Too many Lawsuits?

For better or worse, however, no limit exists on the number of lawsuits one individual can bring in a lifetime.

--Chancellor Chandler, in In re Fuqua Industries Shareholder Litigation, 752 A.2d 126 (Del. Ch. 1999)




Counsel for the [board of directors] point out in their [brief] that, "plaintiffs and their family appear to have been singularly unlucky investors--they are named plaintiffs in at least thirteen lawsuits (including this one) challenging allegedly improper conduct [citations omitted]." It is unclear what nefarious intent the defendant directors would have me infer from this statistic. While the Kahns' experience might qualify them as icons of Delaware corporate jurisprudence, in my view, their wisdom in forum selection should hardly subject them to a presumption of misconduct. But cf. [the judge sua sponte cites seven suits, "among others" in which the directors were named defendants].

--Chancellor Chandler in Kahn v. Icahn, 1998 Del. Ch. LEXIS 223 (Nov. 12, 1998), n.1.

Woman wins fight against British Primary Care Trust

Ann Rogers of Swindon, Wilts, England won on appeal the right to drugs for treating her breast cancer. The treatment costs about £20,000 annually. The court held that the factors on which the government denied her treatment were irrational and did not prevent discriminatory treatment (of some patients but not others).

While this gets to the obvious problems with socialized medicine (low prices create an artificially high demand, meaning long lines or arbitrary denial of service, etc.), it also gets to the ultimate inability of any system to create equality. The British system attempts to provide medical treatment without reference to ability to pay for it. However, where that system fails, as it inevitably will, ultimately, only those with the money to afford effective lawyers will end up with treatment.

To paraphrase Enemy at the Gates' Danilov, "We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy of your neighbour's. But there's always something to envy. Medicine, legal aide, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a socialized one, there will always be rich and poor."

(article here)

Student Associations

Yesterday, I was asked to join a group called "Law Students for Choice."

Freaking Arminians.

How do aliens relax at the end of the day?

266 million mile long alcohol stream found in space.

Ok, it's methanol, not ethyl, but who's to say that the aliens don't prefer that sort of alcohol?

Pointless headline of the day

Seen this morning over someone's shoulder in the Post Express: "Rebel Breaks Laws."

Gee, give the guy a break. There weren't any signs in the jungle saying "do not take up arms against your government."

Record-breaking drug user

UK doctors have released info on the long-term effects of too much ecstasy (and its combination with certain other controlled substances). The gentleman in question apparently took some 40,000 tablets over 10 years (around a dozen a day).

Short-term memory loss, while a serious consequence of such behavior, is also probably one of the funniest - he would repeatedly do certain activities, unaware that he had just done them, and only remembering his intent to do them.

Moral of the story - don't do drugs, but make video recordings of those that do.

My Answer (see previous post)

Vowels seem to give an amount of continuity and certainty, connecting the "real" sounds with by certain designated open sounds. Besides giving us a greater range of possible words (thereby increasing our ability to communicate, create, and exert dominion over the earth), it seems vowels are indicative of the "do fully" rather than the "get by" mentality that led to European conquest (more or less) of the entire globe. I can't say for sure that the sun never setting on the English language is a result of vowels, but they are at least consistent with each other.

Vowels also allow a certain irrationality, as (in English), the vowel shown in a spelling has little real connection with the sound produced (e.g., try rhyming dough {doe}, cough {kof}, through {threw}, hough {hok}, lough {lahk}, sough {sef}, and bough {bau}; see also ought {ot}). It forces a sort of mental expansion, a realization that the things that we are told do not entirely line up with reality, but that neither is reason to disrespect and disregard them nor is it reason to bind ourselves to it. We still say our words how we want, and only loosely tie them to the vowels we see. This use of the old while constantly reexamining it and using only what is expedient is representative of the post-Harvey scientific world; it is probably no mistake that spellings were standardized shortly before we were able to turn our knowledge into heavy industry - a use of combined wisdom, acceptance of the unknown, and mental path of least resistance.

