I may be about to make myself the most unpopular guy in the blogosphere with this post. I may even be accused of defending the indefensible. But I'm taken aback by the untoward celebration of a decision that imperils the free speech rights of Americans, even though the folks who lost this case are among the most despicable to slither from beneath a rock in the last several decades.

I'm talking, of course, about the nearly $11 million in damages a jury awarded to the father of a Marine killed in the war, against the Fred Phelps Klan for picketing the funeral with their usual array of disgusting signs and offensive chants, songs, and slogans.

A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict against a fundamentalist church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder sued the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The federal jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

Snyder's attorney, Craig Trebilcock, had urged jurors to determine an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again."

So let's be clear about the goal of this suit -- it was to punish speech conducted in a public place, speech that is fully protected by the Constitution, on the grounds that it is hurtful, offensive, and outrageous. That troubles me very deeply, and it is my profound hope that the decision is thrown out on appeal as incompatible with the First Amendment.

And what is particularly disturbing to me is that folks who are usually supportive of freedom of speech are celebrating this decision against these loons.

I already see the next suit -- filed by some pro-abortion woman against picketers in front of the local abortion clinic After all, doesn't she have the right to seek medical care unharassed, without her privacy being invaded and emotional damage intentionally inflicted? Or a couple of summers back when local Democrats picketed the home of SwiftVets' John O'Neill on his daughter's wedding day -- I could see a suit being filed to suppress that speech, which I found disturbing but recognize as constitutionally protected.

So you see, it isn't that I carry a brief for the Fred Phelps Klan and their cult -- I don't. It is just that I worry about the First Amendment implications of allowing civil damages for legal, constitutionally protected speech in a public place on these grounds. Imposing civil damages for hurt feelings threatens our essential liberties. It isn't Fred Phelps whose speech I want to see protected -- it is everyone else's.

A similar question is raised at The Liberty Papers.

UPDATE: For those who object to the time and place (a public street proximate to a funeral), let me ask this question. If instead of a soldier this had been the funeral of a KKK member, and instead of the Phelps Cult it had been the a local black church or the NAACP proclaiming that God Hates Racists, would you view the judgment rendered in this case acceptable or appropriate? If not, are you seeking to punish the method used or the message you despise?

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Posted by: Greg at 11:39 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Most of us have jobs that allow our employers to assign us where we are needed. I know that I could go to school today and find myself transferred without consultation to a different school teaching a different subject, based upon district needs. So why shouldn't diplomats be required to take diplomatic posts that the country needs filled?

Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."

In a contentious hour-long "town hall meeting" called to explain the step, these workers peppered the official who signed the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats — under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying provinces.

Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to serve in a war zone, where the embassy staff is largely confined to the so-called "Green Zone," and the safety outside the area is uncertain while a review of the department's use of private security contractors to protect its staff is under way.

Cowards.

Sorry, you signed up to serve your country where needed, not to sip tea and munch brie at embassy functions in DC or the tonier capitals of the world. You may not like the thought of going to Iraq, but it is where our country needs you. After all, you are a part of the Foreign SERVICE -- and that is service to the country, not service to one's own ego.

If you don't like the assignments, quit -- see if you can get on at a think-tank, or perhaps even get a job in the private sector.

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The church is an ugly, non-functional building only three decades old. The religious group that worships there wants to demolish it and replace it with a structure that actually serves the needs of the congregation. The city wants to stop them, declaring the non-functional eyesore to be "historic" -- because it is a non-functional eyesore.

Two blocks from the White House, there is a concrete fortress that looks like a top-secret government installation. Set back on a barren plaza frequented mainly by homeless men in search of a restroom, the building faces 16th Street NW with dirty, rough, blank walls. Amazingly, this building is a church -- probably the city's most unfriendly and depressing piece of spiritual architecture.

The District government proposes to declare this atrocity a historic landmark.

Never mind that the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, is only 36 years old, and its members never liked the design. Never mind that when it was built, then-Washington Post architecture critic Wolf von Eckardt called it "rude and disorderly," a brutal, uncivilized and inappropriate intrusion on the approach to the White House. Never mind that the Dupont Circle neighborhood commission recently voted unanimously to oppose historic status for the church. Never mind that Christian Science is a declining denomination that has cut its staff and budget by nearly half and is selling off some of its most valuable properties. Never mind that this downtown congregation's few dozen members want to raze the concrete pillbox and replace its 400-seat sanctuary with a new, more intimate home.

"It is always with reluctance, and fairly rarely, that we recommend a designation over an owner's objection," says a staff report from the city's Historic Preservation Office to be presented today to the preservation review board. But that's exactly what the city now proposes to do, freezing plans by a developer to create a mixed-use building that could include a small church for the Christian Scientists.

It seems that the building is an example of a style known as Brutalism. It is a virtual model of the style. Therefore, the city wants to keep it around, over the objections of pretty near everybody. Property rights be damned -- government knows best!

If you ever want to know why such historical designations should be opposed and the restrictions that go with them be invalidated, this is the poster case. Read the rest of the article to see how the whims of a few are used to engage in an uncompensated taking of property by government.

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It amazes me the things folks will steal to make a dishonest buck.

Unprecedented copper thefts have spurred a crackdown to stop the damage, as at least 16 states have passed or proposed new laws, and businesses have boosted security and offered bounties for information on the thieves.

The crackdown comes as losses to businesses hover around $1 billion, the U.S. Department of Energy reports, and as escalating thefts have disrupted the flow of electricity, slowed construction projects and knocked out irrigation networks crucial to commercial farms.

Seizing on rising worldwide demand and surging value for the popular metal — up from 80 cents per pound in 2003 to about $3.50 this year — thieves sell stolen copper for millions of dollars in cash, state and federal authorities say.

"We're trying to do everything possible to fight this epidemic," says Adam Grant, spokesman at Nevada Power, where copper thefts have more than doubled since last year. "It's crazy."

My favorite law? One in Washington State that immunizes those from whom copper is being stolen from liability for injuries to the thieves. This puts me in mind of something that happened about 20 years ago. I recall there being a big market in vintage bricks, often taken from old, abandoned buildings. One guy in St. Louis was killed when a building collapsed while he was removing bricks from a wall. Seems he decided to start on the first floor and work his way upÂ…

Posted by: Greg at 10:53 AM | Comments (32) | Add Comment
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The great Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban in 201. It was a great loss for the cultural heritage of all humanity. Roger Cohen reflects on that loss today, following a recent visit to the site.

