On Thursday, June 16, 2022 at 12:36:21 PM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 22:13:44 -0700, Robert Woodward
> <robe...@drizzle.com> wrote:
>

[snip]

> >*A few states don't have counties (Louisiana has parishes which I
> >believe are counties of a different name).
> Louisiana's parishes are an echo, as it were, of their being a French
> possession before the Louisiana Purchase. Their legal may or may not
> still have some aspects of the Napoleonic Code for the same reason.
>
> Presumably, originally, back in France, these actually /were/
> parishes, in the religious sense. But not today, not in Louisiana.
> --

Connecticut has historical counties that are just lines on paper.
They lost any function back in 1960.

[quote]

Public Act 152 abolished county government in Connecticut on October 1, 1960.

[/quote]

https://connecticuthistory.org/site-lines-monuments-to-connecticuts-lost-county-government/

There are multi-town structures: health districts, transit districts, regional water authorities, etc.

I grew up across the Long Island Sound, where, the 5 westernmost towns of our county
replaced most town and village forces with a combined department:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_County_Police_Department

--
Kevin R

In article <bdmmahdr06meqbu44887k0507lk594815i@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 22:13:44 -0700, Robert Woodward
> <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>
> >In article <lerkah5uvc1lmfipksvetcgathtj9kfprr@4ax.com>,
> > The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:11:03 -0700, Paul S Person
> >> <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I've served on two six-person juries and been summoned as a potential
> >> >juror four times.
> >> >
> >> >The municpal court was, to the best of my recollection, separate from
> >> >the other two.
> >> >
> >
> >I believe that the various courts (municipal, superior, and Federal) are
> >in separate buildings in Seattle
>
> And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
> before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
> (after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
>
> 1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
> 2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
> 3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
> tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied
>
> The voter information form distinguished between the two, and my
> conclusion was that both were in the same building.
>

This was the federal courthouse before the Nisqually earthquake
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kenzo_Nakamura_United_States_Cour
thouse>). Since 2004, the federal district courts have been in a new
building
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Courthouse_(Seattle)>).
The county court house is several blocks away. The county courthouse was
damaged by the Nisqually earthquake.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
-------------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:36:11 -0700, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

>And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
>before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
>(after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
>
>1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
>2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
>3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
>tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied

That's impressive - we had soft seats and nothing else. (I had brought
a paperback mostly for the bus trip)

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 6/16/2022 9:38 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 03:53:43 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6/15/2022 3:43 AM, Wolffan wrote:
>>
>> <snippo>
>>
>>>> it’d be worth it to get rid of, say, Ted Cruz.
>>>
>>> Just wait till he goes to Mexico again, then finish the Wall. :P
>>
>> Just put him on the "no-fly" list.
>>
> Does the "No-Fly" list apply to chartered private flights?
>
>> What, you think he'd wade back across the Rio Grande?
>
> Karma, she be a b.... :D

You can just walk across the border at one of the foot crossings as long
as you're eligible to enter the US. I've done it to avoid a long traffic
backup at the nearby vehicle crossing. It turned a multi-hour wait into a
few minutes wait.

Robert
--
Robert K. Shull Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot com

On 6/17/2022 6:13 AM, rkshullat@rosettacondot.com wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 6/16/2022 9:38 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>>> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 03:53:43 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 6/15/2022 3:43 AM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>
>>> <snippo>
>>>
>>>>> it’d be worth it to get rid of, say, Ted Cruz.
>>>>
>>>> Just wait till he goes to Mexico again, then finish the Wall. :P
>>>
>>> Just put him on the "no-fly" list.
>>>
>> Does the "No-Fly" list apply to chartered private flights?
>>
>>> What, you think he'd wade back across the Rio Grande?
>>
>> Karma, she be a b.... :D
>
> You can just walk across the border at one of the foot crossings as long
> as you're eligible to enter the US. I've done it to avoid a long traffic
> backup at the nearby vehicle crossing. It turned a multi-hour wait into a
> few minutes wait.
>
Closing those would be part of finishing The Wall, obviously.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> writes:
>On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:36:11 -0700, Paul S Person
><psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>
>>And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
>>before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
>>(after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
>>
>>1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
>>2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
>>3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
>>tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied

I just went through the process a month ago in San Jose. With COVID
measures still in place, the voir dire process was quite different;
they were only seating every other seat in the jury box, and every
other seat in the spectators seats, so for a panel of 50 prospective
jurors, half had to remain in the jury room and listen to voir dire
over a less than perfect intercom system. Until the afternoon when
the jury room (on the south side of the courthouse) got too warm
(it was in the upper 90s outside) and they moved us up to an empty
courtroom to participate via video conference (with same distancing).

