Sunday, December 31. 2006
It's time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards, which are not genuine awards but just lists of real cases someone compiles, are named after 81 year old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Clever lawyers, or brain-dead juries? We report - you decide. Here are this year's winners:
5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.
5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and
medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a
house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able
to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was
malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door
connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The
family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the
garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a
large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming
the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the
tune of $500,000. In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should
have been 2nd Place!
4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500
and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door
neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard.
The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have
been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed
over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a
pellet gun.
3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and
broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.
Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an
argument.
2nd Place: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued the owner
of a nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom
window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred
while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies
room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000
and dental expenses.
AND.....
1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot
Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football
game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70
mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself
a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and
overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the
owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her
$1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their
manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other
complete morons around.
 Tim Blair coined the phrase "The Al Gore Effect." Whenever anyone gives a speech about the global warming scam, the weather turns cold, or it snows. Is Al Gore the most arrogant doofus in the USA? Or is "Jon Carry"? No-one has the courage to tell them what they are: pompous buffoons. Life has done its best to teach them humility - as it does to all of us - but it doesn't seem to take with them. They must be hopeless. I am afraid that many are beyond help, learning, self-observation, self-doubt, and self-criticism.
Mary Katherine Ham is a true Ham. She is good, too. This one is about the Duke fiasco. And for another example of true injustice, Instapundit is on the Cory Maye story. Heartbreaking. I'd like to see the blogworld use its feeble powers to do something about this. Lots of new laws kick in on Monday. Do you know all of your laws? A "charisma offensive" for Hillary? Coffee snort onto my monitor. She has the charisma of a rabid wombat, unless you are a lesbian moonbat self-hating commie - or a lazy, disgruntled loser looking for more handouts. Yes, alas, we have some of those in the USA, and it's a damn shame they never learned what it's all about. Endless opportunity - and free choice. How bad is that? I don't want her village. I want my own village - good old Pittsfield, MA. That's good enough for now: I can live with my own dumb choices, like being a "journalist." For the present, that is. You won't believe this Dartmouth prof. Powerline Take your pick. AP spins poll in both directions. Self-hating Americans. Gateway. Since when is self-hatred a virtue? It's just the flip side of self-love, and it is an illness - except when self-hatred is justified by behavior. In that case, it is healthy. Bareback Mountain: Leave them kids alone. Well, sheep. The anti-war protesters. Flares has it exactly right: Like they give a rat's behind. I can see them now, they have their party plans all made and they wait avidly and excitedly for the magic 3,000 to come about so that they can sing and preach and burn flags. Just like the good old days when the demonstrators burned down the ROTC building.
Well you know something? I remember those days and a lot of those demonstrators did not care about dead Americans. Not a bit. They were full of the sanctimonious outrage and wanted to bring about the Revolution! I remember. The dead were just handy, an excuse to do what they wanted to do anyway...raise hell.
What about grim milestones? The press loves them, feeds of them like maggots on a wound..but was the life of the first soldier any less precious than another? Is that life precious at all to the people who are planning this event? These soldiers are volunteers. They are not politicians, they are not policy makers and while the constant negativity can obviously erode the will of the public for conflict and keep hope alive in the ranks of the enemy...what then?
Flopping Aces has excellent Ford ceremony photos. Here's one: 
 Psalm 72
1Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
2May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 3May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
4May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
5May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
7In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
8May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
10May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
11May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.
12For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
13He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
14From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.
15Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all day long.
16May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.
17May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May all nations be blessed in him; may they pronounce him happy.
18Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
19Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
Saturday, December 30. 2006
 We never covered all of the sporting breeds we wanted to during the Chinese Year of the Dog, but we hit quite a few of our favorites. Not all of 'em, cuz we never met a dog we didn't like.
We have the same weakness for baby humans. (The adults are another matter.) At the end of the year, I want to remind our readers that the Poodle is a huntin' dawg. We said it once before, and this is the last time we'll say it. Just don't give them deep, ocean water to retrieve from, as you would with a rough and tough Chessie. Marsh, streams, and ponds are just fine. Many Poodles have a strong pointing instinct too - mine have had one. Am I tired of people telling me "He might break a nail"? Indeed I am. The only problem with Poodles is that they have higher IQs than humans, and that they love to laugh - at your expense. Yes, they are bird dogs and they will find your bird. And they will drop it at your feet - if they feel like it. And if they have a field full of bird, they just might tell you to go to hell, and roust them all at once and leave you looking like an idiot. Unlike some breeds, they can run all day, working. They do not tire. But when they want to sleep, they want their head on your pillow.
