While no one was looking today, congress voted to give itself yet another pay raise, despite record low approval ratings.
So much for the delusion that this country is a meritocracy.
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I don't know if it was intended for me, but somebody printed out and stacked with my airline reservations a scan of a letter by Smith & Smith (from Arlington, Virginia), from the 2006 issue of Physics Today (let
Congratulations for Almost Diamonds and Quiche Moraine blogger Stephanie Zvan for her brand new Guest Post at Scientific American.
The Politics of the Null Hypothesis
In which we look at the failure of elites, and the international language of bad dancing.
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It's nice outside, but if you're stuck inside, here are some links for you. Science:
Maybe the idea is, "You'd have to pay me bigtime to get me to work with a bunch of crooks like that."
A meritocracy? Wherever did you get that idea? We're sliding from oligarchy to kleptocracy! Hmmph. Maybe instead of paying these guys a salary, we could put another box on the income tax forms: Check here if you want to divide (say) $3 among your congressthings....
What a waste!
Odd. Australian parliament did just the same thing last week. They must be planning something big. Maybe there's a big asteroid heading towards Earth and they want to secure their place on the rescue shuttles. Maybe their house staff are demanding pay rises to secretly fund counter-cultural billboard-modifying anarchists, and the politicians think that all house staff everywhere are demanding payrises because they only fraternise with other politicians. Maybe they all want to buy shares in Testra. Who knows.
Obviously, they measure merit by a different scale than you do.
Did you try to vote yourself a pay raise? Did you get it?
So what is the secret of meriting merits which merit money?