Obama’s Treasury Secretary threatened Rating Agency about U.S. credit downgrade

I wrote about this last year, well after the Department Of Justice initially filed suit against S&P in February. And as you might recall, the DOJ’s lawsuit was chockablock with staggering hypocrisy all on its own (h/t HotAir).

But if that move smelled like political retribution back then, it absolutely reeks of it now.

(via Reuters) – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner angrily warned the chairman of Standard & Poor’s parent that the rating agency would be held accountable for its 2011 decision to strip the United States of its coveted “triple-A” rating, a new court filing shows.

Harold McGraw, the chairman of McGraw-Hill Financial Inc , made the statement in a declaration filed by S&P on Monday, as it defends against the government’s $5 billion fraud lawsuit over its rating practices prior to the 2008 financial crisis.

McGraw said he returned a call from Geithner on Aug. 8, 2011, three days after S&P cut the U.S. credit rating to “AA-plus,” and that Geithner told him “you are accountable” for an alleged “huge error” in S&P’s work.

Parents win “wrongful birth” lawsuit

The inevitable outcome of Margaret Sanger’s ‘family planning’.

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Please recall that Sanger was famously quoted as saying that she (and other proponents of eugenics) were attempting to “assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit.” Well, congratulations: here we are. Everyone, and I DO mean EVERYONE, should be very worried about what qualifies as “unfit” down the road, …but even more worried about who’ll be making that decision.

Worst lawsuit ever? “Woman kills her 3 kids, then seeks $$$ from Wrongful Death Settlement”

We’ve mentioned ludicrous lawsuits before, but this one just might top the list.

From last month, courtesy of the Times Union:

A mentally disturbed suburban New York woman who drowned her three young children in a bathtub in 2008 wants a cut of $350,000 in wrongful death settlements obtained by the children’s fathers, attorneys said…

Is it just me, or does this smack of the old joke about chutzpah, where the kid kills his mother and father, and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan?

Tragically, this isn’t a joke:

Thy Will Be Done

Oh, those wacky atheists are at it again.

First up is a report from Canada, where a local town council has been ruining, ruining, a guy’s life ……by reciting the Lord’s Prayer prior to the start of their meetings.

From Canada’s National Post:

Claiming the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer causes him anguish and feelings of exclusion, a man in rural Ontario is suing his local government to get politicians to cease praying at the start of their meetings.

It’s the latest in a series of legal actions, supported by the advocacy group Secular Ontario, seeking to eradicate the practice in at least 18 cities, towns and counties across the province.

On Monday, the lawyer for the 20-member group filed a lawsuit against Grey County council on behalf of Peter Ferguson, saying the Christian tradition caused him “anguish, discrimination, exclusion, rejection and loss of enjoyment of life.”

Mr. Ferguson, who lives in Grey County, near Owen Sound, is looking for $5,000 in damages along with a court order for county council to stop opening its meetings in prayer.

“Anguish” and “Loss of Enjoyment of Life”, all being caused by listening to a 30 second prayer? Give me a break. I know that I have to put up with all sorts of Leftist pap in my life, much of it coming from the government: “Don’t smoke (anywhere)”; “Help Fight Global Warming”; or even “Buy a Chevy Volt! (Hey, you basically own the company, so you might as well..)”.

Am I supposed to cry about it and stomp my feet, like poor Mr. Ferguson?

Heck, there’s at least one such ad (especially the smoking ones) on most of the DVDs I rent. Uh-oh….. I feel an acute attack of “Anguish” coming on. May I sue someone now?

Now, the folks on the other side of the aisle are probably screaming, “This is really about the Separation of Church and State!!” at their computer screens right now, which is fine, except: this incident was in Canada, and has nothing to do with Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists back in 1802. However, if anyone would like to visit a wonderful post on that particular argument, go over to TheWarOnIgnorance.org. It truly is worth sharing and/or bookmarking.

Good? Good…

Now that THAT’S settled, let’s take a peek at another news article a little closer to home, over in Steubenville, OH. From Catholic News Agency:

In response to a threatened lawsuit from an atheist group, the Steubenville, Ohio city council says it will remove from its new city logo an image of the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s chapel.

“For more than 65 years, Franciscan University of Steubenville has proudly served as an integral part of this community and we were honored to have our chapel included in the new city of Steubenville logo.”

The city’s present logo, unveiled in December 2011, displays in silhouette the downtown cityscape and various landmarks of the city including Historic Fort Steuben, the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Franciscan University’s Christ the King Chapel.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation had threatened legal action over the logo’s inclusion of the chapel and the cross.

Annie Laurie Gaylor told the Steubenville Herald-Star that the logo is a symbol “that Steubenville is a theocracy and is a Christian city where non-Christians or non-believers are not favored citizens.”

She said a Steubenville citizen had contacted her organization to complain about the logo, which Gaylor said violates the U.S. Constitution because it includes the chapel.

“While we understand that Franciscan University is a part of the city, the city may not depict the university chapel and cross because to do so places the city’s imprimatur behind Christianity,” she said.

Ah, yes, more intolerance from the purveyors of tolerance.

So, how exactly does having the town logo include one of the largest (heck, one of the only) employers in Steubenville place the “city’s imprimatur behind Christianity”? Am I missing something here? I don’t recall anything from my years of school (or from 20+ years in business) that says any depiction, any reference, and any mention of government must be scrubbed of any and all religious connotations, inferences or actual representations, even when used as a business and/or educational institution.

