text:
SKAGBOYS
by Irvine Welsh
546 pages, Jonathan Cape
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras. Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raffaele. Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi. Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud.
Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting boys are part of the furniture now - like a fag burn on the couch, or a toenail you find embedded Excalibur-style down the back when you're trawling for change. The Edinburgh quartet returned – with mixed results – in Porno, back in 2006. Skagboys looks at the earlier years of Leith's finest in a prequel, set in 1984/85.
We start with Mark Renton's handwritten diaries, a record of when he stood alongside his father and striking miners during their pitched battle with the police at Orgreave. We're still unknotting the state's tentacles from around the throat of that industrial dispute today. The clash, representing Margaret Thatcher's ultimate victory over the unions, serves to lay out the slippery slope down which Welsh's assortment of misfits, wasters and scumbags must travel.
Aside from a policeman's attempts to wedge a baton between Renton's shoulder blades, he's none the worse for his class war efforts as he returns to his summer job with a builder, before resuming his studies at Aberdeen University. There's a girl up there that he likes, a fellow student from Newcastle. After an inter-railing holiday, they fall in love. Renton is a straight-A student, a driven young man with lots to prove. Things are looking up for our hero.
We know already that Renton throws it all away. This predestination lends Skagboys a sense of dread. You read these touchstone moments of a young man embarking on his first serious adult relationship almost through your fingers, knowing what lies ahead. Specifically, heroin.
The catalyst for Renton's plunge into addiction is his disabled wee brother Davie's death. But there's already a sense of self-destruction about these working class boys, born out of a lack of choices and employment prospects as Mrs Thatcher's free market war on the state and the heavy industries cranks up.
Renton's the only one of the main characters with an arc, defined by heroin. We see his first contact with it, his growing addiction, and the way it squeezes everything of value out of his existence.
Spud, the one everyone likes, doesn't get long in the spotlight, although his bleak experiences on the gear are more heart-rending than Renton's. Begbie is already a well-established thug, and gets incrementally worse. Similarly, Sick Boy is just as cocksure and oversexed as his later incarnation. We see him embark on his charming entrepreneurial strategy of seducing young girls, getting them hooked on smack and then pimping them out. This leads to an almost unspeakably malicious encounter between a teenager and the man who killed her father.
In many ways, Sick Boy's sociopathy is worse than Begbie's psychosis. At least Begbie has animal instinct as an excuse. Sick Boy, the arch-schemer and manipulator, has everything planned out. Our Simon is definitely a thinker, if not quite a philosopher.
Renton's journey from lad o' pairts to junkie aside, we follow a pungent saga where Begbie impregnates a local girl, only to be threatened with vengeance by her brothers. They are made to regret this. In any aggregate of toxic masculinity, dear Franco is always going to come out on top.
I wouldn't say Begbie inhabits a cycle of violence; that implies some sort of change in how he behaves, plotted points where he makes a turn, deviations. Begbie doesn't have that subtlety. He's a hurricane which can never be downgraded, destroying everything wherever he goes. Even a stretch in prison comes across as a slightly irritating but not insurmountable obstacle – another environment for Begbie to thrive in.
Away from the principals, Tommy's story was the most troubling, because we know how it ends. This gives the handsome, morally upright athlete a tragic air, as he's the only person in the book whom you would call heroic. He helps out his mates in a tight spot, and is more than capable of meeting violence with violence. We find out that he bested the seemingly unstoppable Begbie in the boxing ring - "a lesson in sweet science" for the street-fighting sluggard. Begbie even respects this; we suspect that in a square go, Tommy might be too strong and too brave for even that monster. He has a conscience, knowing that Begbie's lust for urban warfare is fundamentally wrong. Tommy helps the weak, and provides comfort to those who need it. You can see he was raised well.
When Renton's love life dies horribly, Tommy embarks on one of his own with Liz, an art student. He falls in love for the first time, a 22-year-old with a chance to get out of a bad situation. Salvation, Tommy realises, doesn't mean moving anywhere. He just has to "step into a parallel dimension" and meet someone nice.
