WHAT GOES AROUND... REDUX

CLASS ACTION LAW FIRM SUED
There was an interesting article in this Thursday's (03-24-05) WSJ (Now Being Sued: Class Action Lawyers by David Wessel pg. A2) which reported that a Law Firm specializing in CLASS ACTION SUITS was being sued for LEGAL MALPRACTICE because it failed to go for the maximum amount potentially available in one of its lawsuits. This suit, after several appeals by the plaintiff law firm that have been denied, is ready to go to court.

What's important here is not the particular subject matter of the suit, but the fact that several judges have agreed to let this kind of suit go forward. The usual excuse in such cases (i.e. "A JUDGE approved this CLASS ACTION SUIT") apparently no longer holds. Needless to say, this also sets a NEW and interesting precedent.

With this event, it would seem that the LITIGATION EXPLOSION in the US has reached the inevitable point where it has become a SATURNALIA (i.e. it's eating its own children).

Given the prevailing trends, it was only a matter of time. This kind of excess is usually associated with radical revolutions (the FRENCH and RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS executed many of its originators), but the MSM (Main Stream Media) has downplayed the fact that LITIGATION EXPLOSION has been a comparable kind of revolution (it's indeed a REVOLUTION because it undermines if not "overthrows" the LEGISLATIVE and EXECUTIVE branches of the government and the POWER of the PEOPLE to elect others to express their WILL) in the US.

While this particular instance of "nibbling at their own tails" is restricted to CLASS ACTION LITIGATORS, there are signs that the entire class of LEGALISTAS (LAWYERS and COURTS and JUDGES [LAWYERS IN BLACK]) have gone too far to expand their influence and power over our everyday lives, and that their hijacking of POWER is (and it's HIGH TIME) being questioned if not outright attacked by the PEOPLE.

RESTRICTIONS ON CLASS ACTION SUITS
First of all, there was recent legislation that put some curbs on the ABUSES that arise from CLASS ACTION SUITS (mainly, it costs EVERYBODY, ONLY THE LAWYERS MAKE OUT BIG TIME, and each plaintiff named in CLASS ACTION SUITS gets a mere PITTANCE [like frequent flyer miles or coupons or a few dollars]. The most egregious example is what SMOKERS who might want to quit get from the ANTI-SMOKING CLASS ACTION SUITS... NADA!!!).

That's only a start. There are countless other examples of RULE by LAWYERS (and COURTS and JUDGES) and LEGISLATION from the BENCH, rather than a proper separation of powers and the RULE of LAW, that are crying to be remedied.

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
Here we have an situation where by definition, NOBODY WINS.

This is also a case where apparently the LEGALISTAS solicited so far, are in favor of DEATH. The Hospice in which TERRI resides has been willing to keep her alive GRATIS rather than incurring costs from anyone else. However, the LEGALISTAS have ordered this Hospice to in effect KILL HER!! (i.e. to remove her feeding tubes and STARVE HER TO DEATH!!).

RIGHTS... DERIVED [PRIVACY] vs EXPLICIT [FREE SPEECH]
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt9.html#PART9MAY06

The issue of whether her parent's or her husband's wishes are to prevail is still in doubt. TERRI did not have a LIVING WILL spelling out her wishes in case something like this happened to her. George Greer, a Florida judge declared that based on "hearsay evidence" (as reported by her husband Michael), it was TERRI's wish that she was not to be kept alive artificially.

This is interesting, since "hearsay evidence" is generally not allowed to be introduced in legal proceedings.

The other part of the judge's ruling has to do with declaring that her husband Michael rather than her parents the Schindlers have the final say as to what happens with TERRI. Michael wants her DEAD while the Schindlers want to care for her and keep her ALIVE. Judge Greer in effect removed TERRI from the Schindler's list.

Giving the husband the power of LIFE and DEATH over his wife, seems somehow reminiscent of ISLAMIC LAW in places like Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, there is not even a peep of protest about this from the FEMINISTS (NOW, NARAL etc.). Apparently this is because there are larger issues in play.

However, it's not really as the FEMINISTS would have it, about THE RIGHT TO DIE (where the victim has a CHOICE via a living will), but rather about a LICENSE TO KILL given to someone else, as in ABORTION and EUTHANASIA (where the victim does NOT have a CHOICE). It's a CULTURE of DEATH thing.

