Dan Ariely, alleged fraudster

I've read several books by Dan Ariely, and came to appreciate him as the seeming dean of a younger generation of behavioral psychology researchers, standing on the shoulders of giants like his mentor, Dan Kahneman and Danny's collaborator, Amos Tversky.

I'd even referenced him in an newspaper column about 18 months ago in the early days of coronavirus, specifically citing his "Predictably Irrational." Extended thoughts in that vein are here. A non-Goodreads/Amazon review is here.

The one book of his that I have reviewed at Goodreads is ...  wait for it below ...

And, now, he has been accused of research fraud. And, if this finding is correct, simple and childish research fraud. (For a deeper dive, here's the blog, with the particular blog post, that first discovered this.)

"WHY?" comes immediately to mind.

My best guess is that he'd gotten himself up a creek without a paddle on some previous claims, hitting the rapids or even the full waterfall version of Replication Bias, and decided to fix things.

But, really? Just adding numbers to a column in an Excel spreadsheet? Wow.

There's also a fat-assed Irony Alert. The allegedly fraudulent research was used in a 2012 co-authored paper about ... 

HOW TO REDUCE DISHONESTY!

And, that one book of his I reviewed? "The Honest Truth about Dishonesty." AND, a paragraph of the review needs quoting:

He also notes that, short of sociopath types, while most of us cheat, most of us don't cheat that much. For instance, on matrix-completion tests where people are paid based on personal claims of number of tests completed? They'll claim to have done a couple of extra, but not double what they actually did.

AND AND AND!

The alleged fraud was in 2012. Guess what year that book was published. So, that just confirms things. He had said shit in the book that wasn't true, I presume, had now learned that it wasn't true, and was in CYA mode.

And, the #fail was indeed childish. Beyond just adding numbers to an Excel column, a different font was used for these new numbers. (Sadly, it was Calibri, then Cambria; no Comic Sans involved. That said, that's like a modern version of one of the classical manuscript errors. I most font sets, Calibri and Cambria are adjacent to each other in a scroll list; this is like a medieval scribe either skipping or reduplicating a word.)

And, it's not like Ariely was a scrubbeenie. He was a tenured prof at Duke; he'd taught there before and came back, per Wiki.

Beyond the link above? Story is now in the Economist, which also notes the 2012 hypocrisy squared book publication date. Wiki says he's asked for the paper to be retracted.

So, the "alleged" is in the title and the body only for purely legal reasons.

Per Proverbs?

"The guilty flee when no one pursues."

 

==

 

As far as his overall writings? "The Honest Truth about Dishonesty" is obviously trash. I assume that anything later also is. "Predictably Irrational" is enough earlier it may well be OK. But, maybe not. And, shouldn't we just start calling Ariely himself "Predictably Irrational"?

 

Since Ariely wants the paper retracted, after first tweeting Retraction Watch during the day yesterday, I posted a comment on their most recent post last night. It went into moderation, I guess because of the link. And, as of this afternoon, it had NOT posted. So, I posted a comment on their FAQ / comments policy page. And, it went into moderation.

Anyway, the story has now metastasized, whether Retraction Watch runs anything or not. Samuel Goldman, going beyond the replication bias, argues that what we have is a clear case of "star professor" sucking up the oxygen of grants, etc., and having incentive to Lather.Rinse.Repeat.

Manipulation to produce favorable results is exactly what behavioral economics would predict in this situation. So it's ironic that one of the leading practitioners of the field seems caught in a trap that his own ideas help explain.

Goldman also goes "there" with Ye Old Petard Hosting reference:

The solution isn't gimmicks like honesty statements. Reforming social science means changing funding and professional incentives that encourage dishonest behavior by concentrating rewards on the biggest names, most charismatic personalities, and splashiest arguments. In other words, the benefits enjoyed by Ariely himself.

Well, it's true!

And, backed up by the Daily Mail. (If they're doing a story, we're officially in dogpile time.) It says that one co-author expressed concern about the data at the time, but Ariely said "We're all good."

And, NEW shit has been dragged up. His Wiki page, newly updated, references an Israeli journal that says while Ariely was at MIT, without institutional review board approval, he used electric shock on participants in an experiment.

And, via the "fonts" link above, I don't need to be harshing Retraction Watch's mellow. It reported earlier this year about ANOTHER Ariely issue: a 2004 paper that got an "expression of concern."

