The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 13 years. Every couple of weeks I will attempt to post a new set of musings from the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. If you think Jihad is spelled GeeHod, you may be a Redneck. In an appearance on "The Tonight Show," Matthew Perry was asked about his reaction to watching the final episode of "Friends.". "It was really emotional," he said. "I pride myself on being a real man, but I shed a few tears." Real man. What a crock! No wonder he and so many other men in Hollywood (and men in general) are so screwed up. I cried for a long time when the final episode was over. I am an ex-Marine, former ATF and CIA agent, and played six sports. I met a lot of real men over the years. Matthew, you don't even come close. If you are such a "real man," how is it that you have had so many problems with prescription drugs and alcohol? Real mean don't screw up their lives with drugs and alcohol when they have it made in the shade. I had heart surgery. They saw your chest open with a mini skill-saw and then sew you and wire you back together. I was given a vial of Vicodin (apparently one of your favorite drugs) when I left the hospital. The next morning, I did a mile on the treadmill and two miles a day by the end of the week. In a few days, I stopped taking the Vicodin and relied on clutching my "cough pillow" tightly across my chest when I coughed. I was driving my truck to town within 5 days. So, Mr. Real Man, if you would like to visit me here in the Outback, I will knock that stupid smirk off your face - and then we talk about your miserable life. Man to screwed-up mess. On second thought, you are not someone I would like to meet. I haver higher standards. (I am sending this to Mr. Perry.) Folks are not going to let Sen. Kerry's Vietnam service, his three Purple Hearts, his truncated four-month Vietnam tour of duty, and his later anti-war stance, alone. In National Review online for May 4, 2004, there is an account by the doctor who treated Sen. Kerry for his first wound which brought him his first Purple Heart. Kerry said his boat was taking enemy fire and he was wounded. Some of the crew said that Kerry had fired a mortar round close to shore and the wound was caused by a fragment that ricocheted from a rock that was hit on shore. The doctor said there was a small piece of metal sticking in Kerry's skin. The doc picked it out with forceps and put a bandaid over the "wound." This was one of the three Purple Hearts that allowed Kerry to rotate out of Vietnam early. In the WSJ for May 4, John O'Neill wrote an op-ed piece in which he said that Kerry is "not fit to serve as America's commander in chief." Mr. O'Neill took over command of the same Swift Boat Kerry had commanded before his departure from Nam. Mr. O' Neil is also one of the veterans of Swift Boat service who are saying that Kerry lied about his service heroics, lied about American atrocities, etc., and have a Web page at www.swiftvets.com where they list their reasons for disputing Kerry. Sen. Kerry would be well advised to stop mentioning that he ever served in Vietnam and never again let anyone on his team cast aspersions on President Bush's service in the National Guard. This is going to be the meanest and hottest election in my lifetime of watching this travesty we euphemistically call a "democratic election." CNN is running a Veepstakes for Kerry on its Web site. You can vote for your choice for VP in several categories. John McCain is one choice. Sen. McCain has said without reservation that he will NOT be a VP candidate for any presidential candidate - of any party! Dick Gephardt have proven over and over that he is a loser. Ann Richards, former Texas governor, is a dried up has been. Tom Brokaw is on one list. Mr. Brokaw appears to be having cognitive difficulties just getting through the reading of the evening news. Howard Dean is not on any of the lists. So, all in all, this seems like a dumb exercise by CNN. The two most viable candidates to me appear to be Sen. John Edwards, and my favorite Democrat, Sen. Joe Biden - a man of vast experience, thoughtfulness, and reason. When David Letterman was a TV weatherman, he thought a meteorologist was one of those huge rocks that come from outer space and split the Earth into pieces. When Pat Sajak was a TV weatherman, he thought a meteorologist was a person who studied the history of parking meters, gas meters, and water meters. Later, he learned to buy a vowel. Would someone in the Mob please take Donald Trump for a ride in the Jersey piney woods? I have had all I can take of "fish mouth." He has a larger ego than any movie star, rock star, or politician. TV networks have in the past been concerned about Digital Video Recorders which allow you to skip 30 seconds at a time, which is usefull for skipping a commercial or bypassing a football huddle, which is not exactly high drama. I used to mute ALL commercials, and when I got DishNetwork's DVR, I skipped ALL commercials. Pressed against the wall, the commercial producers have done something drastic. They have started making commercials entertaining, sometimes better than the programming. The hair coloring commercial where the apparently nude guys show up and ask "Is this where the streaking party is?" comes to mind, but there are