People still speak of the Buddhas as if they were there. The Buddhas are visited and debated. A “Buddha road” just opened. It boasts the first paved surface in Afghanistan’s majestic central highlands and stretches all of a half-mile.

But the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan are gone, of course, replaced by two gashes in the reddish-brown cliff. They were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban in their quest to rid the country of the “gods of the infidels.” The fanatical soldiers of Islam blasted the ancient treasures to fragments.

“It is easier to destroy than to build,” Mawlawi Qudratullah Jamal, then the Taliban information minister, noted on March 3, 2001. True enough, but few in New York or elsewhere listened.

Memory, however, is another matter. It is stubborn and volatile and hard to eradicate. The keyhole-like niches in the rock face are charged. Absence is presence. The visitor is drawn into the void as if summoned, not by vacancy, but by the towering Buddhas themselves.

Cohen clearly intends this to be a call for peace, but I think that the quote from Mawlawi Qudratullah shows the problem we face in the current conflict. Our enemy thinks nothing of destruction for destruction's sake, to the point that bombarding Buddhas or flying planes into buildings, not to mention engaging in terrorists bombings and beheadings, are not only not unthinkable but are instead second nature to them. We are faced, then, with new barbarians whose goal is nothing less than the destruction of our society, and we must continue to stand against them or allow them to succeed due to a pacifism born of laziness. Our society has been one of of great building in every field of endeavor. What lasting contribution to the world has our enemy built in the last six centuries?

Cohen ends by noting that fear is not the answer. He is right -- but neither is surrender to the forces of evil that would engulf us in a tidal wave of destruction.

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As they try to force workers at one company to pay for union representation they don't want.

Unite (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) has been trying to wedge a foot in the door at Cintas since 2003. Unable to get enough worker support to force an election, Unite wants to skip the customary secret-ballot and force 17,000 Cintas workers to join the union and pay dues. But Cintas and its workers have said no thanks.

"What they're asking for is they want me to agree to put all of our people in a union without giving them a chance to vote for themselves," said CEO Scott Farmer, after the shareholders meeting on Tuesday. "Our position is that our employees have a right to say yes - but they also have a right to say no."

So Unite has resorted to desperate attacks on the Cincinnati-based uniform company.

Unite copied license numbers from Cintas workers in Pennsylvania, to snoop in personal information and harass them at home. The union has been ordered to pay the workers $2,500 each. Unite also published a false press release that caused Cintas stock to drop $300 million, according to a defamation suit by Cintas that is going to trial in Warren County court.

"For four-and-a-half years now our people have heard it all," Farmer said. "The union is not going anywhere, but I consider it a failed campaign."

For every "sweatshop" accusation from Unite, there are dozens of Cintas workers who like their jobs and want no part of a union. Many have signed petitions asking Unite to stop harassing them.

If a business engaged in such tactics to stop their workers from unionizing, they would be subject to criminal and civil penalties. If that business engaged in such tactics to break an existing union, they would be subject to criminal and civil penalties. When will unions be subject to the same sort of penalties -- and when will our government quit coddling the union thugs and seeking legislation to force workers into unions they don't want?

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They say this like it is a bad thing.

'Shoot first' laws make it tougher for burglars in the United States

Of course, they do manage to find (and extensively quote) a liberal whiner to make it appear that making things tougher for burglars is a bad thing.

But for the Freedom States Alliance that fights against the proliferation of firearms in the United States, these new laws attach more value to threatened belongings than to the life of the thief and only serve to increase the number of people killed by firearms each year, which currently is estimated to stand at nearly 30,000.

"It's that whole Wild West mentality that is leading the country down a very dangerous path," said Sally Slovenski, executive director of the alliance.

"In any other country, something like the castle doctrine or stand-your-ground laws look like just absolute lunacy," she continued.

"And yet in this country, somehow it's been justified, and people just sort of have come to live with this, and they just don't see the outrage in this."

I'm sorry, I can't help but be outraged that you believe I should give a tinker's damn about the life and safety of someone who breaks into my home. Especially given crimes like this high profile incident that recently took the life of one of my wife's childhood friends and her two daughters.

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I recently wrote about the bitch witch who demanded Halloween decorations come down in Massachusetts a couple of weeks back. Well, it appears that objections to hanging victims in the spooky displays have become a nationwide phenomenon.

the mock hangings — considered relatively new to the panoply of Halloween mock-menace — have been displayed openly. And they are defended vigorously by people like Jennifer Cervero of Stratford, Conn., who this week removed the figure of a man hanging from a noose in her tree, after protests, but still finds the complaints of racial insensitivity she received “completely overblown and ridiculous.”

“We do up all the holidays really big, and this Halloween we decided to go for the big Wow,” said Miss Cervero, who is white and lives with her mother and sister in Stratford, a mostly white suburb of Bridgeport.

The resulting display included a plastic corpse with its head ripped off, a mechanical ghoul whose head spins around, a rotting corpse — and the offending figure, which she bought from an online catalog that lists it as Item HG-005078: Inflatable Hanging Victim Prop, which she hung, per instructions, from a tree. It cost $89.99.

The Rev. Johnny Gamble, pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Stratford, heard complaints from parishioners and went to see it for himself.

“At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But there it was. A mannequin of a black man, hanging from the neck,” said Mr. Gamble, who is black.

When he knocked at the door, Joyce Mounajed, Miss Cervero’s mother, told him the figure was not meant to be a black man, but was dark-hued to convey the idea of decaying flesh. It was “just a decoration,” he said she told him.

“I told her, ‘We don’t decorate like that. That is a symbol of lynching,’” Mr. Gamble said. “What if my great-grandfather was lynched? There are no two ways of looking at this; that thing is extremely offensive.”

My response to Mr. Gamble would have been "You don't decorate like that? Fine. We do. That constitutes evidence that there are, in fact two ways of looking at this. Welcome to America, the land of freedom. Now quit trying to impose your politically correct values on me and get off my property before I call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing."

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Imagine arising on a fall morning in 1947 to read this in the paper.

In late June, three of Adolf HitlerÂ’s senior military officials were found guilty of war crimes, including the notorious henchman Hermann Goering. Iraqi law required that they be executed no more than 30 days after the German courts rejected their final appeals.

