Tuesday, November 01, 2011

misc

I've never really agreed with the Dr. Conrad Murray trial. It's not a crime to be a bad doctor. There's a saying "doctors bury their mistakes". I think the prosecutors are attempting to score on Jackson's fame.

Sure it looks bad. After all Dr. Murray only had one patient to look after. It was a man in robust enough health to be embarking on a gruelling world tour. From the trial it appears Dr. Murray may have been too easily distracted by the interrelated issues of his personal wealth, his status as a doctor to the stars, the possibility of becoming a celebrity doctor himself, texting with his several girlfriends while on duty.

But it all comes across as malpractice, not any crime (after all Murray has no motive for Jackson to die and every incentive to keep him well). The normal route for malpractice is censure, suspension or loss of medical license, loss of reputation and business, and civil malpractice litigation.

Now in Jackson's case unlike with regular folks there is little reason for his wealthy estate to go through an embarrassing public trial trying to get say a $2 million malpractice judgment. But it's not the prosecutor's responsibility to substitute a criminal trial because Jackson's estate is strongly unmotivated to pursue a shaky malpractice claim against Murray. After all Jackson was of sound mind and was free to fire Dr. Murray if he was unhappy with the service he was getting for what he spent.

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Nice work Jon Corzine destroying 200 year old MF Global in only a few short months. Today 3,000 people cleaned out their desks thanks to you.

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ah Greece again. What's the point of this referendum? At some level I hope the Greeks just reject it and I guess they will go back to the Drachma or just outright default on the bond payments. There's not much point in the Eurozone anyway giving money to Greece so Greece can then make payments to bondholders. What would that accomplish? Better to let the irresponsible Greeks default. If that imperils some German or French national banks then the Eurozone nations could take care of their own and make direct injections into their own banks if they were foolish enough to be that badly exposed to Greece.

It's weird because the population of Greece is like 11 million. How can default by such a small group cause so much trouble? It doesn't make sense.

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I went to the Rodeo last Saturday. That was a good time. Lots of people dressed up. I can't remember ever going there before. I'd heard about the place. Staff were friendly and service was fast. Good crowd there but not too crazy. Maybe not every weekend but I would go back there.

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