A man was at the country club for his weekly round of golf. He began his round with an eagle on the first hole and a birdie on the second. On the third hole he had just scored his first ever hole-in-one when his cell phone rang. It was a doctor notifying him that his wife had just been in a terrible accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU. The man told the doctor to inform his wife where he was and that the he'd be there as soon as possible. As he hung up he realized he was leaving what was shaping up to be his best ever round of golf. He decided to get in a couple of more holes before heading to the hospital. He ended up playing all eighteen of course, finishing his round shooting a personal best 61, shattering the club record by five strokes and beating his previous best game by more than 10. He was jubilant.... then he remembered his wife. Feeling guilty he dashed to the hospital. He saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about his wife's condition. The doctor glared at him and shouted, "You went ahead and finished your round of golf didn't you!? I hope you're proud of yourself! While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself at the country club your wife has been languishing in the ICU! It's just as well you went ahead and finished that round because it will be more than likely your last! For the rest of her life she will require 'round the clock' care. And you'll be her care giver!" The man was feeling so guilty he broke down and sobbed. The doctor snickered and said, "I'm just messing with ya. She's dead. What'd you shoot?"
The Brit coppers videotaped the hunt supporters from a distant window with telephoto lenses. What is this? A John Le Carre novel? Nice to know that there is no other crime in the UK. But I thought the UK was "tolerant" of different cultures? Except their own, I guess. So we have Gandhi-like civil disobedience. Bravo! Bulldog spirit! From our cousin Mr. Free Market: 
It is false humility, and thus sinfully prideful, to deny oneself satisfaction in one's genuine humility... if you get my drift. The News Junkie (of Maggie's Farm)
The Anchoress took the time to assemble a good round-up of comments and reactions. Do I think it is morally right to execute leaders who have been defeated in war? I have real doubts about that, but it was Iraq's call, not ours. In the Middle East, execution is a casual and routine matter, and they do not seem to value human life in the way that the West does. "It's multicultural, ya know?" It has been always darkly amusing to me how "multiculturalism" can be so selective in its reverence.
Friday, December 29. 2006
 Scott Ott of Scrappleface gives up serious, sincere reportage for a moment, and tries his hand at satire. This is a must-read. (h/t, RWNews)
It's about Katrina, the Federal government, and life. Maybe we will post the whole thing. Probably should.... OK, we will, since it comes so close to being a Maggie's Manifesto, here is a quote to encourage all to read the whole thing: In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, journalists sought someone to blame. They, predictably, found President George Bush was the best scapegoat. But in lashing out, yet again, at their favorite source of all discontent, they missed a bigger target. If anyone “out there” is to be blamed, it is the large, remote, centralized federal government which has become a surrogate father to so many millions of Americans. Over the decades, we have ceded power, authority and responsibility to the federal government far beyond anything envisioned or desired by our founders. As a result, instead relying on our own intelligence, resources and ability to work with others in our communities to solve problems, we have turned to Washington D.C.. This is not a matter of ‘blaming the victim’, because the victim has become so immersed in this twisted view of human life that he cannot see what has happened. The federal government’s dehumanizing effect has torn up neighborhoods, torn apart families and turned brave, capable people into compliant recipients of redistributed wealth. The problem is that the morsels of that wealth never provide enough to do anything other than keep folks in a perpetual state of dependence upon the State. Even if those morsels became chunks big enough to choke a horse, the dependency would remain. The federal government has become not only the safety net, it is everything from the crib blanket to the casket lining. The danger of centralized government control is not that it robs a few dollars from rich people and gives them to the poor. It’s not even that such a bureaucratic behemoth spawns the waste of billions of dollars. After all, it’s just money. No, the threat of this system is that it strips a man of what makes him a man, and turns him away from his inner resources, or the inclination to partner with neighbors to solve problems. It humiliates him, blinds him and ultimately cripples him.
