Could be, could be: “The White House is expected to name a new U.S. attorney for Chicago soon from among four finalists. Whoever it is will be an insider compared to the man he or she will replace, Patrick Fitzgerald.” Basically, Fitzgerald is leaving the position after over ten years of putting governors (note plural) and other corrupt Illinois state officials (yes, I know, redundant) | Read More »
Sociologist, Max Weber famously wrote about the good, the bad and the ugly facets of bureaucracies. He saw them as a necessary evil that needed to be kept in check. He feared a technocratic dictatorship of Nietzchean Last Men. Weber’s argument is described below.
Read More »Iron cage, a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber, refers to the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The “iron cage” thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as “the polar night of icy darkness”.
Most of my morning has been spent listening to the two camps on twitter and in the news. Half say we got a bad deal in the Fiscal Cliff debate. The other half say we got the best we could and should be happy with the concessions we extracted from the Democrats. From the beginning, this negotiation has been a mess. Every day we were | Read More »
To the best of my knowledge, accused bombmaker Aaron Greene is not linked in any formal way to last year’s plot by Occupy Wall Street activists to bomb a Columbus, Ohio bridge. Then again, it’s not entirely clear what Greene was (allegedly) planning to bomb: when the cops arrested him and his bourgeois moll Morgan Gliedman they had just gotten to the stage of putting | Read More »
If you were asking yourself Just how much of a kabuki theater is what’s going on in Congress right now? – well, wonder no more. From USA Today: Top leaders on both the Senate and House Agriculture committees announced a deal on Sunday to extend the 2008 farm bill by a year, a deal that could avoid a surge in market prices for milk and | Read More »
Ostensible reason: [Lisa] Jackson, 50, a chemical engineer by training and a mom of two teenagers, offered no reason for her resignation other than saying she’s ready for “new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference.” She said she was leaving the EPA “confident the ship is sailing in the right direction.” Actual reason: This month, at the prodding of congressional | Read More »
Just as a thought experiment imagine what would happen if the following scenario played out… A minority Republican Senator passes away. Choosing a successor is the responsibility of his state’s (white) (Republican) governor. The late Senator in question had formally made a request to the governor that a particular qualified individual (who also happens to be a minority) succeed him. The governor then proceeds to | Read More »
Via the Weekly Standard comes an indication that Barack Obama might as well get on the phone and tell Chuck Hagel that it’s not happening: “I’d have to study his record.” Let me explain why this is so devastating a comment coming from Senator Schumer about ex-Senator Hagel… oh, you’ve figured it out already? But let me explicit: Chuck Hagel served in the Senate from | Read More »
It was just last week when Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi came up with the perfect method of morale-conditioning that would prevent unfaithful or disloyal behavior among Egyptians. He banned songs from the radio that weren’t suitably patriotic and morally upright. Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Schumer and Congressman Nadler (HT: Streiff) turn their animus against fire arms instead of Romantic Music. However, each would agree with President Morsi that having too much free will running around loose allows sick people to make iniquitous choices and visit the misery of their inner demons on the rest of us.
Read More »Pejman Yousefzadeh reminded me today of this Megan McArdle column where she cataloged all the conventional wisdom of What Do We Do About Mass Shootings, and found all such wisdom to be pretty much ineffective. Which it would be; Megan’s not the first person to notice that the primary goal of a lot of rhetoric about gun control seems to have as its primary objective | Read More »
Interesting. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu may be leaving the post during the next term of the Obama administration. Among those on the list to replace Chu are Ritter; Tom Steyer, a Democrat from California; former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan; Susan Tierney, a former assistant energy secretary; and Steve Westley, a California businessman, according to The Washington Post. More at Hot Air, which notes | Read More »
The Washington Post‘s editorial board is the latest group to jump on the God, please, not Chuck Hagel bandwagon: FORMER SENATOR Chuck Hagel, whom President Obama is reportedly considering for defense secretary, is a Republican who would offer a veneer of bipartisanship to the national security team. He would not, however, move it toward the center, which is the usual role of such opposite-party nominees. | Read More »
So Boehner plans to introduce a bill on the House floor that increases the top marginal tax rate on those earning more than $1 million per year. Most likely, Boehner and Obama will ultimately agree on a deal that splits the difference between $400,000 and $500,000. Many Republicans will shrug their shoulders: “Who cares about a few rich liberals?” However, this rationale represents a shortsighted | Read More »
This is very sad news: “Democrat Daniel Inouye, the U.S. Senate’s most senior member and a Medal of Honor recipient for his bravery during World War II, has died. He was 88.” …yes, the Medal of Honor thing wasn’t ever really brought up, much. Here’s the citation: Second Lieutenant Daniel K. Inouye distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 21 April 1945, in the | Read More »
…John Kerry becomes the next Secretary of State. From the Boston Globe: “I expect to do the same thing I did last time,” [MA Governor Deval] Patrick told reporters. “I’m not ruling out other options. But, as a practical matter, it’s hard for me to imagine how you could serve in the Senate for a four-month period and also run a statewide campaign in a | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}