ABORTION and THE DEATH PENALTY.. A PARADOX
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt1.html#PART1072

A DIALOGUE CONCERNING ABORTION (01-03-03)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt8.html#PART8JAN0301

One would think that the DEFAULT (the DOCTOR'S credo of "Do no harm!") position would be to keep her ALIVE while this is being adjudicated and settled. Granted that she's been kept artificially 'alive' (who KNOWS for sure how 'alive' she really is, and whether there is a reasonable hope for her REVIVAL) for 15 years. If she's truly a 'vegetable' then she won't suffer from being kept alive. If there's even a remote hope of 'reviving' her, then where's the harm? Why not a few months more until the issue is legally settled, especially since it isn't costing anyone to do this?

Meanwhile these same LEGALISTAS (and their IDIOCRAT SPONSORS) agonize over the DEATH PENALTY for MASS MURDERERS, and the relative "cushiness" of the accommodations of TERRORISTS in Guantanamo Bay, while insisting that KILLING BABIES and the INFIRM IS OK.

That sure sounds like the NAZI "eugenic" notion of KILLING the "inferior or societally useless" INFIRM for the benefit of the "race".

One could legitimately extrapolate that these same LEGALISTAS and IDIOCRATS might propose similar remedies for dealing with the MEDICARE and SOCIAL SECURITY FINANCING PROBLEM by the "systematic pruning" (triage?) of the ELDERLY. They probably feel that it's not only the RIGHT, but the DUTY of these ELDERLY to DIE in a timely manner, so that the Misery Maggots can spend more of their SOCIAL SECURITY taxes on their pet projects.

COMMENTS on SOCIAL SECURITY
#110745735211386402

THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt2.html#PART2093

Ironically enough, yesterday there was a big to-do by presumably these same types of people (IDIOCRATS) over the possibility that an ALLIGATOR (this BRUTE was a clear danger to babies and pets in its cruising range) might be KILLED in FLORIDA while it was being captured.

For what it's worth, the ALLIGATOR is OK and was relocated to a wildlife preserve, while TERRI is still not allowed to be put back on her feeding tubes while the legal issues are being adjudicated.

This whole issue will not go away even if TERRI eventually DIES. If this happens, she will very likely attain MARTYR status among a significant part of our population, and one can readily imagine her funeral being turned into a spectacle.

CONCLUSION
Ideally, the JUDICIARY and other GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS would stay out of our personal lives as much as possible. The COURTS all the way up to the SUPREMES have shown a penchant for not adhering to this notion. At the same time they are for the most part both LEFTWARD BIASED and NOT ACCOUNTABLE to the PEOPLE, in contrast to the LEGISLATIVE and EXECUTIVE branches of the government.

It's time to change this along the lines already demonstrated by "Suing the CLASS ACTION LITIGATORS", via more frequent invocations of JUDICIAL IMPEACHMENTS and RECALLS!!

If that does not work, let's press for a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT that spells out the proper restrictions on the de facto POWERS OF THE JUDICIARY, and makes this largely UNELECTED branch of our government more ACCOUNTABLE!!

LEGAL ISSUES
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedix1.html#lawyers

FORGET RETRO RADS... LET'S LIVE IN THE 21st CENTURY

The last time anyone has bothered to look, we entered a new millennium back in 2000, and are currently living in the 21st Century. One would be inclined assume (based on their monikers) that those calling themselves 'progressive' or 'radical' would be looking toward the future and would be predisposed to welcome change and innovation.

This assumption would be wrong. The very terms 'progressive', and 'radical' or 'RAD', are good examples of the FUBARING of language by the likes of one of their 'leading lights' Herbert Marcuse, and really mean their opposite. Incidentally, the use here of the term 'RADS', is meant to be an umbrella that covers various self proclaimed and self anointed 'progressives', 'elites', 'intellectuals' (more likely pseudo than not), 'multicultural basket weavers', 'deconstructionists', 'environmental advocates', 'legislating from the bench legalistas', 'neo Luddites', 'cultural Marxists', 'economic Marxists', 'collectivists', 'relativists', 'PC pukes', 'pundit pukes', 'dirigistes and/or other kinds of kontrol freaks', and the MSM [Main Stream Media], and an assortment of other like minded 'penumbral fellow travelers'. A common trait for this coven of RADS is their inclination to look backward rather than forward.

Interestingly enough, even the Marcusian 'double speak' that seems to be the current 'lingua franca' of the RADS, is backwards looking insofar as it seems to imitate the twisting, distortion, and inversion of language described in Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, both of which were written in the previous century, along with the writings and rantings of Marcuse. It's possible that Orwell himself foresaw where this was heading.