many others. The Sprint (?) commercial where the guy says I heard "get a Monkey with a cold" is another. And the great one by GE Financial Services with Christopher Columbus getting stiffed about the ships he needed from Queen Isabella. Now, I watch several commercials a day on network TV. If we could just get rid of the prescription drug ads, especially for erectile dysfunction, we might watch even more ads. The commercials on cable still mostly suck. It is hard to do much with content for exercise machines and diet pills. I made a list of all the pills that are advertised on TV, many of which do not bother to tell you what they are for. "Ask your doctor if XXXXXXX is right for you." OK. I took the list to my doctor. He scratched his head and said, "Well, in order to find out if you need any or all of these, I will have to run several blood tests, take a urine and stool sample, do an MRI, a CatScan, take Xrays, do and Ultrasound of your gut, your heart and your carotid arteries, give you an EKG and a treadmill stress test, do a series of allergy tests, do a barium Xray of your colon, have you wear an ambulatory blood-pressure monitor for a week, and do nighttime videos of you as you sleep. Those tests will cost about $25,000. When do you want to start?" Only kidding, but I made my point. Could we please have a moratorium on articles and headlines about Hollywood and show biz marriages and divorces? Those people treat marriage about as seriously as a cable-TV subscription. If you don't like what you have, you call in and get it changed to a new set of channels. But do print a list of those who are actually married in Hollywood for 20 years or more. Goldie Hawn, David Letterman and others who forgot to get the paperwork do not count. In the March 13, 2004 Outback, speaking of "American Idol," I said: "I can predict with near certainty that the winner will not be either Jon Peter Lewis or Leah LaBelle." They are both gone. JPL was like an Elvis impersonator on Speed and Leah Labelle should not have been in the final 12. She was so bland. John Stevens probably will be the next one to leave. Although I watch only sporadically and sometimes catch only part of a song, I think the horse race is among the three black ladies, Jennifer Hudson, La Toya London, and Fantasia Barrino. Based on hearing only part of her rendition of "Summertime," I think Fantasia is the one to beat. (Update 4-21-04: I am handing in my judging credentials for "American Idol." The people in the public who are voting for the contestants would not be able to find a singing star if they stumbled over one in a dark alley. To vote off Jennifer Hudson and keep the uncharismatic pre-pubescent kid, John Stevens - the Sinatra wannabe - and maybe one or two other people, is nonsense. Now, I will only watch the final to see if Fantasia or possibly La Toya wins. I join in the judge's shocked looks when Jennifer was voted off - with several people of marginal talent being kept. American Idol no longer has any credibility. It's time to find out if the ballot box is being stuffed.) In the Outback for June 29, 2003, I praised Kimberly Locke, who came in third in "American Idol" to Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken. I said that she might be the best pure singer of the three. Kimberly has an album coming out soon. I will check it out to see what material she is doing. Just as we have not heard the last of Kimberly, we have not heard the last of Jennifer Hudson - in spite of the tone-deaf people who voted them off the show. If you want to know more about our monetary policy, don't ever watch Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testify before Congress. The man can say more words and come to less cogent and clear conclusions than anyone I have ever heard. Yet, the committee members thank him for his wisdom. In fact, they are probably afraid to say to him, "You know, Mister Chairman, I did not understand a word you said." Recently, I was told a "joke story" about Mr. Greenspan. He and Andrea Mitchell (NBC News) apparently dated for about 15 years. Why did it take them so long to get married? He kept trying to tell Andrea that he wanted to marry her, but she did not understand him. Susan Lyne, the head programming executive at ABC-TV is out! What took so long? I have said more than once that she was completely inept. All one had to do was look at the lack of hit shows in primetime on ABC. How she lasted this long is a mystery. I am instructing my son to sue Microsoft if I die in the near future. The charge will be that they contributed to my early demise from the anxiety they caused over the years. The latest. After about a year or so, with NO changes to my older XP Home computer, a message flashed on the screen that said because so much had been changed in my computer, I would have to re-authenticate it within 3 days or it would stop working. It took 12 tries - over several hours - to get the Microsoft server to talk to my computer and "authenticate" it. Gangsters.
