Bureaucracy

Chairman Bruce points us to these excellent rules for bureaucracy published by the The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat, observing along the way that "bureaucrats have more rules than forecasters ."

1. Document everything you do; if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen.
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.
3. Nothing Simple is Ever Easy
4. It's about the money; follow the money.
5. Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
6. Politics is the enemy of good government.
7. The biggest detriment to public service is the public.
8. The second biggest detriment to public service is the service.
9. There's a reason; there's ALWAYS a reason.
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.
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.
12. No one really knows what you do.
13. [Luke's Rule]: No one ever acts like the bastard they really are.
14. Bureaucracy endures.
15. The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction.

Rule 5 is a long-standing favourite of mine.

Oh, and TADB offers the best wry commentary which I have yet seen on the Vice President's poor aim.