Saddam will be hung tonight at 10 EST. Michelle has a good round-up of comments. Jesse Jackson is shedding tears, which is puzzling to me. Rick Moran's somber comments are excellent. No death is an occasion for joy among civilized peoples (except maybe Fidel Castro's), but is it not odd that executions are momentous events, but mass murders by brutal dictators are not? In the horrendous words of Joe Stalin, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Wrong...so wrong.
 The University of Texas is considering taking down their monuments to Confederate heroes. Says Never Yet Melted:
A common tragic reality of our time is that positions of power and responsibility typically go to the mediocre conformists who successfully climb the greasy pole of life, one finger cautiously raised in the air at every level of ascent. In a better world, the president of the University of Texas would be a gentleman of sound principles and liberal education, capable of feeling a sense of loyalty to his state and region’s history, courageous enough to withstand the divisive demands of rabblerousers and demagogues, and dignified enough to dismiss the unseemly impulses of fashion.
Read his whole piece here. Why are we sympathetic to our fellow Americans who were part of the Confederacy? Not because we like slavery (the war was only partially about slavery), but because the principle of states' rights was correct. Those 250,000 southern farm boys who died were not fighting for slavery - few of them owned slaves. No, they fought valiantly for honor and freedom under the leadership of one of the finest Americans in history, Robert E. Lee. As fellow Americans, they deserve to be honored and remembered.
This is sick. London to celebrate Castro. I could see celebrating his death, though. Chavez is shutting down TV station. Typical Leftist hero. Where your NEA dues go. RWNation If you can stomach it. The worst of the Times. Conspiracy Why Bush is my Hero. Singleton, agreeing with Ed Koch Who would believe this guy? He's just a general in Iraq. Villainous From a LaShawn piece: Isn’t it ironic that blacks, who once struggled for equal treatment before the law, now use their race to rally for special treatment before the law?
AP journalists are dumber than me. YARGB
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. George Burns (h/t, Samizdata)
Thursday, December 28. 2006
 One of the pleasures of getting into this blog world a bit is seeing, with my own eyes, how many bright people there are out there who see things the way I do. For a Boston person, that's consoling enough, but to find people in my general profession - which tends very liberal and pacifist, if not intellectual/passive - who have arrived by similar paths to a somewhat shared current thinking is plain wonderful.
If we are all wrong, at least we can be wrong and stupid together. I am thinking of such psychologically-minded folks as Neo-neocon, Shrinkwrapped, Dr. Sanity, Assistant Village Idiot, and SC&A. And One Cosmos. Gagdad Bob's thoughts on Thomas Sowell's recent piece is an example of the kind of applied psychological take on things that gives me delight. One quote: What most seems to annoy leftist intellectuals about the free market is that, not only is it something that they cannot control or understand, but it accomplishes its task much more effectively and efficiently than the most brilliant person -- or group of people -- ever could. Sowell cites a famous essay which pointed out that no single person knows enough to produce so much as a single lead pencil. That is, "there is no single individual anywhere who knows how to grow the wood, mine the graphite, produce the rubber, and manufacture the paint." And yet, no one need ever worry that there won't be enough pencils, so long as we don't interfere with the process: "Complex economic processes cause all these things to be done and coordinated by a wide variety of people, just in order to produce something as simple as a lead pencil. Multiply that by a hundred or a thousand when it comes to the complexity of producing a car or a computer."