Civil case, fellow was injured while camping when a borrowed
generator caught fire. Sued the importer (not the chinese manufacturers,
not the company that sold it, not the person from whom he borrowed it)
for damages. Full day of voir dire without selecting jury+alternates,
second day scheduled - then got the call that the parties had settled.

Voir dire hadn't been going well for the plaintiff, so I suspect they
decided to take what they could get.

On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 19:00:14 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

>Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:
>>On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:50:40 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:11:03 -0700, Paul S Person
>>><psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>>
>><snippo>
>>
>>>The state + Federal courts - are they in Olympia or Seattle? (For
>>>those unfamiliar with the geography Olympia is the state capital and
>>>about an hour's drive away but only 1/20 the size of Seattle)
>>
>>These were in Seattle.
>>
>>I suspect that the State courts are organized by counties, but the
>>less populace Counties may be grouped together.
>
>Each county has its own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_court_system

And that probably clear up my confusion: it wasn't Fed/State, it was
District/Superior (both State).
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 23:50:43 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

>On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:36:11 -0700, Paul S Person
><psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>
>>And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
>>before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
>>(after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
>>
>>1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
>>2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
>>3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
>>tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied
>
>That's impressive - we had soft seats and nothing else. (I had brought
>a paperback mostly for the bus trip)

Yes, it not only passed the time but promoted conversation.

Of course, if you actually got onto a jury you did /not/ come back to
that room until the trial was over. And then only to be dismissed.
Actual jurors aren't supposed to be talking to anyone, until they
start deliberations.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 19:22:04 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

>On 6/16/2022 6:17 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>> On 15 Jun 2022, Dimensional Traveler wrote
>> (in article <t8dml9$odb$1@dont-email.me>):
>>
>>> On 6/15/2022 2:05 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>> On 15 Jun 2022, Dimensional Traveler wrote
>>>> (in article <t8cdnn$fss$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>
>>>>> On 6/15/2022 3:43 AM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>>> On 15 Jun 2022, peterwezeman@hotmail.com wrote
>>>>>> (in article<9923ed12-cce1-48c9-b526-ea0fad2d5ae6n@googlegroups.com>):
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 10:32:07 PM UTC-5, Titus G wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 14/06/22 10:31, Jay E. Morris wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 6/13/2022 2:52 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 12/06/2022 18.18, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> On 6/12/2022 2:03 PM, rksh...@rosettacondot.com wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I think it has more to do with the love of local control. Any Texas
>>>>>>>>>>>> city
>>>>>>>>>>>> above 5000 population can adopt a city charter and adopt home
>>>>>>>>>>>> rule...make
>>>>>>>>>>>> their own laws as long as they don't conflict with the state
>>>>>>>>>>>> consitution or
>>>>>>>>>>>> general law. Even school districts could, in theory, adopt a charter
>>>>>>>>>>>> and pass
>>>>>>>>>>>> their own laws. Cities, even small cities, can have their own
>>>>>>>>>>>> courts, jails,
>>>>>>>>>>>> etc.
>>>>>>>>>>> I can't even imagine the nightmare of multiple, competing courts.
>>>>>>>>>>> That's not just begging for a disaster, that's actively going out and
>>>>>>>>>>> courting multiple disasters.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> With the "free market trials" in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_,
>>>>>>>>>> wasn't there the possibility of multiple competing courts?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I seem to recall that the tourist who'd been harassing a local gal
>>>>>>>>>> could have bought a trial by a different "judge", if he'd desired.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I am not saying anything about how good or bad the Loony system
>>>>>>>>>> might have been. I just bringing up some written SF that seems
>>>>>>>>>> appropriate.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The tourist had been enjoying her company, along with her friends, and
>>>>>>>>> attempted to make the first move by kissing the girl, which by loonie
>>>>>>>>> mores was unacceptable as the female is fully in control. The boys with
>>>>>>>>> her took objection and were going to space him but decided they needed
>>>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>>>> trial to do it properly. They encountered Mannie whom had acted as
>>>>>>>>> judge
>>>>>>>>> before and asked him to preside. All of them had to pony up a fee. The
>>>>>>>>> tourist (or the boys) could have objected to Mannie as the judge and
>>>>>>>>> they would have had to find another.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The jury was volunteers offered payment, one of who was thrown out
>>>>>>>>> without his payment for falling asleep.
>>>>>>>> Was that about a court in Texas or an excerpt from the book?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It's from _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_; spacing someone is not really
>>>>>>> practical
>>>>>>> in present-day Texas. Launch costs would be in the millions of dollars
>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>> something
>>>>>>> that size and launches are scheduled months in advance.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> it’d be worth it to get rid of, say, Ted Cruz.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just wait till he goes to Mexico again, then finish the Wall. :P
>>>>
>>>> The Mexicans would object. And rightly so.
>>> Like Cruz would care, he wants the Wall finished.
>>
>> Cruz would care if he’s on the other side. The Mexicans would care because
>> they have enough rubbish of their own, they don’t need yanqui bullshit
>> artists.
>>
>And if a recent administration gave a bowel movement about what Mexico
>wanted or needed it wouldn't have started building The Wall in the first
>place, let alone tried to make them _pay_ for it. :P

