Hey, I'm an American living overseas, and the way Bush has changed America since my last visit scares the shit out of me. You may not have noticed it, but a certain fascist tinge really has crept into American life, with the flag as the rally symbol.
I'm staying overseas. Bush and his cronies are truly monsters.
America is exactly the same as it always was. I don't know where you get your information, but you seem paranoid -- maybe even clinically paranoid.
There are no victims of the "fascist tinge" you "see". There are no victims of these "monsters". Where are the innocent people who were victimized? What was the grievious harm?
That's exactly how the current law is written. Everything you mention is a judgement call.
If that's true, then it's extremely sad. It means the people involved in the system can't be trusted to exercise good judgement.
The only fix might be to just completely eliminate the ability to sue for negligence. Or make it so risky to file a suit that it's only done in the most extreme circumstances. Loser pays would help for the second one.
The primary cause of the injury was the tempertature. The woman could have spilled starbucks, burger king, duncan donuts, any number of other stores' coffee on herself and not received 3rd degree burns.
Coffee isn't for spilling. It's for drinking. McDonald's didn't make the coffee for her to spill on herself. It wasn't safe for spilling. They had no duty to make it safe for spilling.
I still don't see why she shouldn't be able to collect the the same damages if she injected the coffee into her bloodstream. Spilling it on your groin and injecting it are equally un-intended usages of the coffee.
Any system that allows for the collection of damages when you spill coffee on yourself is broken. If the system can't be changed to disallow that, then there ought not to be a system for collecting damages at all.
I'd change the rules so that McDonald's behavior had to be the primary cause of the injury, not just a factor. I'd also change it so that the injured party couldn't collect if their own actions were a significant factor in the injury.
1 MPH over the speed limit isn't a significant factor. Spilling the coffee all over yourself is.
Also, the temperature of the coffe wasn't the primary cause of the injury, the spillage was.
- You could start by giving up the idea that you're better than everyone else. - You could try to understand rather than "hate". - You could live your own life, rather than seeking validation through social consciousness. - Rather than trying to bring about a utopia, you could simply do good things and help people directly. - You could donate to charity instead of trying to raise money through involuntary taxation. - You could try to have a little faith in your fellow man to make his own life a success. - You could stop being offended as a way to exert power over people. - You could work on getting a sense of humor. - You could read up on what conservatives actually believe, rather than accepting the cartoon version you've heard before. I recommend Thomas Sowell. - You could reject fear as a motivation for your decisions. - For that matter, you could also reject hate, lust, greed, and envy as motivations for your decisions. - You could expand your circle of friends to include people who aren't so negative - You could stop being quite so fascinated with yourself.
One side has a point of view that is open to different ways of thinking, and strives to avoid actively repressing alternative approaches to life.
You're saying the left doesn't make rules for people's lives. I don't think you're paying attention. Here's some life choices the left will simply not allow:
- Paying low taxes - owning or carrying a gun - logging - running a nuclear power plant - not recycling - driving your choice of car - spanking your children - racism (or any other politically incorrect free speech) - taking a job (for children under 14 years old) - taking a job that only pays $3/hr - killing certain animals on your own property - not paying for abortions - smoking a cigarette - excluding people from your business - leaving all your money to your children when you die - snowmobiling in national parks
There are lots more things they'd restrict if they could.
as a foreigner living outside the US... I'll stay out of the US... as long as those paranoid suckers are in office, I wouldn't even want to enter the US as a tourist.
Fear of Bush is your deciding factor for not coming to the US -- and Bush is the one who's paranoid? I think you have a paranoia problem of your own.
It's so black and white is it?... [Very poor analogy used to (intentionaly?) confuse people deleted. ]... Does it not occur to you that there are levels of negligence? You've been working with binary way too long.
It's her own fault that she spilled coffee on herself. "Levels of negligence" are irrelevant because she injured herself.