 

BuzzFeed has a piece that documents more replication issues. And, per that, we probably should just cut to the chase and call Ariely an outright liar. Ariely is, indirectly, trying to blame the insurer for whom he did this study. But, he's done that in the past — until busted. In a study a little over a decade ago about dentists allegedly themselves not always knowing when a cavity is a cavity, when issues arose, he blamed Delta Dental. Problem? Delta said it had never given him the information he was talking about.

And, with all of this new information? The note of concern is for work from before Predictably Irrational was published. So is the unauthorized electroshock. So is the fake cavities research. So, we can't trust it, either, can we? And, personally, having referenced it in a column, this is kind of like a source going bad.

Per Goldman, academia is also very political, and I suspect some long knives have been laying in wait for Ariely, re why this is so popular. And, I think a lot of people have probably had suspicions for a long time. That said, will Duke put him on some sort of probation?

That said, maybe we should thank Ariely in a way. He's shown that, if the emperor of behavioral economics and psychology isn't totally naked, it's probably about as thinclad as that of evolutionary psychology. After all, others, including one of his aforementioned mentors, Dan Kahneman, have had their own replication problems (though they didn't make up data to try to hide that, as far as we currently know).

That said, outside of academia, through jobs like "chief behavioral officer" at Lemonade, he's been laughing all the way to the bank, and the statute of limitations for suits over some of this have certainly expired.

#IronyAlert: Tricky Ricky Perry benefits from the First Amendment

Texas' Third Court of Appeals has said that one of the two criminal charges facing former Gov. Rick Perry over his threats to veto funding for the Public Integrity Unit out of Travis County unless Travis DA Rosemary Lehmberg resigned is unconstitutional.

The court ruled that Texas' coercion of a public servant statute is an unconstitutional limit on a public official's free speech, and therefore that count is dropped.

The state district court that originally heard Team Perry's appeal of the charges had said the statute was constitutional. Special prosecutor Michael McCrum has not yet indicated if he will appeal. And, given that a constitutional issue is involved, if both parties are ready to appeal all the way out, this could eventually land in federal court.

I'm unsure on this ... per this NPR story, Perry at least pushed the edge, but, courts likely do see free-speech concerns, and, on the political side, separation-of-powers issues.

If this holds up, that leaves Perry facing just one misdemeanor, and it's hard to see how McCrum is going to make that stick, because that's largely dependent on the line of reasoning that led to the felony, which was originally two charges.

Friend Perry has more thoughts on the political background and ramifications.

Texas Public Policy Foundation — hoist by its own petard

This spring, I blogged about the Texas Public Policy Foundation ready to help out my current town of residence on some community improvement issues. Well, TPPF has gotten official approval from the city to set up a city clean-up program with adult and juvenile probationers.

And, that leads to the petard hoisting of itself by TPPF.

This cleanup work was one of the ideas that TPPF’s Jess Fields mentioned to this city in his initial presentation.

That said, what's one of the major components of trash blowing around streets in dirtier communities?

Plastic grocery bags.

And, TPPF already has a  history that shows its inimical to the interests of this county.

Well, TPPF has a “tag” on its blogs called “over-regulation,” and one piece by Fields himself claims that banning plastic grocery bags, as Austin did, may be “deadly” because reusable bags might harbor killer bacteria. 

Yes, canvas grocery bags, like the ones I’ve used for a decade, could kill you. Last I checked, they had done me a lot less harm than Texas’ mountain cedars. Of course, since many of those cedars in the Hill Country provide shelter for Endangered Species Act-listed golden-cheeked warblers, TPPF would probably love to help me and other allergy sufferers by abolishing the ESA, then chopping down cedars. What swell folks, eh?

Note to TPPF: Any canvas bag toter who croaks in front of the North Austin Whole Foods? It's much more likely to be a botox OD than "baggus salmonellicus." Second guess is finding something non-GMO in that bag or something, not the bag itself. Third? Asphyxiation from finding out that a vial of TPPF hot air was detonated inside the bag.

Seriously, I'd love a statewide push by somebody like Public Citizen to get all communities, including this one, to adopt some sort of plastic bag ordinance.

