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God bless America

October 19th 2008 04:12

Senator Ernie Chambers

One is led to wonder at the amount of cynicism and scepticism being aimed at American politicians at the moment. Are we all getting complacent? Aren't these democratically elected citizens our natural leaders and guides in questions of community values and behaviour?

Just look at the recent news about Ernie Chambers, a Senator from Nebraska, who decided to spend some of his Senatorial energy, and a few taxpayer dollars, suing God.

Ernie sought a court-ordered injunction preventing God ever again engaging in such things as "widespread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of Earth's inhabitants".

He cited that the "defendant directly and proximately has caused, inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plagues ..." and other stuff including birth defects and genocidal wars.

Alliteration wasn't mentioned, so the Senator is apparently taking responsibility for that himself.

Ernie added that the real point of the case - which was disallowed by the judge on the grounds that God has no listed address - was to prove that "anyone can sue anyone they choose to".

God help us.

telegraph.co.uk, foxnews.com

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: US, Politics

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Bumble's guide to US law

July 19th 2008 08:15

Dickens' Mr Bumble, the first to claim that the law can be an ass

Is it naïve to suggest that America is the land where litigation is the domain of the inventive? If you dream it, they will sue it.

As if the woman who sued McDonald's, and won, because her coffee was hot wasn't strange enough, we have had the story this week of a man suing his church because he fell and hit his head while worshipping. So consumed by the spirit of God was Matt Lincoln of Tennessee that he fell over, and he now wants his church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills and lost income.

Mr Lincoln said he was asking God to have "a real experience" while praying. Uh huh.

Is it innocent to suggest that the US keeps seeing these whacky insurance claims because the American legal system indulges them? The McDonald's coffee case is real - Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages after spilling a cup of McDonald's coffee into her lap in 1992. The amount was later reduced to $480,000, and then, after further legal wrestling, the case was settled secretly despite it being a public case and despite it receiving wide media coverage at the time.

These things are rarely simple and never one-sided. Details of this case, with a seemingly objective overview, can be found here. But the question remains why the US legal system, which gave the world ambulance chasing, grants so much scope to clumsy coffee drinkers and doddery church goers.

A legal system should protect the public from unscrupulous or unfair corporate practices, and it should equally protect companies from frivolous or spurious claims by the public. The McDonald's coffee case looks very much like it came down to a covert settlement negotiated by the two parties because the legal system failed to do it for them.

It's tempting to throw the book at the Amercian system. Specifically, a copy of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, within the pages of which Mr Bumble uttered, "The law is a ass - a idiot."

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Law, Odd Spot

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The All-Star game - a cricketer's perspective

July 16th 2008 12:31

Oh my, the Americans do it well, don't they? It was a celebration of baseball, and it was a celebration of sport. It was a privilege to see the living Hall of Famers, it was moving to see the tribute to Yankee Stadium, and it was fascinating to watch and witness the history and lore and love for this game of baseball of Americans.

It's a global game, and many other countries were represented in the All-Star game, but it's an essentially American day, a window to its culture.

As a boy growing up in southern Australia, my winters were all about Australian football and my summers were about cricket. I played four seasons of baseball in the years after retiring from the rigours of football, but I never learned the rules thoroughly enough to be able to join in the arguments which are enjoyed by everyone from bush league players to major league managers.

It is a deceptively complicated game, it is rich in tradition and lore, and it is dominated by statistics. These are attractions which any cricket aficionado will understand.

In my younger days I went to a party in San Francisco. There were only two men at the party because there were only two heterosexual couples present. I was approached fairly early in the evening by a woman who stood before me and locked her eyes to mine. I imagined she looked less then friendly, and I timidly wondered if it was my maleness or my Australianess which was about to be called into question.

"What is the difference," she asked, "between baseball and cricket?"

What a delightful question. The answer, I suggested after a little consideration, might best start with a rephrasing of the question: "What are the similarities between the two games?" I mentioned the obvious division of games into innings and the similar roles of bowlers and pitchers, batsmen and batters, wicketkeepers and catchers.

But then things started to go awry. She looked disbelieving when I said a cricket game can last five days and her eyes glazed when I mentioned the LBW law. Which was a shame because she'd tuned out before I got to the best bit - the love of both sets of fans of the numbers which are the fabric of their game.

We have nothing in cricket that compares to the All-Star game. We have nothing that brings together, on one big stage, every year, a massive and merry spectacle which places before the viewer everything that was and is good about the game.

They do it well, the Americans.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Sport

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Men who think with their nozzles

July 9th 2008 11:14

She hasn't been told about the petrol voucher promotion

Picture: glossynews.com

American men, it appears, think with their nozzles.

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Odd Spot

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Beijing has more of everything

July 3rd 2008 23:15

Chinese anti-terrorist training

Picture: Xinhua

Beijing is planning for the Olympics by, amongst other things, preparing a welcome committee for would-be terrorists, telling the President of France that he's not welcome, and annoying just about everybody seeking a tourist visa.

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Asia, China, Hong Kong, US

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