It wasn’t just bad policy; it was also dumb politically (Amy Calistri, “Online Gambling Bill Co-sponsors Are Vulnerable for Re-election”, PokerNews, Nov. 6; Radley Balko, “The Green Felt Revolution?”, Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 6).
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Lowbrow liquor labels
Paternalism watch: Seattle has banned, in certain areas of the city, the sale of “29 brands of cheap booze favored by the homeless,” including Thunderbird, Richard’s Wild Irish Rose and Night Train Express. “But on the streets of downtown and Capitol Hill, people who acknowledged they were homeless and drunk seemed to find ways to make do.” (Kery Murakami, “Alcoholics finding way around ban”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 2)(via Balko, Reason “Hit and Run”).
Better not cross this developer
We would never call him litigious or anything, but Morton A. Bender seems to have quite a reputation around Washington, D.C. and environs:
Bender, a 73-year-old native Washingtonian who made a fortune in the family construction business, is one of the most determined men in town, both admirers and detractors say. This is not a man who likes to negotiate. He enjoys a good fight.
The local and federal courts hold stacks of cases in which he is sometimes the defendant but more often the plaintiff. He says he can’t keep track of all the people and institutions he’s currently suing and doesn’t know how many lawyers he’s hired. “I saw the mayor at an event, and he said, ‘How many cases do you have against the District?’ and I said ‘a few,’ ” Bender said….
“I stand up to be counted,” Bender is fond of saying. “No one stands up for rights anymore.”…
Early discussions between Bender and the neighbors about his plans went nowhere. He ended up suing one neighbor over a retaining wall that encroached 15 inches onto his new property. He won in D.C. Superior Court but not before the judge questioned why Bender brought the case.
“It seems to be the height of folly, laced with a bit of vindictiveness the source of which is unknown to the court, for plaintiff to insist that this attractive and necessary wall be removed simply so that it can be reconstructed about two feet further down the hill,” Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin wrote.
(Lyndsey Layton, “In D.C., It’s Big Names Vs. a Litigious Developer”, Washington Post, Oct. 30).
Andrew Sullivan, “The Conservative Soul”
I’ve got a review in today’s New York Post of Andrew Sullivan’s new book, The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How To Get It Back. A brief excerpt:
The “conservatism I grew up with,” notes Sullivan, stood for “lower taxes, less government spending, freer trade, freer markets, individual liberty, personal responsibility and a strong anti-communist foreign policy.” Defining figures such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher spoke regularly of human freedom as the great aim of political life. “It has long been a fundamental conviction of the Republican Party,” declared the 1980 GOP platform, “that government should foster in our society a climate of maximum individual liberty and freedom of choice.”
Somehow from there we arrived at the presidency of George W. Bush, whose pronouncement on the state’s proper role – “When someone hurts, government has got to move” – owes more to LBJ than to Barry Goldwater.
Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum brusquely waves aside “this whole idea of personal autonomy,” this “idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do.” Ex-Democrats of the McGovern-Dukakis era once popularized the line “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me”; if the Santorums prosper, plenty of old-line Republicans will be ready to sing the same refrain.
(Walter Olson, “Reforming the Right”, Nov. 5). Andrew Sullivan responds here.
Teenager accused of possessing painkillers…
…so prosecutors in Morris County, N.J. seized his family’s three cars. “Neither of the parents were aware of their teenage son’s prescription painkiller use, nor were any of the cars registered in his name. The family currently has no means to get to work or transportation. Gerald Trapp Sr. is a Bloomfield police officer.” The youngster, Gerald Trapp Jr., 19, accepted a diversion program for first-time offenders in lieu of trial but did not admit any wrongdoing. (Peggy Wright, “Prosecutor wants to keep 11 seized cars”, Oct 27; TheNewspaper.com, Oct. 28)(via Nobody’s Business, Oct. 28).
“City of nannies”
Once Hog Butcher for the World and City of the Big Shoulders, Chicago has suddenly emerged as a hothouse of fussily paternalistic legislation aimed at such things as foie gras, trans fats and smoking in cars. “What did they put in the Chicago water supply?” (Miriam Gottfried, Forbes, Oct. 30).
Two more hot coffee lawsuit data points
Add the Stony Brook University Hospital cafeteria to the list of servers unsuccessfully sued over burns caused by hot coffee. If you recall, the theory of the McDonald’s coffee case (and repeated by such trial lawyer defenders as congressional candidate Bruce Braley) was that McDonald’s, and only McDonald’s, served coffee so hot as to burn. For some reason, the reporter for the New York Law Journal tries to leave the reader with the impression that the original Stella Liebeck case was justifiable (though that opinion is irrelevant to the article itself) which shows how successful trial lawyer propaganda has been within the legal community and press. (John Caher, “N.Y. Judge Cool to Injury Claims Over Spilled Coffee”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 2). We earlier listed other hot coffee lawsuit defendants.
Speaking of which, you may recall the Russian McDonald’s coffee case litigation that we covered a year ago, with identical allegations from a woman who spilled coffee on herself; the press is reporting that the plaintiff has dropped her case. As in the Stella Liebeck case, the Russian McDonald’s had a warning on the coffee cup that the contents were hot. (“Moscow McDonald’s coffee-spill case closed”, RIA Novosti, 1 Nov.).
Snap a picture, break a contract?
You may imagine that you’re buying a Canon EOS-1D camera, but all you’re buying is actually a license to use it part of what you’re buying is a license to use its software, and a fairly restrictive license at that. “If you let anyone outside your immediate family use the camera — if you lend it to a friend for the weekend or even ask a stranger to take a picture of you and your wife — Canon could technically sue you for breach of contract.” (Clay Risen, “Shutter Bug”, The New Republic, Oct. 31).
Demand to FTC: ban Zillow.com valuations
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a coalition of community activist groups, has charged free-home-valuation site Zillow.com with undervaluing homes in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. “It urged the F.T.C. to start an investigation and permanently restrain Zillow from providing home value estimates.” (Damon Darlin, “A Home Valuation Web Site Is Accused of Discrimination”, New York Times, Oct. 31).
Indian-remains law: son of Kennewick Man?
Under California law, if you’re digging on your property and you find prehistoric remains, you must contact the state’s Native American Heritage Commission.
The commission then assigns a person known as the “most-likely descendant” to consult with the landowner. But there’s sometimes tenuous or no ancestral ties between the “descendant” and the uncovered bodies, scientists and American Indians said. … Praetzellis and other researchers said it is more important for American Indians to be involved in the moving of ancient remains than to force them to prove a genetic link after being left out entirely for decades.
“They just have to say, ‘Yeah, I feel culturally connected to those remains,'” said Jeff Fentress, a San Francisco State anthropologist. “It is really up to that person to determine how to handle that burial.”
Landowners often pay consulting fees to persons on the designated “descendant” lists, and some persons of American Indian descent say they would like to be on the lists but were left off because of politics. Some Indian activists are also upset that the state law does not give the “descendant” the right to block development. (Matt Krupnick, “Ancient remains causing problems”, Contra Costa Times, Oct. 18). Earlier: Jul. 16, 2005, etc.