Tort reform cap plans go against conservative ideals, that is, personal responsibility and limited government. A true statement:

The law of tort is that if someone hurts someone else, they should make up for it. Our smallest children learn this rule along with "do unto others. ..." This is very core of the principle of personal responsibility. It's why we have a tort system.

Also true:

Government telling a jury it may not award a full measure of justice for someone harmed by another — even if the harm is proved — violates the second principle of conservatism. Government imposed limits on general damages is the antithesis of limited government. Government intervention in civil matters shifts the risk of loss from the wrongdoer to the injured at the point where caps apply. Such risk shifting and responsibility forgiving is plainly government meddling in private matters.

Does anyone else wonder at the cynicism of the so-called conservatives running the state -- and the lives of Tennesseeans -- into the ground just to aid Big Insurance and Big Business at the expense of us all?

Hail damage to the Knox County Courthouse: a metaphor for our times?

Knoxville's Stacey Campfield (R) sponsors bill to outlaw reference to the word "gay" in schools prior to ninth grade: Time to Shut Down Legislative Sideshows.

I thought Republicans were for getting government out of peoples' lives. I thought Republicans were for limited government. Well, our state Republican representative is both wasting our time and his, and he is injecting government into places where it doesn't belong.

I guess Republicans are in favor of all that getting government out of peoples' lives philosophy, until they're NOT in favor of them. What's the word for that? Oh, yeah: hypocrisy.

I've always said that mobile homes seem to be a magnet for tornadoes. Now there's statistical proof that I'm right.

"Illogithink" in the Tennessee General Assembly. Here's the takeaway:

[The Republican legislators] ran for office vowing to keep government off your backs and not to stick its nose where it doesn’t belong. But example after example keeps popping up of them doing just the opposite. Local school system control? Forget about it. They know best. The Metro Council deciding local contract requirements? The legislature is on its way to overriding that. Jury control over awarding damages? The legislature knows best, silly jurors.

Kerr recommends adjournment as the cure for "illogithink." But she's wrong there; adjorning the Legislature puts the problem off to another day, instead of solving the problem. Frankly, we Tennesseeans have to actually start paying attention to the representatives we elect, what they stand for, and whether they will serve us, or their own "illogithink" agenda.

Damage caps could lead lawyers to cherry-pick cases. Because the cost of going to trial can be very, very expensive, many lawyers are going to turn down otherwise good cases because, even if they spend, say, $100,000 of their own money to get a case to trial, the potential return is so relatively low that it makes no economic sense to take the case. So, many cases will not be pursued because the expense the defense makes one go through cannot justify even the best possible return.

This state of affairs, by the way, is exactly what Big Insurance and the chambers of commerce want. If they cannot prohibit a person from suing, they'll do the next best thing: make it so difficult, expensive and time-consuming that the lawyers can't take the case.