Barbara Adde’s Reviews > Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service > Status Update
Barbara Adde
is on page 184 of 272
“And if they did just want to cause problems and noodle around all day, there’s a more efficient way to do that: become a member of Congress.”
— Aug 15, 2026 02:58PM
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Barbara’s Previous Updates
Barbara Adde
is on page 184 of 272
W. Kamau Bell on DOJ
“The fact is that federal employees go to work every day with the explicit job description of making the lives of everyday Americans better. Contrary to GOPopular belief, these employees aren’t lazy or conspiring how to make Americans’ lives harder. They aren’t allowed to noodle around with ideas for too long without showing real-world progress.”
— Aug 15, 2026 02:57PM
“The fact is that federal employees go to work every day with the explicit job description of making the lives of everyday Americans better. Contrary to GOPopular belief, these employees aren’t lazy or conspiring how to make Americans’ lives harder. They aren’t allowed to noodle around with ideas for too long without showing real-world progress.”
Barbara Adde
is on page 179 of 272
Sarah Vowell on NARA:
“But I’m no different than any other citizen searching the National Archives. I found what I was looking for: an inventive civil servant who answers to get people. I was looking for a country I want to live in.”
— Aug 15, 2026 12:18PM
“But I’m no different than any other citizen searching the National Archives. I found what I was looking for: an inventive civil servant who answers to get people. I was looking for a country I want to live in.”
Barbara Adde
is on page 169 of 272
Sarah Vowell on NARA
“When Thomas Jefferson paid Napoleon for Louisiana, it wasn’t for the land itself, as France owned very little of it; rather, it was for the proprietary right to make binding treaties with the territory’s Native nations and pay them for their lands.”
— Aug 14, 2026 08:16PM
“When Thomas Jefferson paid Napoleon for Louisiana, it wasn’t for the land itself, as France owned very little of it; rather, it was for the proprietary right to make binding treaties with the territory’s Native nations and pay them for their lands.”
Barbara Adde
is on page 150 of 272
Geraldine Brooks
“Ninety-six percent of federal revenue is raised by the IRS, to be used in everything from a veteran’s prosthetic to the rocket that recently changed the trajectory of an asteroid and might one day save the planet.”
— Aug 13, 2026 07:21PM
“Ninety-six percent of federal revenue is raised by the IRS, to be used in everything from a veteran’s prosthetic to the rocket that recently changed the trajectory of an asteroid and might one day save the planet.”
Barbara Adde
is on page 142 of 272
“… terrorism we’re instead flowing right to Uncle Sam, to the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.”
— Aug 13, 2026 05:58PM
Barbara Adde
is on page 142 of 272
Geraldine Brooks on Jarod Koopman/IRS
“Using their tracing techniques and the powers of the know-your-customer banking regulations, Koopman’s team was able to secretly take over al-Qassam’s websites and its donation button and, later, do the same for sites funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda. For about a month, while the DOJ worked up indictments, all the funds going into the sites to support …
— Aug 13, 2026 05:57PM
“Using their tracing techniques and the powers of the know-your-customer banking regulations, Koopman’s team was able to secretly take over al-Qassam’s websites and its donation button and, later, do the same for sites funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda. For about a month, while the DOJ worked up indictments, all the funds going into the sites to support …
Barbara Adde
is on page 126 of 272
John Lanchester on LS/DOL
“The new enemy of the Enlightenment doesn’t believe in any kind of verities beyond personal feeling and experience. It has no use for statistics or numbers or data. It doesn’t hold any truths to be self-evident.”
— Aug 13, 2026 02:45PM
“The new enemy of the Enlightenment doesn’t believe in any kind of verities beyond personal feeling and experience. It has no use for statistics or numbers or data. It doesn’t hold any truths to be self-evident.”
Barbara Adde
is on page 123 of 272
“ Needs have a saying, ‘The plural of anecdote is not data.’ In other words, your story is not a general truth.”
— Aug 13, 2026 02:04PM
Barbara Adde
is on page 96 of 272
Nick Siegel, JPL (Starshade and coronagraph for Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope):
Sometimes I think NASA underplays this, but, yes, we are in the space business and in the knowledge business, but I’ve always believed that we’re really in the inspiration business, the inspiration that we have lent out and inspired generations of engineers and scientists. It cannot be underestimated.
— Aug 12, 2026 07:07PM
Sometimes I think NASA underplays this, but, yes, we are in the space business and in the knowledge business, but I’ve always believed that we’re really in the inspiration business, the inspiration that we have lent out and inspired generations of engineers and scientists. It cannot be underestimated.