If she was burned by drinking the coffee, then it might be worth a second thought, but she spilled it.
Maybe you think McDonald's should be responsible if she filled a needle with it and injected it into her arm?
She spilled the coffee on herself. All the rest of the points you want to bring up about it simply don't matter. Even if the coffee was 1000 degrees (impossible of course, but...) she still spilled it on herself.
If a legal system lets you get to trial for damages (let alone win) because you spilled coffee on yourself, that legal system is broken. Period.
Not only should she have had her case dismissed before trial, she should have had to pay McDonald's legal bills for filing such a ridiculous suit.
Re:Free Speech in Denmark??
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Press freedom
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· Score: 1
Is 'The American Way On Average' better than anything else in the world? So much better that you have to shove it down people's throats whether they like it or not?
Apart from that, what we have seen from America so far, in particular in recent years, is an aggressive and imperialistic power that has no regard for the lives, let alone the rights, of others.I'm sure I don't have to repeat the many facts about torture, lies in the UN etc etc. This is what is so revolting to most non-Americans: the combination of America's mindless egotism, the blind ignorance of the common Americans and the constant sanctimonious wanking to the sound of religious drivel.
If you guys are tired of hearing criticism you should change your ways. You say you live in a democracy - then choose better leaders.
Every word of this is 100% BS. There's not a single fact here. And you're clearly not a serious person if you believe this cartoon version of reality.
Re:Free Speech in Denmark??
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Press freedom
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· Score: 1
I am pretty worried of US citizens believing that each and every single thing about US is the best in the world.
It's not each and every thing. Nobody's perfect. But the US does pretty well on average.
And many of us in the US are tired of all the constant complaining. On average, the US is a very good place to live. On average, the policies and actions of the US are a very positive force in for good in the world.
So congrats to Denmark. Danish journalists clearly like Denmark and consider themselves free there.
In the US, journalists usually can't be successful if they like their country. Our journalists are a bunch of bitter elitists who usually do as much to hide the facts as they do to report them. I'm surprised we scored as high as we did.
Lucky for us, the Internet and the democratization of information publishing has made journalists unnecessary and anachronistic.
All in all, I suspect the American Dream is getting farther and farther away, for most Americans.
This is because you can't be happy with the relative prosperity of middle-class like your ancestors claimed they were.
The American Dream used to be owning your own home. The home ownership rate is 69% now. But you're not satisfied, because buying a house was too easy. It didn't make you feel prosperous, even though you are very prosperous by historic or worldwide standards.
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So she would have not gotten 3rd degree burns if she had drank the coffee
What didn't happen didn't cause injury. Someone who got burned drinking it can try suing.
Did they or should they have had knowledge that the average person might spill this coffee on themselves?
Besides drinking it, they shouldn't have to care what people do with it. It's sold for drinking and for no other purpose.
McDonald's is exactly 0% responsible for her spilling the coffee and whatever the results were.
How are you using the word equally?
McDonald's sold it for spilling in exactly the same amount that they sold it for injecting. Zero.
Thousands of people a day spill coffee on themsleves each day while trying to drink it.
That's their problem. It shouldn't be my problem or McDonald's problem.
If they don't want to deal with the consequences of their mistakes, they should be more careful.
Hey, I'm an American living overseas, and the way Bush has changed America since my last visit scares the shit out of me. You may not have noticed it, but a certain fascist tinge really has crept into American life, with the flag as the rally symbol.
I'm staying overseas. Bush and his cronies are truly monsters.
America is exactly the same as it always was. I don't know where you get your information, but you seem paranoid -- maybe even clinically paranoid.
There are no victims of the "fascist tinge" you "see". There are no victims of these "monsters". Where are the innocent people who were victimized? What was the grievious harm?
That's exactly how the current law is written. Everything you mention is a judgement call.
If that's true, then it's extremely sad. It means the people involved in the system can't be trusted to exercise good judgement.