#PZMyers, unintentional master of irony, still mismasters religion

Irony usually becomes ironic in part because the person writing doesn't recognize the humor value. Hence, I introduce one Paul Zachary Myers,  warning about the dangers of non-egalitarian church-like organizations within movement atheism.

The irony, of course, is that PZ's Pharyngulacs are a cult just this side of, oh, ... Scientology?

Or, to go to the secular, and non-liberal world, as Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads?

So, to hear him warning about cult followings (and it's really "movement skepticism," not "movement atheism," that he's throwing hand grenades at along with warnings, in the second half of this blog post) is funny on the one hand, and funny as a rubber crutch on the other.

Meanwhile, PZ again puts all organized religion in whatever stereotyping grab bag suits him at the moment:

What we need to construct are egalitarian institutions that do not simply co-opt the corrupt schema of existing religious institutions. We should be modeling democratic political forms rather than buying into destructive ecclesiastical patterns of organization.

There are many religions denominations and branches not like that.

Quakers sprang to mind immediately. Unitarians are somewhat that way. Arguably, at the local level, Mormons are, for that matter.

Outside of Christianity, Sufi Islam immediately popped into mind. Many animistic/nativist religions also fit the bill.

Anyway, back to the main point.

P.Z. forgot that one you point a finger at someone else, if your hand is doubled into an angry fist, you've got three fingers pointing back at yourself.

It's also funny that P.Z., with his Maoist talk of wanting to create atheist "cadres," would want to preach about egalitarianism.

And also, though P.Z. doesn't like the Block Bot that Atheism Plusers are latching onto, he reportedly does like blacklists.

Well, isn't that a hierarchical thing, too?

Finally, democracy can become mobocracy.

Rush's Dittoheads would never vote against his wishes. Neither would P.Z.'s Pharyngulacs.

And he knows it.

He can even quote another Freethought blogger unblushingly:

One of the joys I celebrate in escaping from religion and church is no longer participating in this unbridled authority and reverence given to the pastor; the position of entitlements. Their needs and desires are always met or a concerted effort is attempted by the membership with much toil and sacrifice. The pastor is doused with honor and respect, given a god-like public image, and proclaimed a truth teller. A celebrity is added to the culture.

After receiving these former religionists with open arms and nurturing their non-belief, how will the secular community respond when they seek leadership positions? Will the secularists, humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and skeptics embrace these individuals with greater enthusiasm just because they are ex-pastors? Will they seek to find the true character and uncover those holy skeletons? Will they put forth adequate vetting to determine that their integrity matches their charisma? These are my concerns, because a secular church in the hands of a cult personality is a religion disguised as a humanist community. Will there be a secular church on every corner filled with sheeples?

And, simply not take notice that there's plenty of sheeples posting comments on his own blog.

I mean, I've seen people there, over things like P.Z.'s grenade-throwing at Michael Shermer, say their trust in him is absolute, they'd never disagree with him, etc., etc.

Please, P.Z. don't have a SeaOrg.

Wikileaks, Assange, irony alert and hypocrisy alert

I am laughing my head off at Julian Assange and various Wikileaks mouthpieces for him blaming everybody but themselves in general and Assange in particular for the release of all of Wikileaks' accumulated, unredacted cables.

Blaming the Guardian? If a password was supposed to be temporary, it's Wikileaks' fault for mismanaging it. If it wasn't temporary, then why did you pass it out? And, why didn't you have somebody, whether volunteer or paid, assigned to track files and documents?

Blaming former Wikileaker Daniel Domscheitt-Berg, who recently came out with "Inside WikiLeaks," which I five-starred on Amazon? Absurd. There, he documents exactly this type of sloppiness (and blaming) from Assange before. This shouldn't be surprising.

So, there's the irony.

The hypocrisy is as clear as the noses on our faces, and that's Assange and his stooges and mouthpieces are hypocrites for trying to claim or hint at some sort of "ownership" of the cables after all of Assange's touting of promoting freedom via the Internet.

No, Julian, you can't have it both ways. If you do "own" them, then admit that this is a control issue for you, and you're not quite so totally about the brave new free Internet world after all. If you are about that brave new world, then stop throwing hissy fits about who else has copies of unredacted cables.

Beyond that, Assange and stooges apparently incompetent hypocrites to boot.  That said, aside from guilt-innocence questions in a legal sense, such incompetence can't but reflect badly in any potential rape trial in Sweden. (And, getting TO legal questions of innocence, the sloppiness with control of cables may well have a parallel with "sloppiness" in sexual consent.)