His heroism is underlined when other characters mention his likeness to Harrison Ford, as Tommy and Liz go to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Tommy's fate in Trainspotting is a bitter finale to all this promise.
Mary Marquis
Violence, nihilism, cruelty and disgust come fitted as standard in Skagboys. Some episodes could happily slither into Trainspotting's septic tank of horrors and barely cause a ripple. Wee Davie's infatuation with the raven-haired, dark-eyed BBC newsreader Mary Marquis messed with my own childhood memories of TV news bulletins, just for a start… and then we find out how the poor lad gained release from his sexual torment.
One character's rescue of a puppy in a filthy tower block basement after it is shoved down a rubbish chute, only to discover the foetus of his aborted child in its jaws, was literally a new level of depravity. There's also a workplace "competition" among Renton's happy band of labourers which I can't see being copied any time soon by giggling office workers in social media videos.
You know this type of thing will happen in an Irvine Welsh book, though. For me, the erosion or perversion of a sense of family and the literal destruction of children – both recurring themes in Welsh's work – were more disturbing than the urban myth-toned set pieces. His fathers are treacherous, unreliable, feckless or simply brutal; mothers are stupid, out-of-touch and befuddled, for all their warmth. Siblings spin off in their own directions, often in sharp opposition to the main characters, causing nasty collisions when they revolve back towards each other.
In a wider sense of fraternity, circles of friends become toxic. Tommy realises the only answer is to escape from it all, and build something else. This parallels Renton's final treachery in Trainspotting. What a pity he can't quite go through with it.
One thing has remained consistent in Welsh's writing, and that's the contempt he has for "straight pegs". The ones holding down jobs, and not addicted to drink, drugs or violence. This attitude towards - let's be honest - most of Welsh's readership is most apparent in the "high seas" section. Here, Renton, Sick Boy and their London connection Nicksy get jobs with Sealink as a means of smuggling heroin from mainland Europe to the UK. We are presented with an officious middle manager with a cream shirt, spectacles and a clipboard. He appears to be gay, as well. A full house, you might say, in the eyes of Welsh's 1980s Leith progressives.
I thought: "This guy is going to get smacked within two chapters, tops, and we're supposed to enjoy it." And so it proved.
Cream Shirt is a stock type, akin to Walter the Softy in Dennis the Menace; a walking excuse for a sore face. He has the full kit. There are lots of people like this in Welsh's fiction - boring jobsworths and fond of rulebooks, to be sure, but basically harmless. Welsh snaffles these characters up like a shark meandering through a sh*t-slick seeping out the back of a ferry. The guy might well be inspired by a real-life figure, but he comes across as cartoonish. Renton and Sick Boy, clearly more talented and charismatic than Cream Shirt, snicker and sneer at his ilk as they buccaneer their way through picaresque adventures, streetwise hustlers in a world of grey drones. They're always one step ahead of this stage of the Thatcherite game – though as Welsh craftily points out, lurking just two moves ahead on the board lies the McJobs generation.
Welsh had a surer hand at the helm nearly 25 years ago, when he showed the Leith gang for the small-timers they really were as they tried to sort out a drug deal in London. They get ripped off by the big dogs, but never know it. It's strange that Skagboys' earlier iteration of Renton and Sick Boy cotton on quickly that they are being exploited – capitalism's long arm reaches every area of society, Welsh reminds us - and yet they're so easily conned a couple of years later.
To be fair, although Welsh's heroes fling out disgust, disillusionment or sarcasm for breakfast, by lunchtime it has usually boomeranged back. This is the prism of disgust through which everything is visualised. Welsh surely knows that in the rat race it's the Cream Shirts and Clipboards who end up sitting pretty, or at least doing alright, not the Rentons and Sick Boys. Perhaps the author is simply venting against dull, austere authority and petty rule-making. Fair enough. I'll drink to that.
