Here we follow one man returning to his home to pick up a few things. We all go home sometimes to get things but not for the last time. This is probably his last trip home. Home is now a nuclear dead zone. Cattle roam the highway. Dogs are still tied up. Earthquake damage is unrepaired and never will be.
And there is anger. He says, “They said that the nuclear power plants were safe.”
Guess not.
James Pilant
For about seven months now, I have argued over and over again that lying to the courts with false affidavits and actions amounting to fraud were prosecutable. I have used the word, crimes, and I meant it.
Why is it that if one of my students breaks the law by stealing a few dollars that he will go to jail and these banks can commit these acts and reap huge profits without fear of prosecution?
I want these law-breakers, these greedy well placed fraudsters, to go to jail, to do the perp walk, to pay enormous fines, and to serve as a warning to every Armani clad crook haunting the board rooms of our great investments banks.
James Pilant
My thanks to “Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge.”
via Foreclosure Fraud – Fighting Foreclosure Fraud by Sharing the Knowledge
Isn’t this nice!? Enclose legal appearing documents indicating that a case has been filed to encourage you to pay up.
This is disgusting.
What makes it worse is that the state bar association decided it was an “honest” mistake. I often defend lawyers while teaching my classes. I point out that without attorneys, enforceable contracts would not be possible, that the weak and helpless would have no recourse. And here to make my job easier is a bar association with the all the moral fervor of card cheat giving the strong implication that the bar is an organized band of thieves.
Just great.
James Pilant
via byebyebanksters
It would appear more land will be lost to nuclear catastrophe. The radiation like some infection is spreading across Fukushima claiming more and more geography. And while this is happening, the government and the utility companies do their public relations and hope that somehow, someway, that events will mirror their rosy prognostications.
James Pilant
Corruption in India is fairly endemic. It is present in everything from traffic tickets to giant government contracts. Hazare is struggling with a mountain of inertia, a community acceptance of corruption and an appreciation of its benefits. He is trying to work with and develop a contrarian philosophy. I suspect this may be based on the Indian development of greater economic and political power in international relations.
The Indians are a proud people to put it very mildly. But a reasonable person can easily conclude that corruption on the current scale will make it very difficult for India to become as signiificant as its large population and geography would make it. Corruption on the current scale threatens national growth and impairs the nation’s standing in the world just as investment banking speculation and greed endanger growth in the United States.
I have a lot to learn about this situation but I’m going to try.
Indians may speak English but the implications and history behind the words are different than in American English. This is not to imply superiority to ether form of the language merely to acknowledge the need for caution.
James Pilant
via Slate
Who is Anna Hazare and what is his importance to the United States?
About 2 years ago, the United States cut a deal with the Indian government to share nuclear technology. The legislature ratified the treaty. It was a very controversial deal. The Indian government had been a rogue power in regard to nuclear energy having used what was supposed to be peaceful nuclear technology to build a series of atom bombs.
The deal allowed India to access fuel and nuclear technology from the rest of the world making India the only nuclear power a non-signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.
Wikileaks revealed that the American State Department had directly observed enormous sums of cash to be used to bribe enough of the representatives to get the deal through.
Anger in India over this corruption is intense.
Hazare has been fasting to force the government to put in place anti-corruption legislation.
The struggles continues but Hazare appears to have won this round.
James Pilant
Another clip from the ongoing disaster. It just keeps going like an Energizer Bunny on steroids. Hollywood and the networks cannot be missing the possibilities here. They’ll probably make a once a week drama like CSI except with radiation. They could do a Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry style movie where the incompetent nuclear plant operator keeps telling the rogue, burnt out nuclear safety worker, “You can’t do that, it will cause a panic!” In ten years after the tragedy has faded in the public mind, they could do a sit-com about families uprooted living in a gymnasium without any privacy explaing in humorous ways how they never really liked the dog they left behind. It will be a kind of Threes Company – Poseidon Adventure clone.
This thing definitely has Hollywood potential, after all, Married with Children ran for thirteen years and this thing is supposed to run twenty.
James Pilant
I have mixed emotions about natural law. I try to be careful to explain the positives and negatives when I teach. I do think there is a lot to say in its favor and this article does so.
This is good writing. I really enjoyed the quote from the Dred Scott decision.
I believe that philosophy has a place in the mind of every educated human being. I am constantly surprised by the intensity and fervor on the online philisophical discussions. Sites dealing with religious philosophy are particularly combative with the atheistic sites not far behind. However, for the more academic, there a dozens of sites where the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato are discussed moving right up to modern (and often little known) philosophers.
I’ve give this one a read.
James Pilant
via Ex Libris
This is some great writing. Many people are upset by the enormous salaries that CEO’s are pulling down and have conveyed their rage online. But few have explained the mechanics of the corporate system that make these salaries possible.
I visited “Off the Top o’ My Head.” I was impressed by the writing. This is a thoughtful author and he brings legal elements into his reasoning but not too much. The writing is very approachable. You should give this site a visit.
This is his business page.
James Pilant
The idea of the rational man has always been a bit of an exaggeration. However, it has been a useful idea. The American court system often rest on the idea of the “reasonable man.” And that idea has functioned well incorporating contemporary social beliefs informally into the legal system.
The idea of the rational buyer has permeated American economics. It has bizarre elements. For instance, it assumes that buyers make rational decisions even in the face of advertising. It assumes that buyers recalculate safety risks to maintain the same level of safety, etc. It also is useful, but mainly for protecting business from criticism.
It would be extremely difficult to develop a criminal justice system that takes a perpetrator’s reasoning into consideration. But that it is difficult does not mean it should be done. It would add depth and power to punishment and social control.
It needs development, but I think it can be done.
James Pilant
via hbd* chick
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