"... some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them..."
-- George Orwell

The 'new speak' of today's RADS is really a manifestation of 'Back to the future', in this case 1984. Of course that is only the beginning.

DOMESTIC RADS
The RADS really base what passes for their 'ideas' on obsolete 19th Century constructs (economic Marxism) which in the 20th Century (in spite and/or possibly because of Lenin) proved to be unworkable in the economic realm. They ignore the fact that economic Marxism on a large scale and in spite of the use of 'deadly means of enforcement', was a failure and led to the collapse (and it was as much an economic collapse as a political collapse) of the USSR. They continue to advocate collectivism even though it has been shown not to work in spite of over 160 million innocent victims in the 20th Century, murdered by collectivist kontrol freaks of various sorts in the name of 'Social Justice and Equality'.

SLIPPERY SLOPE: CONTROL FREAKS->SOCIALISM->COMMUNISM->VICTIMS
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt1.html#PART1021

Even as they profess to ignore the rotting carcass of the T-Rex (i.e. the economic failure of collectivism and economic Marxism) in the room to outsiders, many of them paradoxically provide evidence that they are indeed aware of this T-Rex carcass, because they try to bring it back to life via a mouth to mouth infusion of 'cultural Marxism'.

'Cultural Marxism' is manifested primarily in things like 'Political Correctness' (which BTW originated appropriately enough in Stalinist Russia) and the plethora of penumbral outgrowths from this base (the 'ethos' of the scum of the 60's comes to mind). Unfortunately, it's alive and well in the ACADEMIC as well as POP CULTURE of today.

SCUM of the 60's
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/scum.html

MONICA
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/monica.html

Speaking of RAD RETRO thinking, the current flap over Harvard's Larry Summers discloses that RADS with so-called academic credentials are totally ignoring any and all the work that's been done by Psychologists in the past century or so regarding the relative influence of Nature vs. Nurture (it's about 50/50), as well as recent findings in Molecular Biology and Genetics.

These RADS continue to insist on the Stalinist 'blank slate' model, which posits that everyone is born as a totally 'blank slate' on which 'environmental factors' can be engineered and manipulated to write just about anything. The very idea that there might be a hereditary component to any phenomenon is rejected as total apostasy because it does not jibe with Stalinist and/or Collectivist doctrine, and erroneous notions regarding EQUALITY.

It's no accident that these RADS have also anointed themselves to be the 'behavioral engineers' who will naturally be doing all the 'writing' on these 'blank slates'. It's a sort of 'Eliza Doolitle' paradigm, which when taken to extremes, suggests that even a Chimpanzee can be taught to say

"The rain in Spain is mainly on the plain."

with the proper British upper class intonation.

Of course, if in FACT there are traits and tendencies that are there at birth, that are different for different individuals and groups, and that are out of the reach of these 'elite behavioral engineers', then the need for such 'elites' becomes less than obvious. The reason that this kind of RETRO thinking regarding SCIENCE even gets a hearing is because of the DUMBING DOWN and INDIFFERENCE of the general public. That's SCARY!


DUMBING DOWN and EDUCATION
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedix1.html#education

JUNK LOGIC (06-26-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp11.html#PART11JUN12

EMPIRICISM and MATH/SCIENCE EDUCATION (12-17-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp11.html#PART11JUN12

ISLAMIC RADS
Islamic Radicals and/or Terrorists seem to surpass the US and European RADS in the degree to which they are backward looking. Their jihad is aimed at turning the clock back to Medieval times. In their view, what makes the US the 'Great Satan', is as much its 'modernity' as the fact that its people are seen by the Islamic RADS as 'immoral infidels'. In their view 'modernity' inexorably leads to spawning 'Great Satans'.

The fact that the Islamic RADS may well be on the brink of having operational nuclear WMDs (they already have Chemical and Biological WMDs) in their arsenal (SEE: Iran) is not to be taken lightly. Has anyone noticed how similar Iran's resistance to inspections, denial that they have WMDs, and general waltzing around with the Euro's and the UN, seems to be to what happened with the same players vis-a-vis Iraq back in 2002? Will some Euro or US RAD eventually claim that Iran's WMD capability is also allegedly a myth, just as in Iraq??

