Giving Us All Grief

Eric at Classical Values has a nice post up on grief mongers and their lawyers. Each little grief enacted into our common law (by judges decisions on what claims are actionable) adds friction to the system. A kind of creeping arthritis. The grief is justified and now everyone suffers. But just a little from each. So it creeps up until movement is so painful it stops.

Eric also sent me a link about a mother who is trying to stop the legal use of methadone because her son died from some that was diverted from the legal market. Let me amend that. Her action will not lead directly to that but this will. And there is a strong connection between the two.

One commenter calls for help for the grief stricken mother.

Laura says:
March 11, 2011 at 10:29 pm

There are good suggestions in these comments.

I just wanted to appeal on Katie's behalf to anyone reading this who can HELP her, in real-time, to do what your heart may be calling you to do and help her, with legal expertise, etc.

I have some good suggestions too.

OK. I'll help: END DRUG PROHIBITION

So people in the presence of an overdose are not afraid to call 911. So the antidote for opiate poisoning is freely available for those who want it.

===

So far as I can see not one suggestion here will make things better. Oh. People will get punished. But we have been down that road for 95+ years with no measurable effect (except the addition of a crime problem to a drug problem).

Stop letting your pain drive you into stupidity.

1. More punishment = more profit for dealers
2. More profit for dealers = more dealers

Is that what you had hoped to accomplish?

And that is not all I suggested:

Now if Henry had only obeyed the law...........

It is a damn shame but you just can't seem to be able to make people obey the law. Pity. Obviously I need to get more into the spirit of things so I did:

We have to get that methadone off the street. It is unfair competition for heroin.

So who do I think the real culprit is? Henry's parents - the grief stricken one(s) - for getting a divorce.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

Pajamas Media Sued By Righthaven

The news is somewhat old (1 Feb) but I don't recall seeing it elsewhere.

Las Vegas-based Righthaven LLC sues alleged copyright-infringing website operators and message-board posters in partnerships with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post.

Since March, at least 229 lawsuits have been filed in a campaign the then-publisher of the Review-Journal said was targeting copyright thieves.

Jason Chrystal and Justus Steel, whom Righthaven says run the thoushaltnotsteel.com site, are defendants in one of four new Righthaven cases in U.S. District Court in Colorado.

In all four cases, the website operators are accused of displaying the same Denver Post "TSA enhanced pat-down" photo on their websites.

And one of the other cases?

Also sued over the photo were:

--Pajamas Media Inc., registrant of the website pajamasmedia.com; and Bryan Preston, identified as its Austin editor, a columnist and contributor

That may explain Instapundit's interest in Righthaven cases. Especially one where Righthaven is on the receiving end.

This book might be useful if you are worried about copyright issues:

Internet Surf and Turf-Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding Media

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Buy From Government Motors - Or Else

There is an ongoing discussion at Classical Values about whether the Federal Government can force you to buy a product. Like heath insurance say. Or a car from Government Motors.

I just came across an interesting mp3 from the Volokh Conspiracy on that very question. It is a discussion by the Attorney General of Colorado of the subject. The Government Motors question comes up about 17:50 into the discussion. The Attorney General of Colorado is filing suit against the Federal Government over the law and discusses his reasons - and he has a number of them. The whole audio is about 23 minutes and well worth your time.

And for some background: here is a link to the Tabor question.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Bring It On

In the above video the ACORN outers, Hanna Giles and James O'Keefe, say about potential suits from ACORN, "Bring It On". Well ACORN has brought it on.

Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings.

This has got to be the dumbest political move since Bill Clinton said, "I did not have sex with that woman."

So what does Althouse think? She says:

Glenn Reynolds is pretty sure ACORN is falling into a trap.

Yes, it's almost as if the real point of the videos was to provoke a lawsuit that would open ACORN to the legal intrusions of discovery. And of course, Giles and O'Keefe will get even more publicity, and it shouldn't be hard for them to attract aggressive legal counsel and a hefty litigation fund.

I have heard lots of folks in comments to this story offering to donate to a legal defense fund. It is almost as if ACORN wanted to keep this story alive.

As to keeping the story alive? I was already getting tired of it and hadn't planned to write anything further since the story had served its purpose. It got the Census Bureau to sever ties with ACORN.

H/T Instapundit who thinks as Althouse pointed out, "I’M PRETTY SURE THEY’RE FALLING INTO A TRAP". Yes they are. Click on the Instapundit link for more.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Started A New Blog

Because of this.

You can find it at Simon Politico

Wonkette Threatens To Sue

Wonkette is threatening legal action against My Right Word for asking is "Wonkette Antisemitic?"

If I understand you and Wonkette correctly, you thought it was cute/clever or whatever, to borrow a term, "Jew--liani", from that clip and, without any comment about its specific ethnic frame of reference, slap it up on a new post the following day. And someone at Wonkette thought that it was so cute/clever or whatever, that they added "Jew York Times" for increased effect, if I am following the thinking over at Wonkette.

Well, I don't think the way you think. I think it was the grossest of manners on Wonkette's part to repeat the "Jew-liani" bit. Even you, now, seem to admit that it was, at the very least, a slur. But where does the "Jew York Times" come in? Are we now in a Jesse Jackson redux of that 1984 "Hymietown" remark? I'm sure you know what I am referring to but since proper blog manners are to send links, try this one: washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/jackson
You'll note that Jackson made an emotional apology in the end of the affair.

I reviewed my blog post. I am pretty sure I did not malign, defame, libel or otherwise use any deprecatory term and phrase that is any worse that anything that appears on your site.

When Wonkette was new and actually blogged by said Wonkette, I asked her if she had pictures of ass fn (since at the time, according to her own words, she was reputed to be an expert in the subject). She replied that I would have to find my own pictures, which even then were common on the 'net (I did the research). To go from the sublime (so I hear) to Jew hatred is quite a fall.

In any case given the a f routine I can't imagine how such musings might defame Ms. W. As is usual, threatening law suits against bloggers only brings more attention to matters that the sewers would prefer hidden (and no, that is not a misspelling).

H/T LGF