America needs more lawyers.
JoseSoplar
will police their own and disbar BJ Clinton?
Jose
It's not the guns, it's the criminals stupid!
Bill Clinton: Made in China
Guns don't kill people, the US government does!
Bill Kasper
A government of lawyers, by lawyers and for lawyers
Some people can be so thoughtless. Rather than going out and putting a needy
attorney to work for $150 or more an hour, they go and buy computer programs
that supply their basic legal needs.
Iowa-based Parsons Technology sells two such programs: Quicken Family Lawyer and
Quicken Family Lawyer ’99. The software provides legal forms such as leases,
prenuptial agreements and employment contracts.
It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers. This
outrage against society, not to mention the tasseled-shoe industry, needed to be
stopped dead in its tracks. It has been, thanks to a Dallas federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders (no, I’m not making this up) last month
said he plans to bar Parsons Technology from selling its legal software, priced
at under $30, in Texas. Sanders’ reasoning is the programs represent "the
unauthorized practice of law."
Twenty years ago the Texas state legislature, a body undoubtedly made up of many
lawyers, established the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, an organization
including six lawyers to be selected by the lawyers who make up the state’s
supreme court. Such a setup could give incest a bad name.
The UPLC’s job is to prevent competition that could damage the income of
lawyers. I’m certain that’s not how it’s explained, however. Oh no, the
committee is there to protect the public from unscrupulous, unprincipled,
unqualified, incompetent scoundrels who squeeze the last penny from their
clients. In truth, the committee is there to make sure the public can only hire
licensed unscrupulous, unprincipled, unqualified, incompetent scoundrels who
squeeze the last penny from their clients.
So the UPLC took Parsons Technology to court. The judge decided the average
consumer is stupid and can’t tell the difference between buying a CD-ROM or
retaining a lawyer. Hint: When you’ve had to refinance your house, get a second
job, borrow money from your brother-in-law, sell your kids, and spend your
leisure time examining the fine points between a chapter 7 bankruptcy and a
chapter 13, you can be fairly certain it’s a genuine attorney-at-law you’ve
selected.
Part of the problem is the Parsons’ software may be too good. If it were just a
bunch of fill-in-the-blank forms, perhaps the company would have gotten by. But
as noted by Judge Sanders, the program "adapts the content of the form to the
responses given by the user. In sum, Parsons has violated the unauthorized
practice of law statute." That should teach the company not to tailor its
products to its customers needs.
In making his decision Judge Sanders wasn’t interested in protecting lawyers
from competition. Not at all. Rather, his concern was protecting "the uninformed
and unwary from overly simplistic legal advice."
As usual, though, the objection didn’t come from consumers. Maybe that’s because
they’re, as put so patronizingly by the judge, "uninformed and unwary."
The objection came from the profession that could be hurt if people have a
reasonably-priced alternative. The people controlling the current monopoly never
welcome anything that could cut into the profits.
Trusting people to make their own decisions is no longer in fashion.
"Protecting" them, as only the heavy hand of government can, is. Especially when
billable hours are involved.
We elect too many lawyers to public office. They make the laws. They administer
the laws. They interpret the laws. They enforce the laws. No wonder things are
in such a sorry mess.
The judge who thinks some software is too dangerous for a naive public came up
through the Democratic farm system. Appointed by John Kennedy to be a U.S.
attorney, Barefoot Sanders went on to serve a stint in the Johnson Justice
Department, rising to assistant attorney general. Jimmy Carter appointed him to
the federal bench.
Last week’s column identified judges appointed by Bill Clinton who are less than
hard-line when it comes to punishing criminals. As we can see, not all federal
judges appointed by Democrats spend all their time turning the bad guys loose.
Some of them devote their efforts to protecting us from ourselves. We can be so
uninformed and unwary.
February 25, 1999
=======================================================================
Bill Kasper,VR-WC->,SIGINT
Evac Detail
"...But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will
within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.
