New Year Musings

Back from the Christmas and New Year holidays. Other than Martha’s and my annual New Year ritual of watching the dawn break and sun rise over White Rock Lake and then having breakfast at John’s Café on Greenville Avenue, they were not much for me, as I had an appellate brief due on 12/31 and a jury trial beginning on 1/5 which lasted through 1/8. The jury had to answer several fact questions, which they did in a manner favorable to my client, I think. Still some close legal questions, and it could go either way. Main question was whether a series of e-mails could comply with the rule that a real estate commission contract must be in writing signed by the person to be charged. E-mail is the work of yet another infernal serpent, but I believe it does comply. In view of the jury findings, I hope the judge agrees with me.

It appears that a majority of Americans do not want the meddling Congress is on the verge of passing. I have to confess some mixed feelings about that, considering the current versions of the bill all but guarantee full employment for lawyers. “O ye lawyers who live on litigants fees, and need a great many to live at your ease. . . “ (From Lord Neaves’ poem about the Jolly Testator Who Writes his Own Will). Anyway, a tidbit from the NCPA observes a number of facts about U. S. medical care that might be driving the polls:

● U.S. is No. 1 of 191 countries for “responsiveness to the needs and choices of the individual patient” (my emphasis) on the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) comparative ranking system.

● Eight of the 10 top selling drugs in the world were developed by U.S. companies (“Big Pharma” to the pecksniffs).

● The U. S. has the shortest waiting time for non-emergency surgery in the world. Britain’s NHS has one of the longest, except, of course, for the Queen, the City Mughals, the likes of the Duke of Earl, and the Earl of Duke, and Sir Mick Jagger (hey, I don’t begrudge him; I’ve been a Stones fan from the beginning).

There’s more. See Mark B. Constantian at

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644230678102274.html