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In response to the February Debate, decided to rid our living room of white walls and
“Should oil companies pay a embrace color, olive green to be exact. The transfor-
windfall profit tax?” mation is dramatic and the results are delightful. In order to alleviate the possible pain of change, we
painted squares of color directly on the wall like
Angelo suggested. Angelo’s simple experiment gave
us the boldness to wipe away the white.
But in the process, we learned something I’d like
to offer as a tip: Do not tape off the square you paint
on the wall. Although crisp, clean edges look nice,
the tape creates a small, visible bump when you later
paint over it. We were not aware of this. After we discovered our mistake, we sanded the edges like crazy
and yet it still took three coats of paint before the
lines were no longer visible.
CHRIS A RUSNAK
Kimberly Joy Llorens, Boca Raton, Florida
Book club with a happy ending
Six years ago I started a book club with 12 of my
girlfriends. Once a month I buy books for everyone
Y ES. Oil companies should pay a windfall profits in the club from Costco. We love the fact we can eas-tax, but we should tax only to a threshold carefully ily get a big stack of bestsellers for a great price.
designed not to significantly inhibit the compa- Our club has been through great times (
mar-nies’ long-term performance. And we should ear- riages, many babies, job promotions) as well as some
mark tax receipts for alternative-energy research tough times together. We have so many fun stories to
and development. tell! We love to check out your Pennie’s Picks for ideas!
Tom Karasek, Mossyrock, Washington We take turns bringing appetizers and desserts
for the meeting—which almost always end up being
NO. Oil companies need to be more responsible a Costco product. Thanks for giving us a great
and lower their prices, and American automakers resource to make this possible!
need to accelerate their efforts to build more effi- Maria Hutchinson, Oak Hill, Virginia
cient vehicles. But adding another tax would only
raise prices for consumers. The Italian conn ection
Nate McAlmond, Beaverton, Oregon Thanks for the great article on the
Italian goods that Costco offers
YES. But only if the tax goes toward developing [February]. Costco’s
clean, renewable energy that will help the U.S. gain Italian connection is
independence from foreign oil. The U.S. makes up one of the main rea-only 4 percent of the world population yet con- sons for our Costco
sumes 25 percent of the world’s oil. We should also membership. We love
raise the gas taxes high enough to encourage con- the Italian goods at
sumer conservation of oil and gas. Costco. We will be check-
FRANCE FREEMAN
Erik Brooks , via e-mail ing for the Garofalo pasta, which
we must have somehow missed until now. The other
NO. High gas prices have encouraged creative things mentioned in the article are mainstays in our
energy solutions such as oil shale, synthetic fuels kitchen and at our table.
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Please allow four to six weeks for processing.
(ethanol and biodiesel), more efficient extraction Alex Bigney, via e-mail
and mining, and processing the Alberta tar sands. People complaining about “price gouging” don’t Supreme Court Justice tenure Have something
understand the role of economics in a free (capital- The article “Should Supreme Court justices have life to say?
istic) society. The free market may not be perfect, tenure?” [Debate, November 2005] states, “The Readers are encouraged to
particularly in the short term, but it is the only Constitution says justices may serve until death or submit letters to our editors on
mechanism we have for rationing shortages and retirement, a tenet adopted when life spans were any topic or issue covered in
encouraging additional production. We have much shorter.” The same article contains statements The Connection. Please include
brought this energy crisis on ourselves. by two “experts” who, although they do not restate your full name and phone num-
Robert C. Shepard, via e-mail the error, do not correctly state the tenure situation. ber or address. Send all letters
To find the facts of tenure all we need to do is to: Dialogue, The Costco
consult the U.S. Constitution. Article III, Section 1, Connection, P.O. Box 34088,
Odds and ends says, “The judicial power of the United States shall Seattle, WA 98124-1088; fax to
be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such infe- (425) 313-6718; or e-mail to
Alive with color rior courts as the Congress may from time to time
dialogue@costco.com. The edi-
After reading Angelo Surmelis’ home design tips in ordain and establish. The judges, both of the tors reserve the right to edit
the article “Behind the scenes” [January], we Continued on page 9 letters for publication.
