Treasury ordered to make bills recognizable to blind people

USA Today & AP ^ | 11/28/2006

[SmithL]

Excerpt from USA Today removed. Only a title and link can be posted. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts

[SmithL]

Friedman, Paul L.

Born 1944 in Buffalo, NY

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Nominated by William J. Clinton on March 22, 1994, to a seat vacated by Gerhard A. Gesell; Confirmed by the Senate on June 15, 1994, and received commission on June 16, 1994.

Education:
New York University School of Law

Cornell University, B.A., 1965

State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law, J.D., 1968

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Aubrey Robinson, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, 1968-1969
Law clerk, Hon. Roger Robb, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, 1969-1970
Assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, 1970-1974
Assistant U.S. solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice, 1974-1976
Private practice, Washington, DC, 1976-1994

Race or Ethnicity: White

[jveritas]

According to this idiot liberal judge the money we are using is illegal. How stupid can these people be? Is there a limit for their stupidity?

[EternalVigilance]

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said the government has violated the law...

Congress makes laws. I would challenge this Clinton appointee to show us the law he is referring to.

[new yorker 77]

I'm sure the Judge factored in the billions of dollars in changes to banking and money making facilities that will occur to accommodate the blind.

Ray Charles got paid in all singles.

Problem solved.

[Billthedrill]

I can do a pretty good job by process of elimination. If I can feel it in my wallet it sure isn't a hundred-dollar bill.

[Clock King]

Typical liberal idiot who never set foot in the real world. Every blind person I knew could tell our current bills apart by touch alone. Still, braille on the bills is a good idea.

[pgkdan]

This is ridiculous. The government didn't make these people blind and it shouldn't (and neither should any private entity) be forced to remake the world so that they are not encumbered by their handicap. Being handicapped is a bummer...it's far better to do what most folks do and that's to find a way to get along in the world. Trying to remake the world to ease your handicap will only make people resentful and bitter.

[pgkdan]

Congress makes laws. I would challenge this Clinton appointee to show us the law he is referring to.

Americans with Disabilities Act? Courtesy of Pater Bush.

[Vision]

Nominated by William J. Clinton

Hehehe

[theanonymouslurker]

Presumably the ADA.

Nonetheless, this decision is pure nonsense.

[Squawk 8888]

Canadian bills have had braille on them for quite a while now. The cost is negligible compared to all the anti-counterfeit stuff on them.

[samadams2000]

I have an ass pimple. What about my rights!!!

[CholeraJoe]

Maybe the Bureau of Printing and Engraving should embed a microchip so that the Presidents and other famous people on money could fart a distinctive tune. Washington could be "Yankee Doodle," Lincoln "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' Jackson "The Battle of New Orleans," and Grant, "Whiskey for my Men and Beer for My Horses."

I'm still working on Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin.

[Squawk 8888]

Putting braille on the bills is a good idea but it's a policy decision, not a constitutional one. This judge should butt out.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Because of things like this, I picked this user name.....

[dead]

Braille is fine, but what about blind people who have no sense of touch? I think we might need smell and taste indicators. And they should beep different things, just to cover all the bases.

[Coldwater Creek]

My husband has been pretty much blind for the last 15 years.

He has no problem telling bill apart, because I control the finances, and he has no money, just a credit card.

[ozoneliar]

I certainly agree that having very recognizable differences between bills would be a good idea, I don't think a Judge should be mandating it.

[TommyDale]

Here we go again. Why not require talking money? PayPal in Braille?

[sergeantdave]

Make the $1 bill out of two rolls of pennies set atop a train track.

For the $10 bill run a steamroller over a roll of dimes.

The $20 we get from a box of 40 hershey bars.

And about 33 bushels of corn should take care of the $100 bill.

[Ben Mugged]

Amen!

[massgopguy]

Couldn't they just make it bigger like the Billion Dollar Bill that came with the Alice Cooper album?

[RWR8189]

The Federal Reserve System issues currency, not the government.

[massgopguy]

Won't the Talking Money scream when you put in the slot?

[SmithL]

I have an ass pimple.

With your butt in Braille, you are already in compliance with the ADA.

[Mr. K]

The law he is referring to is the Americans With Disabilities act that was yet another of Bush the Elder's more grotesque mistakes.

This POS has been the cause of almost as much abuse by twisting its meaning as the interstate commerce clause.

[Spok]

"Putting braille on the bills is a good idea but it's a policy decision, not a constitutional one. This judge should butt out."

Bingo! Too many judges think every good idea should be a law. Sleeping 8 hours, exercising, not being obese, calling your mom-all good ideas...

[ml/nj]

According to this idiot liberal judge the money we are using is illegal.

Actually the "money" is illegal. Printing the word "Dollar" on a piece of paper doesn't make it a dollar.

ML/NJ

[TChris]

Unfortunately, no. There is no limit to stupidity, ambition, greed, etc., etc.

Man's natural thirst for power must be checked and monitored by a hundred constraints. And they work tirelessly to eliminate those constraints.

[jveritas]

What?!

[Abathar]

Yes, but if you took it to a strip club it would call out the cute number from one to ten of the girl they were trying to stuff it in the strap of...

