Monday, June 25, 2007
TEXANS KNOW ABOUT COWS, DON'T THEY?
Is global warming going to be the newest mass tort? One obscenely successful Texan plaintiffs' attorney, Stephen D. Susman, thinks so:
And the cows emitting ... well ... you know what. That's where the really big money is.
“Melting glaciers isn’t going to get that much going, but wait until the first big ski area closes because it has no snow,” said Susman, who teaches a climate-change litigation course at Houston Law. “Or wait until portions of lower Manhattan and San Francisco are under water.”Susman warns "[y]ou're going to see some really serious exposure on the part of companies that are emitting CO2."
And the cows emitting ... well ... you know what. That's where the really big money is.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
COME SE DICE "REVOLVING DOOR"?
Italy recently put a controversial indulto (sentence reduction for prisoners) into effect. Guess what happened next? Within hours, dozens had been arrested and sent back to jail after reoffending.
There will be fewer law-abiding Italians however: "shopkeeper Antonio Pizza, 28, was murdered while trying to stop a recently released convict from stealing his car."
There were 194 bank robberies nationwide in the month before the amnesty was introduced last July. After the law was passed by Romano Prodi's centre-Left coalition that figure rose steadily, peaking at 332 in October - at an average of more than 10 a day.The pardon was put into effect to ease prison crowding. But at this rate, they'll all be jam-packed again in no time.
There will be fewer law-abiding Italians however: "shopkeeper Antonio Pizza, 28, was murdered while trying to stop a recently released convict from stealing his car."
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
GIVES NEW MEANING TO THE TERM "GAYDAR"
The Guardian today reports that in 2002 the U.S. military requested $7.5M to investigate the possibility of spraying the enemy with chemicals to make them gay:
Unaccountably, the funding request seems to have been denied.
"One distasteful but non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behaviour," says the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.Of course, the $7.5M cost could have easily been offset by selling the substance in tasteful fragrance bottles at retail establishments all over the Bay area. Also Fire Island.
Unaccountably, the funding request seems to have been denied.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
THEY TAKE THESE THINGS SERIOUSLY IN WISCONSIN
A bar owner over the border was fined for using the wrong tap -- he (gasp!) used a Coors Light tap to avoid wasting some Miller Light beer. Nope, sorry, got them mixed up (I often do). Tap was Miller Light, beer was Coors Light.
"I didn't think nothing was tragic about it," he said, adding that the beers cost the same and he told his customers they were getting the beer they actually got: "I didn't lie to nobody."
But it is a tragedy man. Miller Light, Coors Light. Both tragedies.
PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!
"I didn't think nothing was tragic about it," he said, adding that the beers cost the same and he told his customers they were getting the beer they actually got: "I didn't lie to nobody."
But it is a tragedy man. Miller Light, Coors Light. Both tragedies.
PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!
Saturday, June 02, 2007
FEAR FACTOR
After resisting for eons, I've finally agreed to allow the ten year old to invite four of her friends over for a sleep over. I established some ground rules for interactions with her younger sister (no physical contact, vague admonitions to be nice) and sleeping (go to bed early, sleep late in the morning) which I privately understand to be dreams rather than iron-clad laws.
No exact date has yet been arrived at, leaving me to hope that ten year olds' summer schedules are as unworkable as mine. But I suspect that the prospect of a slumber party will reveal them all to be organizational geniuses.
No exact date has yet been arrived at, leaving me to hope that ten year olds' summer schedules are as unworkable as mine. But I suspect that the prospect of a slumber party will reveal them all to be organizational geniuses.