No wonder Domscheit-Berg is not the only former Wikileaker with a critical tell-something book.

I think, like Obamiacs, or worshipers of Steve Jobs, we have Assangiacs, as far as how far some people will go to follow Assange in blaming everybody but him for this screw-up.

Update: Sadly, Glenn Greenwald appears to be singing, at least in part, from the Assange hymnal.  A short response:
1. Glenn, any pettiness/personal vendetta between Assange and Domscheit-Berg seems to have started with Assange;
2. If you don't see Wikileaks' release of the "30 significant releases" as a PR sheet, Gleen, you're either accidentally or willingly naive, and I'm beginning to lean toward the "willingly."
3. Anything that Leigh did "wrong" ultimately is Assange's fault for giving him a non-temporary password, unless it can be proven that Leigh knew it was non-temporary.

As a result, the excellent Spiegel article Glenn links has the bottom line:

For Wikileaks, OpenLeaks, Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg and many others, it is nothing short of a catastrophe.
A chain of careless mistakes, coincidences, indiscretions and confusion now means that no potential whistleblower would feel comfortable turning to a leaking platform right now. They appear to be out of control.

Given that much of this was preventable by Julian Assange being ... well, being other than he's shown himself to be, while I salute his effort in starting WikiLeaks, I have no problem assigning majority blame for what's gone wrong to him.

Feds ignore Countrywide but chase subprime small fry

So, former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo is off the hook for floating tens of thousands of subprime mortgages, including thousands of "liar's loans."

But, TAKE OUT a liar's loan, and, as Joe Nocera details, the feds spare no effort in convicting you and sending you to the federal pokey.

That said, beyond that, the person the feds put away? They had a weak case, Nocera said.

Now, isn't that what was claimed with Nocera? With Dick Fuld of Lehman?

Oh, the final "irony? Charlie Engle "lied" (it's arguable he didn't) ... to Countrywide.

Our peace prize prez strikes again

Glenn Greenwald notes the irony, or worse, of firing civilian-killing cruise missiles (not even Predators) at alleged/suspeected Yememi al-Qaida sites, getting further in bed with Israel and more.

Besides, we didn't even kill the primary target.

That's our content-free president!

Irony alert, or more - 'Private' Kennedy memorial service

I got an e-mail invitation from DemocraticMajority to watch tonight's "private" Ted Kennedy memorial service:

Dear ...,

Tonight, we will celebrate Senator Kennedy's life at a memorial service at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

We would like to remember his life in the same way as he lived it: with all of you.

Join us at 7 p.m. on TedKennedy.org, which will feature a live video stream of the service.

Now, it can't be "private" if you're streaming it like this now, can it?

And, while it may be dignified in general, I don't doubt that a fundraising appeal or something will be attached to it somewhere.

Astroturfers say ‘get Reps. off prepared script’ on health

Ahh, the irony alert and hypocrisy alert daily double at work.

If anybody has a “prepared script,” including a prepared script for disrespect and intimidation, it’s astroturfing corporate groups and their far-right political action group fellow travelers.

“Pack the hall,” said a strategy memo circulated by the Web site Tea Party Patriots that instructed, “Yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

“Get him off his prepared script and agenda,” the memo continued. “Stand up and shout and sit right back down.”

That said, liberals need to respond with firmness but WITHOUT violence; we do not need more Russ Carnahan town halls.

Irony alert – unions to tackle healthcare astroturfers

Huffington Post says AFL-CIO member unions will directly counter the healthcare astroturfers disrupting Congressional town halls.

The memo from AFL-CIO head Richard Sweeney also mentions specific items of support in healthcare reform — including the “public option.”

This is coming from the third leg of the stool of OPPOSITION to public national healthcare for the last 50-plus years.

Irony alert – KKKer arrested in Israel

The truly guilty will even flee where nobody would think of them going, to riff on Proverbs?

Obama - file this under ‘straw man’ column

President Barack Obama’s new Washington Post column says fairly little while trying to give the impression of saying a lot. And, per previous criticisms, he frequently plays the “straw man” card:

There are some who say we must wait to meet our greatest challenges. They favor an incremental approach or believe that doing nothing is somehow an answer. But that is exactly the thinking that led us to this predicament.