Indeed, it takes a village to make a pencil, but not an African village, and not a village in Afghanistan or in the jungles of Ecuador. A special kind of village, with certain kinds of values and motivations and cultural structures, knowledge, interests, and freedom of opportunity. I especially enjoy the famous pencil example because, as you may recall, Henry David Thoreau's family made their money from their pencil factory. Henry worked there for a while, and apparently made some significant improvements in the manufacture of the Thoreau Pencil, until he decided that he didn't want to work on Maggie's Farm no more, and decided to be a writer and a public intellectual, living off his family's money. In addition, of course, the pencil was the original keyboard. Quill pens must have been terrible to write with, and I am sure they scratched the heck out of the monitor screen. It has been a wonder to me that so many folks in the mind and soul-treating professions are so non-freedom-minded, when these professions are designed to free people from their inner demons which restrict their taking on life freely, cheerfully, and energetically, in the way they see fit, and taking their own chances and making their own choices - in free societies. Freedom is what they are all about, and why psychoanalysis and psychotherapy are never permitted in totalitarian states. Does every human have a slavish, dependent side to them? Of course. Many days I wish to be nothing but a pampered pet, with a simple life - except I'd be bored in 40 minutes and begin doing something I wasn't told to do. The wonderful possibility is the possibility of governing oneself according to aspirations for higher levels of maturity and autonomy. And that, Dear Readers, is a culture-specific aspiration, rooted in Protestantism; in the notion of "every man his own King," (and every man his own priest as well). And, with the keyboard, "every man or woman his own pamphleteer," like the wacky Sons of Liberty, pasting our visions of freedom to the walls of the alleys of the world, hoping some passerby will stop and read. On the same subject, see our recent Liberty, Who needs it?, or, even more recently, Give me Liberty or Give me Health. Equality is for farm animals. While Orwell remains one of my political guiding lights, Huxley really nailed the danger of "well-intentioned, rational" soul-crushing tyranny in Brave New World. Pure, soul-less logic requires tyranny, as the wise Plato said. Our blogging shrink friends remember that psyche means "soul," not mind, as Bettelheim made so clear in Freud and Man's Soul. The soul needs space! I will conclude today's rambling sermon with a Dylan quote from My Back Pages: A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
"Equality," I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
Why do Western people react passively to attacks on their culture? Auster asks, and looks back to an old post of his for the answer. A TV evangelist sent me money! (h/t, Smart Christian) Q&A about climate, at American.com Why would anyone worry about eating cloned animals? If the original was good, the cloned one should be just as tasty.
A quote from a Brewton piece, Federalism vs. Totalitarianism, which uses a Maggie's piece as a starting point: As Aristotle observed around 2,300 years ago, some humans are by nature slaves, that is people who prefer to be taken care of, rather than to take responsibility for themselves. Hilaire Belloc in The Servile State (1912) described those effects of the Fabian, gradualist process that was called creeping socialism in the United States. Voters gain more welfare-state benefits, but the cost always is surrender of some degrees of personal freedom.
 Very cool. Photos of jets breaking the sound barrier. It creates a strange cloud. Never Yet Melted
Whooping Cranes on the upswing. One grand species saved by human ingenuity. Am. Thinker Doesn't want his culture destroyed by immigrants. Tangled Web. Who would, if you value your culture, that is? Didn't nations historically resist invasion for that reason? Reason # 546 never to take Paul Krugman seriously. Right Wing News. The guy writes like a purely partisan, dishonest moron. Which is why he got the job, one must imagine, instead of me. German-American comfort food, from food blogger Right Wing Nation. We like to think that all of that fat just smooths the lining of our arteries. Why is "the world's wealth" in the hands of a small number of people? Lib. Leanings on Sowell's piece. It's all about the culture. John Edwards enters the race. John who? But how embarassing to have this on Youtube. Gateway Awaiting news of Tony Blair's conversion to Islam. LGF
 What is art about? The New Criterion's December art issue is out, and just the introduction is a fine and succinct update on the current state of art criticism. One quote:
At least since the 1970s, efforts to dethrone the aesthetic and short-circuit or marginalize greatness have triumphed in the academy and many other institutions charged with the preservation and transmission of our artistic patrimony. Several of the pieces in this issue discern a possible change in the ideological weather, a shift away from regarding ideology as the proper end of the critical project. It is too early to call these preliminary sightings a forecast or gather them together to make a prediction. But here and there we sense an accumulation of positive signs, a yearning for something lost—a recognition, at least, that something has been lost.
Wednesday, December 27. 2006
From Wizbang's piece, with which I whole-heartedly agree: Ford, though, played the genial, amiable elder statesman role to the hilt. He played his golf. He showed up for certain ceremonial events, when called for -- but like he had over the rest of his life, never sought the limelight. Ford will now be at the center of the limelight one last time, as a nation that rejected him 30 years ago now pays its last respects to one of the most decent men to ever hold the highest office in the land. Rest in peace, Gerry. You did right by us. It just took us a while to realize just how well you did.
