Is Democratic Socialism with Human face the World Dream?

The novelist attended a big cattle market, visited farms, conducted interviews, and took extensive notes.  This research is undoubtedly reflected in the remarkable particularity of authentic detail that informs his descriptions of the peasants’ world and his elaboration of scenes that evoke ‘the eternal round of things’ ... the evening gatherings in the cowshed, weddings, baptisms, fairs, funerals, as well as the sowing, haymaking, and harvesting.  However, it did not alter (but rather, reinforced) his imaginative conception of the reality he wished to depict.
~Bathroom Quote on A Day of Saving Day Light and Night Darkness Daylight saving going backwards again

Is democratic socialism the American Dream? Washington Post

What’s Next For Global Capitalism When Things Fall Apart? Social Europe 

Stop Crying About the Size of Government. Start Caring About Who Controls It. 
Rome gave the world the prototype of private law based on the most absolute conception of several property. The decline and final collapse of this first extended order came only after central administration in Rome increasingly displaced ... Interviewing Acemoglu about the Post Office

In the best traditions of American journalism in the public service, we seek to stimulate positive change. We uncover unsavory practices in order to stimulate reform. We do this in an entirely non-partisan and non-ideological manner, adhering to the strictest standards of journalistic impartiality. We won’t lobby. We won’t ally with politicians or advocacy groups. We look hard at the critical functions of business and of government, the two biggest centers of power, in areas ranging from product safety to securities fraud, from flaws in our system of criminal justice to practices that undermine fair elections. But we also focus on such institutions as unions, universities, hospitals, foundations and on the media when they constitute the strong exploiting or oppressing the weak, or when they are abusing the public trust. “Depends on your point of view…” These are weasel words for political journalists

^Writers in government 

\/Imre Kertesz, R.I.P.

Meet Barry the 87 year old Sydneysider who battled against big development

Building design is largely absent from public debate. Our loss. It's time torescue architecture from the depredations of elite opinion 

Philip Morris to SCOTUS: Don't revisit corporate money in judicial elections. Alison Frankel's "On the Case" from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this report today

Kay Bell, $10,000 crowdsourcing prize available to designer of Future IRS taxpayer accounts website

Premier Mike Baird orders staff to stop embarrassing him

Can an outsider become Amish?

Obama warns of terrorist nuclear attack BBC

Turnbull gets a lesson in the complexities of the federation

Access to Government Information in the United States: A Primer, Wendy Ginsberg – Analyst in American National Government; Michael Greene, Information Research Specialist. March 18, 2016.
“…This report offers an introduction to the four access laws and provides citations to additional resources related to these statutes. This report includes statistics on the use of FOIA and FACA and on litigation related to FOIA. The 114th Congress may have an interest in overseeing the implementation of these laws or may consider amending the laws. In addition, this report provides some examples of the methods Congress, the President, and the courts have employed to provide or require the provision of information to one another. This report is a primer on information access in the U.S. federal government and provides a list of resources related to transparency, secrecy, access, and nondisclosure…”

“The latest Census Bureau statistics shows more American households own computers and use high-speed Internet than ever before. A collection of visualizations presents data from the Current Population Survey and American Community Survey. The infographic illustrates high-speed Internet use by age, race, income and educational attainment by household. In addition, maps are provided for household high-speed Internet use by state and metro area.”

His wild story of partying, gambling and human trafficking caught the attention of the world this week after a Rolling Stone profile revealed how Max’s roommate Stephen Sluyter eventually told authorities everything, putting his mate away for 40 months. Since the story, a reformed Max has built a successful business and is popular in the community. He’s gone from dodging the police to creating a campaign video for the local sheriff, shooting photos of the mayor and doing crossfit with border patrol.

Kay Bell, Attention White House wannabes: the IRS audits presidential tax returns every single year

"When You Can't Find the Fine Print (Or Read It)": Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online today at Bloomberg View. 

“If he had lived in the world of his much-loved Somerset Maugham, he would have been one of those unmarried governors on a far-flung island who put on a tuxedo each evening for his solitary supper.”

‘Stop asking permission': advice from the red tape war cabinet 

IBM Center for the Business of Government – The Social Intranet: Insights on Managing and Sharing Knowledge Internally, March 2016: “Corporate America increasingly relies on social intranets to leverage employees’ knowledge and foster collaboration in ways that speed up work and reduce costs . While much of the federal government lags behind, some agencies are pioneers in the internal use of social media tools . What lessons and effective practices do they have to offer other agencies? “Social intranets,” Dr. Mergel writes, “are in-house social networks that use technologies—such as automated newsfeeds, wikis, chats, or blogs—to create engagement opportunities among employees .” They also include the use of internal profile pages that help people identify expertise and interest (similar to Facebook or LinkedIn profiles), and those that are used in combination with other social intranet tools such as online communities or newsfeeds. The report documents four case studies of government use of social intranets—two federal government agencies (the Department of State and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and two cross-agency networks (the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Government of Canada.”

10 predictions for 2016
Nesta, Dec 2015. Our list of the trends, social movements and technological breakthroughs we believe will impact our lives over the next year

Jack Townsend, Interview of Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo on Tax Enforcement 

Our Top 10 “Gray Swans” for 2016
State Street Global Advisers, Feb 2016. SSGA’s “Top 10 Grey Swans for 2016” are:

 ·        A one-off Chinese Renminbi maxi-devaluation

 ·        Emerging market corporate debt crisis

 ·        A reversal of European integration

 ·        A modest US recession in 2016

 ·        Damaging consequences of low and negative interest rates on the financial sector

 ·        An oil squeeze

 ·        Domestic unrest in oil-exporting countries

 ·        Escalating Sunni/Shia conflict

 ·        Cascading sovereign wealth funds and FX reserves

 ·        Russia makes headlines for all the wrong reasons

William W. Bedsworth published his newest book, "Lawyers, Gubs and Monkeys -- Laughing at the Law."
Bedsworth serves as an Associate Justice on California's Fourth District Court of Appeal. Longtime readers of this blog may recall that Bedsworth took part in this blog's "20 questions for the appellate judge" feature way back in June 2004. You can access my interview of him at this link.
For as long as anyone can remember, Bedsworth has written a very clever law-related humor column titled "A Criminal Waste of Space." Back when I was a slightly more conscientious law blogger, I would endeavor to link to the new installments of that column as they became freely accessible online. At some point, however, I stopped doing that, perhaps because the columns stopped being readily accessible online, or perhaps because something else blog-related or non-blog-related happened to demand my attention even more.
In any event, it appears that the more recent installments of Justice Bedsworth's column have found a new home at the OC Lawyer web site of the Orange County (Calif.) Bar Association. But, if you like his stuff as much as I do, just buy his book (here or here), and you'll be able to carry around for your reading enjoyment lots of his good work in one small convenient volume.

Democratic Dancer and singer: Fred Astaire, try this from Swing Time.  For his underrated singing, try “Cheek to Cheek ”