Welsh is better with personal confrontations, particularly those involving the short-fused, yet spine-chillingly canny Begbie. He's from the stone age, assaulting friend and foe alike as a means of keeping tight control of his territory. We also see him take his first steps in the world of organised crime. Begbie's eagerness to impress leads to a clash with a family member which he resolves with what must seem like perfect logic to someone who is absolutely, certifiably off their nut.
How beautifully Welsh sketches his monster. That chilling plunge in temperature when someone says something Begbie doesn't agree with; the million and one ways you can offend him; the hair-trigger outbursts and burst mouths; the palpable fear and loathing among supposed friends, conditioned to dread his approach, his very voice.
I especially liked the way Begbie's highly-strung antennae twitch at the merest hint that some of his friends are doing something without his consent, such as spending a day in bed with a girlfriend as opposed to joining an organised brawl between football casuals. Begbie's cousin lives in the flat below Tommy's girlfriend, and so, armed with the knowledge of where his mate might be hiding out, he stomps over to drag Tommy out of bed. "There's nothing going on in Leith I don't know about," Begbie says, to the astonished Tommy.
Generalissimo Franco also gets one of the most poignant moments, when he reveals his beautiful singing voice at a New Year party. After he is praised for his performance (the song is never identified, though someone says it's Rod Stewart), Begbie, of course, Takes It The Wrong Way. "It's just f*ckin' singin'," he snarls.
I saw this as an inversion of that glorious part in Porno, when Spud helps a girl tidy her house. ("Come on! Let's just get intae it! We can dae this!") It said so much about the character, without resorting to showering us with muck.
Welsh isn't quite so good when the action moves out of the tenements and crappy pubs, into the world of middle class people, offices, suits, wine bars, tawdry affairs and quick paddles in dangerous waters. The sub-plot involving one of the female characters, her boss and a scam his brother's got going with some bikers was vital to the historical context, but not to the novel. It's curious that even though Irvine Welsh has enjoyed a successful career and presumably doesn't live anywhere near a tenement flat, it's his depictions of working class strata which he is at least 25 years removed from that are the most convincing and compelling parts of his work.
Cultural capital of Europe
Heroin forms a prolific double act with HIV, which went on to claim dozens of lives in a spate of cases in the 1980s and 90s linked to shared needles which saw Edinburgh branded the "Aids capital of Europe". Its growing effect on the main characters is fully chronicled by Welsh, who intrudes on the narrative at key points to give us an overview.
By far the best set-piece is Renton's Moment of Crisis. Badly needing to fix, Renton and a couple of jangly friends decide on a whim to rob a newsagent's of a collection for a cat charity. The ensuing farce involves a junkie jailbreak from a parental balcony, a woman playing host to baby budgies in her bra and a desperate attempt to break open the charity box from the fourth floor of a block of flats, while chittering schoolchildren lie in wait below. It was my favourite part of Skagboys, and it recalled Trainspotting's best qualities. No matter how grim the scenario, and perhaps even despite yourself, you laugh.
From there, at the invitation of Her Majesty's Constabulary, Renton has a stretch in a pioneering rehab facility. The isolated setting features some mystery guest stars from Leith, and the stint begins to resemble some sort of internal war between discrete shards of Renton's psyche. His handwriting reappears, if not quite his soul. With the junk gone, cracks begin to appear in Renton's foundations. Mates, getting wasted, burds, fitba; if that all goes, what else is there?
Anyone expecting some sort of redemption for our favourite Alex McLeish lookalike shouldn't hold their breath, though. There's some deft probing by the counsellors and fellow "guests" at rehab, but Renton either doesn't remember what it was like to have a good life, or dismisses the idea completely. W*nking and passive-aggressive contempt fills his days, with the odd foray into weightlifting alongside the foreboding bulk of Seeker, the biker and drugs kingpin. Only when he writes, page after page in his diary, does something purer, less wasteful, quicken in his blood. Once Renton's out the door, and has negotiated a surprise party thrown to celebrate his mockery of a graduation, he's back on the gear within hours.
Renton has made his choice, and doesn't care what others think about it. This looks awfully like freedom, but not as we know it.
