: Political banter..

[Fairlight]

Yo, homey, in case you don' be listenin', Bill Vermillion done said:
> 
> 	'The most stringent protection of free speech would not
> 	protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre, and
> 	causing panic.  It does not even protect a man from an
> 	injunction against uttering words that may have all the
> 	effects of force'.
> 
> IOW certain speech can be classified as dangerous, and the comment
> Holmes made did have the qualifier of 'causing panic'.   It's not
> the words, but what effect that words have that may make their use
> illegal.

Good.  Can I please sue Jewish Hospital and a few others that keep running
scare-tactic ad campaigns trying to get you into their ER's when you have
certain symptoms?

There are -literally- ads that have been running for over a year now that
cite a host of symptoms for which they say you should immeditely go to
their hospital for treatment because you could be having a heart attack.
Ironically and quite sadly, every single symptom they list is also a
symptom of a pure full-on panic attack and could be nothing more.

All this says to me is that these supposedly caring and "helpful"
organisations full of professionals are headed by people that don't have
any qualms about scaring the living crap out of people to make a buck.  And
then, THEN the bastards have the balls to send you to collection for an
outstanding $48 or so on a bill you've paid down from over $1000 on a
payment plan, in good faith, under agreement, because it's not quite paid
in full.  Yet they draw you in there under false pretenses.

After 27 EKG's in one year (about 5 or 6 years ago), I bloody well know
what real panic attacks can do, and I can honestly say I believe they're
simply frightening the most psychologically vulnerable people in the
name of profit, not educating people in the name of human interest.  And
I would -love- to see the practice stopped.  They're worse than the
ambulance-chasing lawyers, in my opinion.

So since they're causing harm by crying foul over things that are probably
not even accurate 90%+ of the time, how is this any different than yelling,
"Fire!" in a crowded theatre?  It causes emotional (and even physical)
stress and harm to the individuals their campaigns specifically target.

I'm not sure there's an institution much more depraved than our current
medical establishment.  More and more I see them as blood-sucking leeches,
feeding off human misery to make a buck.  I'm so damned tired of seeing
people victimised by the lot of them, all the way up and down the chain.

> > Of course, it didn't just stop there. Nowadays you can't even
> > tell someone what you think of them, in private, without facing
> > a lawsuit--even if it's a frivolous one.
> 
> In private?  WIth no witnesses it's your word against their word,
> and something like that is more appropriate for 'Judge Judy'.
> 
> In public there are law of libel and slander.

Sure.  But you and I both know there -are- nuisance suits.  You can sue
someone because you don't like the colour of their eyes.  You surely won't
win, but people have sued others for some absolutely ridiculous things.  

> It brings to mind the old "good guys don't win ball games" phrase.
> Or "If you have a lot of money don't worry about going to jail".
> It looks like that tide is starting to change.

And in related news...

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia stock dropped 4.4% today. :) It appears her
brand of safety matches ignite on contact when dropped.  K-Mart apparently
found this out firsthand in two separate incidents and has pulled the
product.

Gotta wonder if protecting that $50-60k was really worth it to her.

mark->
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