That deadline has passed, but the men are still alive and in United States custody. The execution has been delayed because of questions raised by some German politicians and a spirited behind-the-scenes discussion involving senior German and American officials over the death sentence of one of the other men, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the former foreign.

Now, Mr. von RibbentropÂ’s fate has become a test case for reconciliation and whether Germany'sÂ’s fractious parties and political alliances can work together to resolve the difficult issues surrounding his death sentence. There are also doubts among some German officials about the fairness of his punishment.

Of course, no such article would ever be written. No such dispute or delay would ever have been allowed to override justice being done. Indeed, the New York Times would have been shouting for blood, and condemning any who dared stand in the way of the sentences being carried out.

What a difference six decades makes, as this sympathetic piece in the New York Times today shows.

In late June, three of Saddam HusseinÂ’s senior military officials were found guilty of war crimes, including the notorious henchman known as Chemical Ali. Iraqi law required that they be executed no more than 30 days after the Iraqi courts rejected their final appeals.

That deadline has passed, but the men are still alive and in United States custody. The execution has been delayed because of questions raised by some Iraqi politicians and a spirited behind-the-scenes discussion involving senior Iraqi and American officials over the death sentence of one of the other men, Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Jabouri al-Tai, the former minister of defense.

Now, Mr. HashemÂ’s fate has become a test case for reconciliation and whether IraqÂ’s fractious sects and political alliances can work together to resolve the difficult issues surrounding his death sentence. There are also doubts among some Iraqi officials about the fairness of his punishment.

Beyond the heated arguments about Mr. HashemÂ’s guilt lies the fraught question of whether Iraqis are ready to stop the retributive killing of members of the former government. It seems that some of them are.

Beyond the heated arguments about Mr. HashemÂ’s guilt lies the fraught question of whether Iraqis are ready to stop the retributive killing of members of the former government. It seems that some of them are.

I don't know about you, but that this article is being written with such an approving tone strikes me as rather chilling. But then again, given the tendency of the mass media to give aid and comfort, if not explicit support, to the enemies of America, maybe I couldn't be surprised. No doubt they would find a few positive words for the condemned Nazis today.

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Seems like a much more fitting punishment for this crime, even though we can't do it under our system of laws.

A man who tossed a 10-week-old puppy off a third-story balcony during an argument with his girlfriend was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday by a judge who said he wanted to "send a message."

Javon Patrick Morris pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after throwing the animal off a North Charleston apartment balcony in March.

The animal, a Yorkiepoo, was in a soft-sided container. It suffered severe head trauma, among other injuries, and had to be euthanized.

Morris, 22, said he was sorry before his sentencing in the Charleston County Courthouse. But Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham, who's owned nine dogs, seemed taken aback by the severity of the crime.

"You mean he threw a helpless animal off three floors because he was mad at someone?" Cottingham asked 9th Circuit Assistant Solicitor Stephanie Bianco.

Of course, we would have to make the drop proportionally higher – I think the Empire State Building’s observation deck might just be high enough.

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I've not written much about the California wildfires, but I've certainly been praying about them -- I've got family in the area, and have been sent some really chilling pictures of fires on hillsides.

I have, however, gotten into more than one argument over why the evacuation and housing of those displaced is different.

Today the Washington Post agrees (at least in part) with me.

Some will be tempted to attribute the quick action exclusively to race. After all, San Diego County, where most of the more than 800,000 wildfire evacuees live, is predominantly white (66 percent) and well-to-do (9 percent poverty rate) compared to the mostly African American (67 percent) and poor (28 percent poverty rate) victims of New Orleans. But that would be simplistic.

Because of well-organized disaster preparedness planning at the state and regional levels and drills that are continually performed, California is considered the gold standard of emergency response. After devastating fires in 2003, San Diego County invested in the automated reverse 911 system, which this week urged San Diego County residents to evacuate. And Californians have something that Louisianans, in particular those in New Orleans, didn't have when they needed it most: leadership, in this case from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the San Diego mayor on down. That there have been just five fatalities in an inferno that has burned an area twice the size of New York City shows what can result from clear and coordinated leadership.

These fires are regularly occurring events. They have plans to deal with them, and are not afraid to implement them. And everybody does communicate. Race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status are not even a factor in this equation.

And besides -- do those who want to argue that the response to Katrina was incompetent insist that every disaster get the same sort of response? Or would they prefer that we as a nation have learned from the mistakes of 2005?

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Does this signal that China will have men on the moon before the US returns there?

China has launched its first lunar orbiter, on a planned year-long exploration mission to the Moon.

The satellite, named Chang'e 1, took off from the Xichang Centre in south-west China's Sichuan province at 1800 local time (1000 GMT).

Analysts say it is a key step towards China's aim of putting a man on the Moon by 2020, in the latest stage of an Asian space race with Japan and India
Earlier this month, a Japanese lunar probe entered orbit around the Moon.
India is planning a lunar mission for April next year.

NASA says it is on path to a 2020 return to the Moon – but we have spent the last couple of decades concerned with the Space Shuttle and not manned exploration beyond earth orbit. And after the Moon comes Mars – will the Red Planet see a Red Chinese flag before the arrival of the Red, White and Blue? And what of the other spacefaring nations – India and Japan? Are they interested in manned programs or not?

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How bad is AirAmerica doing? The local affiliate in Austin just switched over to become another one of the ubiquitous Spanish language AM stations here in Texas -- despite the fact that Austin may be the most liberal spot in Texas.

Air America, the home for defiantly liberal talk radio, has quit AustinÂ’s air waves, though it can still be heard online or on XM Satellite Radio. Its previous broadcasting home in Austin, KOKE 1600 AM, has started following a Spanish-language format.

Dave Kaufman, Air America’s vice president of affiliate relations, said Monday the shift happened last week as part of an expected change in station ownership. “Definitely disappointed,” Kaufman reacted. “Whenever we lose any affiliate, it’s disappointing. This was an affiliate better than many, not as good as others. And in a state capital, it’s tough” to take the loss.

A dismayed blogger dug up Arbitron ratings suggesting low listener-ship on the Austin outlet: “Can’t even pull 1 percent in Austin, TX? Amazing but true. don’t ask me why. This is a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic, but the right-wing talk radio stations in town consistently get much better ratings.”

Kaufman played down the ratings, though, saying: “Many stations have better ratings, many have lesser ratings.”