The book finally shudders to a halt opposite Trainspotting's platform. Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and a couple of other cellar dwellers attempt a ludicrous heist at the motherlode, a pharmaceutical complex on the outskirts of Edinburgh next to a railway line, from which the initial flood of pure, uncut white heroin once gushed. The fact that the jangly Renton puts his big old brain into gear to formulate his laughable plan, and the rest of them all buy into it so readily, shows the corrosive effect of the drug on even the sharpest minds. Their whole lives, all their efforts, are sacrificed for the sake of one thing: scoring. Everything else is just a pointless habit. Like trainspotting.
Acceptable in the eighties
It's never nice to think of our lives as minuscule, often insignificant parts in a larger historical narrative. Welsh is on the same page as Tolstoy in this respect. Skagboys is an examination of a blighted part of modern Scottish history, tying together the toxic threads of Thatcherism and concomitant mass unemployment, the ready availability of heroin and the spread of HIV. It is an indictment of the age and its masters. I'm from a Scottish town which gurgled down a plughole during the 1980s, and it still strikes me as astonishing that there are lots of people out there for whom that decade was a non-stop success story, who might have only the dimmest concept of the social and cultural trauma that was inflicted, quite deliberately, on working communities in Scotland, the North East of England, Wales and elsewhere (to say nothing of Northern Ireland). It was a neat move by Welsh to relocate part of the story from Edinburgh to London, with this effect undiminished, against my expectations. There are no yuppies, wine bars or Loadsamoney moments here; just simulacrums of Leith's sh*tholes, but on a bigger scale.
But you could wring your hands over societal injustice all you like. They've no excuses. Renton's a pr*ck. Sick Boy's a pr*ck. Spud deserves better friends. Begbie should be put down.
It took me a horribly long time to read this book. It's a strong meal, even sampled in small bites. Sweet moments are few and far between; you could have said the same of Trainspotting in this regard, but this prequel is ponderous in comparison, even as it ships filth and fury by the bucketload. Trainspotting, for a novel which had heroin use front and centre, was ironically more like a dab of speed in a carpeted nightclub. In comparison, Skagboys, despite its depiction of men just out of their teens - all piss, balls and gristle - comes across as more of a comedown after a few days away; that point when you just want to get away from your mates and the weekend at large and find blissful unconsciousness in your own bed.
Skagboys is stripped of the glee – my blasphemous soul wants to call it "the joy" – that characterised Trainspotting, that celebration of casual malevolence and grubby debauchery which makes it so beloved of teenagers desperate to be known, and to be in the know. It was similar to Porno in that regard, but it doesn't drag quite so much.
Skagboys was clearly written by a much older man, a guy in his fifties a long way from the streets he illustrates so memorably. There's analysis being offered here, but I would stop short of calling it "cool". Welsh's wrath at a squandered generation and the appalling forces that converged on it may be buried beneath a growing eloquence in his prose, but it's there, all right.
What of modern Scotland? I'd like to read Welsh's views on the rise of the SNP, the disconnection between Labour and its heartlands, and a new Tory government at Westminster which threatens to make Thatcher look almost benign, the same way George W Bush did for Richard Nixon. I want to see the Trainspotting boys in middle age, grappling with the modern world as it bypasses them in favour of a new cast of disenfranchised youngsters – no longer the poster boys for a generation, but old, and worse still, irrelevant.
Please don't film it, though. And certainly, don't film Porno. We all know deep down that Trainspotting's lightning can't strike twice.
CageFightingBlogger October 20, 2015 at 12:20 PM
Great review. I read that Welsh and Boyle are in talks for making Porno into a movie. Nothing confirmed though. Could be good.
Cheers! There was a news story yesterday that Welsh's next book is going to look at Begbie as a reformed character - a successful sculptor living in the US... Definitely be checking that one out.