Would someone get me a copy of that memo, so I can update my files?

Wait a sec. I see it now. The group’s name. Yes, yes…it’s our old friend, the ‘Freedom From Religion Foundation’. Come on now, how am I supposed to take ’em seriously with  a name like that? We’ve covered them before, and there’s no need to rewrite that whole post again here. Suffice it to say that anyone who thinks including a chapel’s cross in the city logo somehow makes that city a “theocracy” is either lying their pants off, or has more issues than I am qualified to address.  Do these folks also assume that everybody sporting a cross tattoo or cross jewelry MUST BE a born-again Christian?

Here’s another question: what about cities that have religious names? Hey now, isn’t it a whole-lotta-bunches worse for a city to be named after a Christian saint than just to have a teensy-weensy cross in a logo (which most folks will never see)? So, cities like San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis or even Los Angeles must all be “theocracies”…right?

(insert cricket noises here: _________)

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I do start to get tired of this battle, day after day. You probably do, too. But we can’t walk away, or skip over the next headline we see. I’m convinced that’s part of the Left’s animating strategy: just keep up a continuous attack, year in and year out, and eventually we’ll just shrug our shoulders and say, “Ehhh, it’s not worth it.”

Well, it IS worth it.

Properly motivated, as we just saw in report after report about Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, the American Christian is a mighty force. However, we can’t forget that battles like that are just skirmishes, and not the war. The war is being waged, every day, whether or not we choose to fight it.

Sorta makes the whole “Thy will be done” part of The Lord’s Prayer even more meaningful when you think about it.

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UPDATE: The town of Steubenville has put the logo change on hold. Seems some folks got a tad riled over this, and decided they’d like to discuss it further.

Amen, guys. Amen.

Suit Yourself

We just discussed the need to solve the problem of lawsuit abuse the other day (In Lawsuits We Trust). Please consider this the most recent, and perhaps best, example of just why such reform is needed.

Read through this first, courtesy of Bill Hanstock at sbnation.com:

Really, this could be a primer on how NOT to file a suit.

From Bill:

“What can we learn about the plaintiff from this document? Well, we know first of all that he owns a typewriter, but not a computer. We can further assume that he had only one piece of paper to work with, given the amount of “corrections” made on the fly.

He also appears to be technically filing for “COPRIGHT INFRINGEMENTU” which may not be the same thing as copyright infringement. Hopefully he didn’t accidentally begin a case about something having to do with police rights.”

Even better, Johnnie N. Perry goes so far as refer to his invention as a “three-point stands”. Here’s Mr. Perry’s invention:

Improper pluralization aside, when I think “three points”, I’m generally looking for..three points.

Call me crazy.

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My advice: if you are thinking of filing a “COPRIGHT INFRINGEMENTU” suit, do yourself a favor —  find a computer, make sure it has SpellCheck, or at the very least hire a 4th grader as your proof reader.

Otherwise, you could end up as one very unhappy “PALINTIFF“.

In Lawsuits We Trust

Stick with me here: there’s good news towards the end of this.

Every year there are thousands upon thousands of lawsuits filed in the United States, with many of them being patently ridiculous. According to facesoflawsuitabuse.org, here are some of the most outrageous ones from 2011 alone:

•A kidnapped couple is sued by a convict who kidnapped them because they did not aid him in evading police.

•A mother is sued by her adult children because she sent cards that did not include gifts and because she allegedly plays favorites.

•A woman files a lawsuit asking for $5 million after she disagrees with a store over an 80 cent refund she was supposed to receive.

•A mother files a lawsuit against an exclusive preschool because of her child’s college prospects.

•A man sued Procter & Gamble over toothpaste left in the tube.

•A woman files a lawsuit because of a movie trailer that does not have enough driving in it. The trailer the movie was for? ‘Drive.’

The entire funny-yet-depressing list can be found here.

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Now the truly troubling aspect of all this is that these companies had to defend themselves in court, usually racking up significant costs. Those costs get put right back into the price of their products, and we all end up paying more. Isn’t that great?

Why is nothing being done about this by our elected leaders? What about some ideas from the folks who always seem to be “fixing” everything, other than things which actually need fixing?

No more calls; we have a winner! An individual state did take a significant step towards curbing this insanity.

From tennessean.com:

“Tennessee Republicans have a message for those filing civil lawsuits: You better make sure your facts are in order or you could be on the hook for up to $10,000 in attorney fees for the other side.

Lawmakers last week approved legislation that would penalize people who file lawsuits that are later dismissed as baseless. They would have to pay up to $10,000 to cover court costs and their opponent’s attorney fees.

“It is a very limited loser-pays bill,” said Rep. Vance Dennis, R-Savannah, the bill’s House sponsor. “It goes to purely frivolous lawsuits, lawsuits that don’t have any merit.”

I read that and got a little verklempt. It is possible to look at a problem and pass legislation that might help fix the problem! God bless those crazy, knuckle-dragging, bible-clinging GOP Tennesseans for bringing some common-sense to the courtrooms of America, or at least Tennessee. For the moment, that makes one significant problem addressed….

………and at least a million to go.

Hey, it’s a start.