Eideard

Redneck version

The breast implant health scare has taken a further twist with a claim the French company at the heart of the scandal also made implants for male patients.

Two former employees of Poly Implant Prothese said the firm manufactured testicle, buttock and chest implants, mainly destined for export, Le Parisien reported…

“Three people were specially trained to work on the machine that made silicone testicles,” a former PIP worker told the newspaper…

The newspaper said it was not clear if silicone used in the testicle implants was sub-standard. But one of the former employees said the gel used in the buttock and chest implants, aimed at male patients, was the same as the industrial quality material used in the breast implants that, it is claimed, have a high risk of rupturing…

An investigation has been launched in France into charges of “manslaughter and unintentional injury” against PIP, which supplied 65 countries and was once the world’s third largest manufacturer of breast implants…

So far 2,400 French women given PIP implants have lodged legal complaints.

Given the sensitivity of men who felt compelled to have testicle implants for cosmetic reasons, I expect most would be too embarrassed to file complaints against PIP.

I believe there is no truth to the rumor that the largest batch of artificial testicles was purchased by the Democratic National Committee on behalf of their members of Congress facing re-election.

St. Joseph Medical Center has repeatedly said it wants to do right by its coronary stent patients.

After a complaint last year that star cardiologist Mark Midei was placing stents in the arteries of patients who didn’t need them, the Towson hospital removed him from duty, reviewed thousands of medical records and sent letters to nearly 600 people whose stents appeared unnecessary, telling them to go see a doctor.

When asked if the hospital bore any legal liability, CEO Jeffrey K. Norman replied: “I suppose we do.”

But now that the lawyers have arrived, bearing the threat of hundreds of lawsuits, some say the message has changed. Even as some St. Joseph employees continue to suggest wrongdoing — including its chief of cardiology, who has told at least two patients that his former colleague falsified their records — the hospital’s attorneys appear to be girding for a fight.

In its legal filings, the hospital said it “generally denies all allegations of liability.” And medical malpractice attorneys preparing cases against St. Joseph say hospital lawyers are gathering experts to argue that Midei did nothing improper, despite the hospital having revoked his practice privileges…

“If they’re going to [now] stand by [Midei's] care and say what he did is not negligent and what he did is justified,” Bedigian said in an interview, Midei should “be looking for an employment lawyer.”

RTFA for the thrilling details.

Should I ask whatever happened to nonmaleficence? First, do no harm?

Of course, we keep whole cities from having the right to vote

The government faces being hauled before the European court of human rights unless it gives prisoners the right to vote as a matter of urgency.

The revelation comes as several law firms seek to launch claims on behalf of thousands of UK prisoners who are demanding compensation – estimated to be as much as £750 each – on the grounds they were illegally denied the right to vote at the last general election…

In March 2004, the ECHR ruled in Hirst v UK that the government’s blanket ban barring sentenced prisoners from voting was unlawful. But despite the ruling, the previous government continued to consult on the issue and failed to make it law.

The committee of ministers, the body that oversees European member states’ compliance with ECHR judgments, is to meet this week to discuss the UK’s failure to enfranchise prisoners following the ruling.

The committee will then issue a stark public reminder to the government that it must comply with the ruling immediately. If it refuses, the committee has the power to refer the question of whether the government has failed in its obligations to the ECHR, a move that would put Westminster on a collision course with the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe.

The clash would represent the culmination of months of mounting frustration on the part of the committee. In March it warned the UK must “rapidly adopt measures, of even an interim nature, to ensure the execution of the court’s judgment before the forthcoming general election”, otherwise the nationwide vote would be illegal…

Penal reformers say giving prisoners the vote is about restoring a fundamental human right that will confer a sense of responsibility and aid their rehabilitation.

They point out that the UK is out of step with many other countries. Eighteen European countries have no restrictions on prisoners voting while in France and Germany a decision to disenfranchise a prisoner is left to the courts.

One of those moments of clarity that makes me pleased the United States needn’t follow the rulings of European politicians. And the ECHR is after all more of a political court than one concerned with constitutional and historic law.

Though, the Brits dithering around under the leadership of Blair and Brown is no surprise. Democracy might have accidentally entered into the political equation.