[eeriegeno]

Suddenly, after over 300 years, our paper currency is not politically correct! These idiots never cease to amaze me....

[steve-b]

Maybe the Bureau of Printing and Engraving should embed a microchip so that the Presidents and other famous people on money could fart a distinctive tune. Washington could be "Yankee Doodle," Lincoln "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' Jackson "The Battle of New Orleans," and Grant, "Whiskey for my Men and Beer for My Horses."
I'm still working on Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin.

Hamilton: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"

Franklin: "Midnight Lightning"

Still working on Jefferson.

[aculeus]

It may not be the judge's job to order this but the US is totally wrong to have same-sized bills. Most countries recognize the problem for the blind and have different-sized bills.

Look what the Europeans did in designing the Euro:

---

Have special measures been taken to help the blind and partially sighted to recognise the different euro banknotes?

From the very start of the process of designing the euro banknotes, in 1995, there has been successful co-operation with the European Blind Union. The view was that "a good design for the blind and partially sighted is a good design for everybody". As a result, the banknotes now being produced are very user-friendly.
Each of the seven banknotes is a slightly different size. This will help the blind and partially sighted to differentiate between them. In addition, some elements of the banknote design are printed in relief, through the use of a special printing technique (intaglio). For instance, the large numerals (i.e. the values of the banknotes) on the front are printed in relief and can be perceived by touch.
The partially sighted can easily recognise the different banknotes by virtue of the following features:


* each banknote has a dominant colour (for instance, blue for the EUR 20 note);
* sharply contrasting colours have been chosen to distinguish between each pair of banknotes in the sequence (for instance the EUR 10 banknote is red, while the EUR 20 banknote is blue);
* the value of each banknote is printed in large, bold figures.





What sizes and colours are the euro banknotes?

5 EUR Grey 120x62 mm

10 EUR Red 127x67 mm

20 EUR Blue 133x72 mm

50 EUR Orange 140x77 mm

100 EUR Green 147x82 mm

200 EUR Yellow-brown 153x82 mm

500 EUR Purple 160x82 mm

---

http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section1/frequently/thedesign.html

[MeanWestTexan]

"I have an ass pimple. What about my rights!!!"

Use a Koran to wipe. It's gentle and soothing on the ass.

[atomicpossum]

Why doesn't the Judge just heal them with his touch?

[EternalVigilance]

Right. But I'll bet there isn't a provision in the ADA that requires us to change our entire money supply.

Must be in the penumbras and emanations...

[rottndog]

Is there a limit for their stupidity?

Evidently not.

[Wuli]

I have a blind friend - one of the most succesful people I know. His abilities make me forget he is blind most of the time. He does most of the grocery shopping for him and his wife. He pays in cash often, with our current currency.

I guess this idiot judge has never met my friend, who has never found our current currency to be a handicap.

By the way, when he gets change, he makes the person giving him the change count out the bills into his hand. He then knows the sequence and count of each type of bill, in the stack placed in his hand. When he puts the money in his wallet, he folds each different type of bill a little differently. When he needs to pay in cash, he knows, by how he folds his money in his wallet, just which bill(s) are of which denomination, and does not have to ask the cashier to check him.

Of course if some idiot cashier intentional tries to screw my friend, or even just upset his system by intentionally making a mistake - in either the counting of the change or stating an erroneous sequence of the bills - my friend is not ashamed to ask the next cashier to help him out when he offers that cashier a wrong amount. I am sure in his entire life he has encountered unscrupulous persons who took advantage of him. But his Christian faith still gives him a positive outlook and an approach that assumes most people will treat him honestly.

I am sure, in the two hundred years of American history blind Americans have figured many ways to unburden themselves without burdening the country with lawsuits.

The judge is an idiot.

[jveritas]

More like Bob Dole who introduced the bill but it was never meant to be interpreted by an idiot liberal judge to make our money illegal, the same very wrong way these liberal idiotic judges interpret the US Constitution that the Founding Fathers wrote.

[jveritas]

I thought so but I needed confirmation :)

[pipecorp]

I don't see what the problem is.

[Last Laugh]

Trying to remake the world to ease your handicap will only make people resentful and bitter.

Like those one thousand parking places for the handicapped in front of every store - and only one of them has a vehicle parked.

Not trying to hijack the thread, thought this was relevant to resentful and bitter. Though I'm not bitter, just resentful - when it's raining.

[paulat]

I have an ass pimple. What about my rights!!!

Wrong kind of Braille....

....and I wouldn't want to know who's reading it....

[CholeraJoe]

Good ones on Hamilton and Franklin.

Still working on Jefferson.

Theme from the "Jeffersons (Movin' on Up.)"

[SF Republican]

So its really illeagle tender

[smonk]

--- . . . denied blind people meaningful access to money . . . ---

someone tell me what this means?

[b4its2late]

That's why God made debit cards!

[Williams]

It's sad what is happening and has been happening for years. Congress passed seemingly good feel good bills. Every day federal courts decide things that legislatures or local courts should decide. This goes on on a monumental scale every day all over the country.