My boys like to be in control. I taught them to accept insults for what they are–an attempt to control interaction. I told them if they simply smiled and said, “Thank you,” they would then be in control because the other person is mad that they aren’t mad.
Well, Birdie stuck a finger in rfidtag’s eye and got a response. Sorry, that’s how my boys play the game. Anyway, rfidtag responded with portions of a post I’ve seen this weekend floating around liberal/leftist web sites regarding a case John Edwards handled.
In 1994, an eight-year old girl named Valerie Lakey was playing in a wading pool. She got caught in a defective drain. Her intestines were ripped from her body by the suction. She is now 17. She will have to be fed through a tube, 12 hours a day, for the rest of her life. In 1997, John Edwards won her family a $25 million judgment, of which he took a portion. The judgment helped jump-start his political career.
On the first day of last year, as part of his opening comments on Crossfire, this is how the incident was described by Tucker Carlson, whom public and private broadcasting networks tumble all over themselves to hire: “Four years ago, he (Edwards) was a personal-injury lawyer specializing in Jacuzzi cases.”
I went to college with a grandson of the Jacuzzis. He wasn’t evil, and I doubt his parents or grandparents were, either. But, I won’t debate the judgement of this jury, nor will I debate the judgement of the Mumia jury. That doesn’t mean I agree with either one. Funny how people can rally around a jury when the decision meets with their approval, then rant about how misguided a jury is when it doesn’t.
Anyway, my point in this whole issue revolves around the impression trying to be put forth that because Edwards won a $25 million award for these folks, he is somehow “for the little man.” Note that he “took a portion.” The entry doesn’t say how much. I’ve read it was as much as 40 percent. Most lawyers take 33 percent in cases like this, so it doesn’t sound too out of line.
How much of his $8 million or so did Edwards donate to the family to help them out? How much did he donate to the Jacuzzi company to help pay for research which might prevent such things in the future? Did he donate to the UNC Engineering Department to fund some such research?
Hey, he did his job and made a bunch of money. But there was nothing altruistic about it, any more than it is when any other personal injury lawyer wins a case like this.
Yes, the jury makes the decision. I sat on a jury in a personal injury case once, and it was obvious there was no negligence. Yet we still had one woman want to find for the injured claimant. “He got hurt, and somebody needs to give him some money.” And that is the kind of juror personal injury lawyers are looking for. With folks like that, fact means nothing. Emotion rules.
Thank You?
Comment by rfidtag — July 23, 2004 @ 11:41 pm
Control. I would say that since this is your personal site and he is your son and essentially a superuser with some admin powers, by definition he is already in control. But I am still baffled.
You see, I am having a bit of trouble finding the “Thank You” from your son…I think it should have been in reply to my (somewhat heated) call to stop making parroting bullsh*t talking points about Edwards making his fortune by, in Birdies’ words: “chasing ambulances.”
All I found was him accusing me of plagiarizing and calling me a “liberal [who] still do[es] not know how to think independently.”
Anyway, Bunker I think we could agree on the bigger issues of Tort reform and that is what matters. I sat on a jury selection for a civil suit that was a trip and fall, but the selection process got “poisoned” by the unscrupulous people who said “Hell ya, the fat cats should pay out big time” vs. “All civil suits are frivilous.”
On second thought…I did get out of jury duty because of that. Thank you uninformed bias, I salute you.
Comment by rfidtag — July 24, 2004 @ 11:29 am
Sorry you misunderstood the “Thank you.” There was no insult there, but my boys have learned to poke at folks to get a reaction sometimes. His use of the phrase “ambulance chaser” was a virtual poke in the eye to get a reaction. It did. Nothing spiteful. And no, he doesn’t have any control in this site except that which you also have.
I don’t know how you can really have tort reform which doesn’t hurt someone. I simply wish people in this country could look beyond the “get-rich quick” mentality we’ve apparently developed. That’s one reason I prefer to focus on culture rather than legislation in just about everything.
By the way, I wrote this post if that’s where you are seeing yourself being accused of plagarism. I didn’t say that. I simply stated that I had seen the quote you previously used on several other sites. When you put it in the comments section, it certainly was obvious to me you were quoting someone else, and not attempting to gloss anything over. Others are using the same cites in posts elsewhere, which is so very common in the blogosphere. No accusation from me, and I’m sorry if you took it in that way.
Comment by Bunker — July 24, 2004 @ 5:12 pm