Some time back, I mentioned that I would not buy Heinz 57 sauce because I felt it was putting money indirectly into the campaign for Sen. John Kerry because his wife is a Heinz heir. I was not the only one. H.J. Heinz has had hundreds of inquires about their connection to Mr. and Mrs. Kerry. Teresa Heinz is not involved in running the company and is not on the board. In fact, the company has not donated any money to the Kerry campaign, but their PAC did donate $5,000 to the Mass. Dem. party. But, in recent years the Heinz PAC has donated substantially more to Republicans. I still am not buying any Heinz 57 sauce because given its simple ingredients, it is outrageously expensive. I have found a substitute at less than half the price. For those who still don't want to be involved, even remotely, in money going to the Kerry campaign, note that H.J. Heinz also owns OreIda potato products (I had some for dinner), Smart Ones frozen foods and Classico sauces. To many, John Kerry comes across in his speeches as patrician and pompous. After his speech to the newspaper editors meeting, he mingled with the crowd, with his mike still on. He seemed so sincere, soft-spoken, and genuine in his informal exchanges with those in the crowd. If he could just project THAT image more, Geo. W., will surely be sent packing back to the ranch. Can we get off of the three-Purple-Hearts-and-you-get-to-go-home-from-Vietnam drill? And tallk about the issues. Vietnam was too long ago to keep harping on. What have you done for your country lately and what do you have in mind for the future? - ought to be the questions being asked. On April 16, 2004, WFAA-TV (ABC) in Dallas, ran a piece on the evening news about Tiger Woods attending military training for a week. As Tiger was shown, the title at the bottom of the screen read: "Tiger Woods - Former Great Golfer." It was on the screen for only about three seconds. I "rewound" my DVR hard-drive capture several times to make sure of what I had seen. No doubt. The U.S. probably will learn a lesson from the Iraq adventure. Never invade a country that has not struck at you first. Use bombers and missiles to take out nuclear facilities or terrorist training camps. The Afghan adventure will provide a mixed lesson - but it appears that we have let the war lords get back to controlling much of the country. And the Opium poppies are in full bloom. Smooth move. NY real-estate developer Larry Silverstein held the leases on the WTC twin towers on 9/11. In court, he is arguing that there were two "occurrences," which entitles him to twice the $3.55 billion face value of the then existing insurance policies. More than a dozen insurance companies are fighting the double claim, as you would expect. But, if you owned two apartment buildings, sitting side by side, and two gas trucks ran into the buildings within about 15 minutes of each other - and exploded - would there be any doubt that these were separate occurrences? The difference here may be the stakes, $3.55 billion versus $7.10 billion. You can hire a lot of lawyers on both sides for that kind of money. Probably the best part of most speeches and lectures is the part that begins with either: "And in conclusion," or "And finally." Recently, I have been watching a lot of C-SPAN, such as the 9-11 hearings. I continue to be fascinated by the 5-minute preambles to questions and then "I guess my question is." Well, if you can't guess what your question is, who can? The phrase "you know" becomes more and more ubiquitous, even among highly educated speakers. Listen to an interview with Hillary Clinton sometime. Often, when someone on TV uses "you know" 10-12 times in half a minute, I mute the TV or change channels. I just can't take it. How did such a useless two words become so widespread? Those who use "you know" ought to be forced to wear a shocking dog collar that responds to "you know." That nonsense would clear up in a hurry - you know. When I lived temporarily in a duplex in a nearby town of 25,000, I was amazed at the street noise I could hear, even being back 100 yards from a secondary street. Woofers and loud duals on trucks constantly invaded my "auditory space." I moved back to the Outback fulltime. I thought maybe I was just spoiled and too sensitive about noise. In a 2001 US Census survey, 11.8 million households (out of 106 million reporting) said street or traffic noise was bothersome. An additional 4.5 million residents said it was so bad they wanted to move. I feel better. At least I am not alone. Maya Rudolph, who does so many brilliant characterizations on Saturday Night Live (SNL) on NBC, was named to a list in "Entertainment Weekly," as one of the funniest 25 people in America. They say: "Only the fourth woman of color in SNL history, she's one of the bright lights of the increasingly dreary show." I echo the "dreary show" part and tune in only now and then to catch a Darrell Hammond impression, or Tina Fey on Weekend Update - and noticed Maya Rudolph's versatility and talent in passing. I never considered Maya Rudolph to be "a person of color." She looked to me more like a young Jewish girl with a good tan. Imagine my joy when I did a little research and discovered that her mother was black singer Minnie Riperton and her dad is Richard Rudolph, a Jewish song writer and music producer. My ethnic Eagle eye was once again vindicated. Getting the Jewish part right was beyond my expectations. This all ties in with my articles about "half black" people calling themselves African Americans or blacks. I saw Maya on "Oprah." The other two funniest people guests were Chris Rock (#1) and Jon Stewart of