Who are the “some”? If they’re allegedly House and Senate Republicans, stop singing Kumbaya and name them. Otherwise, is the “incremental approach” comment a signal for a second stimulus, since the column is about the country’s financial condition?

Next, put on your “irony alert” glasses:

Ignoring big challenges and deferring tough decisions is what Washington has done for decades, and it's exactly what I sought to change by running for president.

Let’s see… first stimulus bill arguably too small, and with no White House leadership; not much WH leadership on national healthcare; not much, in terms of legislative involvement on Waxman-Markey; stalling the clock out on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and otherwise doing little on gay rights; reverting to, or even expanding, BushCo policies on indefinite detention, state secrets, etc.

Yep, that’s just the opposite of “ignoring big challenges and deferring tough decisions”!

Meanwhile, here’s another biggie!

We believe it's time to reform our community colleges…

Instead of doing that, why not learn from every other advanced nation, and get our K-12 schools to have a school year of at least 200 days, if not longer? THAT would be educational leadership of boldness.

And, given that Congressional Republicans are now formally on record as opposing a second stimulus, what bold leadership will Obama show here?

As with many other things, I’m not holding my breath.

(For some suggestions for real change, go here.)

We are the straw men. We are the straw men.

Irony, hypocrisy alerts and MSLBs reverse spinning on Obama-Blago

MSLBs contribute to two-party duopoly gamesmanship on semi-legitimate issue

The irony and hypocrisy alerts? Former Karl Rove lawyer (in Pat Fitzgerald’s Plamegate investigation) telling the Wall Street Journal Barack Obama should just blow off Fitzgerald’s request that he remain silent until next week on the full scope of his staff’s contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s alleged attempt to auction off an appointment to Obama’s former Senate seat.

The irony, at least, is in Ruskin’s former connection with Fitz.

But, Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen and Media Matters’ Jameson Foser doth protest too much, especially Benen.

Benen mentions the irony of Luskin commenting on the case, as well as Wiseman’s hypocrisy for not identifying Luskin’s background. But, he fails to note that Luskin was NOT the only lawyer Wiseman quoted. Long-time Democratic insider lawyer Stanley M. Brand had the same opinion as Luskin. (Insert “bipartisanship alert” worry here.)

So, Steve, especially, and Jameson, whose irony, or hypocrisy, is actually being gored? Or, when the critique is almost as bad as what is being critiqued, perhaps you need to start over?

In other words, this is just more gamesmanship by a couple of spokesmen for the left-hand side of the two-party duopoly. And, it’s why I don’t contribute to these folks.

That said, there’s other problems with the story from a journalistic point of view.

First, does it really take three reporters to do a story that brief?

Second, and of more concern, Steno Sue Schmidt is one of the other two reporters.

Anyway, just because it's an ironic observation on Steve’s part, and even though the Journal was shoddy in not identifying Luskin, doesn't mean that Luskin's — and Brand’s — observation still isn't true.

I mean, Blago’s been under some sort of investigation for two years now, and is already lawyered up. As if he’s not already tailoring his story.

And, Benen and Foser also overlook the fact that Just.Another.Politician™ had the chance to comment right away, with full disclosure, and chose not to.

Mugabe could REALLY be in trouble

Running out of money to pay the army that keeps you in dictatorial power is usually not a good sign, not if your name is Robert Mugabe.

What’s up?

Sanctions are starting to bite. The Zimbabwean treasury is running out of paper from Europe to print banknotes. And, with hyperinflation, they’re running out of currency.

Ironically, the paper supplier, Germany’s Giesecke & Devrient, printed worthless currency for the Weimar Republic 85 years ago.

And, if you’ll read the full story, and look at the graphic at the bottom, you’ll see the situation in Zimbabwe is indeed rapidly approaching Weimar Germany.

Irony alert – faulty planes, aviation votes, Ron Paul

Ron Paul and six other Texas Congressmen, flying a Continental flight back to DC to vote for an aviation vote had to make an emergency landing in New Orleans.

No word on whether or not Paul said this was all because we’re not on the gold standard.

It takes a thief to trip up a thief - Irony Alert

Steal a 400-year-old First Folio of Shakespeare? Check.

Apparently steal other high-dollar items? Check?

Live in a modest house, apparently to keep a low profile? Check.

