The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Did University of Colorado ‘Student Mental Health Service’ Director Blow It?

Posted on | July 29, 2012 | 56 Comments

It would probably be libelous to call somebody a “pill-peddling quack,” so you should try to avoid doing that:

Attorneys for 24-year-old James Holmes disclosed he was a “psychiatric patient” of Dr. Lynne Fenton in a court motion Friday, as they sought to discover the source of leaks to media outlets that he sent the psychiatrist a package containing a notebook with descriptions of an attack.
The revelation is the first indication that Holmes may have sought help before the rampage that killed 12 people and wounded 58. . . .
The University of Colorado’s website identified Fenton as the medical director of the school’s Student Mental Health Services. An online resume stated that she sees 10 to 15 graduate students a week for medication and psychotherapy, as well as 5 to 10 patients in her general practice as a psychiatrist. Schizophrenia was listed as one of her research interests.
Fenton worked for the U.S. Air Force in Texas as an acupuncturist before joining the University of Colorado in 2005.

Wait — an acupuncturist? The medical director of your university Student Mental Health Service is an acupuncturist? And she’s been disciplined by the Colorado Medical Board?

Records show Fenton has faced some trouble in her career. She was disciplined by  the Colorado Medical Board in 2004 for prescribing herself Xanax while her  mother was dying, state records show. She also was disciplined for prescribing  the sleep aid Ambien and the allergy medicine Claritin for her husband, and  painkillers for an employee who suffered from chronic headaches.

I’m sure Dr. Fenton is a nice person and I’m sure advocates of acupuncture will say it’s a perfectly legitimate and scientific type of treatment. The problem here is the liability incurred by the University of Colorado in hiring Dr. Fenton, now that one of her former patients is accused of shooting 70 people, 12 of whom died.

Acupuncture is . . . well, exotic would be one word for it.

If you’re a lawyer preparing to defend the university in a situation like this, do you want to have to explain acupuncture to a jury? Fairly or not, a lot of people hear “acupuncture” and classify it with herbal remedies, aromatherapy, and other such not-quite-standard holistic stuff.

It’s like finding out that your financial advisor is consulting tarot cards.

We can presume that most of the patients Dr. Fenton saw at the university Mental Health Service were routine stress-and-depression cases: The student with a Prozac prescription who needs a monthly appointment to get ber prescription re-filled, and so forth. Nothing major that would create a liability for the university if something goes wrong, and so anything problematic in Dr. Fenton’s background was no big deal — until one of her patients went on a murderous rampage. Now the university is a tort magnet, with the prospect of a jury being confronted with the question: Were university officials negligent in hiring as medical director of the Student Mental Health Service someone whom the plaintiffs’ attorneys will try to portray as a pill-peddling quack?

Of course, it’s unlikely any jury will ever hear such a case, because lawyers would advise the university to settle the claims out of court. And if this is how it plays out, then the taxpayers of Colorado will be on the hook for several million dollars’ worth of settlements.

Here’s the irony, though: The University of Colorado could not have expelled James Holmes for being a dangerous psycho, because that would have exposed the university to a claim that they were violating federal law by illegally discriminating against the mentally ill.

Society is being held hostage by the tort bar, so that plaintiffs’ lawyers are dictating the rules. There’s a word for this: crazy.

Category: Colorado, Crime

Paul Krugman Couldn’t Manage A Paper Route. Who In Their Right Mind Would Nominate Him For Fed Chair?

Posted on | July 29, 2012 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Admittedly, newspapers are headed down the extinction trail on our current national course, along with liberty. So in that sense, why not hand over the Federal Reserve to a boob like Kruge?”

[Quantitative Easing] is very uncertain in its effect, but the [Federal Reserve] should be doing more of that.”


For something relatively more credible than Krugman and the Federal Reserve, how about nominating KISS (in full costume of course) to manage U.S. monetary policy?

Via American Glob ad Weasel Zippers.

Update: linked at Daley Gator, who would at least entertain the question of landscaping work by Krugman.