You are giving Trump too much credit.

He /tried/ to build the Wall -- which turned out to require clearing
rugged terrain to the point that it was passible by ... the very
people he claimed to be trying to keep out. Coincidence?

He made no visible effort to get Mexico to pay for it. Any tariffs
were paid by consumers in the USA.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

On Friday, 17 June 2022 at 17:25:22 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 23:50:43 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcr...@home.ca>
> wrote:
> >On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:36:11 -0700, Paul S Person
> ><pspe...@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >>And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
> >>before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
> >>(after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
> >>
> >>1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
> >>2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
> >>3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
> >>tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied
> >
> >That's impressive - we had soft seats and nothing else. (I had brought
> >a paperback mostly for the bus trip)
> Yes, it not only passed the time but promoted conversation.
>
> Of course, if you actually got onto a jury you did /not/ come back to
> that room until the trial was over. And then only to be dismissed.
> Actual jurors aren't supposed to be talking to anyone, until they
> start deliberations.

That's a shame if you didn't finish your jigsaw. :-)

On 6/17/2022 9:27 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 19:22:04 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>
>> On 6/16/2022 6:17 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>> On 15 Jun 2022, Dimensional Traveler wrote
>>> (in article <t8dml9$odb$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>
>>>> On 6/15/2022 2:05 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>> On 15 Jun 2022, Dimensional Traveler wrote
>>>>> (in article <t8cdnn$fss$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 6/15/2022 3:43 AM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>>>> On 15 Jun 2022, peterwezeman@hotmail.com wrote
>>>>>>> (in article<9923ed12-cce1-48c9-b526-ea0fad2d5ae6n@googlegroups.com>):
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 10:32:07 PM UTC-5, Titus G wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 14/06/22 10:31, Jay E. Morris wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 6/13/2022 2:52 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> On 12/06/2022 18.18, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> On 6/12/2022 2:03 PM, rksh...@rosettacondot.com wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> I think it has more to do with the love of local control. Any Texas
>>>>>>>>>>>>> city
>>>>>>>>>>>>> above 5000 population can adopt a city charter and adopt home
>>>>>>>>>>>>> rule...make
>>>>>>>>>>>>> their own laws as long as they don't conflict with the state
>>>>>>>>>>>>> consitution or
>>>>>>>>>>>>> general law. Even school districts could, in theory, adopt a charter
>>>>>>>>>>>>> and pass
>>>>>>>>>>>>> their own laws. Cities, even small cities, can have their own
>>>>>>>>>>>>> courts, jails,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> etc.
>>>>>>>>>>>> I can't even imagine the nightmare of multiple, competing courts.
>>>>>>>>>>>> That's not just begging for a disaster, that's actively going out and
>>>>>>>>>>>> courting multiple disasters.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> With the "free market trials" in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_,
>>>>>>>>>>> wasn't there the possibility of multiple competing courts?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I seem to recall that the tourist who'd been harassing a local gal
>>>>>>>>>>> could have bought a trial by a different "judge", if he'd desired.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I am not saying anything about how good or bad the Loony system
>>>>>>>>>>> might have been. I just bringing up some written SF that seems
>>>>>>>>>>> appropriate.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> The tourist had been enjoying her company, along with her friends, and
>>>>>>>>>> attempted to make the first move by kissing the girl, which by loonie
>>>>>>>>>> mores was unacceptable as the female is fully in control. The boys with