Guido Carlo Pigliasco lectures in the Department of Anthropology of the University of University of Hawai'i at Mānoa as Affiliate Graduate Faculty, and in the Department of Social Sciences of the Kapi'olani Community College. As a former franchising lawyer, his research and publications focus on Pacific Islanders' rights in tangible and intangible cultural heritage. As a former consultant and correspondent he has worked with the South Pacific Tourism Organization (formerly Tourism Council of the South Pacific) and Italian newspers and television networks. He is currently board member on the Steering Committee of Critical Tourism Studies Asia-Pacific and on the Educational and Cultural Affairs Committee of Hawai'i European Cinema, and serves as a Foreign Law Consultant at the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai'i. Guido is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and a Taylor Statten Camps Alumni.


As if dropped by chance, Singita Lebombo Lodge is a contemporary jewel amidst acres of unrelenting natural beauty. Spreading over an impressive 19,485 square kilometres, Kruger National park certainly contains multitudes as the diverse natural habitats encourage all manner of game and industrious flora. In this swatch of land, boulders, rugged cliffs and mature trees buttress your accommodations while the view gives way to the confluence of the Sweni and N'wanesti Rivers. The drama of the land—not to mention your lodgings—will make even the most fastidious person wax poetic.
Those who crave the remote locales of the world (and the spectacular wildlife that accompanies it), but don't want to compromise on comfort and style will certainly find something to celebrate in this singular setting.
Rugged boulders and cliffs, mature trees and the flowing N'Wanetsi River.
Most Memorable Moment? Sipping sundowners on the rooftop terrace as Kruger Park drifts to sleep (and in some ways comes alive!) is life-changing.
From the personalized service to the totally customized food choices offered by the chef at every meal to the gorgeous (and sometimes outdoor!) sleeping arrangements... all of it was just outstanding.
Parked near the eastern boundary of Kruger National Park, Singita Lebombo Lodge is accessible by both air and land. Scheduled flights and private charters all arrive to the Satara airstrip and require a further 45-minute drive to the lodge. Flight times from Johannesburg are about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Flights arriving from Nelspruit are about 45 minutes.
By land the duration of the drive from Johannesburg is about 8 hours. Arriving from Nelspruit cuts the drive down to 4 hours.
Inspired by eagles' nests, 13 loft-style suites are embedded into the face of the cliff and gaze toward the river bank. While they may be mimicking natural habitats, these romantic hideaways are anything but rustic: glass-walled suites give way to elevated wooden viewing decks, detailed bathrooms and sophisticated style. The two remaining suites, which can be converted into a private villa, sit on the riverbank.
Become one with the landscape in these light-filled abodes. This open-plan layout includes two bedrooms and features two showers—one inside and one outside. Tall glass doors slide open to a private deck with a daybed.
Looking for a little more privacy? Low on the river bank sit two 2-bedroom suites—each with a private pool—with the option to be ceremoniously linked together, by an additional shared pool, to form a four-bedroom lodging.
Fully staffed with an open-plan kitchen and boma, it's not hyperbolic to say, all needs will be seamlessly met.
Looking to extend your adventure? Discover a few ways to weave Singita Lebombo Lodge into an even grander journey.


Masako Suzuki is showing in Double Line at Neon Gallery, Generała Romualda Traugutta 19/21, 50-416 Warsaw, Poland, as part of an exchange exhibition between seven Polish and seven Japanese artists. The show is from 14 December 2017 - 4 January 2018. See doublelineshow.wixsite.com.
PhD online application is now open for September 2018. For further information about our PhD Research, see www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/degrees/mphil-phd; to apply see www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/apply.
Sarah Pickering is speaking at Thinkspace: Structures of Revolution at Room G.12, The Bartlett School of Architecture, 22 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0QB, from 6.30 - 8.30pm, on Monday 20 November 2017. To reserve a ticket, see: www.eventbrite.co.uk.
Bea Bonafini is showing in Ripe, at Kingsgate Project Space, 110-116 Kingsgate Rd, London NW6 2JG, from 18 November – 16 December 2017. See www.kingsgateworkshops.org.uk.
Liz Rideal is speaking at Self-portraits in Costumes, at École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole, 2 Rue Frida Kahlo, 44000 Nantes, on 24 November 2017. See www.crini.univ-nantes.fr.
