One of the lawyers in the office lost a medical malpractice trial recently. His pain for his client’s loss is palpable. Dealing with losing is always agony and something we never get used to if we are competitive trial lawyers striving for our client’s rights. I’ve often said: losing hurts worse then winning feels good. My personal rule is that I rejoice for my victories only twenty four hours and limit remorse for losing to forty eight hours. After that,…
I’ve commented before about Pope Benedict starting to expose his real arch-conservative beliefs after first trying to present himself as a moderate. (See post 3/14/07) When first elected he seemed to be reaching out to dissidents and other faiths. Now Vatican observers are reporting that since turning 80 years of age and after three years at the job he has more and more frequently shown that his views are the same as when he was the late Pope John’s junk…
People who are elected to public office are accountable to the citizens and taxpayers for their conduct and for spending of tax dollars. The original motivation for running for public office was that of wanting to provide a public service, not personal financial gain. In recent years, however, scandals regarding public officials taking financial advantage of their position have become more frequent just as the reports of excessive payments to CEO’s have become commonplace. (See post 4/6/07) The Seattle PI…
The Sunday Seattle Times reports that the U.S. Interior Department lied for months in claiming no analysis had been made by them of the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions causing global warming which impacted polar bears. As recently as late December Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other officials were claiming that the Department had not made an examination of the connection between global warming and shrinking sea ice, when they in fact had made such studies. Not only that, it was…
The Voice of the Faithful is a Catholic lay organization who advocates for transparency and accountability in Catholic Church affairs. It has been generally condemned by Catholic Bishops for speaking out about criticisms of Church affairs and is seen as a controversial voice regarding the need for Church reform. The organization recently mailed out a newsletter reporting a number of embezzlement’s of Church money nationally. The mailing was timely since a Nebraska Catholic nun has been in the news after…
Gary Trudeau in his Doonesbury (R) comic strip this Sunday pokes fun at the Republican insistence their party and candidates stand for family values, but the Democrats do not. His character Michael Doonsbury in the comic strip notes that on the Republican side the three front runners, Giuliani, McCain and Ginrich have five divorces among them, and says "four of them were really messy and all of them involving adultery." He then notes that on the Democratic side the three…
Helen Gurley Brown, the former editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine has written a number of books. The only one I’ve read was on this last trip, Wild Again, which I’m afraid I found frivolous. As a result I sort of "sped read" my way through it. However, aA couple of things she wrote about registered with me. One was her advice about travel. She said " When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money, then take…
The New England Journal of Medicine (April 12, 2007 Volume 356:1496) reports in an article "Making Smoking History" about the world wide effort to eliminate smoking. It reports that Ireland was the first country in history to pass a comprehensive indoor smoking ban in 2004. Overwhelming public support in Ireland for the ban followed from smokers and nonsmokers both to the surprise of most people. South Africa passed national laws in 2000 baning smoking in public places with some exemptions…
The National Law Journal reports that New York City’s Common Good has joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to experiment with a tort reform idea of health courts. It would create "expert courts" in medical malpractice cases consisting of medical doctors, academics and others who would act as judge and jury. Among other tort reform restrictions, the plan would have a schedule for pain and suffering damages and caps on recovery. Does that sound like a an unbiased forum for…
The Sin of Omission It isn’t the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leaved undone; That gives you a bit of a heartache at the setting of the sun. The tender word forgotten, The letter you did not write, The flowers you did not send, dear, Are your haunting ghosts at night… For life is all to short, dear, And sorrow all too great, To suffer our slow compassion That tarries until too late; And it isn’t the…
