Quoted for truth - Birther edition

via Birthers' true colors showing

Meanwhile, in real estate law ...

We're going over construction loans in class yesterday. Basically, a lender gives you money for the project as  you complete each phase of construction. So, for example, you get enough money to build the foundation. Once the foundation is completed and inspected, you get more money to frame the building. There are quite a few nuances to the practice, but, basically, that's it.
Clear enough. Until you take a look at a sample contract.


Can't you imagine Daffy Duck reading this contract?
According to Why the King James Bible Endures, words that ended in -eth were outdated at the time of the King James and were used bring formality and aloofness to the prose. More than a half-millennium later, words ending in -eth would be funny if they didn't get in the way of understanding what the heck you just signed.
Black's Law Dictionary, the standard reference for this kind of thing, says,

WITNESSETH

witnesseth, vb. Shows; records. • This term, usu. set in all capitals, commonly separates the preliminaries in a contract, up through the recitals, from the contractual terms themselves. Modern drafters increasingly avoid it as an antiquated relic. Traditionally, the subject of this verb was This Agreement: the sentence, boiled down, was This Agreement witnesseth [i.e., shows or records] that, whereas [the parties have agreed to contract with one another], the parties therefore agree as follows.... Many modern contracts erroneously retain the Witnesseth even though a new verb appears in the preamble: This Agreement is between [one party and the other party]. After the preamble is a period, followed by an all-capped witnesseth. It is an example of a form retained long after its utility, and most lawyers do not know what it means or even what purpose it once served.
Black's Law Dictionary, 9th-by Garner - West, a Thomson Reuters business

Transgendered Taxation Theater

The BBC reports that Pakistan is now allowing transgendered people to select a distinct gender category for their national identity cards.
Not only that, but the Pakistani Supreme Court has recommended that the transgendered be allocated a certain number of government jobs.

A visit from the tax collector. Photo from BBC.

To use their "special skills" (the Supreme Court's phrase), small groups of transgendered are dispatched to the wealthier communities to collect taxes. The collection technique is elegant. In full regalia, they knock on the door of the tax delinquent and stay until the taxes are paid. 

G'bye, Father Bernie

Mike Benedetti reports that Father Bernie Gilgun has passed away. The wake will be held at Saint Anne’s Church in Shrewsbury on Thursday, with the Mass of Christian Burial on Friday.
I'd know Father Bernie for close to 40 years. My mother was a good friend of his as well. We knew him during a stretch of hard times for all of us.
Even as a non-Catholic, I felt no doubt that I was on a shared quest with hm. The quest was meant that what was broken spiritually inside of us had to be mended in great part of by action outside of ourselves. Faith without works, we knew, was dead, as were works without faith.
We can grieve, but not for long, because we've got to pick up where he left off.

Two countries, divided ... common ... what the ... ?

Just when you think that you understand English, the Brits start using it.

"Break his duck"is, apparently, a bit of cricket slang, meaning to improve one's score

Walmart - dance with those who brung ya

I often return to friend Tom's observations about corporate DNA - companies that stray far from their original vision will generally falter or fail. We're now seeing Google struggle to become a social networking company when its roots are in search and high-order geekdom. Apple is a hardware company and Facebook is about nerds who understand social relationships.
Walmart, we read, is buying its way into social media and mobile access. Uh-huh. Walmart is feeling competition from other low-cost, low-price competitors and thinks that it needs to move into new areas - new to them and new in general - in order to keep their business growing.
Or, they might stick to what made them the retailing weather-maker of the world, the one with annual revenues (north of $400B)^[1] that exceed about 90% of the world's countries.^[2].  In other words, keep the aisle crowded with stuff that plain folk want and can afford.
According to Walmart's $1.85 billon dollar mistake - Daily Artifacts, Walmart asked customers if they wanted wider, less-cluttered aisles. The customers agreed that it would be nice. Walmart implemented the change chain-wide. Year-to-year, same-store sales dropped.
We have to wonder if Walmart's forays into social media, mobile presence, and online food shopping isn't more of the same. A kid from Arkansas grows up to be very successful, only to deny the people from home, and still wishes that the pretty kids from the coasts would send an invitation to the big dance.