Spoken vowels are the primary means by which local pronunciations are formed; written vowels, therefore provide unity despite differences. This "you may say it your way, and I mine, but we're both English," attitude may not have led to democracy without a lot of other help, but it does at least constantly force us to recognize the finitude of our own knowledge, consider what things are right in an absolute sense and what are only relative and defined by man; in essence, a sort of micro-philosophy of itself.

Colonialism, industrialization, democracy, and postmodern philosophy all because of vowels? Perhaps not in any direct causal link, but the ideas seem to have been there waiting to be realized.

Postmodern philosophical question

How would life be different today if English did not have vowels (a la Hebrew)?

Discuss.

Especially looking for input from the Blue Roomers, as this seems up their alley. My answer forthcoming when I formulate it.

Frozen Dead People Update

The market has spoken where the courts too long - the guy who was keeping his parents on ice has announced he had to creamate them when their freezer broke. Oh, well. Here's to somnicide.

Return

I am managing to keep myself pretty busy right now, so I will leave you with only this ponderment:

Why is it that there was no difficulty changing back to driving on the right side of the road, but it took a few days to get re-adjusted to walking on a sidewalk in a right-side system?

Also, if the US didn't have exorbitant import taxes on alcohol, would Baccardi be able to survive?

Busy week ahead

Expect no updates.

If usury laws paralleled alcohol advertising laws...

MasterCard reminds you to enjoy Valentine's Day responsibly.

Moot Court

I have just returned from a moot court judged by Chief Justice John Roberts, Judge Guido Calabresi of the 2nd Circuit, and Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit. As a matter of first impression, the new Chief is everything his pedigree seemed. Judge Calabresi was very fun, erudite (at one point, he quoted T. S. Elliot's Hollow Man, and at another, he let roll a death threat in Italian), and was certainly willing to push the participants to their limit and then throw them a rope when they went over the brink (at one point, he told the flustered speaker, "Do you mean to argue..." and laid out exactly how the argument could work; when the poor kid said, "Exactly, your honor," Roberts was ready with challenges to Calabresi's formulation. No respite for the weary.)

The case itself was about whether subliminal messages in music are protected speech. In one humorous exchange, Judge Calabresi stated (by way of example) the "everyone knows that strawberries can give you hives." Before counsel could reply, Justice Roberts commented, "Huh. I just learned something new."

And now this interlude ceases in favor of class preparation...

Japanese Town Roots for Plucky Radish

From the bizarre side of the news:

The town of Aoi, Japan, found community inspiration in a radish that forced its way through an asphalt pavement. They even named it Dokonjo Daikon - "the radish with fighting spirit." The fighting dicot, however, recently received a severe injury, and the townspeople wait to see if it can pull through this time. The town council has even discussed plans for cloning it should it prove unable to survive. Read more here.

So much for the courageous Frenchman

I was quite surprised and pleased to see a French newspaper take on the "Arab street" by adding to the Mohammed cartoon furor, printing the original Danish cartoons and adding some of its own. (Read Story Here.) However, it seems that all courage must be punished in France, and today, the little editor that could got the sack. (Read Story Here.) The editor's courage is all the more remarkable because the paper's owner is Egyptian. Of course, he may have simply failed to check first who owned his company...

This whole row does bring to mind the beauty of my religion, particularly the words of Christ, "All manners of blasphemy shall be forgiven men." And mere forgiveness aside, it is nice to note that He qualifies the proscription on graven images by noting that they are banned insofar as one bows down and worships them. (For example, Moses made the bronze serpent, a picture of the coming Christ, and that was fine, but when people started worshiping it of itself, it had to be destroyed.) The Christian God is comfortable enough with His deityhood that He doesn't have his followers brandish guns when someone, for purely communicative purposes, makes a representation of Him or one of His mouthpieces.