On your next trip to the gas station ask yourself - how do you know that the amount of gallons on the display is really the amount that was pumped into your tank. How do you know your "5 gallons" isn't a pint short?

At the grocers when you buy a 5 pound bag of sugar, how do you know you're not paying for 5 pounds and getting 4 pounds 12 ounces?

You may have noticed those little red tags that say "NIST" and have a date written on them. Retailers are required to use scales that are calibrated, regularly checked, and certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. These guys are the ones who see to it that your pound and gallon are not "adjusted" for the profit of the merchant.

The Tyrant-in-Charge and his minions claim that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are "living documents" that should be periodically "reinterpreted" to reflect the needs of the modern world.

Can I, in my gas station, sell 120 ounces of gas and call it a gallon, without gov't (not to mention the customers’) sanction against me? How about in my grocery store; could I call 14 ounces a "pound" and argue that it has "inflation" factored in? Perhaps I could "revalue" the fahrenheit and market ice that "won't melt below 40 degrees". If I were to build a car and claimed that it got 40 miles to the gallon, could I be charged with fraud if it turned out that my "mile" was "adjusted for inflation" and was in fact 1,800 (NIST standard) feet? My defense being "But it had an asterisk there and efferthin!"

The ability to redefine weights & distances at ones convenience could come in very handy for us all. Try it in traffic court. If you make "miles" longer and "hour" shorter, you weren't speeding after all.

Every measurement is a comparison, and you cannot accurately measure one thing against something else unless that something else is unchanging in nature.

When you discuss some distant place you traveled to, do you add “but that was in 1980 miles. It would be twice as far, today”? If not, why not? Is it reasonable to expect that the fence encircling your yard get a little closer to your front door, with each passing year?

That family recipe that called for 4 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, etc. when it was given to your great-grandmother 100 years ago, still calls for the same proportion of ingredients today, unless you want it to taste (not-so) funny. Or have eggs “inflated” so much that you now only need two?

Your great-grandpa could take twenty o' them "greenbacks" down to the bank and trade them for a “double eagle” twenty dollar gold coin. If you can find a bank that carries gold coins anymore, you can at least give the staff a good laugh by presenting a twenty dollar bill and making a similar request today... before they ask you to leave the premises. To be taken seriously, you'd need about 50 twenty dollar bills. Can NIST check and see if someone altered the dollar recipe? The buck is tasting not-so-good these days.