I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because
law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so
when it violates the right of an individual."
--Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.
rose...@idt.net
>It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers.
Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
In your case, it'd be double jepoardy.
rose...@idt.net
>What do you figure the chances are that lawyers
>will police their own and disbar BJ Clinton?
about the same as you getting a brain
Bill Kasper
=bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper) wrote:
=
=
=>It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers.
=
=Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
=
=In your case, it'd be double jepoardy.
Gary Rosell, dead drunk and bloated on government cheese, fondly recalls
his attempt at going to "lawyer school" at Burning U. in Arkansas, where
Consitutional Professor Clinton was doing a 1/2 semester course entitled
"Rights and Stuff: Who Needs 'Em?". The pleasant memory ends when
Gary recalls that upon entering the ivy-covered halls of his hero, he was
shown the door when the receptionist caught a whiff of his unwashed
presence, and noticed the spreading urine stain at his crotch...
rose...@idt.net
>During Year One of the People's Liberation of Kosovo, rose...@idt.net said:
>=bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper) wrote:
>=
>=
>=>It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers.
>=
>=Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
>=
>=In your case, it'd be double jepoardy.
>
> Gary Rosell, dead drunk and bloated on government cheese, fondly recalls
> his attempt at going to "lawyer school" at Burning U. in Arkansas, where
> Consitutional Professor Clinton was doing a 1/2 semester course entitled
> "Rights and Stuff: Who Needs 'Em?". The pleasant memory ends when
> Gary recalls that upon entering the ivy-covered halls of his hero, he was
> shown the door when the receptionist caught a whiff of his unwashed
> presence, and noticed the spreading urine stain at his crotch...
See, when ya gotta thing for yourself, kasparspittonloon, you fail the
test.
You're much better at regurgitating the sham allegations, hypocritical
morals, and loony economics you've been trained with over at free
pubic.
JoseSoplar
Yah! That's what I figured.
On the subject of gray matter:
When you shake your head, your
brain must roll around like a pea in a boxcar.
Bill Kasper
=bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper) wrote:
=>
=> Gary Rosell, dead drunk and bloated on government cheese, fondly recalls
=> his attempt at going to "lawyer school" at Burning U. in Arkansas, where
=> Consitutional Professor Clinton was doing a 1/2 semester course entitled
=> "Rights and Stuff: Who Needs 'Em?". The pleasant memory ends when
=> Gary recalls that upon entering the ivy-covered halls of his hero, he was
=> shown the door when the receptionist caught a whiff of his unwashed
=> presence, and noticed the spreading urine stain at his crotch...
=
=See, when ya gotta thing for yourself, kasparspittonloon, you fail the
=test.
Gonna cry?
<replay>
Poor Rosell. Poor, fiber-short, government cheese-swelled Rosell.
We now see the inevitable slide towards complete raving insanity which is
the hallmark of the dedicated hard-left statist.
He complains all the time about how everyone who is earning their own
way through life is "greedy", about how those who point out corruption and
evil are "facists", and how the government of the United States "kicks ass"
of the majority of its political citizenry.
He calls anyone who betters him in public a "loser", and anyone who
humiliates him repeatedly is subjected to his deep-seated homosexual
fixation on the anus. This is always followed by the exhibition of
multiple personalities "laughing" in his head.
The only question is, with Hanson "gone", and Lockner too busy plotting
an experiment that will never happen, when will Rosell start to use the
phrase "dastardly deeds"?
And then, will he use propane, gasoline, or nitrocellulose?
Or will the government cheese even now plugging up his envious and
unproductive arteries, do him in via a heart attack?
Usenet waits, and watches...
Billy Beck
bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper) posted:
>http://www.michaelmbates.com/
>
>A government of lawyers, by lawyers and for lawyers
[...]
>We elect too many lawyers to public office.
That natural follows, as night after day. Observe:
>They make the laws. They administer the laws. They interpret the laws.