Category: Uncategorized

Commie Punks Protest Olympics

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 23 Comments

A policeman is attacked by protesters in London

The scum of the earth — wretched asinine left-wingers — have descended on Ye Merry Olde to make an Olympic-class nuisance of themselves:

Hours after the opening ceremony fireworks echoed around east London, up to 400 demonstrators marched through a neighborhood near the Olympic Park to protest what they called the “Corporate Olympics.”
The event, organized by Counter-Olympic Network and supported by 35 groups ranging from Occupy London to ecological and local anti-austerity campaigners, targeted issues including free tickets for sponsors, missile sites on residential blocks and the ethics of Olympic corporations such as BP and Dow Chemicals.
“A significant number of people in this country — about 20 percent, according to a poll — are not happy with the Olympics because of the involvement of large corporations about which are significant concerns,” said Julian Cheyne of the Counter-Olympic Network. “We are representing their views and making sure that opinion is expressed.
“It is shameful that BP is a sustainability partner of the Olympics after the damage it did to the Gulf coast with their spill, and Dow Chemicals are not meeting their moral and ethical obligations to help the victims of the Bhopal disaster.”

Julian Cheyne, just so you know, is a former resident of an East London housing co-op that was demolished five years ago to make way for the Olympics. He has managed to hustle his “victimhood” into a sort of career as the Official London Olympics Denouncer. The bottom line of all this agitated whining? They hate capitalism:

About 500 people critical of the economic impact and corporate flavor of the London Olympics marched Saturday near the Olympic Park, determined to send a message that Britain is not united in backing the games.
The protest march came hours after police arrested more than 130 bicyclists who had defied an order to avoid cycling in groups around the stadium during Friday night’s opening ceremony. . . .
Occupy London, part of a global movement that has waged demonstrations against financial institutions and capitalist policies, said some cyclists were members of the movement. They said police cordoned off more than 100 cyclists at one road junction near the stadium as Friday’s ceremony was beginning and held them there several hours.
Saturday’s protest, the largest so far against the games, drew a mix of left-wing and green activists who decry the Olympics as a corporate juggernaut rolling over residents and their civil rights.

The alleged violation of their “civil rights,” you see, justifies the protesters in disrupting traffic and attacking police. Hat-tip to Tom Lamb for this video which, according to the protesters, shows police brutality against a man in a wheelchair but looks to me more like a bunch of smelly Occupy scum assaulting a cop:

Category: #Occupy, Great Britain

Will the Last Democrat Leaving Missouri Please Turn Out the Lights?

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 41 Comments

The state that once gave America such powerful Democrats as Harry Truman and Dick Gephardt is now turning deep, deep Republican red:

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) trails all three of her potential Republican rivals, according to a new survey conducted for two Missouri news outlets, cementing her status as this cycle’s most vulnerable incumbent.
Businessman John Brunner (R) holds the largest advantage over McCaskill, leading by a 52 perent to 41 percent margin. Former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman (R) leads by a 49 percent to 41 percent margin. And Rep. Todd Akin (R) leads by a 49 percent to 44 percent margin.
McCaskill’s big problems come among independent voters. She scores just 40 percent among independents against Akin, and she’s mired in the mid-30s when she’s matched up with Brunner and Steelman.

Doug Powers points out that Romney leads Obama by nine points in Missouri. In 2008, Obama came within 4,000 votes of winning Missouri.

So if Obama is running eight points behind his 2008 margin in Missouri, what are his chances of carrying other Midwest states like Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa? Not too good, I’d guess.

(Hat-tip: Memeorandum.)

Category: Uncategorized

Florida: The Creepy State

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 13 Comments

Shaped like a flaccid penis, this geographical appendage has apparently become the receptable of all perverse weirdness on the East Coast.