Lulu Alyahya and Sally Plowman are showing The World's Not Waiting (for five tired boys in a broken down van) at North Lodge, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, from 11am - 5pm, 12 - 14 December 2017.
David Blackmore is showing in Migrant Press (Revisited) at Division of Labour, 13-19 Herald Street, Bethnal Green, E2 6JT, from 2 November- 2 December 2017. See www.divisionoflabour.co.uk.
Katja Larsson is showing in Body at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, 533 Old York Road, London SW18 1TG, from 17 November – 20 December 2017. See kristinhjellegjerde.com.
Alec Kronacker has a solo exhibition 'Terroir' opening at 6-9pm, on Thursday 7 December 2017, at galerie Martin van Blerk, Mechelsesteenweg 28, Antwerp.
Clémentine Bruno is showing in Dust, Blasé House, 55 Wallis Road, London E9 5LH, from 10 - 12 November 2017. See www.thegoldfigure.com.
Jadé Fadojutimi has a solo show, Heliophobia, at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 6 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BT, from 1 December 2017 – 6 January 2018. See www.houldsworth.co.uk.
Slade artist Eloise Lawson performs the work she developed during her residency as part of The composition has been reversed exhibition, at UCL Art Museum, South Cloisters, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, on Friday 17 November from 1:00pm - 2:00pm. See www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/events.


General practices across the country have been sent a critical letter on an indicative vote.
The text of the letter question surgeries on whether they will be prepared to participate in a collective closure of practice lists.
This headline-grabbing activity would be a response to the perceived failure of NHS England's GP Forward View to provide adequate resources.
And the British Medical Association is now asking doctors whether they would temporarily suspend patient registrations, or apply to local commissioners for formal list closure, as an industrial action measure.
LMC representatives had agreed on the ballot at the annual conference in Edinburgh, which took place back in May.
In a letter to the profession, acting GPC chair Dr Richard Vautrey outlined how the process will unfold.
Vautrey also reminded healthcare professionals to submit their responses to this ballot as soon as possible.
Should an affirmative vote emerge in the indicative ballot, the General Practitioners Committee would consult with the British Medical Association council in order to review the results and consider a formal ballot.
An accompanying FAQ document explains that the ballot is aimed at practices rather than individual GPs, and recommends partners meet to agree their vote.
While liability for any decision lies with partnerships, the BMA encouraged practices to involve sessional GPs in the decision.
The document warned that, as contractors, practices could face breach notices if any action is deemed a breach of contract.
London GP Dr Jackie Applebee was central to the LMC conference motion, calling on her fellow doctors to accept the industrial action.
Evidence was particularly cited indicating that around 80% of GPs assert that their workloads are unmanageable.
While practices collectively closing their lists would undermine access for some patients in the short-term, Applebee suggested that it is currently impossible for the majority of doctors to accept more patients and provide adequate, and even safe, service.
Recent polls have suggested that around 60% of GPs would be willing to participate in a collective closure of practice lists.


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Product Liability Update - July 2013
David Geiger, Creighton Page
Included in this Issue:
..United States Supreme Court Reverses First Circuit and Holds Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act Preempts Design Defect Claims against Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
..United States Supreme Court Holds Agreement Mandating Individualized Rather than Classwide Arbitration Enforceable Even Where Expense of Arbitrating Exceeds Any Potential Individual Recovery
..Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds Agreement for Individualized Arbitration Unenforceable Where It Confers on Retailer "De Facto" Immunity from Unfair and Deceptive Practices Liability
..Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds (i) Proof of Safer Alternative Design that Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance Is Prerequisite to Design Defect Liability, (ii) Product May Be Unreasonably Dangerous Even if Dangers Do Not Exceed Ordinary Consumer's Expectations and (iii) Plaintiff Need Not Prove Decedent Would Have Used Alternatively Designed Product to Prove Causation
..Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Medical Monitoring Claim Based on Exposure to Dangerous Substance Requires Proof of Subcellular Change, and Expert Testimony that Exposure Merely Increased Risk of Such Change or of Actual Disease Is Insufficient
..Massachusetts Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Design Defect and Failure-to-Warn Claims Involving Industrial Fan Because Dangers Were Open and Obvious and Plaintiff Did Not Offer Expert to Testify Proposed Safer Alternative Design Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance
..Massachusetts Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Power Tool Manufacturer on Design Defect Claim Because Plaintiff Offered No Expert Evidence Regarding Existence of a Defect, Safer Alternative Design or Causation
United States Supreme Court Reverses First Circuit and Holds Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act Preempts Design Defect Claims against Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers -
In Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, 133 S. Ct. 2466 (June 24, 2013), plaintiff suffered a severe dermatologic reaction after taking sulindac, a generic version of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Clinoril®. Plaintiff sued the drug's manufacturer in New Hampshire state court alleging, among other things, that the drug was defectively designed. After defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the jury returned a $21 million verdict for plaintiff.
