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Courtesy of Myxer.com
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Quote of the Day
Beginning today,
treat everyone you meet as if
they were going to be dead by midnight.
Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster,
and do it with no thought of any reward.
Your life will never be the same again.
treat everyone you meet as if
they were going to be dead by midnight.
Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster,
and do it with no thought of any reward.
Your life will never be the same again.
Og Mandino
What Is Threatening to Bureaucrats About Lemonade Stands?
Remember when I posted last August about a sweet 7-year-old girl from Oregon, Julie Sweeney? She was trying to sell lemonade for 50 cents a glass. She ended up getting bullied by health inspectors (despite the fact she wore gloves and kept things covered) and by other bureaucrats for not having a business license, risking hundreds of dollars in fines...
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Courtesy of Fidelis Studio, Sideshow Creative and Lemonade Day
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Nicolas Martin, an Indianapolis native, wrote an LA Times op-ed of his experience trying to guide his 8-year-old daughter through the quintessential childhood business. Lemonade Day started in Houston on May Day 4 years ago and has grown to some 28 cities, last year involving some 38,000 students (just in Houston) raising a million dollars for charity. His property borders a busy urban trail on weekends operated by the park division. Martin and his daughter considered the possibility of her operating an exclusive, profitable location for passing cyclists, pedestrians, and rollerbladers, maybe giving her a chance to put aside some savings for her college fund.
It turns out Indianapolis does participate in Lemonade Day--but only on May Day and only in specially designated areas. To do it at any other day or location may expose the child (or, more likely, his or her parents) to stiff fines or even jail time: Martin went through a 3-day odyssey involving or researching the park division, health division, zoning laws, building and vending licenses, taxes... Chances are, nobody would like the bad publicity of enforcing these laws on kids, but the veto complaint of even one killjoy would likely bring out the enforcement goons. Martin didn't even get anywhere with Lemonade Day organizers, suggesting these considerations provide a learning experience of having to deal with government burden. So Martin had to surrender to the powers that be, fighting to compete, along with dozens or hundreds of other stands along a limited stretch of the parks (because surely people will get thirsty just in one stretch of the park). (Does the faithful reader remember my favorite anecdote of the lost quarter?)
I don't mean to rain on the May Day parade, but isn't it time we decriminalize neighborhood lemonade stands? And I don't mind charity drives, but isn't it time we stop demonizing for-profit businesses? (I understand Obama must love this idea about picking and choosing how and where to operate lemonade businesses--and spreading the wealth around. I bet he has a 2000-page plan for operating a stand...)
If kids can earn a few bucks mowing lawns or shoveling snow, why can't they sell cookies and lemonade without being hassled by pushing-on-a-string petty bureaucrats (no doubt justifiably in a panic over those urban legends of mass illnesses resulting from rank child-sold lemonade...) If I was a city administrator, the very first thing I would cut would be the self-important civil servants with all that extra time on their hands to go around busting child entrepreneurs...
Sunday Talk Soup
I should have expected Meet the Press would be using the first post-UBL show to, as Bernie Goldberg would say, showcase a slobbering love affair with Barack Obama, which at times bordered on the absurd. David Gregory featured only the one poll showing Obama's approval at an unrealistic 57%. (RCP on its webpage this morning showed an average 4.6% bump with both Gallup and Rasmussen yesterday reporting Obama at 51%; Gallup has been at 51-52% for the last 3 days. Those who saved the original copy of last Monday's post know that I said, "I think that Obama may get a boost to 51% (from a current 46%).") There were the obligatory reminder campaign clips of Obama vowing to take down Osama bin Laden; I almost expected NBC to splice in a "mission accomplished" banner...
Where was the balance? Where was the discussion of the amateurish White House communications giving conflicting information and corrections about basic events? There was poor public disclosure of UBL's identity (even, say, partially blurred photos with a SEAL near the body and/or a tape measure of the body (UBL was believed to be 6'4" to 6'6" which would put him in the top 5 percentile for adult men)). We were clearly unprepared to deal with mechanical failure of the helicopter with an innovative stealth technology, and did not have room bring back UBL's widows or other family members for questioning--and now face an angry Pakistan government making it clear that even if Washington gets access at some point, it will be on their schedule. We now have a convoluted foreign policy promoting Middle East/Asian democracy; we supported an end to former military chief Musharraf as Pakistan's President but have deeply embarrassed the civilian Zadari government. To cap it off, the day after the Pakistani army chief said on Thursday that no further raids would be tolerated, the CIA launched another drone attack in Pakistan's tribal region.
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin went on gushing about the transformational effect of the Abbottabad mission on the Obama Presidency. I have given the President credit for the decision, but let's do a reality check.