Comedy Central, both of whose work I greatly admire. I thought it interesting that out of 25 people on the EW list, Oprah had on the show two blacks (one who is half Jewish) and Jon Stewart, who is Jewish. But I am always looking for hidden agendas. (See: "Halle Berry - First Half-Black Woman to Win an Academy Award," May 15, 2002 and the other associated articles under the Suggested Reading topic of "Race, Ethnicity, Labels, Stereotypes." None of it is racist, just an honest assessment of this nonsense of calling anyone with ANY black blood an African American - and of the preponderance of Jewish people in the entertainment industry.) If you use online banking, I don't know if your bank does what BankAmerica does, but you can now not only search to see which checks have been cashed, but you can pull up a graphic image of the actual check. This is great for when you did not list the payee in your check register or in Quicken - or you just want to make sure that your ducks are all lined up. After years of shaky performance and false starts, BankAmerica online banking now rocks. It is still agonizingly slow on a rural dialup connection, but that is understandable given the complexity of the site. It actually takes me longer to pay one bill online that to write a check and put a stamp on the envelope. But, I love technology, even if it is nearly a step backward sometimes. Although there is probably no real question in anybody's mind, I am NOT related to Randi Rhodes who is one of the talk-show hosts on Air America, the left-wing broadcast network. How dumb can you be? You are left-wing zealots, like Al Franken, and you name your broadcast operation Air America. Air America was one of the CIA contract air carriers in Laos during the "secret war in Laos," and is antithetical to everything the left stands for; meddling with the affairs of foreign governments, conducting clandestine overseas operations, engaging in military adventures, etc. Congratulation to the morons at Air America for their terrific name. If you don't feel put upon enough with warnings about everything you eat, or drink, or things you do that may harm you, take a look at the government database of household products that may harm you:
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/products.htm What does Rubbermaid make? Let's see: plastic containers for storing food, plastic garbage cans, plastic gas cans, and plastic drain mats for your dishes. Diagonal side-cutting pliers (dikes)? No way. But yes, and one guess where they are made. China! To add insult to injury, the package says "Patent Pending." Patent a pair of dikes? Give me a break. Jay Leno (4-7-04) did a piece about the high gas prices where the cops were carpooling with the criminals. The cops had guns pointed at the criminals from the back seat. One problem. The guns were single-action six-shooters like Marshall Dillon carried on "Gunsmoke." Not too popular in modern law enforcement. You would think that a network that can pay one guy $27 million a year, could at least use a modern handgun in a skit. I watch late night very selectively. I let at least a few minutes accumulate on my Digital Video Recorder. Then, if I hear the word "president" or "Bush, "Cheney," or "Kerry." I hit the skip button. It is going to be a long, agonizing time until November. I know the candidates and the issues. I don't need to get any spin from Leno, Letterman, Kilborn, or O'Brien. Sadly, those are the sources of much of what people learn about politics. Duh. An adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah in Saudi Arabia was interviewed on CNN. He suggested that many of America's problems with high gas prices are self inflicted. Mr. al-Jubeir was defending the recent OPEC decision to cut oil production by a million barrels a day. America hasn't built a refinery in 20 years. Different state restrictions make it complicated to sell gasoline in the United Sates. There is a refinery in Springfield, Illinois, that cannot supply gasoline to the Chicago market because the formulas in those two regions change or are different. He might have added that one main reason gas prices in California are the highest in the country is that environmentalists have driven the state to enact a series of restrictive regulations that add extra charges to the normal refining of oil into gas. I wonder if any of those in California who oppose drilling in ANWR (www.anwr.org), which will NOT affect the precious Caribou one whit, have had a change of heart since gas prices hit an all-time high? Or if the not-in-my-backyard environmentalists have given any thought to endorsing the construction of a new refinery or two in California? I have written before about the strange paradox of the TV industry's 18-39 demographic, when it is older folks who have the money. From a WSJ article (4-6-04) comes the following: "The 78 million Americans who were 50 or older as of 2001 controlled 67% of the country's wealth, or $28 trillion, according to data collected by the U.S. Census and Federal Reserve. What's more, households headed by someone in the 55-to-64 age group had a median net worth of $112,048 in 2000 -- 15 times the $7,240 reported for the under-35 age group. And within five years, about a third of the population is going to be at least 50 years old." Finally, TV networks