>>>>>>>>>> her took objection and were going to space him but decided they needed
>>>>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>>>>> trial to do it properly. They encountered Mannie whom had acted as
>>>>>>>>>> judge
>>>>>>>>>> before and asked him to preside. All of them had to pony up a fee. The
>>>>>>>>>> tourist (or the boys) could have objected to Mannie as the judge and
>>>>>>>>>> they would have had to find another.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> The jury was volunteers offered payment, one of who was thrown out
>>>>>>>>>> without his payment for falling asleep.
>>>>>>>>> Was that about a court in Texas or an excerpt from the book?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It's from _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_; spacing someone is not really
>>>>>>>> practical
>>>>>>>> in present-day Texas. Launch costs would be in the millions of dollars
>>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>>> something
>>>>>>>> that size and launches are scheduled months in advance.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> it’d be worth it to get rid of, say, Ted Cruz.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Just wait till he goes to Mexico again, then finish the Wall. :P
>>>>>
>>>>> The Mexicans would object. And rightly so.
>>>> Like Cruz would care, he wants the Wall finished.
>>>
>>> Cruz would care if he’s on the other side. The Mexicans would care because
>>> they have enough rubbish of their own, they don’t need yanqui bullshit
>>> artists.
>>>
>> And if a recent administration gave a bowel movement about what Mexico
>> wanted or needed it wouldn't have started building The Wall in the first
>> place, let alone tried to make them _pay_ for it. :P
>
> You are giving Trump too much credit.
>
> He /tried/ to build the Wall -- which turned out to require clearing
> rugged terrain to the point that it was passible by ... the very
> people he claimed to be trying to keep out. Coincidence?
>
> He made no visible effort to get Mexico to pay for it. Any tariffs
> were paid by consumers in the USA.

How can I be giving too much credit to the man who knows how the voters
voted better than the voters do?

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 19:45:22 -0700 (PDT), Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com>
wrote:

>On Thursday, June 16, 2022 at 12:36:21 PM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Jun 2022 22:13:44 -0700, Robert Woodward
>> <robe...@drizzle.com> wrote:
>>
>
>[snip]
>
>> >*A few states don't have counties (Louisiana has parishes which I
>> >believe are counties of a different name).
>> Louisiana's parishes are an echo, as it were, of their being a French
>> possession before the Louisiana Purchase. Their legal may or may not
>> still have some aspects of the Napoleonic Code for the same reason.
>>
>> Presumably, originally, back in France, these actually /were/
>> parishes, in the religious sense. But not today, not in Louisiana.
>> --
>
>Connecticut has historical counties that are just lines on paper.
>They lost any function back in 1960.
>
>[quote]
>
>Public Act 152 abolished county government in Connecticut on October 1, 1960.
>
>[/quote]
>
>https://connecticuthistory.org/site-lines-monuments-to-connecticuts-lost-county-government/
>
>There are multi-town structures: health districts, transit districts, regional water authorities, etc.
>
>I grew up across the Long Island Sound, where, the 5 westernmost towns of our county
>replaced most town and village forces with a combined department:
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_County_Police_Department

At one time this was local option in Florida--I don't know if that has
changed (I haven't lived there in over 40 years). I remember the big
topic on the evening news for a while was the political battle to
consolidate the city of Jacksonville with Duval County.

On Fri, 17 Jun 2022 09:25:18 -0700, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

>>That's impressive - we had soft seats and nothing else. (I had brought
>>a paperback mostly for the bus trip)
>
>Yes, it not only passed the time but promoted conversation.
>
>Of course, if you actually got onto a jury you did /not/ come back to
>that room until the trial was over. And then only to be dismissed.
>Actual jurors aren't supposed to be talking to anyone, until they
>start deliberations.

