Local John Stockton Mask Controversy

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by BobC

I never said from the online sources I just quickly looked up to get some approximate percentages, that the people being counted were all fully licensed and currently practicing attorneys. And my mention of it was in regard to the old joke/cliche about telling when politicians and attorneys were lying by seeing their lips were moving. It had been touched on earlier how such cliches often are derived from truthful facts or situations, at least at some point in the past. So thank you for verifying my reference was in fact true based on those earlier percentages of attorneys (or those schooled and/or trained as attorneys) being elected to Congress. When those jokes/cliches were made up, there probably was in fact a preponderance of attorneys in Congress, which was the point of my comment/joke all along.

I know you were not trying to state it as ironclad fact as of today. I live in Metro D.C and we are constantly bombarded on the radio with the political excrement. Half of the ads we hear are PACS, government contractors and other assorted miscreants lobbying. I was curious when you mentioned it as we hear about these individual pols and what they were back home. During my time here there have also been actors (Fred Thompson from "Law and Order", Fred Grandy from "Love Boat"), Olympic medal winners (Jim Ryun) and musicians (John Hall from Orleans known for "Still the One") as congressman and senators.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Michael B

I know you were not trying to state it as ironclad fact as of today. I live in Metro D.C and we are constantly bombarded on the radio with the political excrement. Half of the ads we hear are PACS, government contractors and other assorted miscreants lobbying. I was curious when you mentioned it as we hear about these individual pols and what they were back home. During my time here there have also been actors (Fred Thompson from "Law and Order", Fred Grandy from "Love Boat"), Olympic medal winners (Jim Ryun) and musicians (John Hall from Orleans known for "Still the One") as congressman and senators.

I can only imagine what it is like to live there and go through all that. I do not envy you.

I have some good statistic for you though. There are supposed to be about the same number of accountants as there are lawyers in the US, but there's something like a 14 to 1 ratio of lawyers to accountants in Congress. And I'm not aware of a single US President that was ever an accountant. And people wonder why our tax laws are so complicated and insane, why we can never seem to balance our budget, and are currently sitting at an all-time record national debt of over $29 trillion. Heck, I heard we paid $562.4 billion in interest alone for 2021, and don't forget, our interest rates are still unbelievably low. I wonder how much better things might be if we could flip that ratio around. Couldn't do any worse, that's for sure!

If this inflation we're experiencing keeps going and eventually forces interest rates much higher, we could be in for some real hurt. A lot of people, especially the millenials and anyone younger, never experienced and don't ever remember when interest rates for a home loan were typically in the upper teens, or things like having to wait in lines at the gas pump, and only being allowed to purchase gas every other day. Or what about when the personal income tax rate on salaries and wages could go as high as 50%, and for unearned income, like interest and dividends, you had in addition to your salaries and wages, the top tax rate could go as high as 70%.

I keep thinking of all the futuristic movies and shows in the past that people pointed to and talked about as being so predictive of things that have actually occurred and come to pass in our world today. And it makes me think of the movie "Dave", and how I wish we maybe had people thinking and acting like Kevin Kline and Charles Grodin to be running things today.