The only fix might be to just completely eliminate the ability to sue for negligence. Or make it so risky to file a suit that it's only done in the most extreme circumstances. Loser pays would help for the second one.
The primary cause of the injury was the tempertature. The woman could have spilled starbucks, burger king, duncan donuts, any number of other stores' coffee on herself and not received 3rd degree burns.
Coffee isn't for spilling. It's for drinking. McDonald's didn't make the coffee for her to spill on herself. It wasn't safe for spilling. They had no duty to make it safe for spilling.
I still don't see why she shouldn't be able to collect the the same damages if she injected the coffee into her bloodstream. Spilling it on your groin and injecting it are equally un-intended usages of the coffee.
Any system that allows for the collection of damages when you spill coffee on yourself is broken. If the system can't be changed to disallow that, then there ought not to be a system for collecting damages at all.
I'd change the rules so that McDonald's behavior had to be the primary cause of the injury, not just a factor. I'd also change it so that the injured party couldn't collect if their own actions were a significant factor in the injury.
1 MPH over the speed limit isn't a significant factor. Spilling the coffee all over yourself is.
Also, the temperature of the coffe wasn't the primary cause of the injury, the spillage was.
All the anti-patriot-act stuff you hear is simply hype. Government agents have better things to do than follow around random harmless folks.
The patriot-act bashers have a few legitimate points, but they've gone way beyond rationality in their fearmongering.
Ditto for this international ally business. It's a disagreement. That's all. It's been hyped up to score political points.
I understand. You repress certain lifestyles because they conflict with your values. That's what I was saying.
But what I say is that USA put A LOT of pressure on other countries regarding their politics and vision of things.
Pressure is irrelevant. Tell them to stand up to the pressure and do the right thing.
Believe it or not, that's what a lot of Bush voters think they put Bush in office to do.
How can we live here any more?
- You could start by giving up the idea that you're better than everyone else.
- You could try to understand rather than "hate".
- You could live your own life, rather than seeking validation through social consciousness.
- Rather than trying to bring about a utopia, you could simply do good things and help people directly.
- You could donate to charity instead of trying to raise money through involuntary taxation.
- You could try to have a little faith in your fellow man to make his own life a success.
- You could stop being offended as a way to exert power over people.
- You could work on getting a sense of humor.
- You could read up on what conservatives actually believe, rather than accepting the cartoon version you've heard before. I recommend Thomas Sowell.
- You could reject fear as a motivation for your decisions.
- For that matter, you could also reject hate, lust, greed, and envy as motivations for your decisions.
- You could expand your circle of friends to include people who aren't so negative
- You could stop being quite so fascinated with yourself.
There's a place to start.
ammunition stolen, buidings pillaged
Both of those stories were later proven to be incorrect, BTW. The ammunition wasn't stolen and the museum wasn't pillaged.
Thanks for spelling out the rules. Those rules need to be changed. That's the point.
They need to be changed so you can't get paid because you spilled coffee on yourself.
One side has a point of view that is open to different ways of thinking, and strives to avoid actively repressing alternative approaches to life.
You're saying the left doesn't make rules for people's lives. I don't think you're paying attention. Here's some life choices the left will simply not allow:
- Paying low taxes
- owning or carrying a gun
- logging
- running a nuclear power plant
- not recycling
- driving your choice of car
- spanking your children
- racism (or any other politically incorrect free speech)
- taking a job (for children under 14 years old)
- taking a job that only pays $3/hr
- killing certain animals on your own property
- not paying for abortions
- smoking a cigarette
- excluding people from your business
- leaving all your money to your children when you die
- snowmobiling in national parks
There are lots more things they'd restrict if they could.
as a foreigner living outside the US ... I'll stay out of the US ... as long as those paranoid suckers are in office, I wouldn't even want to enter the US as a tourist.
Fear of Bush is your deciding factor for not coming to the US -- and Bush is the one who's paranoid? I think you have a paranoia problem of your own.