are trying to figure out how to appeal to the older audience without losing the younger audience. When it comes to ads, the ad folks may be surprised at how old geezers respond to "hip" ads if they are truly creative. As to programming, there is more of a problem. Take just one example, the musicians who appear at the end of late-night shows. Most of them are rock and roll, rap, or other "modern" musicians. I know to turn off the set when a late show goes to commercial about 25 minutes past the hour, as some Cretin who cannot speak coherent English is most likely going to come on and assault my ears and my senses. Dell computers dropped their call center in Bangalore, India, due largely to customer complaints. They will not be the last. Most Americans have trouble understanding some call centers in California, staffed by valley girls or Asians with heavy accents, or centers in the East whose operatives talk too fast and often with accents that are hard to understand. Most Americans have difficulty with foreign accents - of any kind. Having lived overseas on more than one continent, and having talked with ham-radio operators in over 200 countries, I am probably in the top 98th percentile in being able to understand foreign accents. But, if I were to call a help line (which I do only every two or three years, if that), or call in an order on an 800 number, I would hang up immediately if the person does not speak clear English. This is not a bias. It is simple economics, the language of commerce in America - for now - is English (with no deep accent). Please read my article from the Dallas Times Herald called "When in Rome, better learn the language" at: (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/engonly.html). Times are changing. I told my grand kids that if they really want to be successful in business in the coming decades they should learn Spanish and Chinese. As an aside, I became very friendly over the years with a Chinese brother and sister who are in phone sales with a very big computer-supply outfit. They are smart and their English is impeccable, much better than some of the valley girls who work at the same California company. Violinists in the symphony in Bonn, Germany, are suing to get more money than the other players. Their rationale: they play more notes! This will cause discord and disharmony in the orchestra. Of course, this is not a new concept, it is called "piece-work" and was born in sweatshops where you got paid only for the number of widgets you could produce in a day. Let's carry this idea through. Clarinet players ought to be paid more than trumpet players because they use more fingers to play. Concert organ players ought to be paid more than concert pianists because the organist has to play more than one keyboard and several more foot pedals. Cello players ought to be paid more than viola players because the cello is much harder to transport. Musicians who play sixteenth notes ought to be paid more than those who play quarter notes. Public speakers, lecturers, and teachers should be paid on the basis of "words-per-minute." Clerks in Wal-Mart ought to get paid more than clerks in small shops, because they have to walk more. Computer operators who input credit-card data thousands of strokes-per-hour ought to get paid more than a programmer, who may labor for a whole day over 10 lines of code. And we thought we had a corner on the market for shyster lawyers who sit up late nights dreaming of new ways to extract (extort) money. I have mentioned before how the Japanese priced themselves out of the electronics market with high labor costs. In China, you can hire 20 workers for the price of one in Japan. That is the main reason that half of the stuff in my house says "Made in China." There is another reason other than cheap labor for high-tech jobs shifting overseas. We are not training enough engineers to keep us as the leading nation for technology. China graduates several times more engineers each year than we do. Even S. Korea graduates nearly as many engineers as we do. In 2000, 24 nations awarded a higher percentage of science and engineering degrees to students than the United States. The high-tech schooling in India is superb, and companies like Intel have big investments in plants there. Not only is labor cheaper, but many brilliant engineers are on tap. Some people complain about the number of U.S. visas we issue for people with high-end technical expertise. I am no expert, but I bet if you did a survey, you would find that most of those jobs simply could not be filled by Americans - because our engineering and high-tech training facilities are not graduating enough qualified people. Do you remember the Russian launch of the artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957? That wake-up-call flooded our engineering schools with students. Now, 44 years later, most of those engineers are at or near retirement age. It is time to "run scared" again and produce more engineers and scientists. There is a database at www.fundrace.org where you can check national election contributions by address, zip code, or name. I was surprised at how many people in the Outback contributed to Howard Dean. I hope their stock-market picks are better. No surprise that all but one of those who listed their occupation as attorney contributed to Democrat John Edwards - the former trial lawyer who will look after their interests. Robert Reich (Dem), the brilliant former Secretary of Labor, and Newt Gingrich (Rep), former Speaker of the House, shared a stage a while back. One thing they agreed on was that there were too many lawyers in this country, and too many in Congress. Reich said this even though he is an attorney. For one thing, lawsuits and threats of lawsuits, are driving up the price of goods and services in this country, putting us at a competitive disadvantage around the world. Also, the cost of health care is driven up by malpractice suits and astronomical monetary awards by juries and courts.
