wmw999

The biggest problem with metrics is the time they take, which is considered "wasted" by nearly everyone except for the people who read them (and often don't do much about them, because they're a few levels removed from actual clients/customers/patients). Might big words from a former L6S Black Belt... The problem isn't just the lack of metrics, it's all too often the design of those metrics for the convenience of the people that the bean counters are most scared of (i.e. who own paycheck authority). So those are the people who get the most convenience, and you end up with the customers having to press endless buttons to assure the upper-ups that they are satisfied with the service that they have received. And you end up with the priorities of the upper-ups (often not just customer service) being the priority. In addition, because metrics reduce the granularity with which service is measured (you have to categorize things), you end up with issues that aren't always easily classified -- because there are millions of users of most government services, and each of them is different. The answer isn't simply to give up; it's to try to identify the biggest problem (which might mean, yes, metrics to identify it -- but then you QUIT THOSE METRICS, because their purpose is over). Metrics are kind of like old software -- someone either still uses them and is important enough to inconvenience everyone else, or no one understands what those particular ones do any more, and so they leave them in to avoid starting a problem. Wendy P.

this, a thousand times this. Wendy P.

Note, however, that this article is in the opinion section. I'll look later for some straight news ones. I don't really expect them to say much different, just less opining. Wendy P.

To make a clicky: Go to the top portion of the "making your post" box and select the "chain link" icon (circled). That brings up a box which is utterly self-explanatory. If you just paste in the URL, the link itself shows up as clicky. If you paste some alternate text in the "link text" box, then you get something like this. (click the blue word) Wendy P.

50 Car companies that have failed It's almost as though a new technology were riskier! Fortunately cars never caught on because of all the nay-sayers, right? Wendy P.

Darrell McClanahan is running for Missouri governor (well, for now) as a Republican. He's endorsed by the KKK, of which he's ONLY a one-year honorary member. It came out when a picture of him at a Christian Identity Cross-lighting ceremony. But it's NOT the same thing as a white-supremacist cross-burning. The Republicans are reacting with the same disgust that the Missouri Democrats reacted with when a now-expelled member of their caucus was seen working with a Holocaust denier. He's not long for the race, but dang -- they're coming out of the woodwork, because it's WRONG to shame someone for a racist past. Or present, I guess. Wendy P.

Driven by there; it's about 25 miles from my family's ancestral summer camp. Also, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Franklin Pierce homestead. It's about as impressive as Franklin Pierce. Wendy P.

One can but hope. Wendy P.

as well as a new promise -- to install an entire new Justice department of biddable minions Wendy P.

Yeah, I heard that later on the radio. And since the judgment said that this is much more an “appearance of conflict” rather than actual conflict, I’ll happily stand down from that opinion. I do wonder how she thought it would play any differently when found out, though Wendy P.

Works for me. While Willis is probably the more competent, I think that Wade is a little less tainted, because he wasn't the one in power. Because my opinion matters... Wendy P.

And, too often, the "lies my teacher told me" are simply the lies they were taught themselves. Wendy P.

I agree. The fact that she's not "caucasian" is just a lagniappe for those folks Wendy P.

This, a thousand times this. Remember, if you're a minority, it takes one disqualifying thing to disqualify; if you're a majority (and in the case of national politics we're talking rich white men), then it takes one qualifying thing to qualify. Wendy P.

Just to note that this study covers a 7 1/2 year period, with an overall total of 209 mastectomies. So just assuming for grins and giggles that it has been a linear growth (because I'm too lazy to look up annual numbers), that means less than 7 in the first year, and fewer than 55 in the last full year. That's really not a whole lot, given that the estimate in the same paper is 150,000 transgender teenagers. There were 88,000 surgical (i.e. not minimally invasive) plastic procedures performed on adolescents in 2020 alone. And that was in a year impacted by COVID. How much hand-wringing is there over the generally permanent changes made by all the rest (yes, including breast augmentation, nose jobs, along with the correction of actual birth defects). Wendy P.

And airdvr is a valued member of this community. He does post stuff that I disagree with, but he's always polite, responds to what was actually in a post 90+% of the time, and not just what he wants to have been in it. He's way more middle of the road than (for example), most of the old-fart Texans that I know who are solid Trumpies down the line. He both listens and speaks (virtually, of course). Wendy P.

This, a thousand times this. And because the world had always been that way in their memory, it was normal. Just as having two legs is normal for most people. It's something one takes completely for granted, and really notices the loss if all of a sudden it's gone. Wendy P.

See how much easier life is when you control the goalposts? Wendy P.

Shhhh — we’re not supposed to notice that there are more of something bad in a larger state mainly because it’s larger! Wendy P.

Remember — any one thing wrong makes a liberal bad. Any one thing right makes a conservative OK Wendy P.

We were just down in Costa Rica, and wondering what exactly they did to avoid having so many of the emigrants from further south stop there. But the US is where the money is. Way more than the rest of Central America combined. Why would they stop there if they want to also be able to help their families back home? We met two young men whose families immigrated to Costa Rica about 20 years ago because of threats; they didn't have as much family back home to support, and they're now happy Costa Ricans. But there just isn't as much money there, and since capitalism has monetized everything, why on earth would they stop short? Wendy P.

I’ll be honest, and say that it’s not their job to save us from an individual. I hate that, because I think this individual is almost uniquely damaging in his potential. But it’s their job to interpret the laws that are written. If they consider personalities, then they can consider other personalities. The fact that Thomas almost certainly is considering personalities is bad; I’m not as sure about the others. But I’m more worried about considering power structures (in the US right now, that’s the parties and various lobbying groups). I think that’s a slipperier slope to go whizzing down, and one many of them have already started on. Wendy P.

I live where there's a generally-supported ban. Yes, plastic came back during the pandemic, and it's largely gone again. One of our personal efforts is the reduction of single-use plastics as we buy stuff, and the reuse of bags we do get. Can't do it all the time, but it sops up a little of that overflowing conscience. Wendy P.

Well then party on, I guess. Or are you trying your own schadenschade approach to the ecology movement that Brent approaches with such schadenfreude? Wendy P.

If you can play with that viewpoint of history, why is it so hard to accept other viewpoints, like, for instance, the 1619 project? Wendy P.