Three police cars pulled into Christina FourHorn’s front yard one afternoon just before she was supposed to pick up her daughter at school. The officers had a warrant for her arrest.

“What do you mean robbery?” FourHorn remembers asking the officers. Her only brushes with the law had been a few speeding tickets.

She was locked up in a Colorado jail. They took her clothes and other belongings and handed her an oversize black-and-white striped uniform. She protested for five days, telling jailers the arrest was a mistake. Finally, her husband borrowed enough money to bail her out.
“They wouldn’t tell me the details,” she said.

Later, it became clear that FourHorn was right, that Denver police had arrested the wrong woman. Police were searching for Christin Fourhorn, who lived in Oklahoma.

Their names were similar, and Christina FourHorn, a mother with no criminal record living in Sterling, Colorado, had been caught in the mix-up…

The problem of mistaken arrests continues, said attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The group, which represented FourHorn, calls Denver’s police work “recklessly sloppy.” An ACLU mistaken identity lawsuit on behalf of four other people is pending against Colorado police agencies…

Since the FourHorn case, the ACLU found at least 237 cases in Colorado in which police may have arrested the wrong person. The figure is likely a small sample since police often release those wrongfully arrested before the first court appearance, the ACLU said…

“Naturally police think people are lying when the person says they didn’t do it,” said Jack Ryan, an instructor at the Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute and police officer for two decades.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that there needs to be an investigation,” he added. “The overall philosophy of justice in this country is that an innocent person shouldn’t be locked up.”

In Christina FourHorn’s case, she was about 100 pounds heavier then the suspect, Christin Fourhorn. Her middle name is Ann, while the suspect’s middle name is Blue. She was also seven years older and didn’t have a tattoo on her left arm, which the suspect did.

Sounds like a police department where families buy a job for the dullest nephew. The one who couldn’t figure out how to work a shovel in the state highway department.

After being banned from Sony’s PlayStation Network during a game of Resistance: Fall of Man, a San Jose, California gamer sued the electronics giant, alleging a violation of his First Amendment rights. That case was dismissed in September, but the plaintiff was undeterred. In addition to filing in an appeal in that case, earlier this month he filed a new suit against Microsoft and Nintendo.

In that case, he alleged that a broken Xbox 360 caused him undue stress, and that a Wii system update blocking access to the Homebrew Channel third-party program interfered with his inalienable right to pursue happiness.

With the big-three platform holders accounted for, the same plaintiff is now turning his attention to largest third-party publisher. The gamer, Erik Estavillo, provided GameSpot with copies of his latest civil suit, a case against Activision Blizzard…

The suit comprises a handful of complaints against Activision Blizzard, specifically relating to the company’s successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Specifically, the gamer accuses the publisher of maintaining a “harmful virtual environment” with “sneaky and deceitful practices…”

Beyond the monetary complaints, the suit also references the 2001 suicide of an EverQuest player, attributing it to a sense of alienation related to the game and mental health problems. The suit goes on to say the plaintiff has suffered from similar problems, including major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and Crohn’s disease, and he “doesn’t want to end up like [the EverQuest player] did as he relies on video games heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life, via the gaming medium.”

This is the kind of pitiful human being for which the religion gene still maintains itself in our DNA. I realize more and more people will lose that Stone Age mutation as we evolve as a species; but, extreme examples of egregious obsession still exist in sufficient number to plague the courts.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a review of all claims of state secrets used to block lawsuits into warrantless spying on Americans and the treatment of foreign terrorism suspects.

Holder…directed senior Justice Department officials to review all Bush-era claims of state secrets to make sure they are invoked only in legally appropriate situations.

“It is vital that we protect information that, if released, could jeopardize national security. But the Justice Department will ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide from the American people information about their government’s actions that they have a right to know,” spokesman Matt Miller said.

The U.S. government has in some cases invoked state-secret claims that allowing a lawsuit to proceed could jeopardize national security. Such cases include legal challenges to the domestic spying program using wiretaps that President George W. Bush began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

We ain’t gonna win ‘em all; but, at least we have a fighting chance to reclaim the Constitution.

I hope there ain’t too many folks out there who actually believe Democrats are qualitatively more honest than Republicans.