At the heart of a bureaucratic mission statement is bringing people together for a long period of time in a spirit of expansive inclusiveness. Nothing does that better than meetings. Every committed bureaucrats looks back fondly on the time when she or he was free to leave to attend meetings. Meetings provide rare vision that cannot be adequately expounded upon. Meetings reveal this, show that, we could go on and on. Meetings are such stuff as memories are made of.
An important note before this Carnival continues: we functionaries here at the Carnival of the Bureaucrats are deeply disturbed in conjunction with the increasing reception of Carnival submissions from parties that we tentatively categorize as entrepreneurial Blog carnival submitters. We recognize that entrepreneurs create new businesses that help to generate employment and tax revenues. Nonetheless, the rules of the Carnival of the Bureaucrats clearly prohibit submissions from entrepreneurs, innovators, hustlers, and persons vigorously seeking to help others to make more money. As in previous months, such submissions have been rejected by us.
Karen MacInerney at Poisoned Pen Letters describes difficulties she had with her house appraisal. Apparently the geometric shape of a house significantly affects its appraisal value. Perhaps an ambitious economist might find a pointer to a significant t-statistic in this sad story.
Jeremy at WTTF submits a post entitled, “Practical time travel, and remembering to zip your fly,” and remarks, “A non-conventional water cooler conversation.” Due to the current heightened indecency risk level, I will not discuss this post. I recommend instead Jeremy’s comic and post entitled, The New Revolution. Jeremy writes:
Turn off your TV and start listening to yourself. You were born with everything you need to survive, now act like it.
I accomplished turning off the TV years ago. But I’m still too busy talking to myself to listen to myself.
Alvaro Fernandez at Brain Health Blog interviews Yaakov Stern about how to build your cognitive reserve. Dr. Stern states:
the group with high level of leisure activities presented 38% less risk (controlling for other factors) of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms.
This study indicates the importance of bureaucracies providing more leisure time for their employees.
Steven Silvers at Scatterbox discusses leadership changes at WakeUpWalMart. He states:
Two years after WakeUpWalMart and Wal-Mart Watch launched their political-style campaigns, Wal-Mart is indeed a different company. It has responded to reputation attacks with its own PR-savvy initiatives. It lowered heath insurance premiums and demanded that suppliers meet higher environmental standards. Chased out of Chicago, it became an economic hero to a distressed community across the street, creating a presence that supports the area’s unique economic interests and shopping habits. It even replaced its disgustingly lowbrow and ironically insulting “May I help you?” employee vests with khaki-and-polo shirt ensembles.
What’s lowbrow and insulting about helping? I favor keeping the old vest, but changing the phrase to, “Like the government, we’re here to help!”
In the spirit of expansive inclusiveness, the Carnival of the Bureaucrats is pleased to recognize other bureaucratic sites on the web. This month we note Liberal Bureaucracy and Adventures in Bureaucracy, and we award distinguished mention to Instant Bureaucracy. Instant Bureaucracy offers, as a public service, six very useful forms. No longer need you skimp on paperwork in your personal life!
That concludes this month’s Carnival of the Bureaucrats. Submit your blog article to the next edition using our Carnival submission form. Submissions should conform to the Carnival regulations. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the Carnival index page.
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