You need to be responsible for your own country and stop trying to blame the USA for everything.
If your leaders do the wrong thing, throw them out. Don't let them hide behind the USA. They make their own decisions.
I have an ethical dilemma:
I've spilled Mc Donald's coffee on my XBox. The XBox no longer work, and, the coffee is now undrinkable. Who should I sue?
Slashdot.
It's so black and white is it? ... [Very poor analogy used to (intentionaly?) confuse people deleted. ] ... Does it not occur to you that there are levels of negligence? You've been working with binary way too long.
It's her own fault that she spilled coffee on herself. "Levels of negligence" are irrelevant because she injured herself.
If she was burned by drinking the coffee, then it might be worth a second thought, but she spilled it.
Maybe you think McDonald's should be responsible if she filled a needle with it and injected it into her arm?
First, don't spill it in your lap.
Neither was the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuite
Yes it was.
She spilled the coffee on herself. All the rest of the points you want to bring up about it simply don't matter. Even if the coffee was 1000 degrees (impossible of course, but...) she still spilled it on herself.
If a legal system lets you get to trial for damages (let alone win) because you spilled coffee on yourself, that legal system is broken. Period.
Not only should she have had her case dismissed before trial, she should have had to pay McDonald's legal bills for filing such a ridiculous suit.
Is 'The American Way On Average' better than anything else in the world? So much better that you have to shove it down people's throats whether they like it or not?
Apart from that, what we have seen from America so far, in particular in recent years, is an aggressive and imperialistic power that has no regard for the lives, let alone the rights, of others.I'm sure I don't have to repeat the many facts about torture, lies in the UN etc etc. This is what is so revolting to most non-Americans: the combination of America's mindless egotism, the blind ignorance of the common Americans and the constant sanctimonious wanking to the sound of religious drivel.
If you guys are tired of hearing criticism you should change your ways. You say you live in a democracy - then choose better leaders.
Every word of this is 100% BS. There's not a single fact here. And you're clearly not a serious person if you believe this cartoon version of reality.
I am pretty worried of US citizens believing that each and every single thing about US is the best in the world.
It's not each and every thing. Nobody's perfect. But the US does pretty well on average.
And many of us in the US are tired of all the constant complaining. On average, the US is a very good place to live. On average, the policies and actions of the US are a very positive force in for good in the world.
So congrats to Denmark. Danish journalists clearly like Denmark and consider themselves free there.
In the US, journalists usually can't be successful if they like their country. Our journalists are a bunch of bitter elitists who usually do as much to hide the facts as they do to report them. I'm surprised we scored as high as we did.
Lucky for us, the Internet and the democratization of information publishing has made journalists unnecessary and anachronistic.
All in all, I suspect the American Dream is getting farther and farther away, for most Americans.
This is because you can't be happy with the relative prosperity of middle-class like your ancestors claimed they were.
The American Dream used to be owning your own home. The home ownership rate is 69% now. But you're not satisfied, because buying a house was too easy. It didn't make you feel prosperous, even though you are very prosperous by historic or worldwide standards.
Even Einstein had his detractors within the scientific community, yet here are all these nuclear power plants and weapons scattered around the world.
They work because they work. Not because "we trust Einstein, he's our kind of guy".
I'd take a government scientist's word over a corporate scientist's any day.
When the science is real, you don't have to take anyone's word. Real science stands on it's own.
All the data in the article is linked to. junkscience.com doesn't have satelites to take temperature measurements.
Follow the links. Go discredit those people too. Maybe Joe Camel owned the satelites.
When you can't argue the facts, smear someone with guilt-by-association. That's what environmentalism is all about.
go check out what the Government is saying
Because governments always tell the truth and never make mistakes.
Everyone run for the hills.
Here's a graph of temperature vs. Carbon-dioxide levels. See a relationship? Neither do I.
It's from this article.