Please see full issue below for more information.
Product Liability Update In This Issue: July 2013 Foley Hoag LLP publishes this quarterly Update concerning developments in product liability and related law of interest to product manufacturers and sellers. United States Supreme Court Reverses First Circuit and Holds Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act Preempts Design Defect Claims against Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers In Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, 133 S. Ct. 2466 (June 24, 2013), plaintiff suffered a severe dermatologic reaction after taking sulindac, a generic version of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Clinoril®. Plaintiff sued the drug's manufacturer in New Hampshire state court alleging, among other things, that the drug was defectively designed. After defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the jury returned a $21 million verdict for plaintiff. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed, holding that the Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act ("FDCA") did not preempt design defect claims against generic pharmaceutical manufacturers (see July 2012 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update). The circuit court acknowledged that under the FDCA the generic manufacturer could not change the drug's design to vary from that of the branded manufacturer, but reasoned that because the manufacturer could lawfully decide not to sell the drug at all, there was no actual conflict between defendant's state and federal law obligations. After granting certiorari, the United States Supreme Court first noted that under the Hatch-Waxman Amendments to the FDCA, a generic manufacturer's drug was required to have the same active ingredients, route of administration, dosage form, strength and labeling as the brand-name drug on which it was based. Under New Hampshire design defect law, however, the manufacturer had a duty to ensure that its product's design was not unreasonably dangerous, and the warnings accompanying the product were a factor to be weighed in assessing the adequacy of the design. Accordingly, defendant could only have satisfied its state law duties either by changing the drug's design or its labeling (or both), either of which would have been a violation of defendant's duties under the FDCA (the Court also noted that a design change would not be possible as a matter of basic chemistry, as sulindac is a single-molecule drug). Because it was impossible for defendant to comply with both its state-and federal-law duties, plaintiff's design defect claim was preempted. The Court then explicitly rejected the First Circuit's rationale that defendant could escape the impossibility of complying with both federal and state law by stopping the sale of sulindac in New Hampshire. The Court noted that this rationale was incompatible with all or virtually all of the Court's previous conflict preemption decisions, which presumed that a defendant seeking to satisfy both its federal and state law obligations was not required to cease acting altogether in order to avoid liability. Indeed, "if the option of ceasing to act defeated a claim of impossibility, impossibility pre-emption would be 'all but meaningless.'" ◼ United States Supreme Court Reverses First Circuit and Holds Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act Preempts Design Defect Claims against Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers ◼ United States Supreme Court Holds Agreement Mandating Individualized Rather than Classwide Arbitration Enforceable Even Where Expense of Arbitrating Exceeds Any Potential Individual Recovery ◼ Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds Agreement for Individualized Arbitration Unenforceable Where It Confers on Retailer "De Facto" Immunity from Unfair and Deceptive Practices Liability ◼ Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds (i) Proof of Safer Alternative Design that Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance Is Prerequisite to Design Defect Liability, (ii) Product May Be Unreasonably Dangerous Even if Dangers Do Not Exceed Ordinary Consumer's Expectations and (iii) Plaintiff Need Not Prove Decedent Would Have Used Alternatively Designed Product to Prove Causation ◼ Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Medical Monitoring Claim Based on Exposure to Dangerous Substance Requires Proof of Subcellular Change, and Expert Testimony that Exposure Merely Increased Risk of Such Change or of Actual Disease Is Insufficient ◼ Massachusetts Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Design Defect and Failureto-Warn Claims Involving Industrial Fan Because Dangers Were Open and Obvious and Plaintiff Did Not Offer Expert to Testify Proposed