There has been a huge award in a novel malicious prosecution case over the alleged theft of pet turkeys. In 2004, defendant Ralph Dupps accused Robert and Jennifer Klippel of turkey-napping their pets and then releasing them back into nature. While the charges were dismissed, the Klippels sued and were just awarded $4.25 million
They claim that the ordeal drove Robert Klippel to alcohol and drove Jennifer Klippel to the use of sleep aids and depression medication.
What is fascinating is that this is a lawsuit against the Dupps as opposed to the state.
The turkeys had been a long dispute over their scaring Robert Klippel’s son and defecating in the Klippel yard. A police officer allegedly suggested just shooting the birds. The Klippels admit that they took the turkeys to a wildlife preserve. The Dupps then went to police who issued warrants for petit larceny on the Klippels who spent 10 hours in jail.
The case involved arguments under nuisance and the right of owners to take such actions. The jury obviously agreed.
Source: IslandPacket
harebell:
“Up until that point Nazism was a useful money maker for your businesses. I don’t think they did nearly as well as Switzerland out of it, but it is telling that even after everything was discovered about the true horrors of Nazism even the interest was not waived.”
It is actually a little more complicated than that. The reasons are manifold although money had something to do with it, money is not the total reason or even the main reason. I direct you toward Thomas Sowells book “Vision of the Anointed: Self Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy” for an introduction. There also some other good books on the subject as well which I will try and find.
But in a way you are right, America should have gotten into that war earlier and we should have forced Chamberlain to grow a backbone and some balls. Had we done so I doubt Europe would have ended up destroyed and some 50 plus million people dead.
mespo,
Which are more credible?
lottakatz:
“… facts are not given to context in my experience.”
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I have a very different experience. When I hear a prisoner say that he was unjustly held and tortured by his captors, I have a very different reaction when the “captors” are the employees of the Virginia Department of Corrections than when the same statement is made about Saddam’s secret police. Same statement; different level of credibility.
Blouise, Excellent points all. The problem wasn’t ever the draft, it was the exemptions that resulted in a class (and race) stratified military force.
The striking thing about your posting is that with a few minor exceptions I cold have truthfully wrote it. We seem to come from a shared history that has molded us similarly regarding this question.
I loathe and despise the “old men” in government that use the lives of the soldiers like small change, not even worth stopping to pick up if dropped. I likewise despise the military brass that seek nothing so much as to find excuses to expand the role of the military and their own influence.
I think the age at which people can join the military is way too low because I like you believe that many do so because they are young and looking for the excitement and personal validity (for lack of a better word) joining up will (supposedly) bring. The fact that once in our nations children are misused is criminal. That it’s an all volunteer force makes it so palatable to the nation that the loss of body, mind and life can be dismissed with a shrug, ‘they volunteered’ after all. That it is a job of last resort during times of high unemployment is likewise odious to me.
I don’t hate soldiers, I just don’t respect “The Military”. It’s too big and closed. The torturers’ at Abu Gerhard on the night shift were exactly what I expected from a closed, monolithic organization that trains it’s recruits to follow orders and look to your superiors, not your conscience no matter what they are told to do. In a closed, fiercely nationalistic world where there are “superiors” and the people taking orders from them I would expect nothing less what we saw at Abu Ghraib and what I’m sure is going on right now at our various black sites.
I don’t respect the military in major part because of what they do to the people that join up. If people are ‘bent’ before they join they shouldn’t be accepted and once in the ones that aren’t ‘bent’ shouldn’t be.
mespo727272: “You’re quite far off the mark here. No one demanded his “papers.” What most folks wanted to know was the context from which harebell derived. It would matter to me if he/she were a citizen of Saudi Arabia versus Britain versus Nicaragua. The reason being is that his opinions are likely adjusted to the information he received”
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I wouldn’t speak differently to him if he were from America or Mars, facts are not given to context in my experience. A fact that works for an American should work as well for someone from Qatar or Scotland or ?. We take no prisoners when refuting opinion from the far right bigots that occasionally visit here, and do so using facts as well as opinion clearly stated as such. The context of their remarks serves not to mitigate their position and it shouldn’t serve to mitigate a reasoned factual argument against their position.
Re-read the initial group of postings asking where he was from- those inquiries went from fact gathering to speculation in unflattering terms by Byron pretty quickly and and, at least to me, began to stray into an attitude most appropriately called ‘nationalist’. Actually both you and Harebell were making some good points and the ‘nationalist’ distraction made me unhappy and uneasy. I have come to expect and be rewarded with a higher level of discourse among the regular posters here and it was/did get side tracked with the ‘where’ question.
Also, where are you from has the unspoken caveat (to me) that ones opinion has a qualitative difference depending on national origin. In fact Harebell indicated that he moved around on a 3 year basis and lived many places- something I associate with an American military background.
I any event, The secret masters (BP) did their dirty work and traded a lucrative energy deal for the triumphant return to Libya of a murdering bastard with the help of the British and Scots. The only question is who in the respective governments knew what and when did they know it. As far as the Church goes, well, I take everything their representatives say with the full knowledge that all government’s – ALL GOVERNMENT’S – are corrupt to the bone and all diplomats and spokespersons get paid for telling the lie d’-jour. They don’t call it the Vatican STATE for no good reason.
