"Profoundly Dysfunctional": A Federal Bureaucrat Quits

Here's a piece of the letter of February 25:

I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy—at least the part I’ve labored in—is so profoundly dysfunctional.  I’m hardly the first person to have made that discovery, but I’m saddened by the fact that there is so little discussion, much less outrage, regarding the problem.  To promote healthy and productive discussion, I intend to publish a version of the daily log I’ve kept as ORI Director in order to share my experience and observations with my colleagues in government and with members of the regulated research community.

Read the whole thing.

Quote of the Day: A Doctor's Perspective

Oh, dear:

I am a general surgeon with more than three decades in private clinical practice. And I am fed up. Since the late 1970s, I have witnessed remarkable technological revolutions in medicine, from CT scans to robot-assisted surgery. But I have also watched as medicine slowly evolved into the domain of technicians, bookkeepers, and clerks.  

Government interventions over the past four decades have yielded a cascade of perverse incentives, bureaucratic diktats, and economic pressures that together are forcing doctors to sacrifice their independent professional medical judgment, and their integrity. The consequence is clear: Many doctors from my generation are exiting the field. Others are seeing their private practices threatened with bankruptcy, or are giving up their autonomy for the life of a shift-working hospital employee. Governments and hospital administrators hold all the power, while doctors—and worse still, patients—hold none.

You may recall this other doctor's lament.

Nerd News: The Cost of Administrative Bloat

It's worse than ever. Here's a bit of it:

Administrative costs on college campuses are soaring, crowding out instruction at a time of skyrocketing tuition and $1 trillion in outstanding student loans. At Purdue and other U.S. college campuses, bureaucratic growth is pitting professors against administrators and sparking complaints that tight budgets could be spent more efficiently. 

“We’re a public university,” Robinson [J. Paul Robinson, chairman of Purdue University’s faculty senate and a 59-year-old professor of biomedical engineering] said. “We’re here to deliver a high-quality education at as low a price as possible. Why is it that we can’t find any money for more faculty, but there seems to be an almost unlimited budget for administrators?”

"Secretary of Business" as Symptomatic

I've already mocked this, but Ricochet points out that the President's whole risible (and clueless) "Secretary of Business" suggestion is actually (and grimly) symptomatic of Obama's entire approach to business:

This is really how President Obama sees the private sector. It’s just one more interest group in need of care and feeding by Big Government. And since we already have a Commerce Department, let’s just rebrand that sucker and subject it to a little technocratic tinkering. Given this administration’s love of industrial policy — picking winners and losers — Obama might as call the position Secretary of Crony Capitalists.

Do recall, gentle readers, that crony capitalism is not the same thing as actual capitalism.

UPDATE: Well, that took no time at all.  Add this.

Quote of the Day: Political Speech & Political Act in the EU

Food for thought by a French political scientist.  Here's a bit of it:

In Europe, what we say as citizens no longer has any importance, since political actions will be decided at some indeterminate place, a place we cannot situate in relation to the standpoint from which we speak. Everyone knows that the most solemn speech that a people can formulate, a vote by referendum, is a matter of indifference for the European political class, which charges itself with the responsibility of leading the necessary process of the “construction” of a united Europe. The supposed necessity of this process discredits and invalidates all political speech in advance. 

If this process continues—the financial crisis of the euro has put extraordinary pressure on it—we will soon leave behind the regime of representative government and return to one of speechless commandment. The commandment will no longer be that of the state, which at least occupied a place of a certain elevation, but that of regulations. We do not know the source of regulations—only that we must obey them.

Oh, dear.  

EU Rules: You Can't Claim That Water Prevents Dehydration

What?  Apparently manufacturers of bottled water are now forbidden to make this claim.  So ... aside from this being completely silly, does the EU really have nothing better to do?

Euro Notes: Excellent Estonia?

Hey, La Parisienne, maybe we should flee to Estonia if we decide against fleeing to New Zealand.  Look at this great quote from the economics minister:

"But when we had finally escaped from Soviet socialism, we were sick and tired of government centralism. We wanted precisely the opposite in all respects: We wanted a transparent state. A country that isn't constantly intervening, nationalizing businesses, placing a bureaucracy above everything and imposing rules on people in every respect."

LOVE!

