Day: June 13, 2002

Barr Sues Clinton

What a moron — the Washington Post’s Lloyd Grove reports that Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) has filed a $30 million lawsuit against Bill Clinton, James Carville and Larry Flynt. Barr charges that statements those three made about him during the impeachment process caused him “loss of reputation and emotional distress” and “injury in his person and property.”

While the impeachment hearings were underway, Flynt published an affidavit from Barr’s first wife accusing Barr of having lied under oath during his divorce proceedings (Barr’s first wife claims he paid for and approved of a 1983 abortion she had; Barr denied this in court) as well as having had an affair while he was still married to his first wife.

Barr complained at the time about Flynt’s accusations (though he never denied the adultery claim). It would be easier to have sympathy for Barr if he wasn’t a two-time hypocrite. Not only was he one of the leaders of the impeachment crowd, but he was also one of the Republicans openly calling for House hearings about whether or not Gary Condit had obstructed justice in the Chandra Levy case.

Apparently Barr enjoys tossing around allegations, but does not like it when others follow suit. The lawsuit doesn’t have a chance and just makes him look even nuttier.

Source:


Bob Barr’s Believe It or Not. Lloyd Grove, Washington Post, June 13, 2002.

Winer Boy Par Excellence

That’s odd. Today Dave Winer wrote an entry that began, “Mark Pilgrim sent an email on Tuesday saying that he now has his own wiener boys, and he “gets it.” The very next entry in his weblog was a single sentence, “Brian Carnell is a wiener boy par excellence.”

Then he went back and deleted it. Oy.

Hey, I wasn’t offended by it. I mean, I’ve got an entire page full of posts about him.

Quite a few people have said that they simply ignore Winer now and that nothing he says is relevant. Personally, I still think Winer has a lot of great ideas. I also think he’s erratic, unpredictable and more than a little mean.

Great software, lousy interpersonal skills.

Kids, Don’t Try This At Home

Unlike the United States, Great Britain has official censors that are empowered to decide which advertisements are acceptable and which are not. For the most part I’ve always thought this was an absurd arrangement, especially since the Advertising Standards Authority tends to be hypersenstive.

On the other hand, I cannnot fathom why a health organization would want to run an ad like this. A woman with a plastic bag over her head — yeah, that’s an image I want my five year old running across.

And You Thought HMOs Were Heartless

The British National Health Service recently announced and odd treatment schedule for patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries.

The NHS has decided that it will only approve treatment for macular degeneration once the disease is present in both eyes, and then it will only treat the eye that has been damaged the least with no treatment being recommended for the other eye.

Treatment for macular degeneration is widely available in the United States, Canada and most European countries, but apparently the British health system balks at the cost.

Source:

Outrage over blindness guidelines. The BBC, June 13, 2002.