One topic is dealing with pressure. A telling anecdote was in a highly rated episode of "How I Met Your Mother" called the Possimpible. The TV news reporter/anchor Robin, a Canadian on a visa but unemployed, is trying to find another job. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) is astounded by the friends' naive approach to resumes; I'm somewhat paraphrasing here, but when the topic of accomplishments come up, Barney points out his professional success has been due to sidestepping office politics (because doing the right thing, accomplishing something, is the quickest way of getting yourself fired) and so he gets away with ambiguity, gimmicks and pretentious nonsense vocabulary like "possimpible". Gee, does that sound familiar? Somebody got elected President without substantive federal policy or administrative experience and high-sounding rhetoric. Barack Obama is the ultimate validation of the Peter Principle applied to politics, i.e., he has risen to the highest position of his incompetence in the federal bureaucracy.
As a database administrator, I've had to deal with a number of stressful situations; for example, if a production database goes down, it can be very expensive: it can affect a business (e.g., lost opportunity sales), the jobs of people needing to enter business transactions in the database, etc. I was doing some SAP Basis administration work at a Chicago area distributor of bakeware products. My boss decided to send the senior Unix administrator on "use-it-or-lose-it" training initially intended for me (my boss changed his mind at the last minute, wanting me to shadow Deloitte consultants on a SAP upgrade task). My colleague got a call from the junior Unix administrator during the lunch hour; the guy apparently described some messages he was seeing on a monitor, and my colleague made a mistake of thinking aloud, saying "well, in Sun Microsystems training, they told us to type 'reboot' when we saw that message..." Several seconds later, he then seemed to realize the implication of what he had just said and frantically added, "Of course, you're not supposed to do that NOW..." Famous last words: too late. My colleague eventually called me for help, when the Oracle database had problems coming up, giving incoherent error messages, and I correctly inferred the server bounce had corrupted the (non-Oracle) Veritas disk storage infrastructure and it had to correct itself, which I estimated spot on would take about 3.5 hours. In essence, we had 75 people in the company unable to do their jobs during that period. My boss was in a state of panic and denial, demanding we contact the SAP hotline, which was a waste of time, because I had already diagnosed the problem as being Veritas, not Oracle or SAP. There were attempts to find out what had happened; my colleague, of course, shrugged it off as a technical anomaly. I told my boss the story, but for obvious reasons, he didn't want to explain to the CIO why his junior Unix administrator, without authorization, rebooted the database server on a live production database in the middle of a business day and why his senior Unix administrator wasn't there. At least one termination occurred from this incident; I leave it to the reader to figure it out. (HINT: There is a relevant idiom: "Don't shoot the messenger.")
I cannot count the number of times I've had to try to calm down other people (which distracts me from the task at hand), having managers call every 5 minutes, asking if it's soup yet. It's as if they figure they can pressure you even more (which appears to be their objective), the water will boil faster. A typical threat is to change the chef (as if that'll make the water boil faster...)
So when President Obama is talking about demanding BP spill information so he know what "ass to kick", it manifestly and unambiguously demonstrates failure to accept responsibility and accountability. He may say out of one side of his mouth that he takes full responsibility, but he's looking for a scapegoat. Look, oil spills are not unknown phenomena; you have two problems: one is attempting to stop the spill; another is mitigating the effects of the leak. Hannity had an interesting segment tonight where three individuals were addressing the problems. One person showed how hay can do an outstanding job soaking up oil; another described siphoning off oily water into tankers. The third described a solution plugging the hole using deflated tires about tubing and expanding the tires.
The point is, I don't think it's leadership to bash BP. All this angry rhetoric about a boot to the throat of BP, criminal and civil probes of BP, etc.: all of this does NOTHING to solve the two basic problems. Obama is even bashing a commercial where a contrite BP CEO vows to clean up the mess. Never mind BP is more than one failed oil rig, employs thousands, and BP, employees, and stockholders pay taxes being used to pay for Obama's ineffectual boondoggles. Apparently Obama and his cronies think it's perfectly alright for the government to attack BP, using taxpayer money, but when BP tries to defend itself, using its own money, well, Obama, channeling his best Saul Alinsky, is OUTRAGED. How dare they seek to stabilize a falling stock price to protect their owners and employees? Why, if he hears of even one incident where BP is dragging its feet processing claims,... GROW UP, OBAMA! BP is not your enemy. It uses private capital to lessen America's growing dependence on externally produced oil. You are pushing on a string. You don't have a freaking idea what kind of message this abuse of government power sends to businesses thinking of opening or expanding operations in the US, along with relevant high-paying jobs.
But what really got me going today was hearing Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen being questioned at a press conference today. When asked about what particularly concerns him about BP, he doesn't mention the unplugged hole or coastline protection. He starts talking about BP giving relief handouts to coastal workers and businesses. I was not aware that coastal economies fall under the expertise of Coast Guard commanders.
Helen Thomas 'Retires'
Anyone thinking the retirement was anything less than an attempt to allow Helen Thomas to save face versus to be terminated outright is in a state of denial. This is not a question of whether Helen Thomas has a right to her antisemitic views (in my opinion), but professional ethics requires an obligation on the press to report the news fairly and accurately, and a journalist has a responsibility to report the news, the whole news and nothing but the news, and to maintain independence and balance to reported events in fact and in appearance. But when Thomas' "apology" talks about BOTH sides needing to approach each other with mutual respect and tolerance, that is an implicit assertion that both sides are equally at fault and Israel fails to exhibit respect and tolerance. Since when is this an apology to saying the Israel has no rights to its own territory? Even Robert Gibbs finally got one right today (it had to happen sooner or later), calling Thomas' statements "offensive and reprehensible". But whatever the reason, the decision to resign or retire was the right one.
Political Cartoon
I have to laugh at Drew Sheneman's cartoon because I double-majored in math and philosophy and did go to grad school. The big difference is my advisor wanted me to take art history my freshman year and I wanted to take philosophy. Barack Obama wants the American people to guarantee huge education loans to meet that insatiable business demand for professional art historians and philosophers... [I was dissuaded from pursuing advanced degrees in philosophy, which remains my first love, by a few key professors, primarily because the only real career path is in academia, and there are a limited number of tenured positions which become available only on retirement, early death or serious health reasons.]
Quote of the Day
For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency.
Eric Ambler
Musical Interlude: The AFI Music Top 100 (continued)
#89. "Puttin' on the Ritz"
#90. "Seems Like Old Times"
#91. "Let the River Run". Sigh-- 5'10.5" Carly Simon is smoking hot in this video. James Taylor, what were you thinking?
#92. "Long Ago (And Far Away)"