Exhibit A — The Creepy Puppeteer:

A Florida puppeteer known for community involvement was arrested and charged with conspiring to kidnap a child and possession of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in a federal court in Tampa court on Friday.
A day earlier, federal and local agents arrested Ronald William Brown, 57, after uncovering graphic Internet chats in which he talked about abducting, murdering and cannibalizing children, referring specifically to his interest in a boy attending his church, the complaint says.
In a search of Brown’s computer investigators came across pornographic images of children, including some of boys in bondage and others in which the subject appears to be dead, according to the 29-page complaint.
Brown, who lived alone in the Whispering Pines mobile home park in Largo, had ties to many organizations in the Tampa Bay area, including the Gulf Coast Church, the Pinellas County School District, the Christian Television Network, the city of Largo, and Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, the Tampa Bay Times reported. All said Brown had been hired or volunteered as a performer, instructor or mentor, according to the report.

Exhibit B — The Creepy Cop:

A South Florida police captain has been arrested on charges that he forced a  15-year-old girl to disrobe so he could check whether she was having sex.
Broward County prosecutors say 46-year-old Miramar police Capt. Juan De Los  Rios is facing two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct by an adult against a  minor. Each count carries a potential 15-year prison sentence.
Authorities say De Los Rios encountered the girl and a 19-year-old man in the  back seat of a car. The two told him they were just talking and not having sex.  But prosecutors say De Los Rios told the girl to take off her clothes so he  could make sure.

Are these extreme examples? Perhaps, but about what you’d expect from a place that put creepy Jim Greer in charge of the state GOP.

Category: Florida

The Suspicious Mr. Williams

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 22 Comments

Quote of the Day:

Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, said, “In more than 15 years of investigating political corruption, I’ve never seen a more suspicious set of facts.”

The circumstances definitely raise questions.

Category: Corruption

Tax Cuts Are Not ‘Spending’

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 26 Comments

Another reminder that they don’t teach economics at Harvard Law:

“Republicans in Congress and their nominee for President believe that the best way to create prosperity in America is to let it trickle down from the top,” said Obama. “They believe that if our country spends trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy, we’ll somehow create jobs — even if we have to pay for it by gutting things like education and training and by raising middle-class taxes. They’re wrong.”

This little bit of economic disinformation sticks in my craw. Who would be “spending” these alleged trillions? According to Obama, it’s “our country,” which indicates that in his mind, “our country” is a synonym for the federal government, so that every penny of private income not collected by the federal government is said to be “spent” on whoever has that penny. Beyond promoting that distorted perspective, Obama’s weekly address completely misrepresents the issue at hand.

The Bush tax cuts are due to expire this year. The Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill that would raise taxes on households earning $250,000 a year or more. Republicans oppose those tax increases, which is the basis for Obama’s bizarre accusation that the GOP plan “spends trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy.”

Democrats want to raise taxes. Republicans don’t. Period.

Obama apparently believes that the federal government is the rightful possessor of all wealth, so that any reduction in taxes — or even opposition to tax increases — is morally equivalent to theft, taking from “our country” what is not rightly ours.

Furthermore, Obama’s belief that “our country” must “pay for” lower taxes by cuts to federal programs is demonstrably false, ignoring the dynamic understanding of economic growth, the so-called “supply-side” principle and the Laffer Curve.

Economic growth results in greater tax revenue to the government, because more people have jobs, earn more income, purchase more goods and services, and increase the value of assets. Just one tiny example: Much of the fiscal woe in California is a result of the collapse of real-estate values, with a resulting decline in property tax revenue. The only thing that can cause real-estate values to increase again is economic growth, and economic growth requires . . .?

CAPITAL!

This is the essential insight of supply-side economics that Obama’s ignorant class-warfare rhetoric and his sneering dismissal of “trickle-down” overlooks: You can’t make capitalism work without capital.

Capital is what we nowadays more commonly call “investment.” If you’ve got stocks or mutual funds in a 401(k) account, you’re a capitalist, like it or not. Your 401(k) money is invested on the basis of your speculative belief that the value of the assets — stocks, bonds, whatever — will increase over the course of time. You hope that by investing, say, $5,000 annually over the course of 20 years (for example) the accumulated profits will result in you finishing that period with an amount much larger than the $100,000 of capital you’ve invested.

