:: p-dog ::

What is Public Policy, Lesson One

A blog post by a particularly intelligent and well-educated friend of mine has inspired this lesson. Here is the post:

"American health insurance makes me angry. ... Read this. (Note to future lawyers: please fix the system.)"

Note to all: Lawyers don't fix the system. The overwhelming majority of lawyers work within the system. Who fixes the system? People with degrees in public policy. This particular system might be fixed by my fellow students specializing in health policy, perhaps getting a joint degree in public policy and public health (a popular program choice at GSPP). Working within all levels of government, or advocacy groups, or think tanks, or private consulting firms, or perhaps the health insurance companies themselves, they will analyze the current system, design a better one, and implement that new policy. That is what we learn to do in public policy graduate school.

As a very unusual lawyer, you might choose to work on this issue, but if you're a policy-person, you are trained to. End of today's lesson.

:: Leslie H - 2:04 PM - ::

After an exciting and hectic week of paper-writing and fully-appreciating-the-Berkeley-thing, I am officially doing nothing interesting. So today's post is just for those few of you who take I-35 between Austin and Dallas and appreciate that weird caterpillar-dome thing going on in Italy, Texas. The monolithic dome institute has made the Times.



"It is possible to build a hurricane-proof house. But perhaps the best of the lot - a dome-shaped creation made with tons of poured concrete and anchored with steel pilings - looks like something from a bad sci-fi movie.

They are a hard sell, said David B. South, an engineer who designed the Dome Home 30 years ago and now teaches people to build them from his Monolithic Dome Institute in Italy, Tex."

Rock on, domes.

:: Leslie H - 12:38 PM - ::

We have these two squirrels that live in the trees outside our window. One of them is chilling out on the fence that separates our lot from the vacant one behind it. The top of the fence has a row of long nails that stick out 2-3 inches, to deter trespassers. And this squirrel is leaning on one of them, hugging it to his chest. It's unclear whether it's a comfortable resting position or if he's about to commit hara-kiri.

I'll keep you posted.


Seriously, what did I tell you about the paper writing?

:: Leslie H - 5:51 PM - ::

I have a couple of papers due this week, so expect more posts as I, you know, put off writing them.

Robert Reich is coming to profess full-time at my school next year, but in the meantime he's writing those incredibly sane commentaries that seem so obvious once you've read them, but you'd never have made the connections quite so pithily.

"No White House in modern history has been as adept at politics and as ham-fisted at governing. Why?" The answer, here.

:: Leslie H - 5:10 PM - ::

Among my readings for my Political Analysis class is David Baron's Business and Its Environment--a text most often read in MBA programs. Much of it is a handbook for how businesses can affect public policy, via lobbying, etc. I find it nerdily fascinating. I feel compelled to relate a couple of conclusions that are obvious but dreadfully important:

Never ever ever underestimate how politically well-connected, deliberate, and educated businesses are in pursuit of getting their way. They have strategies for freakin' everything.

Never ever ever assume big business has any motivation other than making more money for itself. Not that you'd be that stupid anyway...

:: Leslie H - 5:48 PM - ::

I was worried that Google's new blog search would be a way for my ex-students (who have already found all our pictures, including ones of me in college doing spectacularly inappropriate things) to find my blog. It's not all that important since I'm not their teacher anymore, and they can barely read anyway. But I thought I'd search for myself, my school name, etc. as a precautionary measure.

Good news, puddledog remains under the radar. However, if you search for my first and last name (after a number of links to the sweater lady, who is way cooler than me), you find every single entry from the late, great beanblog, which, in case you've forgotten, chronicled the progress of a dozen bean sprouts as they went from merely lifeless to slimy and grotesque. Some deeply misguided project forced upon would-be teachers in our science methods class. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest blogs ever. Remember to start at the bottom and read up to get the full effect of the timeline.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004: "The beans have not changed in appearance. They are the same color, slimy, and a little soft. They have some sort of light green discharge going on. I don't know what this means in the bean world but my addiction to Cosmo has taught me that green discharge is not a good thing." --Johanna

:: Leslie H - 3:16 PM - ::

Tongue-eating bug found in fish.

