August 7 roundup

  • Hold on to your hat: Litigation Lobby ally and Grade A business-basher David Michaels — who founded a project purportedly advancing the cause of scientific integrity with money furnished by, of all groups, the silicone breast implant bar — named to head OSHA [Wood/PoL; more on SKAPP]
  • City of Clearwater, Florida bans playing catch on beach or in park [Popehat]
  • In wake of Kindle “1984” episode, watch for lawyers to start demanding remote line-item deletion of allegedly defamatory or infringing matter from books after publication [Moshirnia, Citizen Media Law]
  • Amicus brief exposes more free-speech problems with that federal law banning depictions of animal cruelty [Volokh, earlier]
  • “Crocs settles safety suits over escalator injuries” [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News, earlier]
  • Was he planning to drive somewhere? MADD official objects to Obama’s appearing on TV drinking a beer [Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”]
  • Air crash lawsuit charges Oklahoma City didn’t do enough to keep Wiley Post Airport free of birds [NewsOK.com/The Oklahoman]
  • Many dubious things in health care bill, but “mandatory end-of-life care discussions” not among them [C.B. Brown, Politico]

10 Comments

  • Not mandatory end of life consultations now, but how about the future?

  • What about the State of Oregon sending the terminally ill cancer patient information on doctor assisted suicide? I don’t give a crap about their intent, it is the wording of this that concerns me. If this were to become law, the intentions of those who wrote it go away.

  • Even George W. — who had a DUI conviction — wouldn’t be dumb enough to drive drunk with a COP SITTING RIGHT THERE!

    I don’t recall MADD ever saying anything about George W.
    Personally, even though I am a fiscal conservative, I found the DUI on George W. to be a major negative in his column when making my decision for the 2000 election.

  • Actually, I suspect that the President doesn’t get to drive at all, even if he wants to. The Secret Service take a dim view of that sort of thing.

  • To be fair, the Clearwater Florida story is more that the city council is working to repeal a ban on thrown objects such as balls, Frisbees, etc. The ban happened in the past, and is currently part of the code.

    The interesting thing is that here on the other side of Florida, we have lots – and I mean LOTS – of beach volleyball and horseshoe pits. There are 3 beachside parks located within spitting distance of my home and they have a total of at least 12 volleyball courts.

  • I used to say that I was a charter member of DAMM (Drinkers Against Mad Mothers), until I found out that the only Mad Mother in MADD is a figurehead that they roll out when someone questions their non-profit status. When are people going to wake up and find out that MADD is just a slightly different version of ACORN?

  • Doug,

    I remember so well the problems in ascertaining the wishes of Karan Ann Quinlan and Terri Schiavo with respect to end of life care. Judges decided both cases. Resistance to programs to have greater use of living wills bewilders me. I believe most people, like my Uncle and Father, would want natural deaths, with some pain management.

    What do we do with profound dementia? My ex wife had a patient who forgot how to chew food. She would shake up liquefied food that would be delivered directly to his stomach. Then she would change his diaper. The patient’s wife wanted her husband to be maintained indefinitely in that state.

    My mother-in-law had a horrible death from diabetes. The doctors extended her suffering for several weeks. She was in and out of coma. They did her no favor.

    End of life is difficult and working up right-to-life nuts does not help matters.

  • […] controversial OSHA nominee and left-leaning public health advocate also seems to have strong views on firearms issues. […]

  • […] also has links to wealthy breast implant lawyers, who relied on junk science to drive silicone implants from the market, even though they remained […]

  • […] controversial OSHA nominee and left-leaning public health advocate also seems to have strong views on firearms issues. […]