Byron
1, August 10, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Harebell:
It took some under the table tactics from the likes of Dahl, Stevenson and FDR to actually tilt your country against the totalitarian menace that Nazism represented at that time.
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there were quite a few intellectuals in the US in the 20′s and 30′s that thought the Nazis were just peachy. The war began in earnest when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Whoops.
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Like Prescott Bush (George W’s granddaddy) … okay, he wasn’t exactly an intellectual
Like the former King of the United Kingdom, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor … okay, definitely not an intellectual
Never mind
…the meddlesome mespo has nothing to fear from the likes of you
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome mespo?
I believe that it is time to refocus on the Cardinal … though I give credit to the poster for having successfully removed the spotlight from his superior. The dude dressed in red swore allegiance to his Pope before all other human beings … including the Queen … after all isn’t that the cover ol’ Henry used to establish his beloved Church of England? As England suffered through the reign of Bloody Mary, I suppose we can withstand the insults of the Cardinal’s guy.
Attacking the United States is easy for these prelates … demeaning the sacrifices the American citizens made during the 40’s is nothing to such “holy men” (cough, cough) considering what their present day Pope was up to in Germany at the time.
And … it does no harm to point out that Pope Pius IX had hopes that the Confederacy would succeed in splitting the United States. (though that desire was based more on his fears concerning France than us.)
And then there is the very real desire by all within the Catholic hierarchy to cover up their pesky pedophile problems … should we be at all surprised that the Cardinal in Scotland would serve such masters?
“Cardinal Keith O’Brien said Scotland had a culture of care, while the US was fixed on vengeance. …”We shouldn’t be crawling out to America, or having them come here and questioning us on our own territory.” Lecture away sweetheart, we have a long way to go to catch up with your holy (cough, cough) masters. Perhaps spending a few years with some real priests in South America or Africa doing some real work for your god (instead of just dropping in for a visit) would actually infuse you with the holy spirit … as a diplomat you leave a lot to be desired which makes your appointment to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications rather funny but helping to elect this present Pope is, quite possibly, your greatest achievement.
Good job blue guy!
Harebell:
It took some under the table tactics from the likes of Dahl, Stevenson and FDR to actually tilt your country against the totalitarian menace that Nazism represented at that time.
===============================================================
there were quite a few intellectuals in the US in the 20’s and 30’s that thought the Nazis were just peachy. The war began in earnest when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Whoops.
harebell:
“A not so erudite America once wrote, “Show me the money.”
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You might have a better argument if we didn’t ship our money to you on the backs of half a million armed American kids willing to risk their lives so you and yours could munch fish and chips in the nearest pub all the while complaining about them.
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome mespo? Hey, you know what happened to Becket!!!! Consider me impressed … and scared. 😀
AY & Blouise for Psychic Post of the Week!!! Hey, Buddha, how you doing?
lottakatz:
“Harebell is not far off the mark and demanding his ‘papers’ is downright bizarre coming from people on this blawg.”
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You’re quite far off the mark here. No one demanded his “papers.” What most folks wanted to know was the context from which harebell derived. It would matter to me if he/she were a citizen of Saudi Arabia versus Britain versus Nicaragua. The reason being is that his opinions are likely adjusted to the information he received and many countries have limited or no freedom of the press. Maybe he couldn’t get the correct information or maybe he was just a hit and run artist who refuses to accept criticism for his circumstances even as he dishes it out wholesale (and erroneously, I might add) to us.
No one is asking you to wrap yourself in the flag, but spurious attacks against our nation need be answered if only to correct the record or to provide a broader context for the truth. One of the valid complaints conservatives have against liberals is their apparent lack of patriotism. While it’s true that the truth demands a calculus of the relevant facts devoid of emotion or sentimentality, it does not demand our departure from the side of our nature that compels us to value the good things we have wrought, and to defend that which needs defending. America is not always right or prudent or moral, but neither is she always wicked or foolish or byzantine. Like everything else, it’s a mixed bag, but one I’d take over all the alternatives. Perhaps you disagree?
Stare into my eyes ……..
I am very proud of that one line in my psychic post … I might be able to actually impress mespo:
“Will No One Rid Me of This Meddlesome Mespo?” cried the Cardinal
I’m feeling better, Blouise. I’m going to have a small scar from the bite, but at least it doesn’t hurt all the time now. Thanks for asking.
Blouise,
I’m going to add “psychic” to the list of your many talents. 😉
How are you feeling, Buddha?
Considering that harebell started posting after the revelation of the link mespo provided … the Catholic Cardinal in Scotland thing … could harebell be acting on that man’s part? Sounds like a catholic hierarchy tactic … I don’t know … perhaps a “Will No One Rid Me of This Meddlesome Mespo?” thing ….
This is almost as funny as a Scottish RCC Cardinal criticizing U.S. citizens for being upset that the Scots let a terrorist go “for humanitarian reasons” that were hokum when the RCC can’t police its own child molester problems.
Almost.
“wee while longer” … Scotland … add that to the other legs in my hypothesis
So now we can be more certain that it is a Brit trashing Americans for “blind nationalism” and “Marine worship”. Oh Britannia, Britannia Rule the Waves … well … once upon a time, anyway …