The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: A Football Aside

The Rules of Bureaucracy

Rule #O: "The Rules of Bureaucracy are mutable, non-canonical, non-ordinal, and contradictory, except in the cases where they are not."
Rule #1: "Document everything you do; if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
Rule #2 [The Sixty Minutes Rule]: "Never do anything that would cause Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Steve Croft, Leslie Stahl, or even Andy Rooney to persue you down a hallway with a camera crew."
Rule #3: "Nothing Simple is Ever Easy"
Rule #4: "It's about the money; follow the money."
Rule #5: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Rule #6: "Politics is the enemy of good government."
Rule #7: "The biggest detriment to public service is the public."
Rule #8: "The second biggest detriment to public service is the service."
Rule #9: "There's a reason; there's ALWAYS a reason."
Rule #10: "The Law is a harsh mistress: The rigorous and exacting application of which can benefit of society when used correctly to advance good policy and block bad, and be the bane of society when used incorrectly to advance bad policy and block good."
Rule #11: "Public service often involves waking up in the morning, opening up the newspaper, and discovering that someone, somewhere out there thinks that you're a dickhead."
Rule #12: "No one really knows what you do."
Rule #13 [Luke's Rule]: "No one ever acts like the bastard they really are."
Rule #14: "Bureaucracy endures."
Rule #15: "The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction."
Rule #16: "Politicians are not smarter than you."
Rule #18: "Money is not created equal."
Rule #19: "Mediocrity is normalcy."
Rule #17: "Within any bureaucratic structure, resources (e.g. people, money, knowledge, etc.) are not distributed uniformly."
Rule #20: "Don't assume a fiduciary liability without a committed resource allocation."
Rule #21: "If you do your job and obey the law, they can't reasonably fire you."
Rule #22: "The Budget will always be wrong."
Rule #23: "Always sign in blue."
Rule #24: "A Bureaucrat must be able to explain and justify his/her actions to laymen without resorting to the phrase 'because the Rules say so.'"
Rule #25: "Never voluntarily relinquish control of an original document."
Rule #26: "Sometimes you just have to say 'Screw the rules'"
Rule #27: "Change sucks."
Rule #28: "Sometimes the answer is 'No.'"
Rule #29: "It is very easy to make difficult decisions when no one has a clue what's going on."
Rule #30: "If you hang around long enough, eventually you will become an expert in something."
Rule #31: "Data, technology, and automatic processes can never completely supplant human interaction."
Rule #32: "Cover thine own ass."
Rule #33: "It's not real until it has its own acronym."
Rule #34:There is nothing more dangerous than an elected, resourceful idiot.
Rule #35: It will always take longer than expected.
Rule #36: Coming Soon...

Friday, January 23, 2009

A Football Aside

Putting a bit of history into Superbowl XIII:

During WWII professional football faced player shortages, and the Steelers merged twice with other NFL franchises in order to field a team. In 1944, they merged with the Chicago Cardinals and were known as Card-Pitt -- or derisively, the "Carpets".

They went 0-10 that season.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: I thought it was The Burgh and Philly...Steagles?

monk; 3:33 PM
Anonymous said...: I am founding member of Heinz Ward fan club...We have 4 members.

I tihnk we would have greater participation, if name was not politicaly incorrect....

"The Mental Ward!"

monk; 3:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Paradoxically....

"Get Smart", (TV), from 70's...had agent "86".

...so confused....

Fine line between genius and insanity.

GO STEELERS!

monk; 4:30 PM
Bram Reichbaum said...: Monk, I'm glad you found a natural habitat!

I couldn't locate any of those pics you e-mailed me regarding a while ago. And congratulations on the Monkette being such a outstanding student and young citizen!; 4:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Steagles were in 1943; the Carpets came after.; 5:28 PM

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The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat

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Friday, January 23, 2009

A Football Aside

5 comments:

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