Indeed - the court sheriff would be all over you like a ton of bricks
if you actually found reading a paperback durng the trial.

My grandfather (who served on a 6 week death penalty murder jury in
the late 60s) told me the jurors were allowed to have steno pads to
assist their memory but the sheriffs did check them to ensure these
pads had nothing but one's own handwriting from the previous day. They
were told in no uncertain terms anything else was potentially grounds
for a mistrial which in such a spectacular case (which this one
certainly was) would have been a very very bad thing. Can't remember
if they had to check their notebooks with the sheriff at the end of
each day's court session. It was spectacular enough that it had a book
written about the trial which is almost unheard of in cases that don't
involve celebs:

https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/M/Murder-by-Milkshake

This case was extremely unusual by having had two jury trials - he was
on the second jury.

On Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:27:21 -0700 (PDT), Robert Carnegie
<rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:

>On Friday, 17 June 2022 at 17:25:22 UTC+1, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 23:50:43 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcr...@home.ca>
>> wrote:
>> >On Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:36:11 -0700, Paul S Person
>> ><pspe...@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>> >
>> >>And you may be right but, if so, between the last time I was called
>> >>before the 2001 Nisqually quake and the last time I was called at all
>> >>(after Nisqually), these changes occurred:
>> >>
>> >>1) the juror room was moved from a higher floor to the ground floor
>> >>2) we did /not/ see a brief film on our duties as jurors
>> >>3) the juror room was entirely chairs; on the higher floor, we had
>> >>tables and jigsaw puzzles to keep up occupied
>> >
>> >That's impressive - we had soft seats and nothing else. (I had brought
>> >a paperback mostly for the bus trip)
>> Yes, it not only passed the time but promoted conversation.
>>
>> Of course, if you actually got onto a jury you did /not/ come back to
>> that room until the trial was over. And then only to be dismissed.
>> Actual jurors aren't supposed to be talking to anyone, until they
>> start deliberations.
>
>That's a shame if you didn't finish your jigsaw. :-)

Most of the puzzles had been started before I got there and were
unfinished when I left. So I was merely a part of a larger process,
jigsaw-completion-wise.

The fun was in the journey.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> schrieb:
> On 12/06/2022 18.18, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 6/12/2022 2:03 PM, rkshullat@rosettacondot.com wrote:
>
>>> I think it has more to do with the love of local control. Any Texas city
>>> above 5000 population can adopt a city charter and adopt home rule...make
>>> their own laws as long as they don't conflict with the state consitution or
>>> general law. Even school districts could, in theory, adopt a charter and pass
>>> their own laws. Cities, even small cities, can have their own courts, jails,
>>> etc.
>>>
>> I can't even imagine the nightmare of multiple, competing courts. That's not just begging for a disaster, that's actively going out and courting multiple disasters.
>
> With the "free market trials" in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_,
> wasn't there the possibility of multiple competing courts?

And then there was "Judge Bob's Judicial System" in "Snow Crash".
Not sure it was a monopoly, though.

On 2022-06-14 12:40 a.m., Charles Packer wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jun 2022 17:07:36 -0700, The Horny Goat wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 13 Jun 2022 14:58:52 -0400, Wolffan <akwolffan@zoho.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yeah. But not very prudent. If the prez drops dead, it’d be nice to be
>>> able to get hold of the VP fairly quickly, and it’d be nicer if the VP
>>> had some clues as to what was going on. Garner was in Texas for months
>>> before anyone noticed he was gone, and for most of the time he spent in
>>> Washington before going back to Texas he spent most of his time in
>>> various bars. If FDR had died then, there would have been problems
>>> finding Garner. Truman didn’t know about a lot of things which he was
>>> responsible for as soon as he became prez, not least the atomic bomb.
>>>
>>> There’s a _reason_ why having, for example, Danny Quayle as VP was such
>>> a bad idea. (Other bad VPs are available.)
>>
>> These days the OIC of the presidential and vice-presidential security
>> details have each other on speed dial for exactly that reason. Nobody
>> wants a new Alexander Haig saying he's in charge.
>>
>>
>
> There's no reason the Constitution can't be amended to
> restructure the branches to make a VP entirely within the executive
> branch and create another official to preside over the Senate.

What, you think the Vice President isn't useless enough?

> Into the bargain, it would make for cleaner separation of powers.