>They enforce the laws. No wonder things are in such a sorry mess.
This is what happens to a culture that hires people to sit around
and write laws for two hundred years in a seller's market. What the
hell else could possibly happen?
I have no sympathy.
Go read Patrick Henry. Or; have a nice constitution.
Billy
VRWC Fronteer
http://www.mindspring.com/~wjb3/promise.html
Billy Beck
rose...@idt.net chirped:
>bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper) wrote:
>>It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers.
>
>Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
<hoot> Yeah; that's exactly what the Tompkins County Assistant
District Attorney told the judge, just one heartbeat before he moved
for dismissal on five DMV charges against me after I beat his properly
degreed and admitted ass like a yard dog all summer long, by myself.
Bill Kasper
Beck) said:
=
=rose...@idt.net chirped:
==>>It’s obvious that programs like that could diminish the demand for lawyers.
=>
=>Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
=
= <hoot> Yeah; that's exactly what the Tompkins County Assistant
=District Attorney told the judge, just one heartbeat before he moved
=for dismissal on five DMV charges against me after I beat his properly
=degreed and admitted ass like a yard dog all summer long, by myself.
=
Well gee Billy, that was pretty mean-spiritied of you.
What about his self-esteem?
Now *there* is a chain of events that wouldn't cause mass mourning
or Federally-paid funerals:
A depressed lawyer goes to the firm, and mows down dozens of his
collegues before turning the gun on himself...
Bill Kasper
=
=>http://www.michaelmbates.com/
=>
=>A government of lawyers, by lawyers and for lawyers
=
= [...]
=
=>We elect too many lawyers to public office.
=
= That natural follows, as night after day. Observe:
=
=>They make the laws. They administer the laws. They interpret the laws.
=>They enforce the laws. No wonder things are in such a sorry mess.
=
= This is what happens to a culture that hires people to sit around
=and write laws for two hundred years in a seller's market. What the
=hell else could possibly happen?
Usually, that society gets invaded, raized, and assimlated.
<checks the clock>
I guess it's still early...
=
= I have no sympathy.
=
= Go read Patrick Henry. Or; have a nice constitution.
=
Billy Beck
rose...@idt.net wrote:
>Those who choose to represent themselves have a fool for a client.
In e-mail:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yo,
> How's it going, Beck?
Ach, I'm gettin' over it. Decent gig tonight. I just now
whacked Erb in the snout over his assinine "reply", and I'm sitting
here drinking a cup of coffee at 2:00am because I know I won't fly
tomorrow due to the weather.
Another day at the life-factory. How're you doin'?
> Since you semi-stiffed me a couple months ago on my request
> for info on your IRS dealing...
I know. I really did, didn't I?
> (not that I'm complaining; I don't know how you put
> out such a massive volume as it is,...
Sheer bull-headedness, man.
"Never give up." (The Twenty-fifth Commandment, Air Wing 5)
>I was wondering if you there was any chance we could see some details on the
> ass-whuppin' you mention in your post below. I've been to court
> over a couple of DMV-related items, and my plans to fight them always fell
> through - tried to tell myself I didn't have the time to do the requisite research
> and preparation, but the truth of it is that I tend to get animated easily, and I
> didn't trust myself to keep an even keel in the face of the outright injustice
> of it all. I guess I'm asking to see your story just so's I can experience a
> little vicarious retribution.
>
> Thanks, man,
Well... I suppose I might sit here and hack at it for a while,
but it's a long story, actually, and I don't know if I can do it
justice without rolling up my sleeves and getting serious about it.
That would likely necessarily entail a small book.
To begin with, you have my earnest sympathies over any sort of a
DMV hassle. Honest to god: the only times in my life that it ever
seriously occurred to me to wreak grievous bloody violence on a cop
was when he had me squeezed in that goddamned racket.
You're absolutely correct about the time and effort, even if that
wasn't your real reason for taking it up. It's a big deal to go into
something like this.