If they can't make it there, can they make it anywhere? I don't think so.

And yet somehow the liberals are deluding themselves into expecting liberal victories in Texas next year.

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There once was a fellow by the name of Joseph Kennedy.

As the stock market crashed, he started buying undervalued stocks.

He quickly became one of the richest men in America -- and created an American political dynasty.

This story put me in mind of him.

In a down real estate market, they came to buy. They came early, they came in numbers and they came with bank checks for $5,000.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, more than 700 people filled a hall in the convention center here for what real estate agents say is the largest auction of foreclosed properties ever in Minnesota, with more than 300 houses or apartments for sale in two days. Opening bids ranged from $1,000 — for a three-bedroom house — to $729,000, for a five-bedroom house on 11.9 acres. The crowd was standing-room only, with more waiting to enter. Some were looking for homes, others for investments.

“It’s a symptom of the foreclosure crisis,” said Jim Davnie, a Democratic state representative in Minnesota. Mr. Davnie said he had concern that areas already hit by the foreclosure crisis would now be hit by investors buying properties to rent them out, “which makes neighborhoods less stable than owner-occupied housing.”

But in the loud, overcrowded hall, the misery of subprime loans, exploding adjustable rate mortgages and slumping sales meant one thing: opportunity.

And that is the reality of a market-based economy. There are winners and losers, people who have acted unwisely and those who take advantage of the resulting misfortune. That is part of the visible working of Adam Smith's invisible hand.

Am I saddened by the loss of homes to foreclosure? Yes, I am, for each one represents a tragedy for an individual or a family. But at the same time I realize that the economic cycles will bring in those who win -- and become rich -- every time someone suffers such an economic misfortune.

Posted by: Greg at 09:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I cannot help but shake my head at how politically correct things have become.

From customers to congressmen, the removal of dozens of photos of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of them with relatives who use the Paso Robles Post Office, where the pictures had been on display for years behind the counter – inspired outrage Friday.

The photos were taken down after a customer complained that the display was pro-war. When the issue came to the attention of the regional postal center, they asked that Paso Robles postmaster Mike Milby and his staff take them down because they violate a regulation against displays of non-postal business material at any U.S. post office.

“It’s an emotional issue and people look at their post office as a hub of the community, but the post office is there to do postal business and it’s not a place to post things or make displays,” said postal spokesman Richard Maher.

I wonder if we will next hear from some felon or family member complaining that the wanted posters are stigmatizing, too, and so need to go because they result in hurt feelings.

In time of war, why is support for the troops in a government building considered inappropriate anyway?

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From the recent pro-troop gathering in front of a Marine Recruiting Station in Berkley.

A showdown between anti-war activists who last month defaced a Marine recruiting office and flag-carrying patriots took over a street in Berkeley on Wednesday with noise levels that reached a half-mile away at the University of California in town.

Berkeley police officers kept the Code Pink contingent of about 150 separated from the group of about 500 led by Move America Forward, the nationÂ’s largest pro-troop organization. The incidents of abhorrent behavior were rare, but included an anti-war demonstrator trying to knife a pro-troop supporter and two code Pink followers burning flags.

A group of Code Pink protesters surrounded a woman and pushed her around after she said that her brother and other family members were protecting the United States in Iraq. The young woman shook with fear and wept.

Well, we know that violence is the stock in trade of the Left, both here and abroad.

But this is the part that I find particularly disturbing.

There were no arrests, and numerous police officers stood watch, including Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton at one point. "As long as people stay peaceful, we're as happy as we can be," Hambleton told the San Francisco Chronicle.

No arrests?

Peaceful?

Excuse me, but the opening paragraphs mention two acts of assault, one of them involving a deadly weapon, against the patriots supporting the troops by the terrorist-sympathizing crew that has branded office’s Marine recruiters as “liars,” “traitors,” and “assassins”. And the chief of police wants to describe the activity as peaceful, and his officers did not consider the incidents to merit arrest? Are you kidding me?

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Yeah, maybe her response was a little over the top, but one can certainly sympathize with her plight.

Fear not, fellow Americans! In these dark days of war, pestilence and Paris Hilton, a new hero has arisen. She is none other than 75-year-old Mona "The Hammer" Shaw, who took the aforementioned implement to her local Comcast office in Manassas to settle a score, and boy, did she!

This was after the company had scheduled installation of its much ballyhooed "Triple Play" service, which combines phone, cable and Internet services, in Shaw's brick home in nearby Bristow. But Shaw said they failed to show up on the appointed day, Monday, Aug. 13. They came two days later but left with the job half done. On Friday morning, they cut off all service.

This was the company that has had consumer service problems serious enough to prompt the trade magazine Advertising Age to editorialize that Comcast and other cable providers should spend less on advertising and more on customer service. And has spawned a blog called ComcastMustDie.com that's filled with posts from angry customers.

Yeah, I'm not terribly happy with Comcast, either, after their recent takeover of Houston cable programming and resultant poor service. They made changes to the lineup and channel locations this week -- and simply decided to place MSNBC, which was scheduled to go on 80, on 99 instead -- without telling anyone or ever making a public announcement. I guess that we were supposed to get psychic vibes from the brain of Keith Olbermann?

Actually, this case reminds me of a recent incident I had with a local fast food place. They almost never get the order right -- and that evening was no exception. As I stood complaining, the response of the management was that I needed to quit complaining and questioning the competence of his employees because "we screw up bigger orders than yours all the time".

And they wonder why we aren't competitive. Pass me that hammer, Granny!

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Bad news for the Democrats – American success has left Americans feeling more confident about the war in Iraq.

Whether because of the news from Iraq, or the messages from the White House, Americans are less pessimistic than they were about the future prospects in Iraq. The percentage of those who believe that things are getting better for U.S. troops has increased from 13 percent in March and 20 percent in August to 25 percent now.

Those who believe things are getting worse have fallen from 55 percent in January and 51 percent in March to only 32 percent in this new Harris Poll.

Notice they just can't bring themselves to acknowledge the reality of success in the opening paragraph.

No doubt we will hear new choruses of “We’re Losing – Surrender Now!” from the Democrats. After all, undermining the troops and the war effort are their best hope of electoral victory next year.

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H/T Mike Lester

Ira Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Prize this year.