That's it. I'm convinced. Intelligent design it is.

:: Leslie H - 5:55 PM - ::

For me, the New Orleans coverage for the past week and a half has been addictive and sickening. I read the news, I read the blogs, and I am inclined to lay the blame for the whole thing at the feet of the Bush administration, Republican politicians, and actually the entire conservative ideology of shrinking the government to the point where you can drown in in the bathtub (thanks, Grover Norquist). Every day there are overwhelming examples of almost willful mismanagement and hobbling of essential government functions, and, incidentally, of insanely callous remarks by conservative politicians or their mothers. I feel hate for the president, and I'm losing the ability to understand how any reasonable or compassionate person can support him, now or at any time during his travesty of an administration.

The long and short of it is, I desperately need to talk to a Republican.

What's that psychological term for when you fit everything you see into a paradigm you've already accepted, and dismiss evidence to the contrary as exceptions to the rule? My worldview has become dangerously limited. I am utterly surrounded by people who agree with me.

I refuse to believe that I am so obviously right and that over half the country is either criminally ignorant or just criminal. To counteract this, I am looking at conservative media and blogs rather than liberal ones--admittedly a questionable tactic--but this is just making me more upset. Yes, it's the media's fault so many people are dead because they failed to warn us about the possibility of flooding. Oh, and the Democrats are really to blame for their relentless attacks on the president during this time of trial. I was delighted to discover that the response after the hurricane was actually quite fast. And any delays were due to a "dysfunctional underclass" that hampered the delivery of aid, those irresponsible and morally bankrupt hurricane victims! Or to inept state and local government, where, correct me if I'm wrong, Republicans would prefer the balance of power to reside.

Help me, please. If you are a reasonable conservative person, email me with your take on the New Orleans situation. If you know of a reasonable conservative media source, point me toward it. It's becoming a health issue. All this anger is not good for my blood pressure.

:: Leslie H - 4:04 PM - ::

Okay, maybe I'm not done with hurricane commentary. But it's important that you know that it's all plagiarized, and probably will all be catty and hateful. But that's pretty much how I'm feeling. My own agonized, futile-national-navel-gazing diatribes all failed to make the cut. So here's the Daily Show:

Jon Stewart: The president has vowed to personally lead the investigation into the government's failed response to Katrina? Isn't that a job perhaps someone else should be doing?

Samantha Bee: No, not at all, Jon. To truly find out what went wrong, it's important for an investigator to have a little distance from the situation. And it's hard to get any more distant from it than the president was last week.

:: Leslie H - 1:46 PM - ::

Too true. (This may be the extent of my hurricane commentary.)

:: Leslie H - 5:20 PM - ::

Bryan: "Well, I have a date with your sister right now."

Words you never want to hear from your boyfriend...unless it's a date to fight some imaginary battle in the World of Warcraft.

Oh yes.

:: Leslie H - 5:14 PM - ::

Same sex marriage wins vote in California. At least one good thing has happened in the past week.

:: Leslie H - 8:08 AM - ::

The more things change...

I had an odd parallel experience today. My parents like to tell the story of how, during one of my very first weekends at UT, I was caught in a sea of orange-clad strangers surging through campus to some mysterious end (a football game, I ultimately discovered).

Today, walking back from the gym, I found myself swimming against a current of students and families in blue and gold (colors I still associate more with my high school than my grad school). This time I knew they were on their way to a game--yes, age brings wisdom--but the similarity of the experiences was striking. Again I felt out of place, wearing my shorts that said TEXAS (toward which many Cal fans feel little goodwill after last year's bowl assignments) and my shirt that says PEPPERDINE LAW, twice a lie as I have attended neither Pepperdine nor law school.

Alas, I guess school-sport-spirit is just not for me.

:: Leslie H - 1:10 PM - ::