The arrest: I had taken the plates off my car, scraped the bloody
New York State inspection sticker off my windshield, ditched my
driver's license, and never did insure that car. I'd had enough of
jumping through their hoops.
It took 'em months to notice that I didn't have my papers in
order. The actual arrest took place at the hands of a notorious local
sheriff's deputy, renowned for being a classic southern-styled pig in
central New York: sunglasses, attitude, 54 IQ, the whole slam. He
stopped me as I drove through the small town of Freeville, New York on
a sunny Wednesday afternoon. He's the one who finally noticed that I
didn't have tags on my car.
He walked up to my window and knocked on it. As I was raising a
cassette recorder to the barely opened window, he asked me for my
papers. (I still have this tape, almost fifteen years later.) I
asked him if he had a Fourth Amendment warrant and probable cause.
Without a word, he promptly turned on a heel, went back to his car,
and radioed for backup.
Time passes. More cops arrive and quietly observe. Beck gets
peacefully shackled. Car towed away. Off to see a judge.
What happened at the courthouse was a damned good Title 18
federal case, if I could only have found a court that would hear it.
(They don't appreciate pro se litigants bringing these kinds of cases,
though. That completely wrecks their sense of self-propriety.) The
cop and the judge had a little ex parte party before my arraignment,
essentially a flagrant separation of powers violation.
Anyway, I'm finally standing there, in court, in a grubby T-shirt
and ripped up jeans, hair out to there, after spending the afternoon
in my girlfriend's mother's garden. Oh; don't forget the handcuffs.
They're a very important stage prop.
Byron, the cop, lays out the charges. All the DMV stuff. I'd
have to go look it up in my files, but it was a total of seven
charges, including the seat belt. He wanted it all. After he runs it
all down in outraged tones, to include the fact that I'd had the nerve
to ask for a warrant and actually *record* the arrest, he argues to
the judge that I should be held without bail. Oh; he was also pissed
off because I wouldn't "properly identify" myself: I wouldn't give him
an SSN.
The judge turns to me, and - looking like the Wandering Jew - I
calmly tell him that the demand for no bail is patently absurd, and
that my position is firmly grounded in First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth,
and Tenth amendment rights.
They both look at me like I fell out of a spaceship.
After a moment, the judge catches his breath and agrees: I'll be
held on a thousand dollar bail.
Of course, I don't have it on me, so Byron has his fun: off to
the local slam.
That's a whole story in itself: more pissed-off cops (No SSN.
Period. No way.); small-time, gratuitous, meaness on the way to the
cell; cell-block denizens who can't figure out why I'm getting the
treatment and are amazed when I tell 'em the story (they think they're
dealing with somebody *really bad* - or the cops wouldn't do stuff
like strip the bedding out of my cell, etc.); their taking up a
collection of bedding, cigarettes & stuff after they figure out that
I'm a political who essentially walked into the place to yank the
cops' tails; a habeas corpus petition scribbled out on a legal pad and
hauling a superior court judge out of her Sunday morning hangover in
order to hear it, whereupon she throws me back in, etc.
I finally bailed out after six days because I had a gig coming up
that I couldn't afford to blow off. (I rigged a Van Halen show that
week.) Mom, bless her ever-lovin' heart, coughed up the money when I
finally gave her permission to deal with the pigs.
I got out and cracked books all over the place. Bought myself a
copy of New York DMV law and CPL and went at it like a final exam that
Erb could never give. Programmed my Atari to print legal forms. I
studied law for weeks on end, and appeared in court regularly: arguing
motions and petitions for hours before the judge would invariably
whack the gavel and dismiss 'em summarily.
It went on for months.
One day, a day before yet another hearing - and this is all
pre-trial stuff - I get a call from the ADA, who's had enough. He's
going to argue for a dismissal on the five most serious counts. No
real details. I'll hear 'em in court. We get to court, and he shows
me the deal: I cop to the seat belt and some other bullshit little
thing (I don't remember right now), and the rest of it goes away.
