James Glassman has an interesting Tech Central article on pernicious class action lawsuits — including one brought by Wal-Mart (against Visa, et al.) that threatens to wreak havoc on the longterm economy: “Wal-Mart’s Classless Act.” Here’s a snippet: It’s hardly a surprise that Wal-Mart, whose 1.3 million employees serve 100 million customers weekly, is the most-sued company in America. What’s alarming and puzzling, however, is that Wal-Mart is the lead

Well, here’s news worth interrupting a Sunday evening for (not much to interrupt, really — I’d been watching movies and eating pretzels in my underwear). Matt Drudge is reporting that the Bushies are about to do a 180-degree flip flop on their global warming stance: U-Turn: Bush Admin Outlines ‘Global Warming’ Effects On America; Acknowledges Damage In a stunning U-turn for the Bush administration, the United States has sent a

Eric Olsen of Tres Producers eats some meaty caps and sets to investigating the Dead and their enigmatic “Uncle John’s Band.” Predictably, he soon finds himself citing biblical verse and quoting from some 30s tune recorded by the Carolina Buddies. Trickster figures in the guise of birds abound — and there’s even talk of economic cycles and jet propulsion. The only thing missing is a screaming coming across the sky,

Eric Olsen of Tres Producers eats some meaty caps and sets to investigating the Dead and their enigmatic “Uncle John’s Band.” Predictably, he soon finds himself citing biblical verse and quoting from some 30s tune recorded by the Carolina Buddies. Trickster figures in the guise of birds abound — and there’s even talk of economic cycles and jet propulsion. The only thing missing is a screaming coming across the sky,

“Americans are not losing their minds, but they are afraid of using their minds. They are afraid to exercise judgment — afraid of being sued,” observes George Will. And he gives examples: […] The early 20th century playground movement aimed to acquaint children with mild risks. In 1917, a movement leader said: ‘It is reasonably evident that if a boy climbs on a swing frame and falls off, the school

Michael Gebert of Vorpal Blog says he understands why the Bush administration “went to the airwaves to cover their collective butt on the possibility that a terrorist attack will happen again in the United States” (having been “beaten up in the press over what could have been known before September 11th”). Still, he’s not happy with our defense strategy, and lists the things he feels we should be doing:

“Pennsylvania National Guard troops have been patrolling the state’ s five nuclear power plants with unloaded weapons, according to a state lawmaker. “House Minority Whip Mike Veon’ s comment in Friday’ s York Daily Record followed statements from guardsmen last week that they had been banned from carrying loaded weapons while on patrol at Pennsylvania airports following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “The Pennsylvania National Guard would not confirm either

Wow. Steven Plaut, a University of Haifa economics and business administration teacher, is bullish on the Israeli military. But don’t just take my word for it. Read it for yourself. It is time to return from the Oslo parallel universe — in which being nice to the PLO could produce a peaceful settlement of the Middle East conflict — to Planet Earth. In fact, there is no effective way for

Nice ‘n’ snarky Dov Fischer NRO column (instigated by a Robert Scheer rant) on the “I.Q. question”: Scheer’s writing reflects the polemic arrogance monopolized by a Left that is convinced its ranks are just too smart for conservatives to fathom and that conservatives are just too troglodytic to be liberal. Thus, as Paul Bacon has written, Gerald R. Ford was consistently mocked during his presidency as a bumbling and stumbling

Nice ‘n’ snarky Dov Fischer NRO column (instigated by a Robert Scheer rant) on the “I.Q. question”: Scheer’s writing reflects the polemic arrogance monopolized by a Left that is convinced its ranks are just too smart for conservatives to fathom and that conservatives are just too troglodytic to be liberal. Thus, as Paul Bacon has written, Gerald R. Ford was consistently mocked during his presidency as a bumbling and stumbling