First of all, the identity of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the long-sought trusted courier of UBL, had been established by 2007, a key element of information emphasizing Abu Ahmed's importance coming from the 2004 capture of Al Qaeda member in Iraq, Hassan Ghul. (KSM and al-Libi had given false or misleading information about UBL's courier, the former specifically downplaying Abu Ahmed's relevance.) Abu Ahmed was finally located through intercepted emails and phone calls in Pakistan by 2009. Some things were fairly clear: UBL probably couldn't rule out a CIA plant among newer recruits, so the courier would have had to establish confidence before 9/11. Al Qaeda also likes the element of surprise; it's easy to Monday morning quarterback, knowing UBL was likely in Pakistan, in frail heath likely requiring ready access to medical products and services, and filming videos (with relevant equipment, electricity, etc.), and there was this huge protected compound with no telecommunications and burning its trash.
Second, the policy of drones attacking the tribal region in Pakistan has been going on at least since 2004. George W. Bush made it clear to the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan that since Al Qaeda had declared war on the US, the US considered the presence of Al Qaeda a matter of national self-defense.
Now let's get to the decision. Let's see. We think it's highly probable that bin Laden is in the compound, but we're not sure. If he is there, chances are, we could hit the mother lode of Al Qaeda intelligence. Of course, we could send in a cruise missile, possibly cause collateral damage in a heavily military area and lose any information on Al Qaeda at the compound. Or we can conduct a surgical operation with an element of surprise and not only capture or kill the world's most wanted terrorist, but minimize losses of lives (e.g., UBL relatives), and collect an unprecedented amount of intelligence on Al Qaeda. What will Obama do? It's such a hard decision my head would hurt...
In summary, this was the logical extension of George W. Bush's own initiatives; we had already identified the key link to UBL. Obama kept on Bush's team, including Defense Secretary Bob Gates and General David Petraeus, and extended the same general approaches. The CIA already were tracking communications; it was a matter of time and a little luck. Yes, there were risks to the operation--but there are risks to almost any military operation. Would Bush, McCain or any GOP candidate have made the same decision? In a heartbeat.
I'm not going to debate what salient information resulting from what interrogation technique contributed most to the demise of UBL. The fact is that it took years after relevant interrogations to achieve that objective, and the best information would have achieved it much earlier.
Transformational? Has Obama found his mojo? Hardly. Contrary to Ms. Goodwin's impression, the Presidency is not some kind of executive training or self-esteem program. Obama was not elected on promises to get bin Laden; of course, he did make a promise, but it was based on politics, not principle. The conventional partisan talking point was that Bush had incompetently dropped the search on UBL to pursue a war of choice in Iraq. Obama could not afford to sound weak on defense--that's why the UBL killing took on high importance.
I'm not underestimating the importance of UBL--but the influence of Al Qaeda started waning a few years ago when Al Qaeda started targeting Sunni leaders and civilians in Iraq. Al Qaeda has had almost zero influence during the ongoing spring uprising against autocrats in north Africa and the Middle East. In fact, Qaddafi started looking for ways to spin his position to maintain control in Libya--in particular, trying to establish a link between Al Qaeda and his opposition, a talking point accepted by a number of neoconservatives (but not me). Now even one victim by Al Qaeda members is one victim too many, but the Bush Administration had had a string of high-profile captures or killings of key leaders before handing off to Barack Obama--largely ignored by partisans.
The unspoken real hope by Ms. Goodwin is that, unlike the two Bush's, unable to take advantage of high approval ratings to use them to further their domestic agendas, Obama has regained his momentum and will be able to have his way with the GOP House and a strong GOP minority in the Senate. Any idea by Ms. Goodwin that Obama has moved even a single GOP vote in either chamber of Congress on any domestic issue is delusional. In fact, a large number of Tea Party conservatives, including almost all libertarian-conservatives like me, wants the US out of the nation building business already; we also believe that we have to make across-the-board cuts, including Defense. Unlike Obama, I'm unwilling to publicly announce a withdrawal schedule, but I firmly believe the same principles of moral hazard apply to nation building as to domestic policy.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
Atomic Power Review notes:
- Sunday update: TEPCO completed installing air filtration systems in imminent preparation for installing external cooling units for reactor 1.
Political Humor
"Coffee prices have hit a 34-year high. Except at Starbucks, where prices have always been at a 34 years high." - Jay Leno
[So that's why air traffic controllers are finding it hard to stay up at night...]
"President Obama is going to host a poetry night at the White House next week. That's right, Obama will recite some Yeats, Hillary will recite some Frost, Biden will recite some Seuss . . . " – Jimmy Fallon
[No. Biden will recite: "There once was a man from Nantucket..."]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ABBA, "Thank You For the Music". I specifically waited for the last video of my ABBA series to present this song to thank Benny and Bjorn for creating some memorable, melodic music (which is almost totally absent from today's music) and featuring "the girl with the golden hair", Agnetha (sigh!). My next featured group is the rock band Chicago.