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They had better have gotten this one right. The American public will not support NASA after another high-profile disaster, not after the sort of deliberations known to have taken place over this launch.

The space shuttle Discovery will launch on schedule next Tuesday even though questions remain about small defects on heat shield panels along its wings, NASA managers said Tuesday.

After an all-day meeting in which engineers debated technical issues that could affect the mission, managers decided to keep the shuttleÂ’s Oct. 23 launching date for a mission that will take a key component to the International Space Station.

N. Wayne Hale Jr., director of the space shuttle program, said there were still questions about the degrading of a coating on 3 of 44 panels on the leading edges of the DiscoveryÂ’s wings. While not fully understood, Mr. Hale said, the problem appeared to be an acceptable risk.

Noting that the shuttle is an experimental vehicle that should never be considered completely safe to fly, Mr. Hale said managers who heard all the arguments voted to fly on schedule, although some had a few reservations. Mr. Hale said the decision was not made to keep the shuttle launching program on schedule, a criticism of the space agency that was voiced by investigators after the 2003 Columbia accident.

“We are not going to let schedule drive us into making a decision,” Mr. Hale said at a news conference late Tuesday after the meeting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “The preponderance of evidence, in my mind, is that we have an acceptable risk to go fly.”

Spaceflight will never be a risk-free proposition. Catastrophic failure will happen from time to time. I think everyone realizes that. But the recent debate over this launch has pitted safety issues against scheduling issues, and it looks like scheduling won out. Even if that isn't the case (and hale says it isn't), the appearance will be damning if anything goes wrong.

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At least according to Congressman Tom Lantos.

Lantos asked Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear November 6.

"Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006," Lantos said in a written statement. "We want to clarify how that happened, and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue. And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China."

* * *

"We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on, and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government's intentions," said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

"U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police."

In other words, Yahoo was more than willing to give up information about a user to allow the Chinese government to suppress legitimate speech.

The time has come to ensure that American companies do not become cooperators in oppression.

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I have a soft spot for stories of reporters killed while doing their job -- I have ever since one of my college friends was killed covering a story on drug trafficking in South America.

I am therefore saddened by this report.

On Sunday afternoon, Salih Saif Aldin set out for one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. He knew exactly where to go. He nodded, smiled, grabbed his camera. There was nothing he needed to say.

Saif Aldin always came back -- from death threats, from beatings, from kidnappings, from detentions by American soldiers, from the country's most notorious and deadly terrain -- but on Sunday he didn't. The 32-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Washington Post's Baghdad bureau was shot once in the forehead in the southwestern neighborhood of Sadiyah. He was the latest in a long line of reporters, most of them Iraqis, to be killed while covering the Iraq war. He was the first for The Washington Post.

"The death of Salih Saif Aldin in the service of our readers is a tragedy for everyone at The Washington Post. He was a brave and valuable reporter who contributed much to our coverage of Iraq," said Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Post. "We are in his debt. We grieve with his family, friends, fellow journalists and everyone in our Baghdad bureau."

At 2 p.m., Saif Aldin took a taxi from The Post's office to Sadiyah to interview residents about the sectarian violence there between Shiite militiamen and Sunni insurgents. It was his third trip to the embattled neighborhood within a week. For him, there were no red zones, no green zones, no neighborhoods out of bounds.

I won't debate the merits of the coverage given to the war by Saif Aldin. This is neither the time nor the place, though I was generally impressed with his reports.

Instead I offer my sincere condolences to his family and to his colleagues.

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Because he can back his position with strong historical data, rather than speculation that ignores the historical data and contradicts previous theories.

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

Just remember – many of the acolytes of global warming claimed we were headed for a new ice age less not too long ago.

And remember as well that the period which they are marking as the baseline – the 1800s – are part of what historians have long referred to as part of the Little Ice Age”. Of course it is warmer now, given that the “norm” is set at the lowest point on the temperature charts.

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Nicholas and Lola Kampf are the face of "pro-choice" America. They will be permitted to walk away with no penalty despite having committed multiple felonies in their attempt to violate their daughter's right to choose to have her baby.

Would these folks have been permitted to walk away with such a sweet plea deal if they had tied up their daughter and kidnapped her to prevent an abortion?

A judge on Friday accepted a plea agreement that allows a husband and wife to escape jail time for tying up their daughter and taking her out of state, allegedly in hopes of persuading her to have an abortion.

Katelyn Kampf, 20, spoke out against the plea agreement in a tense hearing at which she and her parents avoided eye contact.

Her parents, Nicholas and Lola Kampf, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct charges to resolve the case under an agreement in which the district attorney dropped felony kidnapping charges.

Under the agreement, there was no jail time and the assault case will be dropped if they meet stipulations including counseling.

The incident happened on Sept. 15, 2006, after the woman's parents learned that she was pregnant and had dropped out of college.

Katelyn Kampf contends her mother held her down and spit on her and that her father tackled her when she tried to escape from the parents' home in North Yarmouth.

The parents were arrested in Salem, N.H., after the woman got away from them and called police.

You and I both know the answer.

Instead, the victim's wishes were ignored and she received no justice.

But we won't hear a single voice of protest from the Left on this one, because it might raise questions about how many abortions are committed each year upon girls and women who are either forced or coerced into having them.

By the way -- Katelyn Kampf is now the mother of a healthy baby boy, D'Andre Johnson. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to one of the main reasons her parents wanted to force her to have that abortion?

Posted by: Greg at 10:03 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I'm sorry, but if you want to hang out with convicted felons during your free time, you need to be in a business other than law enforcement.

An African-American Chicago Police officer contends that a rule barring cops from associating with criminals discriminates against black officers.

The officer argues the rule is more restrictive on black officers because of the disproportionate number of African Americans who have had contact with the criminal justice system.

Last month, a supervisor warned Officer Sylvia Broadway she might have violated department rules -- asking if she knew that a man driving her car was a convicted felon.

Broadway, a 13-year veteran in the Wentworth District, said she was unaware the man was a felon until she asked him later.

The department is enforcing a "policy that appears to have bias overtones against a specific racial group, namely African Americans," she said to the supervisor in a memo. "It is as though a deliberate trap has been set for African-American police officers."

Some 8.4 percent of all black males ages 25 to 29 were in the U.S. prison population, according to a 2004 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, compared with 2.5 percent of Hispanic males that age, and 1.2 percent of white males.

