Offering constructive criticism to the social cripples in our midst since early 2005.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Really funny. You're a big comedian. You know my dad's a paraplegic with lockjaw, right?

From what I hear, the jaw's locked open at just the right angle.

[sgtclub]

So I'm looking at my cell phone bill, and I notice that the taxes/use charges amount to 25% of the actual bill. Obnoxious.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by sgtclub
So I'm looking at my cell phone bill, and I notice that the taxes/use charges amount to 25% of the actual bill. Obnoxious.

everything is like that these days. the nominal price means nothing. I placed an order from a catalog recently. In addition to the shipping and handling charge there was an "service" charge. WTF? It's called a business. You have expenses. Those should be built into the price.

[Replaced_Texan]

NYT reports that Time has decided to hand over Plame notes

Time Decides to Hand Over Notes of Writer Facing Prison

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By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: June 30, 2005
Time magazine said today that it would provide documents concerning the confidential sources of one of its reporters to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. agent, Valerie Plame.

Text: Time Inc. Statement on Handing Over Documents (June 30, 2005) In a statement, Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.'s editor in chief, said: "The same Constitution that protects the freedom of the press requires obedience to final decisions of the courts and respect for their rulings and judgments. That Time Inc. strongly disagrees with the courts provides no immunity. The innumerable Supreme Court decisions in which even presidents have followed orders with which they strongly disagreed evidences that our nation lives by the rule of law and that none of us is above it."

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down appeals from the magazine, one of its reporters, Matthew Cooper, and a reporter for The New York Times, Judith Miller.

On Wednesday, Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the Federal District Court in Washington said he would order the reporters jailed for up to 120 days if they do not agree to testify before the grand jury in the meantime. He also said that he would impose substantial fines on the magazine.

The decision by a major news organization to disclose the identities of its confidential sources appears to be without precedent in living memory.

In an interview on CNN, Mr. Pearlstine said the threat of fines played no role in the magazine's thinking. "We are not above the law," he said.

NYT says that they're NOT turning over their notes and that they're disappointed in Time. Cooper didn't want to do it, but Time overruled him.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
everything is like that these days. the nominal price means nothing. I placed an order from a catalog recently. In addition to the shipping and handling charge there was an "service" charge. WTF? It's called a business. You have expenses. Those should be built into the price.

I recently ordered a cell phone battery. S&H was around $3.50. When it arrived, I noticed that postage was $0.81.

[sgtclub]

• The Supreme Court this week and last issued many rulings, and though they were on different issues the decisions themselves had at least one thing in common: They seemed to reflect a lack of basic human modesty on the part of many of the justices. Many are famously very old, and they have been together as a court for a very long time. One wonders if they have lost all understanding of how privileged they are to have lifetime sinecures of power and authority. Do they have any sense anymore of common human wisdom, of the normal human arrangements by which Americans live?
  
  Maybe a lot of them aren't bothering to think. Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg is no longer in the habit of listening to arguments but only of watching William Rehnquist, and if he nods up and down she knows to vote "no," and if he shakes his head she knows to vote "yes." That might explain some of the lack of seriousness in the decisions. Local government can bulldoze Grandma's house because it's in the way of a future strip mall that will add more to the tax base? The Ten Commandments can appear on public land but not in a courthouse, but Moses, who received the Ten Commandments can appear in the frieze of the House but he'll be sandblasted off the Supreme Court? Or do I have that the other way around?
  
  What are they doing? All this hair splitting, this dithering, this cutting and pasting--all this lack of serious and defining principle. All this vanity.

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by sgtclub

• The Supreme Court this week and last issued many rulings, and though they were on different issues the decisions themselves had at least one thing in common: They seemed to reflect a lack of basic human modesty on the part of many of the justices. Many are famously very old, and they have been together as a court for a very long time. One wonders if they have lost all understanding of how privileged they are to have lifetime sinecures of power and authority. Do they have any sense anymore of common human wisdom, of the normal human arrangements by which Americans live?
  
  Maybe a lot of them aren't bothering to think. Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg is no longer in the habit of listening to arguments but only of watching William Rehnquist, and if he nods up and down she knows to vote "no," and if he shakes his head she knows to vote "yes." That might explain some of the lack of seriousness in the decisions. Local government can bulldoze Grandma's house because it's in the way of a future strip mall that will add more to the tax base? The Ten Commandments can appear on public land but not in a courthouse, but Moses, who received the Ten Commandments can appear in the frieze of the House but he'll be sandblasted off the Supreme Court? Or do I have that the other way around?
  
  What are they doing? All this hair splitting, this dithering, this cutting and pasting--all this lack of serious and defining principle. All this vanity.

ETA: I think lifetime appointments are necessary, but I wouldn't mind seeing a mandatory retirement age.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by sgtclub
ETA: I think lifetime appointments are necessary, but I wouldn't mind seeing a mandatory retirement age.

I think you might need to look up the definition of "lifetime."

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by sgtclub
ETA: I think lifetime appointments are necessary, but I wouldn't mind seeing a mandatory retirement age.

I'd do it the other way around. No retirement age, but only 18-year appointments. There'd be no incentive to appoint young people (e.g., Thomas), so most would be appointed in their 50s or early 60s. That would clear them out by the time their in their young 70s. At that point, give them a healthy pension or a seat on an appellate court. The worry about future jobs at that point also is illusory. Who would want to become a senior partner just to make some cash? (And if they did generally, you'd see them leave now, and they don't). Without a possibility of reappointment, there'd be no greater political pressure.

(BTW, 18 years to ensure a new justice ~ every 2 years, so 2 per presidential term)

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by sgtclub
So I'm looking at my cell phone bill, and I notice that the taxes/use charges amount to 25% of the actual bill. Obnoxious.

Are those actual taxes, or just costs that the provider is passing on to you?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
This is not your best material.

This is your best material.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Valentine
Despite the uplifting political rhetoric about democracy and peace, the smart money is on a staggering death toll, a grisly civil war, possibly even genocide, with Sunnis killing Shiites and Shiites killing Sunnis.

Does anyone else find Valentine's use of the phrase "the smart money" a little jarring, in that he otherwise sounds like a member of a Communist youth group?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub

• What are they doing? All this hair splitting, this dithering, this cutting and pasting--all this lack of serious and defining principle. All this vanity.

Peggy Noonan should move her computer farther from her mirror.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Valentine's

fu.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
fu.

I like to pretend that Valentine is short for Billy Ray Valentine. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the posts.