One and All
Speaking of Kafka
As I regularly refer to Franz Kafka, this item on some of his unpublished papers got my attention this morning.
Part of Kafka’s genius was in seeing, and making the picture accessible to others, the crazy-making, and sometimes downright evil (e.g. Nazi), abuses to which bureaucracies so often are given. In doing so he [...]
Changes and Announcements Coming…
BureaucracyBlog will soon have a new look, and one or more new authors contributing to the flow of information, analysis, and ideas. J.T. Miller, whom I wrote about in a post last month, has sent me an revised version of his op-ed piece and has kindly agreed to post occasional Kentucky updates here.
There have also [...]
A couple of different organizational bureaucracies…
My lack of posting much recently owes to my having had the opportunity to do some work with a couple of different organizations, each with very different cultures, though the leadership of each would describe them in terms very similar to each other. Both are service organizations, and both profess a style of operation [...]
17Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Stuck
Stuck is a movie I’d really rather not watch, but I think I’m going to have to see it. I don’t like seeing blood and gore, and Stuck has plenty of it, according to what I’ve read. But the movie juxtaposes a horrific, real life event against a callous bureaucracy, and that’s why [...]
9Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Rudd and bureaucrats again…
Kevin Rudd’s administration in Australia is going to continue to be of interest here because of his background as a bureaucrat, and his apparent dedication to bureaucracies that well serve the public.
The operative word there is “apparent.”
Time will tell the story, of course, but there’s a news item today–or technically, tomorrow, given that it’s now [...]
Some of those stories I was talking about…
Marian Wright Edelman, president of The Children’s Defense Fund, writes on today’s Huffington Post about the importance of a Congressional bureaucratic remedy to the crisis affecting tens of thousands of the nation’s youth who are locked away in detention centers, where they are suffering extensively from physical and sexual abuse.
At issue is the Prison Abuse [...]
On “Transparency and democracy”
There’s a very good op-ed piece in today’s Louisville Courier-Journal by J.T. “Jerry” Miller, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Parks under Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Miller does a terrific job of articulating the need for transparency that transcends partisanship, as all of us of whatever political stripe are entitled to know what our government [...]
19May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Dumbledore he’s not. (Or, proof of the man’s innocence…)
Albus Dumbledore, and presumably none less than Harry Potter, too, could certainly stir up a real full-sized tempest in a teapot, but I’m not at all sure they could have succeeded better than the Pasco County, Florida, bureaucrats who have sent substitute teacher Jim Piculas packing because he performed an innocuous little magic trick in [...]
18May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
PrawfsBlawg asks: What do bureaucrats want?
Stumbled across an entry posted by Rick Hills earlier today on PrawfsBlawg that asks, “What do bureaucrats want?” In brief, he notes that academics—particularly “economically oriented ones”—seem to assume that bureaucrats are primarily after power, and he questions that assumption.
I agree with him. I don’t think bureaucrats are always after power, or even that most [...]
“It takes longer to learn less…” Canadian Conservatives’ Growing Opacity
Today’s Toronto Star features a national affairs column by James Travers that’s all about the growing opacity in Canada’s government, which owes, not surprisingly, to Conservatives who campaigned on promises of openness. Oh, so much of that have we seen this side of the border—calling something the opposite of what it actually is.
Here’s Travers’ [...]
Another Textbook Case of Bureaucratic Insanity
Someone saw “KKK” in the title and jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Sampson was a supporter of the KKK, and filed a complaint against him with his university’s Affirmative Action Office, alleging that his reading the book in the break room constituted racial harassment.
12May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Caught on Tape– “Counterintelligence Woman!”
Gosh golly gee whiz. Here I am, a bare six months into this blog and already I’ve succumbed to leading with a sensationalistic and inaccurate headline. My bad. So here’s the clarification. “Counterintelligence woman” (explanation here) wasn’t actually, literally caught on tape. But a story about her and [...]
2May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The Innocence Project
I’ve taken myself to The Innocence Project website a few times, intending to write something about it here at some point. Yesterday’s release of James Woodard from a Texas prison sets a good point. May it be repeated as many times as there are innocent incarcerated people, and as quickly as possible.
Mr. Woodard’s [...]
Across the Pond, It’s “Clipboard Man” in “Bureaucracy Gone Bonkers”
Oh, were the UK the only place the likes of Clipboard Man runs unfettered! Carmichael cites some amazingly dotty adventures of Clipboard Man from years past, and reports that Clipboard Man has recently re-surfaced, “more intrusive and creepier than ever.”
27Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
The academics of bureaucracies
Every now and then in these posts I have mentioned, or quoted others who mentioned, the importance of developing a professional bureaucracy. What I’ve not yet touched on are the academics of bureaucracies—formal studies and theories and research about the different types of bureaucracies, their characteristics, and the work they are suited for. [...]
24Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Revisiting the Original Premise and Vision
The premise, rationale, and remedies all lead to what I see for the future of this blog: a network of people in different parts of this country and the world, monitoring the state of bureaucracies within their areas
21Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Catching Up
Recovery from knee surgery is going really well, but it has set me back on posting here, which is a tad frustrating with so many relevant things going on. This post will consist of snippets and links to a few of those stories.
Beginning with last week, there was the story about federal bureaucrats spending [...]
Good Investigative Reporting & Human Interest Stories
Bloggers and independent online news outlets are doing a great job of staying on top of a lot of very important issues, working to keep people in power honest or at least accountable. But for whatever reasons, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of human interest stories online.
2Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
James Kilpatrick on Bureaucrats, and more…
It was certainly a more craven example of an insurance company’s trying to pad its stockholders’ dividends by cheating poor and injured workers.
28Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
On a little spring hiatus…
Updates will be spotty here for awhile. There’s way too much snow still on the ground outside my window so I’m going to concentrate very hard on increasing local thermal units and see if that will help. (Actually, the hiatus is occasioned by a little arthroscopy on a knee, so there’s this middle stage in [...]
24Mar2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Hello Debby,
Just this week I sent 2 copies of the eulogy for your Dad to people. This happens regularly. ...