We talk about hidden taxes a lot. There is a hidden "lawyer tax" in a vast number of goods and services. It used to be that if you stood on the top of a stepladder and fell off, you were considered stupid for not understanding the peril. Now, stepladders contain labels to tell you where not to stand, and the cost of manufacturing them has risen due to the injury awards to morons (like me) who have fallen from ladders. It used to be that the concept of "assumption of risk" was broadly applied. In essence, it said that if a reasonable person should have known that the activity they were taking part in had inherent risks, they assumed those risks. No more. Now, lawsuits are brought on behalf of people who engage in foolhardy and often simply stupid conduct. Insurance rates are sky high in large part because everybody sues for everything and often gets large jury awards or settlements. I spend more on homeowners, auto, and computer insurance than any other single item in my budget (I have no mortgage payments). It is more than I normally spend on food! This is insane. The Colorado legislature is considering a bill to shield ski resorts from lawsuits by a growing number of people who ride cliffs and half-pipes. Cliffs and extremely steep slopes would be included in the list of the inherent risks of the sport, shielding resorts for injuries people suffer while skiing them. It is unfortunate that legislatures have to pass bills about "inherent risks" when there "used" to be simple concept in the law about the inherent risks a reasonable man (person) might expect in any particular setting. And that person then assumed those obvious risks. Disinfectant sprays carry warnings like: "Do not spray in eyes, on skin, or on clothing." How stupid of me. All these years I have sprayed Lysol in my eyes to kill germs. And have been gargling with it. The truth is that when I spray anything from a pressurized container, I squint my eyes, hold my breath, and walk away from the area. No lawyer had to tell me to do that. Just the cost of the "warning labels" on products adds up to big money over time. And when was the last time you read a warning label? The warning labels are on there, not to protect you, but to ensure that the lawyers can say, "we told you so," when you try to sue. There is a crisis in OB/GYN as more and more doctors refuse to deliver babies due to the cost of malpractice insurance. Many doctors move to states where there are caps on punitive damages (nobody wants to avoid paying for actual harm). Some doctors leave the profession and become newscasters or run fishing lodges. Thanks to the lawyers. When the U.S. Congress tries to pass a bill capping punitive damages, the trial-lawyer's lobbyists descend like a herd of locusts - and the Congressmen and ladies are scared they will lose the huge campaign contributions from the lawyers. Texas passed some tort reform (HB4) during the last legislative session. In health-care claims (that sounds much better than medical malpractice suits), economic damages will be paid in full. Noneconomic damages will be capped at $250,000 per claimant, with some exceptions. There is now an "innocent retail defense" by law, under which a retailer cannot be held liable for product liability defects unless that retailer has some responsibility for the defect. These are some of the items which will help bring doctors to Texas and allow retailers to stop having to defend against lawsuits over matters of which they had no control.
When a business wants to hire a new employee, former employers are hesitant to say anything negative about their former employees, for fear of being sued. Sued for what? Telling the truth? What a sad commentary. So, we have people in the child-care industry with a history of sexual abuse, people handling money with a history of embezzlement, and on and on. One of the worst cases that comes to mind was in the health-care industry, which is completely paranoid about lawsuits. Nurse Charles Cullen worked for 10 hospitals in 16 years. He was fired or forced to resign from seven of those hospitals. Many of the former work places had suspicions - or worse - that Mr. Cullen was getting potentially deadly drugs from the pharmacy without authority, and many of his patients died under questionable circumstances. Yet, not one of the new employers got a bad "fitness report" from a former employer. Well, Mr. Cullen killed about 40 patients by various means, such as overdoses of fatal drugs, wrong IVs, etc. All because the fear of lawyers and lawsuits kept the former employers from telling the new ones that Mr. Cullen had a checkered and questionable