19 Sep 2004
Woman trips on vegetables, files lawsuit

This is why trial lawyers are not real popular with small business (or large business, or local government) folks. I like the quote from the city attorney:

"We haven't gotten anything like this before," he said. "Obviously the city didn't sell the vegetables and the city didn't put the vegetables on the ground, so we'll have to investigate her theory of liability before responding."

I can tell you what her "theory of liability" is without any investigation at all: whoever has the most cash is the most liable.

A senior citizen who fractured her hip when she tripped over vegetables at a farmer's market two years ago is suing the city and the downtown business improvement district that sponsored the event.

(link) [Stamford Advocate]

via Overlawyered

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Schwarzenegger vetoes minimum wage hike

OK, lest anyone doubted it, Arnie's definitely a Republican!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed bills Saturday that would have raised the minimum wage to $7.75 an hour, made Wal-Mart-like megastores more difficult to build and limited schools' ability to give students random drug tests.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Dynamite Chickens

The meat chickens are going to be dynamite! The weather has been perfect, and they're really picking up the weight. Three weeks old (yesterday) and some of them are already pushing a pound!

We moved them out of the brooder a week early this time, and still haven't let them range outside (that'll happen this coming week). I think we kept the last bunch in the brooder too long, corwding them, and let them out too early, before they were fully feathered. This time, we moved them to an improved house inside the barn, and are setting up a fully enclosed yard system rather than letting them range the entire 12 acre pasture. So far we've lost only three chicks, giving us a total of 207 still going strong.

We've sold the final chicken from the last batch: I delivered a couple of freebies to local stores today to entice them to buy local, free range chickens, as I've found that once you eat one of these birds, it's really hard to go back to commercial factory meat. Happy birds taste better, and my chickens sell themselves.

We had discussed running chickens through the winter, but I don't think we're going to do it after all. I just don't feel comfortable selling birds that have been confined all their lives: every creature should have access to fresh air and sunshine, and in Indiana in January that'd be a real problem with baby chicks. They'd be flash frozen a bit early ... so seasonal production it is, for now.

00:00 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link

Bush's Cut-and-Spend Plan Is Math-Challenged (Los Angeles Times)

and so is Kerry's. The difference is that Kerry make no pretense of having his cake and eating it, too. Bush just promises people whatever he thinks it'll take to get elected.

Tax cuts are great - even if the Bush plan didn't help me personally. But government deficits are worse - they continually grow the national debt, and the interest thereupon, rather than retiring it.

In times of war, it's often necessary to raise taxes to pay for the additional expenditures. It was done in the Civil War and in both World Wars. Truman did it to help pay for the Korean conflict, and even LBJ put a surtax in place to keep Vietnam from completely running amok in the budget. Bush, however, is politically unable to take such a position. Take a look for yourself at what happened to the Federal budget on the watch of this "compassionate conservative".

Los Angeles Times - WASHINGTON — To hear President Bush talk about his plans for a second term, voters might think that the era of big government spending is back.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Pastor's Empire Built on Acts of Faith, and Cash (Los Angeles Times)

Man, I am a priest in the wrong religion, or at least it's the wrong one for financial success! Un-freaking believeable - how can people live lives of such blatant hypocrisy? But it looks as though the whole house of cards is going up in flames, thanks to last weeks allegation.

And not a day too soon, I might add.

Los Angeles Times - Pastor Paul Crouch looked into the camera and told his flock that Trinity Broadcasting Network needed $8 million to spread the Gospel throughout India and save 1 billion souls from damnation.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link