Future employees have free will-- if the MTA is not competitive, they will have trouble hiring people.

Isn't that the argument they always make for abolishing the minimum wage?

It's a variant of every regulatory/government intervention/collective bargaining vs. free market argument. I'm not going to say that one should always choose the same side in that argument-- it should be dependent on a balancing of harms. In this case, there appears to me to be a fairly free market for future MTA employees. It's not like they have to make an investment in education, or have some special skill. In other words, people don't *have* to work for the MTA. Whereas in the minimum wage context, one could argue that everyone has to work for someone with or without a minimum wage obligation.

Future hires may have a serious problem with pension obligations meaning that the MTA can't hire them in the first place, let alone what happens to them after 25 years there.

That's not a small problem, though.

I don't understand this. The new hire will know when the pension kicks in, and he might go somewhere with a better pension plan or maybe find the MTA's position (lesser pension obligation might mean better job security) sweeter. On the other hand, overly increasing the pension obligation means that more people have to work somewhere else. They might not find a job with a pension at all.

Also, the MTA is being (no shock) weasely. They need to go to the state labor board to change the retirement parameters, doing it with the contract is back-handed.

What would you say if they went to Albany first, instead of contracting with the workers? They're going to Albany anyway. I suspect you'd find legislative approval of the new age limit before union agreement more weaselly.

But the teachers just went three years without a contract, I can't blame the TWU for thinking the city won't negotiate in good faith without being leaned on.

The city is not in this negotiation. The MTA is a state org.

That's not a small problem, though.

I don't understand this.

I was actually agreeing with you there.

I am getting several gift cards for Christmas, and I know where they are from because they came in the mail in those unmistakeable envelopes. So I am browsing the relevant web sites trying to pick things I want.

I find gift cards a little depressing, actually. I mean, if you get a present you may get bizarrely wrong things, but I don't like trying to pick out my own present. I always feel the need to buy things on sale, or practical things I actually need, and I always have to chip in some of my own cash to cover the ridiculous shipping.

Am I alone in this?

I was actually agreeing with you there.

Oh, ok.

You're not alone, flea. I'm actually fine with getting a check, and don't mind picking for myself if I have some real choice, but I get weirdly anxious and cranky about the feeling of "I have to get something from *this* store" (even if it's not a store I especially like).

Am I alone in this?

Nope. Unless it's for books, which I love to shop for. And even then, I try to make the gift certificate go as far as possible, but it's kind of fun for me -- how many books can I get with X dollars?

I don't like gift cards so much. To me, it seems like, the thought is, "get your own damn gift!" If someone doesn't know what to get me and doesn't care enough about the process to find out, I'd rather they not get me anything (being gifted makes me uncomfortable anyway) or give cash.

I did get a gift card for my dad, once, for Borders, because he loooves hanging out in bookstores and doesn't really have the cash to spend on books. Also, if it's a gift card for something like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or someplace that someone knows I go to a lot, those are OK. So I am kind of a hypocrite.

QUESTION: Why did you skip the basic safeguards of asking courts for permission for the intercepts?

As I mentioned in my remarks, the legal authority is derived from the Constitution, as well as the authorization of force by the United States Congress.

The Constitution grants the president authority to wiretap citizens without court approval?

I like gift cards. And if they're from new/different/strange stores, it's like an adventure.

I'm currently carrying balances on Bed Bath & Beyond, TGIF, and Banana Republic. TGIF irritates because it's out of my way, but other than that, free restaurant food! And it keeps me out of Applebee's.

I mean, if you get a present you may get bizarrely wrong things, but I don't like trying to pick out my own present. I always feel the need to buy things on sale, or practical things I actually need

I love picking out my own present. It's so much easier than getting a wrong thing and having to handle returning it; and anyway, it is spending someone else's money.

Spending someone else's money on a thing that is on sale is just icing on the cake! Spending someone else's money on a thing that is practical is not spending your own money on practical things! More lattes for me!

...I will spend your gift cards, if you really can't bear to.