Shoot that idea in the foot? Priceless:

The man lives in a modest home in a working-class neighborhood – the ancestral town of George Washington.

But there was a silver Ferrari in his driveway and Armani suits in the closets.

Read the full story for more on the saga of the stolen Shakespeare.

GM now worth half of Avon — irony alert

Besides “a pittance,” or other one-liners, GM is now worth:
• One half of Avon;
• One third of Carnival;
• One-fourth of Yahoo, which has itself sucked as of late;
• One fifth of eBay, etc.

And, in the ultimate irony, GM is now worth one-66th of ExxonMobil.

Will Obama support the Feingold-Dodd filibuster on FISA?

A 2005 diary of his on The Orange Pseudoliberal Monster may provide some clues. It’s about his decision not to filibuster the nomination of John Roberts as Chief Justice. (Sidebar: Feingold was among Democrats who voted FOR Roberts’ nomination, a reminder that while some Democratic Congressmen are purer than others, none is as pure as Caesar’s wife allegedly was.)

That said, here’s a few selected comments by Obama:

I am not arguing that the Democrats should trim their sails and be more “centrist.” In fact, I think the whole “centrist” versus “liberal” labels that continue to characterize the debate within the Democratic Party misses the mark. Too often, the “centrist” label seems to mean compromise for compromise sake, whereas on issues like health care, energy, education and tackling poverty, I don’t think Democrats have been bold enough. But I do think that being bold involves more than just putting more money into existing programs and will instead require us to admit that some existing programs and policies don't work very well. And further, it will require us to innovate and experiment with whatever ideas hold promise (including market- or faith-based ideas that originate from Republicans).

First, a sidebar: I’ll be tackling this “faith-based” issue in another blog post tomorrow.

Beyond that, several points.

First, even with Karl Rove, it’s arguable that modern politics is still less nasty than that of the 19th century.

Second, Obama doesn’t explain HOW he will sell “Kumbaya.” Nor does he distinguish selling it to the voting public from selling it to Senate Republicans who keep threatening filibusters.

The bottom line is that our job is harder than the conservatives’ job. After all, it’s easy to articulate a belligerent foreign policy based solely on unilateral military action, a policy that sounds tough and acts dumb; it’s harder to craft a foreign policy that's tough and smart. It’s easy to dismantle government safety nets; it's harder to transform those safety nets so that they work for people and can be paid for. It’s easy to embrace a theological absolutism; it's harder to find the right balance between the legitimate role of faith in our lives and the demands of our civic religion. But that’s our job.

But the hardest part, again unmentioned, is redefining the “job” of liberalism away from how Republicans have defined it, and that gets to the heart of “Kumbaya.”
Finally, you have this bit boatload of irony:

Our goal should be to stick to our guns on those core values that make this country great.

So, back to the main question — would that include the basket warrants part of the new FISA bill?

Probably not.

Don’t believe my analysis? Then read Obama’s lips:

“I think what is clear is that the way the program operated broke the law that was existing at the time,” Obama said Monday at a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. “On the other hand, what I’ve also seen and learned is the degree to which the underlying program itself is, in fact, necessary to help prevent terrorist attacks.”

Sounds like he is definitely down with the infringement of civil liberties.

Oh, and he hasn’t tried to explain himself on this issue since that comment.

SCOTUS smacks Exxon down on human rights suit

ExxonMobil will have to face the lawsuit music on alleged human rights violations in Indonesia, the Supreme Court ruled this morning.

In an irony alert, Exxon tried to take a page out of Bush’s book, arguing that letting the suit proceed would interfere with the executive branch’s ability to conduct international relations. Unfortunately for Exxon, BushCo itself wasn’t on the same chapter and verse, as Solicitor General Paul Clement was among those urging SCOTUS to reject Exxon’s appeal.

The ruling was made without comment.

Of course, Exxon has already delayed this suit seven years, and will probably delay the trial and actual trial appeals another four or five.

Isn’t it interesting that so many conservatives have an idea of “tort reform” that doesn’t include reforming Big Business’s abuse of the process?

Irony alert — Cedar Hill biz burglary

The Cedar Hill Linens ’n Things was shoplifted, somewhere between $500-$1,500 worth of goods, June 1. That was the day after the store started a liquidation sale, one of about 120 stores in the company that will be shuttered.