 I like this one better than the one Bird Dog posted on Christmas: Pancho and Lefty.
It's from a while ago - before the stunningly lovely gray.
"We wonder if we've oversold the science." Duh. Warming scientists take a step back from their scare tactics - and their predictions. SDA. But will the press reflect this increasing shift? Record numbers defy the UK hunting ban. As Glenn notes: If that many British Muslims turned out to protest interference with their customs, the Blair government would be bending over backward to please them. (Via Brits at Their Best).
What's all this fuss about "separation of church and state"? Prof. B. wonders why the Dems continue to perpetuate the bogus theme. Why do Catholics become Evangelicals? Via News for Christians, ...Father Raniero Cantalamessa...has shockingly described the state of the Catholic Church in Latin America by noting that Catholics there proclaim that, “When we need a labor union we go to our parish priest; when we need the word of God we go to the Protestant pastor,” and that, “In Latin America the Catholic Church has made an option for the poor and the poor have opted for the Protestant Churches.”
Whole piece at Homiletic and Pastoral Review Krugman wants the US to deal with poverty the way the UK does. Rethink that, Paul. Worstall
 Hitler on Federalism. Volokh's piece begins thus:
One of the relatively few underanalyzed major topics in the extensive academic literature on federalism is the relationship between federalism and totalitarianism. A potential advantage of decentralized federalism is that it might serve as an obstacle to the establishment of an oppressive totalitarian state. Yet most scholars have largely ignored this possibility. One writer who didn't, however, was Adolf Hitler, who had this to say on the subject in Chapter 10 of Mein Kampf (which is devoted to German federalism):
"Might serve"? Definitely serves. That was the original deal, aka the US Constitution. It's easy to forget the degree of sovereignty the states had, before signing the deal - and long after the deal, until Lincoln re-wrote the deal. Not that he was wrong about the slavery issue, but our modern, post-FDR, post-LBJ federal government has us all becoming 50% slaves. What's the difference? Well, voting is the difference. We are free to vote ourselves into benevolent federal slavery. The Volokh piece is here. We agree with the point which is made. Centralized power is always a threat to freedom - even when it is elected. It is in the nature of government to accrue power over the lowly, ignorant and inept masses, using any excuse at hand. You can always find a "well-intentioned" reason to assert distant federal power over the people, and forget that the people are meant to be sovereign in the USA. The American ideal was meant to be "every man a Lord of his domain," guided by God and his (or her) conscience and interest. FDR was the worst criminal, in this regard. That well-intentioned, arrogant, noblesse-oblige aristocrat was a natural totalitarian, but I doubt he ever really knew it. (Harold Ickes, and other advisors, knew it, though - and made the most of it.) The Civil War and Jim Crow gave state's rights a bad name, but I am inclined to believe that, generally, states and localities have the right to be wrong sometimes. That is part of what freedom is meant to guarantee: dumb mistakes are part of freedom. As is paying the price for them. Neither wisdom, nor common sense, resides in Washington, DC; it resides elsewhere - in our people in our towns, the hard-working real people who lead honest lives, and ask no-one for anything. Washington, DC obtains most of its power from the income tax, and the ignominious power of vote-buying with OPM - and is thus intrinsically corrupt. But many will vote away their personal freedom for a bowl of lentils, especially when they feel spiritually and personally uncertain, frail, and lacking in a "support system".
 Some Warren Buffet aphorisms, from Businesspundit:
- You can't make a good deal with a bad person.
- It's easier to stay out of trouble than it is to get out of trouble.
- The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do.
- My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror.
- The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.
- You can always juice sales by going down-market, but it's hard to go back upmarket.
- You have to think for yourself. It always amazes me how high-IQ people mindlessly imitate. I never get good ideas talking to other people.
- In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.
- Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
- A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
- If you let yourself be undisciplined on the small things, you will probably be undisciplined on the large things as well.
- The fact that people are full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable.
- We also believe candor benefits us as managers. The CEO who misleads others in public may eventually mislead himself in private.
- What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history.
We ain't seen any yet this year, and it's a shame. I am sure that Mad River Glen is not pleased either. Photo from December, 2005. 
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