Actually, the policy is racially neutral and based upon conduct and status, not race.

And if you want to find a solution to this problem, it might consist in having African-American men stop committing felonies -- and for the African-American community to quit tolerating and excusing it.

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It should be obvious what is wrong with the headline and beginning of this story from the New York Times.

Ex-Aide to Giuliani Plans Fight to Avoid Charges

Lawyers for Rudolph W. GiulianiÂ’s disgraced former police commissioner in New York City said yesterday that they were preparing a last-ditch effort to avoid federal criminal charges, but, either way, Mr. Giuliani said he was not worried about how such a case might affect his presidential campaign.

“I am not concerned about it,” Mr. Giuliani said at a campaign appearance in Charleston, S.C., adding that he hoped voters would judge him on the many good personnel choices he had made. “When you have a long record like I do, your record is going to have successes and failures.”

The former commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, is trying to avoid a criminal indictment on tax fraud charges and what people briefed on the case describe as a range of other possible crimes, including bribery.

Figured it out yet?

It should be obvious.

Go back and take a look again, and then look for the answer below the fold. more...

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I'm always struck by how the headlines of a story can misrepresent the story itself. Take the latest criticism of the Bush Administration by retired General Ricardo Sanchez.

NY Times: Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is ‘a Nightmare’

YahooNews: Ex-general: Iraq `nightmare' for US

YahooNews: Ex-general: 'No end in sight' in Iraq

And even the Washington Post highlights the most extreme phrases in its subtitle and its opening paragraph.

But interestingly enough, what you get when you read deeper is a different story, one in which Sanchez says the following:

"The American military finds itself in an intractable situation ... America has no choice but to continue our efforts in Iraq."

Gee, I wonder why that little tidbit didn't make the headline -- and why the Washington Post, among others, left that assessment out of their coverage of the story. I guess it didn't fit the "retreat now" template.

When all is said and done, Sanchez reveals nothing new. Everyone recognizes that there were overly optimistic assessments made of what would happen in Iraq. But I find it difficult to take seriously the words of General Sanchez when he criticizes current strategy in Iraq, at least in part because we see it working and he has admitted that he was willing to be less than honest in his statements in the past.

Asked following his remarks why he waited nearly a year after his retirement to outline his views, he responded that that it was not the place of active duty officers to challenge lawful orders from civilian authorities. General Sanchez, who is said to be considering a book, promised further public statements criticizing officials by name.

I'll set aside the issue of the book deal and note one key thing here -- if Sanchez really believed that the strategy and the orders were so fundamentally flawed, he had an obligation, both moral and legal, to tell that to his superiors. Furthermore, he had a moral obligation to step forward -- whatever the personal consequences -- to speak up at the time if he really found things that bad. Heroism is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason, no matter the personal cost. It should be expected of our commanders no less than our troops in the field.

And remember -- this is the same Sanchez who said this in 2004:

"I really believe that the only way we are going to lose here, is if we walk away from it like we did in Vietnam."

He was right then, and this assessment is correct today -- and we should listen to those still in the field who continue to say this, from infantrymen to non-coms to junior officers to senior commanders.

H/T Don Surber

UPDATE: It is interesting what elements of the speech that these journalists chose not to report on.

Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self agrandizement [sic] or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. This is much like the intelligence analysts whose effectiveness was measured by the number of intelligence reports he produced. For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the "collateral damage" you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.

Given the near instantaneous ability to report actions on the ground, the responsibility to accurately and truthfully report takes on an unprecedented importance. The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry. An Arab proverb states - "four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity." Once reported, your assessments become conventional wisdom and nearly impossible to change. Other major challenges are your willingness to be manipulated by "high level officials" who leak stories and by lawyers who use hyperbole to strengthen their arguments. Your unwillingness to accurately and prominently correct your mistakes and your agenda driven biases contribute to this corrosive environment.

All of these challenges combined create a media environment that does a tremendous disservice to America. Over the course of this war tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America because of the tremendous power and impact of the media and by extension you the journalist. In many cases the media has unjustly destroyed the individual reputations and careers of those involved. We realize that because of the near real time reporting environment that you face it is difficult to report accurately. In my business one of our fundamental truths is that "the first report is always wrong." Unfortunately, in your business "the first report" gives Americans who rely on the snippets of CNN, if you will, their "truths" and perspectives on an issue. As a corollary to this deadline driven need to publish "initial impressions or observations" versus objective facts there is an additional challenge for us who are the subject of your reporting. When you assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground on a story because we have not respond to questions you provided is the ultimate arrogance and distortion of ethics. One of your highly repected fellow journalists once told me that there are some amongst you who "feed from a pig's trough." if that is who I am dealing with then I will never respond otherwise we will both get dirty and the pig will love it. This does not mean that your story is accurate.

Seems like he had his audience pegged -- for the pigs at the trough picked out the elements of the speech they wanted to report upon, and left out the sharp criticism of the pathetic practices of journalists more interested in headlines and bylines than upon accuracy and truth. Seems to me that the coverage of this story reflects exactly what Sanchez is talking about -- the manner in which the media selectively covers the news to fit the desired spin, regardless of the consequences. Where is the story on this part of the speech?

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Don't you hate it when the truth gets in the way of the media spin?

Foreclosure filings across the U.S. nearly doubled last month compared with September 2006, as financially strapped homeowners already behind on mortgage payments defaulted on their loans or came closer to losing their homes to foreclosure, a real estate information company said Thursday.

A total of 223,538 foreclosure filings were reported in September, up from 112,210 in the same month a year ago, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc.

The number of filings in September was down 8 percent from August's 243,947, the firm said.

Despite the sequential decline, the September figure represents the second-highest total for filings in a single month since the company began tracking monthly filings two years ago.

"August was an extraordinarily high month for foreclosure activity, so some falloff was almost predictable," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president for marketing.

But the home mortgage crisis appears to be over, based upon all reports, and the decline in foreclosure activity is indicative of this. But since the template insists that the crisis still continues, that is how the wire services are going to report it -- by trying to discredit any signs of progress and recovery in the mortgage field.

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Like any store is going to be able to offer change for this denomination!

Change for a million? That's what a man was seeking Saturday when he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage, police said.

Like your average clerk at your average grocery store -- or the store as a whole -- would be able to complete the transaction even if the bill were real.

And besides -- how are you going to carry the cash you get back in bills smaller than a twenty?

