Status Jockeys

I once arrived early for a meeting at the Pentagon and found an Army major making coffee. He smirked and said, "That's what majors do at the Pentagon."

That incident comes to mind whenever I see people whose self-regard prevents them from pitching in. The major knew that someone needed to make the coffee. He was in charge of making sure the meeting went properly, no one else was at hand, and he did what needed to be done.

Let's set aside for a moment the virtues of delegation. Was making coffee generally the best use of the major's time? No. Was the chore the best use of the major's time at that moment? Yes and it did contribute to the success of the meeting.

The status jockeys who spend more time worrying about some abstract decline in their position rather than focusing on the mission appear to be unable to separate their comfort from what should be their purpose.

Their awkward efforts to preserve a positive image do precisely the opposite.

Ethics or a Joke?

This story about the banning of a blogger from Gizmodo because of a stunt that he pulled at the Consumer Electronics Show is less interesting for its content than for the rationalizations of some of the commenters.

Quote of the Day

What is called discretion in men is called cunning in animals.

- Jean de la Fontaine

O Canada!

Is this real? Or is it a scene from Kafka?

Magazine publisher Ezra Levant before the Canadian Human Rights Commission on his right to publish the Mohammed cartoons.

[HT: Instapundit ]

And The Jobs Magically Appear!

Stefan Theil finds that French and German students get a large dose of anti-capitalism in their economics textbooks. An excerpt:

One might expect Europeans to view the world through a slightly left-of-center, social-democratic lens. The surprise is the intensity and depth of the anti-market bias being taught in Europe’s schools. Students learn that private companies destroy jobs while government policy creates them. Employers exploit while the state protects. Free markets offer chaos while government regulation brings order. Globalization is destructive, if not catastrophic. Business is a zero-sum game, the source of a litany of modern social problems. Some enterprising teachers and parents may try to teach an alternative view, and some books are less ideological than others. But given the biases inherent in the curricula, this background is unavoidable. It is the context within which most students develop intellectually. And it’s a belief system that must eventually appear to be the truth.

Lemons to Lemonade and Spam to Blog

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

Here's a new venture that promises to be bizarre and amusing: My Daily Spam.

It's the only Internet site that will never have to search for material.

Miscellaneous and Fast

The Renault Jump: At last, the proper way to get into a car.


Why the mob likes the garbage collection business.


Everest Man: Remembering Sir Edmund Hillary. [HT: Real Clear Politics ]


Veterans will love the name: The FuBar demolition tool.


Wonderbra is playing visual tricks in its ads. [HT: Adrants ]


Who wants to work in a giant, glowing, cube?


Lucy Atkins on five ways to fight winter bugs.



The John Cleese Syndrome? Why comic geniuses find it hard to be happy.

Dressing the Part

Christina Binkley looks at the wardrobe gaffes made by job applicants, especially those ambitious souls who are would-be executives. An excerpt:

Ms. Sabath advises men to have their shirts professionally laundered and to button one or two jacket buttons when standing in order to look neat and well-assembled. These are details that can boost or diminish a career without leaving a trace in the memory of either party.

David Goldhill, president and chief executive of the Game Show Network, has been overhauling the television network's senior management lately. He highlighted the subliminal nature of the interviewing process when I asked if his decisions have been influenced by what a job candidate or subordinate wore, for better or for worse. "Probably," he responded, "but I'm not aware of it."

[I confess to being both amused and alarmed at articles such as this one. On one hand, there are the clueless applicants who walk into a job interview dressed for a cocktail lounge or a family picnic. On the other hand, we have the arrogant interviewers who - although they are probably far from fashion exemplars themselves - get so distracted by minor slips that they may pass over an extraordinarily good applicant. Picture Einstein, Churchill, or Lincoln falling under their scrutiny. The example cited in the article about the firm that didn't even interview the person they'd invited for an interview because the person was too well dressed says much more that is negative about the firm than about the applicant.]

Quote of the Day

Erudition: Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

- Ambrose Bierce

Girls of Riyadh

The continuing impact of "chick-lit" in Saudi Arabia. An excerpt from the Forbes article:

As Saudi citizens become bolder, their government is trying to figure out how to let the younger generation have its say without releasing social forces so volatile they would turn society on its ear. In the city of Jeddah, the municipal government first tried to put a stop to graffiti artists, then changed course and put up designated graffiti walls.

As for Girls of Riyadh, authorities eventually lifted the ban on in-country publication. Andrew Hammond, author of Popular Culture in the Arab World, believes the novel is largely responsible for a "genuine independent flowering" in Saudi literature. "It has led to a sudden jump in the country's literary output, and half of the novelists are women."