work record. I submit that lawyers actually were the proximate cause of the 40 patient deaths. When I was in marketing in big-time corporate America, I got really tired of hearing, "We'll have to run that by the lawyers." The object in business today is not to be innovative, not to sell products and services, but to avoid lawsuits. Think "outside the box" and you'll end up in court. The person who ought to be sued is the one who coined the phrase "think outside the box." What box? Have you ever done much thinking in a box? Two lawyers are "credited" with creating the first e-mail SPAM in 1994. The Jewish attorneys, Laurence Canter and his then wife, Martha Siegel, produced a script that flooded online message boards with an advertisement pitching the legal services of Canter & Siegel. Philosophically, lawyers stand up for the rights of individuals who have been wronged, either by another person, or by a business. But we have way more lawyers than we need to protect rights. A huge number are involved in the bringing of frivolous lawsuits and sometimes establishing a legal precedent for rewarding stupid behavior. We all know that fire burns, fast-food coffee is usually very hot, that guns can kill, that standing on the top step of a ladder is not too bright, and so on. The cost of defending these lawsuits is yet another drain on our economy, often with only the lawyers showing any real monetary gain. Lawyers spend valuable court resources and time litigating about a variety of mouse in Wyoming being endangered. In the grand scheme of life, will the loss of this mouse make any difference? Except to the snakes and hawks that feed on them. Bad snake. Bad hawk. Sue the snakes and hawks. Class-action suits make big money for lawyers, but often very little for the people wronged. I mentioned (Outback Dec. 5, 2003) that I got a check for 28 cents as a member of a class-action suit, that I did not know I was a part of. The tobacco class-action lawsuit is one of the greatest travesties in modern American jurisprudence. The abuses and unconscionable enrichment of lawyers in this matter have been well documented. For example, many of the dollars supposed to be spent on public education about the dangers of smoking were diverted to other purposes. Then came the lawsuits against tobacco companies from smokers who got Cancer. Again, whatever happened to the concept of "assumption of risk"? Class-action lawsuits, based on very questionable scientific claims, nearly destroyed the vaccine manufacturing industry. The results are still seen today in the small number of companies that are in the vaccine business. The Federal government shares some of the blame. For instance, the tax code is so complex that millions of dollars are spent each year on lawyers who attempt to minimize the tax burden for individuals and corporations. They often device tax-shelter schemes that are patently illegal and defy the IRS to figure it out and bring actions to stop the abuse. I spent several years working with my departed soul mate on "estate planning" to minimize the tax burden on her children when she died. My friend spent at least $10,000 on one attorney in the estate-planning field, and she used several over the years. Courts and jails are jammed with people who got caught with a very small amount of illegal drugs or pot. But, mandatory sentencing guidelines prevent judges from exercising discretion. Court dockets are loaded with these relatively minor cases, while large cases have to fight through the logjam to get on the docket. I will not take the time to cite a bunch of statistics about the court backlogs that are delaying and often denying justice. Here is just one example: The number of cases filed in Delaware's state court system increased by 30 percent in the last decade, and the backlog waiting to be tried in some lower courts at the end of each year doubled and tripled. The number of judges, however, increased only 13 percent from 1993 to 2002. Multiply this by 50 and then add the Federal Appeals Courts backlog, and the backlog of state Supreme Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, and you can begin to see the enormity of the problem. You hear more and more "We will take this all the way to the Supreme Court." Good luck. The chances of the Court even taking the case and ever getting around to it make it unlikely that a majority of the appeals will ever be decided by the High Court. The law schools keep turning out new lawyers like sausages. I once proposed closing the law schools for 10 years to let some attrition clean out the overabundance of lawyers. Of course, that was a fantasy. How much better for society if most of those who now enter law school were instead to pursue degrees in education, nursing, or social work? Well, there's no money in that! Exactly. When you sign up for a new phone number, be sure to tell the rep that you want to be placed on their "No Telemarketing list." Federal and state do-not-call lists usually allow for anyone with whom you have a business relationship to make telemarketing calls to you, unless you tell them to stop. I was sure that when I got my new SBC residential phone number I had asked to be put on the "No Telemarketing" list at SBC. But, I began to get SBC telemarketing calls, often more than one-a-day, and some automated