Apparently Euro and US RADS believe that what count as 'real' WMD's are nothing less than massive and numerous silos full of ICBMs with nuclear tipped MIRVs, that such things were not found in Iraq, and even Iran doesn't have anything like this even as we speak, and therefore everyone is safe and Islamic RAD WMDs are a myth. The Euro/US RADS apparently also believe that Chemical and Biological WMDs, which could come in massive lethal doses in containers as small as attache cases... don't count as WMD's. How many such attache cases could have been moved to somewhere else or still be hidden in Iraq (roughly the same area as Texas)? Even though it amounts to attempting the impossible, i.e. proving a negative, the Euro/US RADS believe with Metaphysical Certitude that such weapons never existed in Iraq and don't exist today.

WHAT IF WE FIND NO WMD IN IRAQ? (05-13-03)
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/gipsy/626/aopedpt9.html#PART9MAY04

UPDATE ON WMD IN IRAQ (01-29-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp10.html#PART10JAN06

MORE ON IRAQI WMD (02-08-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp10.html#PART10FEB04

WHAT's REALLY a WMD? (04-01-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp10.html#PART10APR02

ABSENCE of HARD INFO on IRAQ, WMD, 9/11 (05-27-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp11.html#PART11MAY06

LACK of OVERSIGHT and FORESIGHT on 9/11 and IRAQI WMD (07-13-04)
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedp11.html#PART11JUL05

They can't seem to think outside the ICBM box when it comes to recognizing what can constitute a WMD (on 9/11, airplanes with kamikaze guidance systems were used as WMDs), and they also ignore the fact that Islamic RADS have a 'backward looking', primitive, low tech, RETRO WMD to which only demographers seem to be paying any attention. The WMD that Islamic RADS have already deployed in most Euro countries (without any overt effort on their part) is 'THE POPULATION BOMB'.

Given the aging and dying of native Euro's that's not being replenished by new births, and the prodigious fecundity of largely unassimilated Muslim immigrants in Euro countries, it's entirely possible that within another generation or so, Muslim immigrants may make up 30% or more of the population of Euro countries. Given how these immigrants are already influencing Euro foreign policy (for instance, the Muslims in France who make up 10% of the population, may well have had some influence on France opposing the Liberation of Iraq), it's not unreasonable to see this 'POPULATION BOMB' providing a fertile base and 'fifth column' for Islamic RADS in the not too distant future.

What goes around...

LINUX RADS
Is it possible that Linux ZEALOTS (another variety of RADS) are really backward looking Luddites of sorts? It's not exactly beyond the realm of possibility. Here they are, waging a virtual jihad in trying to impose Linux on the rest of the world.

Consider however, that Linux is really UNIX reverse engineered by Linus Torvalds to run on Intel machines. Torvalds did not invent a 'brand new operating system'. In fact, prior to Linux there were already other UNIX like Operating Systems running on Intel machines such as Minix, Coherent etc. Coherent even supported X-windows.

UNIX itself is close to 35 years old, and Linux is a virtual clone of UNIX. The Linux RADS are proceeding with apostolic zeal in trying to convert us to a 35 year old OS. Perhaps if this distraction did not exist, someone (possibly someone other than Microsoft) would have come up with an OS appropriate to the 21st century by now.

CONCLUSION
The tendency for RADS of various sorts to be 'backward looking' is more pervasive than what's been mentioned here. It would almost seem that RADS are 'conservative' and 'retrograde' and 'reactionary' in the sense that they are 'clinging to the past and the Status Quo', while today's Conservatives are actually more RADICAL insofar as they are the ones who are pushing for reform and change and innovation, and seem to be looking toward the future.

A MAP OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedpt1.html#PART1122

Things would probably be OK if these differences in perspective were to be worked out in the 'marketplace of ideas'. However, the reality is that there may currently not be anything resembling a 'marketplace of ideas' because the RADS have an Ideological Oligopoly on the Means of Information, and are not about to allow dissenting ideas to take seed, let alone flourish. Unfortunately, today's Academia (part of the Ideological Oligopoly) with its totalitarian suppression of diversity in ideas, and its pernicious dumbing down and corrosion of standards via Political Correctness, is hardly the place where new forward looking ideas are likely to originate.

MEDIA BIAS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUES
http://members.fortunecity.com/veritas1/aopedix1.html#media

20th Century 'modernism' and 'post modernism' is no longer 'modern' in the 21st Century. Ultimately, the 'baggage' of past thinking that has proven to not work as intended, should be abandoned and allowed to remain in the 19th and 20th Centuries where it originated, and we should look forward to developing fresh new thinking that's appropriate for the 21st Century. Perhaps part of this forward looking thinking will consist of breaking the stranglehold of the Ideological Information Oligopoly by finding new ways to disseminate information. There are signs that this is already well under way.