suppose that’s what happens to grumpy Gen Xers, although, to be honest, we always were a  grumpy bunch, weren’t we?

****If I were a teen today, I would so sloany-preppy-fashion-critique on websites like british royal wedding. Sad, but true.

“Applying for a government job is usually cumbersome. That’s good news for you. So many people get frustrated with the application process that they do a shoddy job. If you craft a solid application for all the jobs you can, you’ll likely prevail. And remember, the pot at the end of the rainbow is quite golden: moderate work hours, unmatched job security, great benefits, and ample vacation and holidays. Thank you, taxpayers.”

Of course.

*From an article on Yahoo: Land a Government Job Now.

Update:

**Thanks, Instapundit!

***There are some interesting comments to this post. Let me please clarify a few things – I’m not putting down people who work in government or government jobs. I know many dedicated, honest, hard-working people who work for government, and my own place of work benefits from government grants, so, yeah, thanks taxpayers! My point is this: isn’t it funny the above is such a common perception, how much of that perception is true, and is government as efficient and cost-effective at delivering services as it could be? What do you think?

****Comment moderation is on and I may not be able to get to your comment right away, but I will eventually. Life, work and all that

And, I love this by commenter Jeff below, “You want to make a difference, but realize that the management above you, who have different ideas then you, will make the decisions even though people in the trenches have very good ideas.” I think this is true of ANY bureaucracy, public or private, and a hazard of any large organization. I’m flummoxed as to how you solve this problem, effectively, even with all the new management ideas like LEAN, etc.

*****And this comment by ‘Anonymous Air Force Officer’ is great, too: If you think all government employees get “moderate work hours, unmatched job security, great benefits, and ample vacation and holidays” you should try life as a military officer. Thank you for the hard work that you do. But, again, look at the linked article on Yahoo: I didn’t come up with the quote above, I merely excerpted and linked it. Jobs are growing fastest in the government sector – is this a good thing for our country? I don’t think it is, but as you can see, opinions differ.

“A form must be completed……”

I got to this post via Glenn Reynolds: “A form must be completed…” If the White House wishes to achieve transparency,  it should start by banning the use of the passive voice so communications are clear.

The above made me think of this passage in Little Dorrit: This glorious establishment had been early in the field, when one sublime principle involving the difficult art of governing a country, was first distinctly revealed to statesmen. It had been foremost to study that bright revelation, and to carry its shining influence through the whole of the official proceedings. Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving – HOW NOT TO DO IT.

Oh, it never gets old making fun of the bumbling, stumbling, opacity of bureaucracy, whether public or private.

Update: Tim Cavanaugh has an article on ‘Dickenomics’ in Reason: “Also, since my column is mainly about the magical thinking in Dickenomics, it’s fair to point out that the book brilliantly depicts one type of economy: the interlocking system of clerks, crooked lawyers, cops, printers, paperwork handlers, insane homeless people, bartenders and pawn brokers that tends to grow around a big-city courthouse (in a manner that is remarkably unchanged since 1851).”

I ask for movie suggestions….

….for someone who loves dialogue-heavy movies like Before Sunset and I get the following: What Happened Was, Slacker, and Strangers in Good Company, among others. Here. Any others?

“Yeah, I’m serious. I’m hungry!”

I get out of the car. We (a friend and I) are in Bucktown and it’s threatening rain. We park next to a Blockbusters, on a little strip of street, partially running under the El tracks. No one else has parked here, but we won’t be ticketed in this spot, it’s perfectly fine. I step onto the curb and grab my bag out of the front seat. It’s still light out, but evening is just beginning and the lights of the cars, the shops, the streetlights are starting to glow. I’ve got a takeout container in my hand, filled with a fruit salad and half of a vegan burger. We walk a little and talk a little, and then, a man, standing in the parking lot just outside the Blockbusters store, yells over to me, “Hey, are you gonna eat that?”

“Are you serious?” I say.

“Yeah, I’m serious. I’m hungry!” So, I give him the container, and we continue on our way to our meeting in Bucktown. As I cross the street, I turn back to see the man, in the same spot, bending slightly, as he eats his burger out of the open container.

“In the process of creating them, I have become aware of the many dangers that lurk behind the writer of fiction. The worst of them are:

1. The idea that the writer must be a sociologist and a politician, adjusting himself to what are called social dialectics. 2. Greed for money and quick recognition. 3. Forced originality – namely, the illusion that pretentious rhetoric, precious innovations in style, and playing with artificial symbols can express the basic and ever-changing nature of human relations, or reflect the combinations and complications of heredity and environment. These verbal pitfalls of so-called “experimental” writing have done damage even to genuine talent; they have destroyed much of modern poetry by making it obscure, esoteric, and charmless. Imagination is one thing, and the distortion of what Spinoza called “the order of things” is something else entirely. Literature can very well describe the absurd, but it should never become absurd itself.”

- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Author’s Note, Collected Stories: One Night in Brazil to The Death of Methuselah

“Why, indeed? It’s bad enough to impose verbiage like “self-to-self connection” on college students: to do it to a 4th grader is really unforgiveable.”

From this Chicagoboyz post, The Age of Blather.

On a rainy Memorial Day…..

1. The flowers and grass and leaves are vivid in the rain falling steadily from a blue-gray sky.

2. A restaurant advertises cafe au lait in hand-painted letters on a window.

3. A few trees in front of the restaurant are covered in snug little crocheted ’slip-covers’ made of brightly colored yarns. The covers are bold, whimsical and fit each trunk, each branch, perfectly. How did they do that?

4. A woman in a black dress and black leggings, with blonde locks bedraggled from the rain, calls to a lost pet, and says something like, “mello, mello”.

5. A few minutes later, as I walk along a sidewalk, umbrella in hand, a teenager in a silver car, and wearing a pink shirt, stops his car next to me and says through an open passenger window, “have you seen a black dog around here?” Regretfully, I say no.

6. I walk past a park and see a plaque that says, “For The Gold Stars Of The World War”. The rain is softer, now, and I keep walking, past painted Victorian houses, brick apartment buildings, condominiums with new facades and brand-new SUVs parked next to them, until I arrive in a busier part of town, filled with shops and restaurants, some open, some closed. A movie theater has a small crowd in front of it, and the coffee-shop next to it is crowded, too. The windows are blurred from the steam. I open the door, and walk in.

“I know that a lot of folks use Memorial Day as a day to honor all service members, but that’s not really what it is. “

I know that a lot of folks use Memorial Day as a day to honor all service members, but that’s not really what it is. It was started as a day to honor the dead; those who gave their all for this great republic. I’ve often spent this day as a living symbol of those who have gone before me. Parades, memorials, ceremonies; I’ve accepted the thanks of grateful people… but it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t my day.

And Now This Day is Yours: Bill and Bob’s Excellent Afghan Adventure.

(Also, Run With Me: Mudville Gazette).