Justice is Expensive

I spent the morning on Capital Hill in the House Chambers inhaling the Chief Justice's State of the Judiciary speech.

In a nutshell, as you might guess, the majority of the time was spent in pursuits other than speechifying. A 2 hour time block netted a speech lasting about 45 minutes in which a direct message of perhaps 5 minutes was given inside of which there were nearly 45 seconds of actual hard data delivered.

Here is the crux of the biscuit: Times are tough, the judiciary is important, we work hard, please don't interfere with us, please don't cut our pay or our budget. We'll give up 10% without a fight. Applause, cookies & water.

Such is the state of formalized grade-card announcements. Demapan gave as good an address as you normally find under such circumstances and better than a lot I’ve heard.

I enjoyed talking with everyone afterward.