Category: News

An attorney has sued over use of so-called as an adjective modifying his profession and his practice thereof:

Elderly Schenectady (NY) lawyer Romolo Versaci has filed a $100,000 defamation suit against Diane C. Richie, an unemployed social worker and widow with two children. Versaci claims — and Richie admits — that she called him a “so-called attorney” on a SchenectadyNY.info message board. …

I wonder if I can get in on some of the action.

Where did these guys learn how to write?

“America today has used all its force, as well as the help of others, to fight Islam under the so-called war on terror, which is nothing but a vicious crusade against Muslims,” the statement said.

Oh, we can guess.

A man, diagnosed with HIV in 1996, discovers it was an error. Relieved? Happy? Thrilled with his reprieve? What are you thinking?

Earlier this month, Malone, 59, was summoned to his doctor’s office. He listened as the doctor delivered the stunning news: He is HIV negative. The doctor acknowledged the error, writing in a letter dated Aug. 4: “As his primary care provider, I take full responsibility.”

“He told me, ‘We made a very big mistake. We did not do our job,’ ” said Malone, who is gay and has lost friends to AIDS. “I said, ‘You mean to tell me that all you have to say is you are sorry? Sorry that I lived for all this time believing I was going to die?’ “

How about “Sorry” and “You can keep the free parting gifts” which included:

His rent was paid in part by a county health program. Project Open Hand delivered free meals. A nurse visited him at home every two weeks.

Undoubtedly, he’s more relieved than the story presents, but then the article goes into a riff about:

His misdiagnosis is rare but undisputed and shows the far-reaching damage wrought by medical mistakes and the potential for flaws in burdened health care systems.

Who’s responsible? Well, since Malone’s a vet, it’s an example of government efficiency in health care:

Officials at the Oakland Department of Veterans Affairs’ outpatient clinic where he was treated admit the mistake and have launched an investigation into what went wrong and how the error was perpetuated year after year. VA officials were taken by surprise by the Aug. 4 letter in which the doctor accepted blame and admitted the error. Malone’s physician, Dr. Richard Karp, was not available to comment as the case is under investigation.

Karen Pridmore, a spokeswoman for VA’s Northern California Health Care System, which has eight clinics and a medical center and serves more than 65, 000 patients, said Malone had arrived at the clinic in 1996 with lab results from an outside testing firm in Southern California. Those results showed he was HIV positive. The VA did its own confirmatory HIV test on Malone and found he was negative.

Will this albeit anecdotal evidence silence calls for socialized medicine, which I don’t doubt the San Francisco Chronicle supports?

Of course not. Undoubtedly, they would have the rest of the government do it better, by….Well….Erm….

Adam Entous of Reuters shows Matthew Hoye or Phil Hirshkorn the true power of this fully-operational battle idiom:

Democrat John Kerry will dispatch two fellow Vietnam veterans to President Bush’s secluded Texas ranch on Wednesday to press him to condemn television advertisements accusing Kerry of lying about his wartime service.

The move comes one day after it was disclosed that a top lawyer for Bush’s re-election campaign has been providing legal advice to the group behind the ads, the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

You see how it casts aspersions on the group’s name even though it’s allegedly only modifying the name?

A piece of dirty trick writing art!

So today’s “Child drives off in car” story is brought to you from East St. Louis, Illinois:

A 5-year-old East St. Louis boy slid into the driver’s seat of his uncle’s Cadillac Sunday afternoon, put on his seatbelt, turned the key and drove off.

But he didn’t go far. Four blocks later — with his mother in pursuit in her car — the boy crashed the car into a fence.

He was not injured but police gave the boy tickets for driving without a license and without insurance.

Hey, no harm done, and the police raise some revenue for the local coffers, which we metro resident know are pretty thin on the East Side, although these days we’re no longer hearing reports of thieves stealing radios from police cars and the police being unable to replace them. Good on ya, ESL. It’s due to creative financing like ticketing a boy for driving without a license and without insurance. Unfortunately, he buckled up and did not reach an interstate, where driving too long in the left lane is a revenue-stream offense in Illinois.

But wait! The ESL tins are more creative than you would think!

Lenzie Stewart, chief of detectives, said the uncle had turned off the car when he came over to visit the boy’s mom, Kia Haynes, in the 700 block of Post Place. But he left the keys in the ignition.

“Mother came out, saw him driving down the street, jumped in her car and pursued him and had him pull over to the side. When he did, he hit the fence,” Stewart said.

Haynes called police after the crash and took responsibility for what happened. As a result, she was ticketed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Stewart said.

She called the police herself and said this harmless madcap adventure was her fault, and the helpful ESL tins helped their city meet their payroll by giving her an extra ticket for it.

I am too laid back to be in law enforcement or the legislature.

After all, Tupperware parties can lead to mayhem.

Foolish American imperialists cannot make the air conditioners stay on in Bahrain.

It’s a quagmire!