Tort reform is a scam that punishes people to protect profits.
I praised it once before, but now it's time to praise it again. Windows Live Writer 2.0 has taken (cliche on the way) the product from good to great. If you're a blogger, you should definitely check it out. Here's an excerpt from Microsoft's site: Writer can to publish to Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Moveable Type, Community Server, and many other weblog services. Source: Windows Live Writer Beta I love how easy it is to blog about something I find on the web now. Click the link above and download a copy.
What's this? An exciting job opportunity in D.C.? Working side by side with Ted Frank? This position provides research support on issues related to American federalism and tort reform through case and brief retrieval, citation checking, case summarization, and legal analysis. It will also involve cultivating relationships with academics and practitioners in the field and overseeing the production of several monographs per year, as well as such administrative tasks as conference planning, editing, mass mailings, and data entry. The ideal candidate will have excellent organizational, writing, and editing skills, as well as an interest in public policy and/or tort reform. Legal research experience and a background in economics preferred. Source: Overlawyered: Work in Washington, DC at AEI! Let's see... Organizational, writing, and editing skills? Check. Interest in public policy and/or tort reform? Check. Legal research experience? Check. Background in economics? Definitely not. Damn! Damn! Damn! And it would have been so much fun helping the movement to shift liability costs from corporations to consumers.
Jeeze, I've been slacking for the past two days. Who is to blame? Ubisoft. I've been playing Ubisoft's Splinter Cell Double Agent and have gotten rather sucked in. I've just about beaten the game and anticipate being back to reality (and rapid-fire posting) tomorrow. I've got two articles in the pipeline, including an analysis of why preemption is just a fancy word for "screwing the taxpayers" and a rebuttal of Ted Frank's recent article in which he pooh-poohed Cyrus Dugger's critiques of the "safety is too expensive" business model. For those who care, this game doesn't work right under Vista. I actually had to install XP on a spare HD to get the damned thing to play. From what I understand, Ubisoft doesn't give a damn as they're exiting the PC market to focus on console games. Had I known that, I would have bought this game for my Xbox 360 instead of the PC. Oh well. Oh, one other thing. Don't ever try the Brazilian liquor Cachaça. It's the devil. And I don't mean that in the "It'll knock you on your ass 'cause it's so strong" way. I mean it tastes horrid. Imagine putting rubbing alcohol and roadkill in a blender, and then filtering it. That's what it tastes like. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who loves Bacardi and Lemonhart 151 rum. I diluted a single shot in a can of Coke and still couldn't down it. Guess I'll use the bottle to clean the brake dust off my rims.
I'm a bit under the weather today and haven't had the energy to post. Now, after learning that our Corporation-in-Chief signed an Executive Order prohibiting contingent fee attorneys from helping the government, I'm feeling pissy. I'll probably elaborate more tomorrow, but here are some of the reasons this is a bad idea. - The top contingent-fee lawyers in the country are the cream of the crop of attorneys. They're certainly better qualified to take on massive cases than their counterparts in the government.
- Now, instead of getting valuable services for free, the taxpayers will be forced to pay for services which used to be free.
- Because outside counsel are likely to be expensive, they will be used rarely. The net effect will be less government enforcement.
- Contingency fees have once again been demonized as if there's something wrong with them. You know, I wish the top 100 law firms had to switch over to a contingency fee scheme in which they only get their hourly rates when they achieve results. Maybe then plaintiff's attorneys would get a little more respect.
- The ILR applauded the executive order. Anything they approve of is bad for consumers.
(sigh) It's times like this I wish I was still in Texas with my trial lawyer friends. We'd get drunk, cuss about W and Republicans in general, and generally behave irresponsibly. Oh well. Guess I'll watch a zombie movie instead.
It's with no small measure of pride that I report I've officially been cited in at least one law review article: Patricia F. Miller, 37 St. Mary’s L.J. 515 (2006), Comment 2003 TEXAS HOUSE BILL 4: UNANIMOUS EXEMPLARY DAMAGE AWARDS AND TEXAS CIVIL JURY INSTRUCTIONS I was cited approvingly for my coverage of the McDonald's coffee case. I can only hope this will be the first of many citations to come. Seen me in print elsewhere? Drop me a line and let me know.
As I mentioned before, I've been using Windows Live Writer, Microsoft's blogging client. It's what let's me have those nice "Source: Article corpreform Leaches From" links at the bottom of quotes. I'm liking the client a lot, even more than blogging from Word. You can install it to integrate with Internet Explorer, and doing so gets you a nice "Blog This" button. To use it, simply select the text you want to copy, and click the button. It does the legwork of generating the link. I'm an IE 7 guy, and have been using the Blog This button there. Until it stopped working. I uninstalled and reinstalled it, and no dice. So for the hell of it, I downloaded Firefox and put the Blog This plugin for Firefox on my PC, and it worked. Can someone explain to me why Microsoft can make something that works with Firefox and not IE? Isn't that grounds for termination?
I'm a big James Bond fan. I love the series. Well, most of them. I stopped watching new Bond flicks after the cinematic abortion that was Goldeneye. Pierce Brosnan did what no prior Bond villain could do – kill James Bond. I was very happy to see that he was canned and a new Bond was brought on board. Like most Bond fans, I was skeptical of Daniel Craig, if for no other reason than he's blonde.
My fears were unfounded. I just got done watching Casino Royale, and it is, without a doubt, the best James Bond movie since Sean Connery resigned. This Bond is everything he should be: Cold, callous, egotistical, and most of all, dangerous. He has no qualms with killing. And unlike the other Bond films in which "goons" are casually dispatched, the bad guys in this one really die. They cover Bond in blood. They take a while to choke out. They don't just take a round to the chest and drop quietly.
I can't recommend this movie highly enough. It's in my all-time top three Bond movies, with Goldfinger being number one.
Here's my list of best Bonds:
- Sean Connery. No doubt about it, he's the best.
- Daniel Craig. He doesn't fill Sean Connery's shoes, but he makes the role his own in a different way. A grittier way.
- Timothy Dalton. I liked this guy as James Bond. He seemed believable as a double-oh.
- That other guy. You know, the one in Her Majesty's Secret Service or whatever it was.
- Roger Moore. In his later films, did anyone really believe this guy could kick someone's ass? I sure didn't.
- He who shall not be named. God, that guy sucked. He wasn't masculine, he couldn't pull off sarcasm, and his movies were WAY too over the top. Granted, the last fault isn't his fault, but I'm not going to cut the ponce any slack. You sir, are not James Bond.
It will be my luck that Daniel Craig will suffer the same fate as Timothy Dalton: Disliked for being too cold and psychotic, and replaced with a loser. Maybe Hugh Grant? Ugh.
Anyway, check out Casino Royale. Be forewarned that it's the longest James Bond film ever at 2.5 hours, and worth every minute of it.
| |
Recent Comments