Investment always involves risk, as many Americans learned during the 18 months when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted from 14,093 (October 12, 2007) to 6,627 (March 6, 2009). Also, if you invested in Greek bonds, good luck with that, eh?

Income derived from investment is a reward for taking risks with your money. You could bury your money in a coffee can in the backyard, but instead you invested it in speculative ventures that make possible economic growth — Amazon, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Apple, Ford Motors — and in the process provide employment for millions of people and the innovative production of goods and services.

Rich people own more capital than do poor people — this is obvious enough, right? The hobo sleeping on a park bench doesn’t have much use for a mutual fund prospectus. Not a lot of folks watching CNBC in trailer parks. Not many Wall Street Journal subscriptions are delivered to public housing projects. Read more

Category: Barack Obama, Economics, Taxes

FMJRA 2.0: Sign Of The Times

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 12 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

What A Breathtakingly Stupid Thing To Say, @AmandaMarcotte

Making ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Scandalous

The Daily Disgrace

A Chick-Fil-A Gun? Pluck Poultry Pistols!

In the 17th Paragraph, She Mentions That the Corrupt Mayor Is a Democrat

Colorado Massacre Caused by Heated Rhetoric and Kinky Sex Freak With 6,000 Rounds of Ammunition …

FMJRA 2.0: In The Rain

No, Richard Kim, The U.S. Is Not As Jacked Up As Syria, Despite Your Ilk

Obama Campaign: Money for Nothing

Chicago Woman Dies After Abortion

The ‘Too Good to Check’ Glitch

British ‘Page Three’ Model Shocked to Find Herself in Colorado Killer’s Picture

Romney Slams Obama: ‘An Upside-Down Philosophy That Does Not Comport with the American Experience’

Obama: Republicans Hate U.S. Military; Poll: U.S. Military Hates Obama

#RomneyPreferredBy Liberty Lovers. #ObamaPreferredBy Those Who’ve Found You Can Find Happiness In Slavery.

Axelrod’s Nixonian Manipulations: Tax Flap Is About Mitt’s Mormon Millions

2012 Not The Most Important Election Ever–It’s A Constitutional Referendum

Old and Boring: ‘Safe Sex’
New and Hot: ‘Let’s Make Babies’

Not Surprising: Tina Brown’s ‘Newsbeast’ Still Losing Millions of Dollars a Year

Is Barack’s “I Didn’t Do That” Reclama Of His 13 July Roanoke Speech Worthy?

If Mitt Romney Used A Dog Whistle, Would A Bitch Hear It?

Like a Jeff Foxworthy Joke

Bucket List: @JonahNRO Retweet For “You didn’t do that”

‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran Has The Right Of It: Audit the Fed Passes House, 327-98

It’s Homophobolicious!

A Series Of Substantive Presidential Debates #YouDidntBuildThat

LIVE AT FIVE (CENTRAL TIME EDITION): 07.26.12

Tina Brown to Newsweek Staff: ‘Don’t Worry, We Can Lose Millions Forever’

Michael Moore: Can I Out-Stupid @AmandaMarcotte? Why, Yes, The Founders Might Say That I Can

Barack Obama Is the Antichrist — and Other Neutral Objective Facts

Romney Busted? No, Obama

#YouDidntDoThat Because You Were Buried In Jacked-Up Regulations

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.27.12

CNN President Jim Walton Resigns; Network Stuck in Third Place

NYMag Plays The Race Card On #YouDidntDoThat

‘Abysmal Failure’

Top linkers for this week:

  1. (tied) Hogewash and Daily Pundit (10)
  2. Lonely Conservative (8)
  3. The Camp of the Saints (6)
  4. Zion’s Trumpet (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! If you’re on Blogger or some other platform WordPress hates, please have your links in the e-mail to me by Friday, August 3.

Category: FMJRA Award
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin