Last Action What?

Mark Steyn on the odd claims of governmental expertise:

The illegal immigration question is an interesting test of government in action, at least when it comes to core responsibilities like defense of the nation. When critics of this "comprehensive" immigration bill demand enforcement of the borders, the administration says: Boy, you're right there! We're with you on that! We want enforcement, too. But we can't get it as long as you're holding up this "comprehensive reform."

Why not? There are immigration laws on the books right now, aren't there? Why not try enforcing them? The same people who say that government is a mighty power for good that can extinguish every cigarette butt and detoxify every cheeseburger and even change the very climate of the planet back to some Edenic state so that the water that falleth from heaven will land as ice and snow, and polar bears on distant continents will frolic as they did in days of yore, the very same people say: Building a border fence? Enforcing deportation orders? Can't be done, old boy. Pie-in-the-sky.

On the Couch

With a spate of corporate scandals, as well as top executives’ being pressured to reduce management turnover, corporate America is rethinking how it approaches hiring, training, and promoting its leaders, beginning with its C.E.O’s. In recent years, a vast industry has sprung up in support of that effort, offering everything from psychological profiles to real-world simulations aimed at weeding out managers who choke under pressure. Though there is no accurate measure of the industry’s size, according to some estimates there are currently as many as 2,500 such organizations of varying degrees of legitimacy, up from just a handful a little more than a decade ago.

Of course, performance, intelligence, and personality profiling isn’t exactly new. Roughly 3,000 years ago, China gave civil service candidates intelligence tests. During World War II, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, which later morphed into the Central Intelligence Agency, subjected its agents to psychological screening. It wasn’t until the early 1990s, though, that psychologists finally reached a consensus on the traits that constitute personality. They termed them the Big Five: self-esteem, social potency (leadership), charm, integrity, and creativity (imagination).

Read the rest on the appeal of personality testing.

Border Update

YUMA, Ariz.—The assaults here can pile up quickly. U.S. Border Patrol agent Michael Norton, who patrols the area on bicycle, says he was almost drowned recently when he chased two migrant smugglers into a canal where they repeatedly forced him underwater. And last month, another agent was brutally struck in the face by a convicted murderer who had been deported several months before. Still, Norton says he's seen worse. "It's a different border than it was in 2005," he says, padlocking a van with two fresh catches inside. "Back then so many people were crossing here, it was like the Macy's Day parade every single night."


Read the rest of this update on the Border Patrol.

Quote of the Day

To become a father is not hard,

To be a father is, however.



- Wilhelm Busch

Whippersnappers?

Sorry I missed this earlier.

Do you agree with Erin MacLennan's take (and that of others) on the differences between Baby Boomers and Millennials?

{As I recall my college days, the Boomers were pretty idealistic. I was hanging around a very political crowd of conservatives, liberals, and Leftists in those days so my sample may be skewed. And, of course, that was before they discovered money.]

Time Management Thoughts

Often, it is not that we have too much to do but that we are doing too many things we shouldn't be doing in the first place.

We plan our day as if we work in a steady flow but we really work in bursts of activity.

For most jobs, three hours of focused work trump eight hours of unfocused work.

Odds are, something important is crying out for a deadline.

We can fool ourselves by looking too far in the distance when the key question is "What are we going to do in the next five minutes?"

New Challenge at the Pump

If you drive a gas guzzler and are using your credit card to pay for gasoline, you may discover your card is imposing a limit:

As the price of gasoline continues to rise, rules to prevent credit card fraud at the nation's pumps are confusing consumers who just want a full tank of gas.

Caps on transaction amounts — or the total dollar amount of gas a customer can pump into their car — are limiting some drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles.

1920s Top Five

Jeffrey Hart, professor of English at Dartmouth, gives his top five list of books reflecting the literature of the 1920s.

[I believe Hemingway's short stories are far superior to his novels but that's probably a minority opinion.]

Miscellaneous and Fast

Chef Tom Kime gives some tips on how to eat street food when you are traveling without incurring unpleasant consequences.

Here's the ultimate niche business: A restroom finder.

For $250,000 you can buy a ghost town in Idaho.

A profile of Google's Sergey Brin.

FAQ for dogs.

Quote of the Day

The answer to the question "Am I getting too fat?" is "No."

- Michael Kelly