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After all, your iPod, flash drive, and so many other consumer electronic devices with huge data storage capacity in a small space grow out of this discovery.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences yesterday honored two scientists whose discovery revolutionized digital data storage, awarding the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for work that allows millions to sway to music on their iPods and to store a lifetime's photographs on palm-size devices.

Peter Gruenberg of Germany and Albert Fert of France were recognized for their independent discovery of giant magnetoresistance -- an exotic phenomenon whose practical applications became ubiquitous in everyday life in less than two decades.

Among the results: the palm-size external hard drive that can hold a good chunk of your local library. The iPod that allows you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket. The computing revolution that allows your laptop to hold more information than a 19th-century warehouse.

The Europeans will share about $1.5 million, a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in wealth they have to helped create in Silicon Valley and around the world.

"It feels great," said Gruenberg in an interview after he won the prize. As usual, Nobel Prize winners were alerted yesterday half an hour ahead of the rest of the world by the academy in Stockholm. When the call came, Gruenberg said, the voice on the other end of the line was extremely faint. He strained to understand what he was being told.

"When I heard the word, 'Stockholm,' I thought, 'That's it! I have won the prize!' " he recalled. Gruenberg and Felt had long been tipped to become Nobelists.

Their discovery that ultra-thin slices of metal have different electrical properties in a magnetic field not only changed the musical and computing habits of the entire planet but also altered the very landscape of how people think about information, and the ways in which music, movies and ideas can be shared.

Now please understand, I'm not knocking previous winners of Nobel Prizes for science. But this discovery is one that we all can relate to because the discovery is one that changed daily lives and habits for many of us as we use its results in our daily lives. What was once cutting edge technology is now in our hands on a daily basic, making our lives more productive and enjoyable.

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I always get a good laugh when those on the left claim that the MSM is too conservative, because of corporate ownership. Howard Kurtz takes that notion down rather decisively.

The people who own the networks may be conservative, but they don't run the news coverage (although they can influence it indirectly through budgets and the like). The book demonstrates that after an embarrassingly inadequate performance in the runup to the war -- along with the rest of the media -- the network newscasts took the lead in aggressive and skeptical coverage of the Iraq conflict in 2005 and 2006, both through the anchors and the reporting of folks like Lara Logan and Richard Engel.

Indeed, we have long seen that those in the decision-making loop about the content of the news are ovewhelmingly liberal/Democrat in their orientation. After all, the owners are more interested in the bottom line than the politics of the show, and would gladly broadcast a half-hour of propaganda by Kim Jong Il delivering political speeches if it could bing in sufficient advertising revenue.

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There is no other way to look at this move. They said they wouldn't give the President such wiretapping authority, claiming it was an unconstitutional move towards a police state, but now they stand poised to do so. Either they are admitting that they were wrong and George W. Bush was correct about the national security needs of this country and the extent of government power during wartime, OR they lack the integrity to stand up for principle -- or both.

Two months after vowing to roll back broad new wiretapping powers won by the Bush administration, Congressional Democrats appear ready to make concessions that could extend some of the key powers granted to the National Security Agency.

Bush administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened wiretapping authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess, and some Democratic officials admit that they may not come up with the votes to rein in the administration.

As the debate over the N.S.A.Â’s wiretapping powers begins anew this week, the emerging legislation reflects the political reality confronting the Democrats. While they are willing to oppose the White House on the conduct of the war in Iraq, they remain nervous that they will be labeled as soft on terrorism if they insist on strict curbs on intelligence gathering.

A Democratic bill to be proposed Tuesday in the House would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. wiretapping that the administration secured in August for just six months. But in an acknowledgment of civil liberties concerns, the measure would also require a more active role by the special foreign intelligence court that oversees the N.S.A.Â’s interception of foreign-based communications.

A competing proposal in the Senate, still being drafted, may be even closer in line with the administrationÂ’s demands, with the possibility of including retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that took part in the N.S.A.Â’s once-secret program to wiretap without court warrants.

Now watching the justification the Dems give for whatever bill comes out of the legislative Branch should be amusing. As one on the Right who believed that such powers were appropriate and historically precedented, I applaud the move -- but am sorry to see that the move may not be based upon a desire to make our country safe and strong, but rather to bolster Democrat national security credentials. Which would mean, of course, that they are willing to play politics with our national security and our Constitution, principle be damned.

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State law says concealed carry permit holders can carry guns into public buildings, and that no local government or government agency may restrict that right.

Public schools are public buildings, and school boards are local governments.

It therefore seems pretty clear that they may not restrict concealed carry by permit holders on school property.

That should settle this case very quickly.

High school English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol to work because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. SheÂ’s also worried about a Columbine-style attack.

But KatzÂ’s district has barred teachers from bringing guns to school, so she is challenging the ban as unlawful, since Oregon is among states that allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons into public buildings.

“This is primarily about my Second Amendment right and Oregon law and the simple fact that I know it is my right to carry that gun,” said Katz, 44, sitting at the kitchen table of her home outside this city of 74,000.

Oh, by the way, the Oregon legislature has considered, but failed to pass, legislation allowing for the restriction of concealed weapons carried by permit holders. That should make it quite clear what the status of Oregon law is on the matter.

As such, the Second Amendment issue need not even be broached by the courts. Simple statutory interpretation should do the trick.. And the only plausible interpretation of the statute is that put forth by Mrs. Katz.

The solution is for the legislature to change the law, not for the courts or the school board to ignore the clear statutory language.

Oh, and by the way -- I think that having armed teachers is a fine idea, if they can pass the concealed carry background check and the required training. We already have armed cops in schools, so wha is a few more guns in trusted hands?

Posted by: Greg at 03:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Gee -- where do you draw the line between news reporting and a press release with this story? It certainly seems that they may have crossed the line here, with an MSNBC "news" story trumpeting the wisdom of MSNBC buying Newsvine.

Msnbc.com is diving into citizen journalism and social media by acquiring Newsvine.com, a small but innovative player in what is known as “participatory journalism.”

It is msnbc.comÂ’s first acquisition in its 11-year history.

Neither of the companies would disclose terms of the all-cash transaction, which was announced Sunday, but deals for other social media sites have ranged as high as the $75 million that eBay was reported to have spent for StumbleUpon.com, which claims about 3½ times the number of users as Newsvine.