Fun with Medical Insurance Bureaucracy

Have some fun with new medical insurance codes.  I especially like Y93J4 (getting crushed by a tuba) and W6133XA (getting pecked by a chicken).  Hmmmm, I wonder what the code is for injuring yourself while banging your head against the desk/wall after hearing the latest economic news.

Nerd News: Edu-Crats and the University

Oxford University Press is soon to be publish a book that's sure to make a splash: it's The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters by Benjamin Ginsberg, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.  Personally, I'm gratified to see that (a) somebody has shown the nerve to engage this issue in a big nerd forum, and (b) an influential academic press has the nerve to print it.

Quirky Euro Files: The Pastafarian Austrian Driver's License

Ah, religious freedom can be a hilarious thing.  Well, good on Mr. Alm also for having a personality and not being afraid to show it!  Now to quote him: "My headwear has now been recognized by the Republic of Austria."  LOL!

Nerd News: Professors and Teaching

Well, OK, but almost all the professors I know teach like mad, are devoted to their work and their students, and don't have a bunch of time to take on still more teaching duties.  They're all running around frantically already among teaching, research, campus duties, and real life at home.  I'm not sure what kind of professors Professor Vedder is actually talking about -- celebrity older folks who think they're too posh now to teach mere undergrads?  I think we should first go cut back the armies of edu-crats and trim ridiculous bureaucracy!

Euro Notes: the End of Passport-Free Travel?

Hmmmmm.  Watch the return of national passport controls.

What Fresh Hell Is This? Quick! Hide your Irish Coffee! The FDA Is Coming!

Oh, for crying out loud.  Really?   OK, OK, I exaggerate.  But only by a little.

Almost-Satire Alert: The TSA BS-to-English Translator

Here's a little MM something for you on the busiest travel day of the year in the US.  An enterprising wag has inserted subtitles into the interview between CNN's Anderson Cooper and John Pistole, head of the TSA.  Whatever else you care to say about Pistole (and his alarmingly persistent smile and bland intonation), you've got to admit that he's a master of spin, spin, spin and the fine art of language that says nothing.  (Link via Boing Boing.)  Oh, and slight language warning in the subtitles.

Nerd News: The Public Education System Flunks

Well, OBVIOUSLY.  Of course throwing money at the problem isn't going to solve it!

Euro Notes: Barroso: "Hey, We Need the EU Precisely Because It's Undemocratic!"

Well, at least he was honest.  *Sigh.*

Nerd News: Bad Form at the US Dept. of Education

Are you serious?  It's simply bad workplace behavior even it weren't at the US Department of Education, a thing which I am all for dumping for being worse than useless.

Quirky Euro Files: the EU Bureaucracy Online Role-Playing Game

Apparently, this is not a joke.  The link comes via Dignified Rant, who's come up with a fabulous pun of a blog post title, "World of BoreCraft."  I went to the game's official website, and according to the game itself, this is what it's all about:

Citzalia is democracy in action. It is role playing game and social networking forum wrapped in a virtual 3D world that captures the essence of the European Parliament. You may even recognise parts of the building.

Citzalia is a world you inhabit and help create. Using your avatar you can walk around, interact, network, debate the issues of today, propose legislation, vote and learn about how the European Parliament works for citizens. You can be a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a journalist, a student or any role you want to create.

Others will be able to vote on the quality of your proposals and you will be able to vote on theirs. By earning experience points you will be able move up to new expert levels in Citzalia.

Current Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and European officials will be on hand to guide you through the procedures and provide background information.

Zzzzzzz... Oh, I'm sorry!  I think I fell asleep just reading that.  I doubt it could be anything as awesome as actual games that you play for actual fun.  Oh, I can't help it.  Here's something that's actually amusing:

Euro Notes: Europe's Missing Foundations, or, the Castle in the Air Crashes to Earth

Read it all.

Dalrymple on the NHS as Government Creature

British physician Theodore Dalrymple has a new piece in City Journal, which you ought to read. Here's a bit of it, about how the corruption of British health services by politics and self-interest:

Experience has long shown that further spending by state-monopoly suppliers of services (if services is quite the word I seek) benefits not the consumers but the providers. And they—ever more numerous—naturally vote for their own providers, the politicians. Thus the NHS has become an enormously expensive method of ballot-stuffing. Personally, I would rather have outright electoral fraud. It would be less expensive and slightly more honest.