Archive for May 8th, 2006
I had some packages to mail today and went, as I usually do, to the U.S. Post Office on Hertel, in North Buffalo. As I walked into the building I noticed an employee sitting on a chair off to the far right. Her ‘job” apparently is to assist confused postal patrons. People who do not know who to use a vending machine, drop a letter in a slot, stand in line or read directions printed in English. I would say that she has been performing this function 7 out of the last 10 times I went there. The shocker today is that she was about 20 feet away from where customers enter. 90% of the customers go to the left where the service coutner is, she was way off to the right. While I was in there, a customer was attempting to use the stamp vending machine. The employee yelled across the floor informing him that it was out of order. Couldn’t a sign have performed the same function more efficiently?
Today the line was only a few people long. Other times I have seen 20 or more people in line. Wouldn’t you think the lobby person would man a position at the service counter to speed things up? WRONG.
I want that job!
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President Bush has already deceived us once while leading us into war with Iraq. He appears poised to do it again with Iran. I can only think of two possible explainations for his actions. One, he has some hidden agenda we don’t know about. Or, two, his is a total nut case!
Iran’s nuclear program is a danger to the entire world, U.S. President George Bush warned again last week as Washington pressed the UN Security Council to impose sanctions.
The uproar certainly helped distract public attention from the Bush administration’s mounting domestic and foreign policy woes. It also showed how few people understand the Iranian nuclear question.
Experts say Iran may be in a position to fabricate a crude nuclear weapon in 5-10 years, but all the current alarms about Iran ignore a basic reality of nuclear weapons.
A nuclear device is useless unless it can be delivered with moderate accuracy over medium to long distances. One reason I was among the few insisting in 2002 that Iraq posed no threat was because it had no delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s most advanced missile could fly only 130 km. Its aircraft couldn’t carry a nuclear weapon.
Even if Iran could fabricate, miniaturize and harden a nuclear warhead (a difficult achievement), the maximum range of the country’s most advanced missile — the highly inaccurate Shahab-3 — is only about 1,300 kms. Iran has no nuclear-capable aircraft.
The only way Iran could pose the grave nuclear threat to the U.S. that Bush and his aides loudly claim, would be to send a nuclear device by freighter or FedEx.
There is no logical explaination for his actions.
Iran’s nuclear program is a danger to the entire world, U.S. President George Bush warned again last week as Washington pressed the UN Security Council to impose sanctions.
The uproar certainly helped distract public attention from the Bush administration’s mounting domestic and foreign policy woes. It also showed how few people understand the Iranian nuclear question.
Experts say Iran may be in a position to fabricate a crude nuclear weapon in 5-10 years, but all the current alarms about Iran ignore a basic reality of nuclear weapons.
A nuclear device is useless unless it can be delivered with moderate accuracy over medium to long distances. One reason I was among the few insisting in 2002 that Iraq posed no threat was because it had no delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s most advanced missile could fly only 130 km. Its aircraft couldn’t carry a nuclear weapon.
Even if Iran could fabricate, miniaturize and harden a nuclear warhead (a difficult achievement), the maximum range of the country’s most advanced missile — the highly inaccurate Shahab-3 — is only about 1,300 kms. Iran has no nuclear-capable aircraft.
The only way Iran could pose the grave nuclear threat to the U.S. that Bush and his aides loudly claim, would be to send a nuclear device by freighter or FedEx.
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How Much Is That Dog Bite in the Hamptons?
A woman attending a party in the Hamptons was bit in the ankle by Oreo, a 9-year-old cockapoo. The woman has been treated and hospitalized for various injuries to muscle, scarring, etc. She is sueing for $3 million in compensatory damages. Under New York State law she is eligible for up to $30 million in punitive damages.
“[A]mple evidence exists from which the trier of fact could infer that defendants were aware of Oreo’s tendency to bite, but deliberately failed to prevent further incidents,” Supreme Court Justice Joan A. Madden (See Profile) ruled in Marsh v. Della Femina. “Defendants’ knowledge of Oreo’s propensity to bite is … relevant to plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages, i.e. whether defendants consciously and recklessly disregarded the danger posed by Oreo.”
Justice Madden therefore granted Dolores Marsh’s motion to amend her complaint to include a demand for punitive damages. Only one New York court has awarded punitive damages for a dog bite — the City Court of Yonkers in the 1995 decision Nardi v. Gonzales, 165 Misc2d 336 — according to Justice Madden’s decision.
Marsh presented testimony from three people who claimed to have been bitten by Oreo, Andrea Pearlman and two UPS deliverymen.
Pearlman testified that Oreo “lunged at me and bit through my pants” as she walked along the beach near the defendants’ home. She received $100 from Licht to replace her pants, she testified. One of the UPS workers initiated a claim, then settled out of court.
According to the decision, Della Femina wrote an article for a Hamptons newspaper, The Independent, titled, “Oreo Confesses (Sort Of).” In the article, published one month after the first UPS man was purportedly bitten, Della Femina wrote that “although he knows that Oreo is guilty, ‘we can’t do anything about it.’ … So Oreo stays and from time to time he will bite and lie and get away with it.”
Licht and Della Femina, however, claimed they had no knowledge of prior bites. Della Femina testified that the article was “satirical and purely fictional and had no relation” to the first incident with a UPS man.
Jim Ostrowski illuminated more foolishness related to gasoline price gouging. You can check out both of his posts on the Free New York Blog. The first post is about our wonderful elected officials. The second post deals with the incompetance of Congress.