ones that left messages on my answering machine. I contacted a rep by phone and asked to be put on the "No Telemarketing" list. I told him that I was too far out in the country for DSL (which I would love to have), already had DishNetwork satellite TV, and was already using SBC as my long distance carrier. And that I was familiar with all the services offered and did not need any "help." He seemed sympathetic. He said that it might take up to 30 days to get me off of "all" of the lists. There were multiple lists? Apparently, several departments were calling. After a few days, I got tired of the continual calls. Even though I never answered the phone, it was annoying because I have it set for long rings - as most telemarketers will hang up after 5 or 6 rings. And I had to go around the house and erase the Caller ID from three phones. I like a clean slate in my Caller-ID list. So, I wrote a letter to the president of SBC in San Antonio, asking him that if he had any clout, could he get me off the lists today! A while later, I got a letter from Little Rock, with no return address - just an SBC logo. The letter said that they had been unable to contact me by phone - and repeating that it might take 30 days to get me off the SBC lists. Contact me by phone! That was what I was complaining about. No wonder they could not contact me, the number they listed as a contact number was in Ft. Worth, about 160 miles from here. I sent a copy of that letter back to the office of the SBC president saying that it was an inadequate and flawed response - and sending business letters without a return address was not - in my view - and acceptable practice for a large company. Finally, that whoever sent me that letter should have their personnel folder marked with "does not pay attention to detail." I think that the SBC calls have abated. But, I have turned off my answering machine until my FTC and Texas do-not-call lists kick in. My son told me that shortly after he got his DSL, he got a call from an SBC rep asking if he would be interested in getting DSL. No thanks, I already have it. Also, call all of your credit-card issuers and tell them to put you on their individual do-not-call lists. I have taken my phone number off of my checks. Too many people handle the checks in transit, and I am willing to bet that some of those folks are mining phone numbers for telemarketers. Me paranoid? Yes. With good reason. Google, best known for its powerful search engine, has announced plans for a new free e-mail service. Users would be allowed 1 gigabyte of e-mail storage. That is enough to store about 500,000 pages of e-mail! The rub is that Google plans to scan your e-mail and target ads to you based on the content of your e-mail. What seems incredible to me is that a lot of people apparently want to sign up for the service. Why would you need room for 500,000 pages of e-mail? And even though you delete messages from your account, they will remain on a backup server or on tape - even if you terminate your account. There have been past breaches of hacking into Web-based e-mail, once making 50 million accounts available without a password. Why would you consider leaving years worth of e-mail on a server? I periodically clean out even my ISP e-mail files on my hard drive and encrypt the old ones. I think I have five stored messages in my Web-based e-mail account. The Wall Street Journal ran a column about Gmail and asked for reader's thoughts. Some responded by saying that they trusted Google and would sign up. One reader suggested that the FBI would surely want to tap into the Google e-mail account scans, looking for terrorists. Another said that they were thinking about blocking the Gmail domain from their corporate server. There was also one comment that questioned why people need to store large amounts of mail on any Web-based server. Most ISP offer generous amounts of server storage for e-mail. And for those who say that they use Web-mail because they travel, most ISPs of any size offer a Web-mail function. Even my ISP in a nearby town of 25,000 people has a Web-mail function for my normal e-mail account at the ISP. In fact, I use the Web-mail function to screen - and possibly delete - my incoming messages before I download them via Eudora. Further, who really wants ads with their e-mail? I don't use Outlook, and could have installed a free version of Eudora which sends you ads. But, I spent $39.95 to buy Eudora Pro, and there are no ads. Norton Internet Security blocks ads, as do several other programs. The large sales of ad-blocking software tells me that most people don't want ads while they surf or in their e-mails. Before you sign up for Google's Gmail, think about why you really need so much storage, the possibility of a flood of ads hitting you, and of the security implications of having so much e-mail on a major server. My prediction is that if Gmail goes through as planned, there will be one or more security disasters. And people will grow weary of the ads. None of this will affect me. Google could not pay me to use Gmail. But then, I was in technical operations in the CIA and perhaps a little more sensitive to the security issues - and better informed about the perils. COPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Postal Service Abbreviations - Richard C. Rhodes End |