I'll never forget: the judge was just aching to send me to
Attica, which was a very real possibility: the whole ride was 18
months and about 5K in fines. It just about broke his heart to have
to entertain the ADA's motion. He thought about it, decided what the
bite would be, and couldn't even say it: he handed me a slip of paper
with "$200" written on it. (This is all going on in front of about
forty people sitting there ready to hand over their hard-earned money
for nothin' at all, and mystified over something like this going on in
a court that usually just herds 'em through like cattle.)
I thought about it. I thought about where two hundred bucks came
from in my life, like; hanging my ass in mid-air in 40 mph winds in
order to make a point-bridle, and how none of these "caring" and
"protective" motherfuckers were anywhere in sight when I did stuff
like that.
I thought about the effort I'd put into the case, and figured the
odds of finding six rational people - which was all they were going to
let me have for a jury if I went to trial - who could possibly look
through the bullshit and nullify the "laws". I thought about my
appeal record, which I'd carefully crafted, and which looked pretty
good, and the prospect of dragging the whole thing into that arena.
I thought about what I could get done in my life if I didn't do
that.
I gave it up.
I paid the two hundred bucks and wrote it off to tuition. OJT in
the courts. I learned a hell of a lot, and I didn't discount the
satisfaction of wearing out that shit-heeled little nerd of an ADA,
which is exactly what happened. I have a feeling that someone in the
DA's office told him that it wasn't worth the time & trouble they were
sinking in it, and that he should just make it go away the best way he
could. The whole time I was thinking about it in the courtroom, that
sonofabitch held his breath, scared to death that I wouldn't take the
deal.
Years, later, my father pointed out that I didn't win anything
useful as precedent. It's true, of course, and I didn't get out of it
what I'd hoped I would. But they didn't get me, either. I walked.
And, I'll bet I'm the only one in the group who gets to laugh at
Rosie's quote of some lawyer out to protect his phoney-baloney job,
out of first-hand experience.
That's it. That's the basic story.
Gary Cruse
bill....@usa.whatareyoulookingat.net (Bill Kasper)
further elucidated:
> or Federally-paid funerals:
>
> A depressed lawyer goes to the firm, and mows down dozens of his
> collegues before turning the gun on himself...
About five years ago. San Francisco. You could
look it up.
--
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/6305/index.html
A Rush Limbaugh Featured Site
A pat on the back is only a few inches from a
kick in the pants.
John Kennedy
wrote:
> That's a whole story in itself: more pissed-off cops (No SSN.
>Period. No way.)
That made me laugh out loud.
Guess they're not on the usenet, huh?
--
John Kennedy
-------
Best Anarchy Links:
David Friedman -> http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
Niels Buhl -> http://www.math.ku.dk/~buhl/
Billy Beck -> http://www.mindspring.com/~wjb3/promise.html
--------
Billy Beck
kenne...@DODGE.THIS.hotmail.com (John Kennedy) wrote:
>On Fri, 07 May 1999 07:15:11 GMT, wj...@mindspring.com (Billy Beck)
>wrote:
>
>> That's a whole story in itself: more pissed-off cops (No SSN.
>>Period. No way.)
>
>That made me laugh out loud.
>
>Guess they're not on the usenet, huh?
Well, it *is* almost fifteen years later. Some things change.
I've realized that I had the wrong idea in mind regarding the
SSN. Instead of concealing it like I did in that case, I decided it
was better to disarm the damned thing by not caring about it at all.
"Let go of the rope."
NOSPAM
wrote:
Billy one of the truest old canards I have ever heard is about
the largest waste, a bus going over a 100 foot high cliff with 99
lawyers on board, and one empty seat.
\\/ayne //\ann
"Don't take candy from strangers,
unless they offer you a ride first."