This Is Your Court - On Crack
You just can't make this stuff up. The US Court Of Appeals for the DC Circuit just ruled that the Treasury discriminates against blind people because one dollar bills are indistinguishable to the touch from tens and twenties. The court commanded the Treasury to change the country's currency, strongly suggesting that bills vary in size according to their denomination. The cost of that change was not discussed, presumably because in the court's view that is irrelevant.
The blind are not unanimously praising the ruling.
Charlie Richardson, the legally blind manager of Charlie's Express Stop inside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., said he doesn't oppose changing the money but disagrees with the ruling."To actually be discriminated against is to have something denied to you," Richardson said. "We're not denied the use of money."
I can see a thinly veiled racist element in the court's ruling. Many owners of small coffee shops are minorities (here, Koreans and Chinese) who have cheap cash registers with drawers shaped to fit uniformly sized bills. Who will buy them new cash registers with cash drawers gradated to fit currency of different sizes? How many Federal employees and field agents will be needed to staff the new Cash Register Emergency Compliance Assistancy And Relief Division of the Department of Redundancy Department? How complex will their forms be, and how long of a line will beneficiaries have to wait in at their windows? If you have to take a number before waiting in line, how will blind people be able to tell when their turn comes? The mind boggles.
In my old office building in LA a person in a wheelchair successfully sued the landlord because the drinking fountains were 1 1/2 inches too high. The walls were granite, and apparently it was cheaper to simply remove all of the drinking fountains (which weren't mandated by law) than to redo the plumbing and stonework to change their height. So that's what the landlord did. Final score: people in wheelchairs - 0, everyone else - 0.
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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References -
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--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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)-o-o-
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent ).
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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| parent )...to treat this as an issue of "discrimination," but varying the size of the currency doesn't seem like all that big of a deal. Why not?
--God help the while, a bad world I say.
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)... could very well cause problems with vending machines & the like; adding braille, embossed marks, perforations or something of the kind doesn't seem like it'd cause the same kind of problems, and the relatively low cost for adopting measures along those lines seemed to figure in the court's rejection of the DoJ's arguments.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )They don't work anyway. At least they'd have to be replaced with newer readers.
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| parent )Seriously, while I generally eschew vandalism, a vending machine that rips me off is fair game for anything I can do to it, particularly if it's not in range of a video camera. Concepts of proportionality don't apply here; it's important to make ripoffs into lose-lose propositions for the vendor. Think of this as a form of asymmetrical warfare.
As Fred Sanford said to Lamont when he tore that "DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW" tag off a pillow, Power to the People!!
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )One of my fonder memories from law school was the smile I received from a very attractive young woman after I delivered a blow to a vending machine in just the right spot to release her stuck change when the return lever jammed. I'm fairly certain I never pulled that off before or since, so it was definitely a clutch performance. :-)
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| parent )Got my first "new" $5 bill in change last week. At first I only saw the front - suspicious tints swirling around in a random pattern, disturbingly Europeanish. But the back - one of fives had morphed into a gigantic coloring book numeral, not purple but some eye-watering ugly hue that only an interior designer could put the right name to. It robbed the bill of its dignity. I can't blame the world for lacking confidence in the dollar after this.
The compromise: make the bills any size you want as long as all the ink is green (the only legitimate color for money) and the numbers in four corners are the same damn size.
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)were you entirely, er, compos mentis when you saw said bill? Because I've heard stories from college friends about stuff like this happening when there in fact had been no change in the currency.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )Ensure largest new banknote is smaller than the Korean guy's drawers. That will make everyone happy, especially considering less hemp for banknotes and more for smoking! Which is good for some eye diseases.
--Nothing resembles virtue more than a great crime. Saint-Just
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)-o-o-o-
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )Yes, many developed countries have different sized bills to make it easier for the visually impaired to count money. Many countries, including this one, regularly redesign their currency.
If this is an example of your government that really cheeses you off, I'd suggest you haven't been paying much attention. Or more likely, this is a selected item you can feel comfortably upset about. Fight the power!
Yeah your wheelchair anecdote is extreme, but there's lots of reasons for various building codes.
Can't wait for the next "OMFG woman sues for HOT COFFEE!!11!" conservative-chestnut diary.
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)Because all of the cups now say "WARNING!! CONTAINS HOT BEVERAGE!!! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!" Ralph Nader can now safely drink a cup while driving his '62 Corvair convertible with one hand and a fat number clamped between his teeth.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )The Justice Dept. didn't bring that up in their arguments? Really? Talk about ineffective counsel.
But wait! From another article:
Why, tomsyl, it's almost as if you didn't really look into this case (you can find a .pdf version of the opinion here--you're welcome!!) at all. Better to treat it, as Scott so airily calls it, as grist for your mill, right?
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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)... in order to not deprive blind people of autonomy in a vital part of life? I can handle that.
--More Wagster!
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| parent )But you're assuming the plaintiff spoke for a majority of the blind. We both know there is no assurance whatsoever that a self-described activist organization represents the wills of the people it claims to speak on behalf of, and there are many examples of the opposite being true.
I'd never heard of this issue before the C of A's opinion was published. Did you?
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )I'll need a mill if food prices keep rising, but I resent the implication that I read Grist on any regular basis.
Actually, my research into the subject was carefully calibrated on my usual 100 point scale w/r/t newsworthiness - it scored a 46.72 1/2, which doesn't fall into the range of extracurricular research being required, or even allowable. But I bet you knew that already.
Every post you make without mentioning those Koreans further deepens their victimhood.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )I like a good pun as much as the next friendless dork, but do you have to pick at such low-hanging fruit?
"Money quote."
Tsk.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )Gasoline doesn't ship well (leaks blur the mailing address). And I've already stocked up on toilet paper, an Island tradition whenever there are rumors of hard times. I'm not making this up - right, PM?
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent ).
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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| parent )No need to re size the bills ... I think Canada does this... Seems to be a pretty straight forward equal protection issue. No need to blow a gasket.. Also could be used as a counterfeiting solution...
--Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your
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)We'd just have to decide what each bill would smell like.
Maybe we could go by presidents. Jackson smells like Old Hickory and bootblack. Washington, cherry denture cream. Lincoln, a log cabin. Grant, Grant's Tomb. Hamilton...smells like money.
Seriously, though. Resizing the bills would be a problem, but other solutions seem trivially easy, and cheap, as hobbesist points out.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )It's all about the Hamiltons, baby.
--~At times like these I am reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...."I drank what?"
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| parent )People are going to accuse me of being your straight man if you keep that up. The Color of Money etc.
Braille on new bills is fine with me, so long as I'm not arrested for passing a bill after the dots have worn off. On the plus side, it will cause a dip in the North Korean economy as they try desperately to adjust their forgery factory equipment.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )Is it a good thing that blind people can be independent in almost all ways, but have to rely on other people to count money for them?
Maybe there's a less radical change to the currency that would help. Braille dots? Punchouts?
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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)Linked in my above comment.
--Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
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| parent )Just another reminder what Democratic Congresses and court appointees lead to. Between this and the prospect of the Gorebots using polar bears to wreck our economy, there is definitely plentiful material for some good ads in the next few months.
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)"Are you blind? Do you know someone who is blind? Well, screw you, buddy."
This message brought to you by the Republican National Committee. We also hate dogs, your mother in particular, and the smell of lilacs.
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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| parent )If so, good one. But keep this up and you'll be checking parking meters in Martinique.
--In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
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| parent )We're pretty much the only developed country in the world for which this is so.
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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)