The dangers of personal watercraft:

On July 4, fellow sophomore and [Duke football] teammate Jamison Crowder collided with Holliday’s vessel while the two were riding personal watercraft on Lake Tillery, about an hour east of Charlotte. Holliday sustained severe head injuries and remains in critical condition at the UNC Hospitals Trauma Center, though he opened his eyes Monday. State authorities said Crowder had not completed a boater education course, and it is unclear whether Holliday had, either.

To paraphrase the late, lamented Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (Hill Street Blues): Let's be careful out there.

This guy really hit the bad luck (and stupidity) DUI trifecta:

The 54-year-old New Mexico resident was booked last month on his seventh -- yes, seventh -- drunk-driving charge. This last one was a real doozy: He injured a local judge who was a passenger in a second car struck in a collision with Yazzie’s vehicle.

It gets worse: Yazzie is suspected of being involved in two hit-and-run accidents that evening before he struck the judge’s car.

And he had two teenage passengers in the car.

You just can't make this kind of stuff up.

This is how it works. First, some blowhard -- in this case, God help us, an elected U.S. Representative -- makes an outrageous and false statement. Then, when he is called on it, he denies he said it, and brands the media -- which simply quoted him -- as an "attack machine."

At sum, what is at work here, especially with the so-called Tea Party, is a variation on the big lie paradigm: prevaricate as loudly and as much as possible; if someone calls the truth of your statement into question, muddy the waters.

Contemptible.

How 1/2 an inch can make all the difference in causing a trip and fall accident:

The Lawyer As Ambulance Chaser:

The real ambulance chasers are not trial lawyers in general, or personal injury lawyers, or even personal injury lawyers that happen to advertise; there’s nothing wrong, unethical, or improper about marketing legal services, about making it known to the public your existence and the nature of what you do. The bulk of their work is nothing more than helping injured people obtain just and fair compensation. Anyone who calls that ambulance chasing is pushing an political agenda.

The real ambulance chasers are the lawyers who see terrible stories in the headlines and either send private investigators or drive out there themselves to solicit, sometimes browbeat, the client into representation by hook or by crook, making guarantees, offering bribes, et cetera. It’s a small fraction of the personal injury world. . . .

Grand Theft Cart? Ted Nugent's Drummer Charged With Golf Cart Theft, DUI

Are Social Security Benefits ‘A Form Of Modern 21st Century Slavery’?

Uh, no. As a Knoxville Social Security Disability lawyer, I get very frustrated when these talking head "pundits" blithely say that when unemployment runs out, then people go and get on Social Security Disability. Believe me, if it was that easy to get approved for Disability, then I would not be getting as many grey hairs as I am.

The fact is that it is damned hard to get approved. It takes an average of 3.5 years to go through the Social Security process. A claimant must have more than a legitimately disabling physical or mental condition even to have chance of getting approved. And even claimants who are obviously incapable of holding a job can, and do, get denied.

Given the delays and uncertainties of seeking Social Security Disability, there is just no way the unemployed are relying on disability to get by. And frankly, the big lie meme tends to make people think any claimant is gaming the system, i.e., that the claimant does not really deserve the disability benefits. The whole approach by these "pundits" is contradictory, anyway. Consider: to collect unemployment, one must certify they are ready, willing and able to work. To get disability, one must prove the obvious -- that there is no job in the national economy for which the claimant is qualified.

This whole argument is just a crock. It's a subterfuge for the real agenda: dismantling the Social Security system, piece by piece.