And I'm sure that the MSNBC employees involved in covering this story pressed really hard to get answers to that question, and engaged in serious investigative techniques to find uncover the answers of the spokespeople who were stonewalling them.

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All I can ask is "why?"

Intruders broke into the Musée d’Orsay early Sunday and one of them damaged a work by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France.

Christine Albanel, the minister of culture, said the intruders left a tear close to four inches long in the painting “The Argenteuil Bridge,” from 1874.

The break-in was “an attack against our memory and our heritage,” Ms. Albanel told French radio France Info. She said the intruders, believed to be four men and a woman, appeared drunk and “left various bits of filth” before “one of them stuck a fist into the magnificent masterpiece by Monet.”

The alarms sounded and museum personnel arrived quickly, but the intruders were able to flee, Ms. Albanel said. The painting can be restored, she said.

No arrests had been made by late Sunday evening, according to news reports.

Acts like this one make no sense to me. Why destroy a painting? Works of art should be held sacred and protected, much as a child ought to be. And to simply engage in vandalism for vandalism's sake is senseless.

Posted by: Greg at 10:25 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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Once again, the New York Times shows itself ready to demand that the taxpayers show compassion to and shower freebies upon the lawbreakers and criminals among us.

With the nation’s incarcerated population at 2.1 million and growing — and corrections costs topping $60 billion a year — states are rightly looking for ways to keep people from coming back to prison once they get out. Programs that help ex-offenders find jobs, housing, mental health care and drug treatment are part of the solution. States must also end the Dickensian practice of saddling ex-offenders with crushing debt that they can never hope to pay off and that drives many of them right back to prison.

Yeah -- how dare they make the punishments meted out by the criminal justice system so punitive!

Why should criminals be expected to pay their back child support from when they are in prison? The taxpayers should do that for them!

Why should criminals be expected to pay the costs of their incarceration? The taxpayers should do that!

Why should criminals be expected to pay the costs of the special services and monitoring required of them as a part of their sentences? The taxpayers should do that!

And while they are at it, the taxpayers should provide all sorts of special programs for them, free of charge, that the get simply for having committed a crime! Jobs, housing, and medical care, all for the small cost of a year or two behind bars!

They say that crime doesn't pay -- but the New York Times clearly thinks it should.

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Posted by: Greg at 03:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was ready to call this case a situation of a plaintiff and jury sticking it to the corporation with deep pockets.

A jury awarded $6.1 million Friday to a woman who was forced to strip for a search in a McDonald's back office after someone called the restaurant posing as a police officer reporting a theft.

Louise Ogborn, who was 18 during the 3 1/2-hour ordeal, was forced to undress and perform sexual acts with the boyfriend of a former assistant manager at the restaurant while the man was on the phone with the bogus caller, according to a surveillance video shown to jurors during the four-week trial.

After all, it seems like the bad actors were the assistant manager, her boyfriend, and the caller.

Then I read this piece. (H/T Radosh.net)

Why weren't restaurant managers warned about this? Why was this not a part of training?

Posted by: Greg at 03:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The assault on press freedom by the Firefighters Union and the Democrat-run courts of Massachusetts seems to have ended. A state judge lifted the gag order yesterday.

And look at what they were trying to cover up.

Autopsies on two Boston firefighters who were killed while battling a restaurant blaze in August revealed that one had a blood alcohol content more than three times the legal limit and the other had cocaine in his system, newspapers here reported Thursday.

The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald reported that autopsies showed that one of the firefighters, Paul Cahill, had a blood alcohol content of 0.27 and that the other, Warren Payne, had traces of cocaine in his system. The legal blood alcohol limit in Massachusetts is 0.08.

Even if one accepts the contention that decomposition could produce a false reading of up to .10, it is clear that Cahill was at twice the legal intoxication limit. And Payne was quite obviously coming to work with illegal drugs in his system. but Boston firefighters are not subject to any drug or alcohol testing unless reported as being suspected of being drunk or drugged on duty. Does public safety require a change?

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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At least that is what the increase in applications to practice medicine in Texas over the last five years would indicate.

You know, since Texas voters capped non-economic damages in malpractice cases.

In Texas, it can be a long wait for a doctor: up to six months.

That is not for an appointment. That is the time it can take the Texas Medical Board to process applications to practice.

Four years after Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas hospitals and bring professional health care to some long-underserved rural areas.

The influx, raising the stateÂ’s abysmally low ranking in physicians per capita, has flooded the medical boardÂ’s offices in Austin with applications for licenses, close to 2,500 at last count.

“It was hard to believe at first; we thought it was a spike,” said Dr. Donald W. Patrick, executive director of the medical board and a neurosurgeon and lawyer. But Dr. Patrick said the trend — licenses up 18 percent since 2003, when the damage caps were enacted — has held, with an even sharper jump of 30 percent in the last fiscal year, compared with the year before.

“Doctors are coming to Texas because they sense a friendlier malpractice climate,” he said.

You can still recover every penalty of your actual damages here in Texas -- the law didn't change that. But you can no longer get a multi-million dollar payout for "pain and suffering" or punitive damages in a case with $150,000 in actual damages. Sounds like a reasonable trade-off to me.

Posted by: Greg at 10:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Call me a Luddite, but given the security breaches on credit information, I don't want to have my medical records available online. After all, the unauthorized releases of financial information "only" involve money.

Microsoft is starting its long-anticipated drive into the consumer health care market by offering free personal health records on the Web and pursuing a strategy that borrows from the companyÂ’s successful formula in personal computer software.

The move by Microsoft, which is called HealthVault and was announced today in Washington, comes after two years spent building its team, expertise and technology. In recent months, Microsoft managers have met with many potential partners including hospitals, disease-prevention organizations and health care companies.

The organizations that have signed up for HealthVault projects with Microsoft include the American Heart Association, Johnson & Johnson LifeScan, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and MedStar Health, a network of seven hospitals in the Baltimore-Washington region.The partner strategy is a page from MicrosoftÂ’s old playbook. Convincing other companies to build upon its technology, and then helping them do it, was a major reason Windows became the dominant personal computer operating system.

“The value of what we’re doing will go up rapidly as we get more partners,” said Peter Neupert, the vice president in charge of Microsoft’s health group.

I don't think so -- there is simply too much potential for unauthorized access to my personal data.

Posted by: Greg at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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