OT: Jury Duty

Exactly. A jury is superfluous, if that weren't the case.

The last time I was called for jury duty the defense attorney was asking prospective jurors if they were vegetarians. One woman answered "sometimes." Yeah, between hamburgers, pork chops, bacon, and chicken nuggets I don't eat meat.

This was for a trial where three men were charged with baiting deer. They asked me if I was opposed to hunting, and I said "no, as long as it's for food, not just for sport." Dismissed.

Maybe a well placed facebook post can keep you out of jury duty.

Actually, I don't want to get out of it, I need the $15 a day paycheck. Most of the jurors in the waiting room will be using the public WIFI, probably reading facebook. Tomorrow I check in at 7:45AM and I'm on the payroll for at least 1 day. .

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Bring a donation bowl and a sign with you. Something like: On jury duty. Can't work or live on $15 per day. Need the money. Please help. You might clear a few extra dollars if you don't get arrested for panhandling.

If your smartphone rings during the court proceedings, it's usually a $25 to $50 fine. You can also pay the fine online with a credit card on your noisy smartphone.

Incidentally, the pay in the People's Republic of Santa Cruz (county) is: Starting on the second day of service, jurors receive a per diem of $15.00 per day and $0.34 (34 cents) per mile, one way from their residence to the court. If your employer continues to pay your salary during your jury duty, the $15/day goes to the employer, which you can deduct as an adjustment to income. If unpaid, the $15 is taxable and appears on the 1040 form, line 36.

Have fun and do try to stay awake.

The jury system is an outmoded relic of the middle ages when virtually ever yone was an illiterate, pathetic, drunken peasant teeming with intestinal p arasites, lice and disease. We still have those kind among us, Thompson and this KRW dirtbag, but they're nowhere near as prevalent as when this trash y system was instituted and further debauched in modern times.

Well, I got my wish and was assigned to a 12 day jury case, so I'll be making $15 a day plus I think 30 cents a mile for 12 days or maybe less. But I will be bagging my own lunch since the courthouse cafeteria is a racket with cheapest sandwitch at about $6. Not many jurors were dismissed since it's a civil case and most everyone is qualified. One doctor was dismissed because he had several scheduled surgeries, but was willing to serve in the near future when he had more time. The judge reminded us that many doctors had served on juries in malpractice cases, so the fact you know something about the details doesn't mean you are unqualified. But this case isn't about malpractice and I can't talk about it.

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On jury duty. Can't work or live on $15 per day. "

Actually the very bst formula for success is to get you a sign that says "I LLEGAL IMMIGRANT, I WANT TO GO HOME, PLEASE HELP".

And really, people who like that are a bit misguided. While I REALLY do not want an inflood of immagrants from anywhere, it is not they who tok our jo bs. the fact is that people, using like CNC machines instead of aold lathes and all that, have become ten times more efficient.

No problem with that, except for a few minor details, one of which is that : If one Man can do the work of ten now, where will the other nine go ? ?Ev en if the US was 100% isolationist, this would still have happened.

GOOD !

Yet frequently lives better and eve longer that the "washed".

We were meant to be dirty.

Giving the immune system something to do from time to time does seem make a uto-immune diseases less likely, but I'd draw the line at being persistentl y dirty. Lice and fleas shift infectious diseases around rather too rapidly for comfort, so you do want to avoid them, and while some internal parasit e do seem to prevent things like irritable bowel syndrome, there are quite a few which are really nasty. Intestinal tape worms and hydatid tapeworms ( that form cysts) aren't fun.

Don't think so. That rabble succumbed to death by age 40 and they looked like 100yo.

like 100yo.

You are confusing average age of death - which was dominated by the kids wh o died very young - and survival times.

Once the unwashed peasants had made it through childhood, quite a few of th em survived to three score and ten. Infectious diseases did kill off adults of all ages from time to time, and heart disease killed off quite a few in their fifties and sixties. Tycho Brahe died at 55 when his bladder wouldn' t empty, but Newton survived to 84. Neither was exactly a member of the unw ashed masses, but wouldn't have bathed every day either.

like 100yo. "

Not really. The AVERAGE life expecrancy is higher now, but that doesn't tel l the whole story. Certain diseases killed the very young, slewing the aver age and giving the impression that life expectancy has been medically enhan ced. Also, there used to be deaths from other causes affecting the figure, like ten thousand sixteen year olds dying in battles. Infant mortality real ly beat the number down as well.

Diseases and getting killed were the main cause, not old age.

The fact that many did indicates that modern medicine is not the cure all end all. In fact, as poor as the medical care is in the US, I am surprised that social security doesn't have a huge slush fund.

Oh wait, they stole it didn't they ?

I just peeled the bandages on my lower legs and they let me go, after they stopped gagging. ;-)

That doesn't follow. What killed Tycho Brahe at 55 happens to a lot of elderly men - my father got a re-bore, which solved his problem, and I now take some pill that stops the prostate from closing down the urethra in the first place.

The are plenty of problems that used to kill a lot of people in early middle age which medical science now fixes - though not always all that fast or painlessly.

I didn't enjoy the process of getting a new aortic valve - it's major surgery, and no fun - but I'm still alive now, and pretty much as good as new. Something similar killed my great-grandfather when he was in his sixties.

My younger brother had his clogged coronary arteries by-passed at much the same time and he's fine too. That wasn't on offer for our grandfather, who also died in his sixties.

Modern medical science doesn't cure everything, and we are all going to die eventually, but in a lot of cases medicine can help a lot. Many seventy-year-olds can tell you all about it.

Well, I could pop open my colostomy bag and let out enough gas to clear the courtroom. Us cancer survivors have our advantages.

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of them survived to three score and ten."

all end all. In fact, as poor as the medical care is in the US, I am surprised that social security doesn't have a huge slush fund.

As every politician would say they only monetarized the excess and borrowed it, trillions of dollars worth. Remember monetarizing real estate loans in the early 2000s and the tranches of credit default swaps, it came apart about 2007. I wonder when the SS monitarized debt will come calling. It will make the 2007 crash look like a picnic in the park.

?-)