Safer Alternative Design Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance ◼ Massachusetts Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Power Tool Manufacturer on Design Defect Claim Because Plaintiff Offered No Expert Evidence Regarding Existence of a Defect, Safer Alternative Design or CausationUnited States Supreme Court Holds Agreement Mandating Individualized Rather than Classwide Arbitration Enforceable Even Where Expense of Arbitrating Exceeds Any Potential Individual Recovery In American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, 133 S. Ct. 2304 (June 20, 2013), plaintiffs filed a putative class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming defendant had violated antitrust law by using its monopoly power in the market for non-credit charge cards to force merchants accepting the defendant's credit cards to pay inflated fees. Defendant obtained an order compelling arbitration of the named plaintiff's claim pursuant to a provision of the parties' agreement that mandated arbitration of all claims on an individual basis. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit then reversed, concluding the agreement was unenforceable because plaintiff had demonstrated that pursuing an individual claim was impractical, as the expert analysis needed to prosecute the claim would cost at least several hundred thousand dollars, far more than the maximum recovery of approximately $40,000. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and remanded the case for reconsideration in light of Stolt-Neilsen v. AnimalFeeds Int'l Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010), which held that a party may not be compelled to class arbitration absent an agreement to do so. The Second Circuit then reaffirmed its holding, and did so again on sua sponte review prompted by the Supreme Court's subsequent decision in Concepcion v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 131 S. Ct. 1744 (2011), which held the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") preempted a state law barring enforcement of a class arbitration waiver (see July 2011 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update). After granting certiorari for a second time, the Supreme Court first noted that the FAA mandates the enforcement of an agreement to arbitrate according to its terms, absent a contrary congressional command. The Court held that neither the antitrust laws on which plaintiffs' claims were based, nor Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 providing for class actions generally, evinced a congressional intent to guarantee the availability of class proceedings to resolve antitrust claims. As to plaintiffs' argument that the disparity between arbitration costs and the maximum potential individual recovery prevented them from effectively vindicating their antitrust rights through individual claim arbitrations, the Court acknowledged the existence of an "effective vindication" exception to the enforceability of arbitration agreements. But the Court held this exception applied only where an arbitration agreement prospectively waived the assertion of a statutory right, and "perhaps" also where the arbitration fees were so high as to render the arbitral forum itself impracticable. Here, however, there was no advance waiver of antitrust claims but merely impracticality in proving them. Finally, the Court noted that Concepcion all but resolved the present case, as it held state law could not condition the enforceability of an arbitration agreement on the availability of class arbitration even if this might mean that some claims would thereby "slip through the legal system." Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds Agreement for Individualized Arbitration Unenforceable Where It Confers on Retailer "De Facto" Immunity from Unfair and Deceptive Practices Liability In Feeney v. Dell, Inc., 465 Mass. 470 (Jun. 12, 2013) ("Feeney II"), plaintiffs filed a putative class action claiming the defendant computer retailer had violated Mass. Gen. L. ch. 93A (the Massachusetts unfair and deceptive practices statute) by collecting sales tax on class members' purchases of service contracts when no such tax was legally due. Defendant, represented by Foley Hoag LLP, obtained an order compelling arbitration of the named plaintiff's individual claims pursuant to sale terms that mandated arbitration of all claims on an individual basis. After the arbitrator ruled for defendant on the merits and the trial court dismissed the lawsuit, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") in Feeney v. Dell, Inc., 454 Mass. 192 (2009) ("Feeney I") (see August 2009 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update), held the arbitration agreement violated Massachusetts public policy favoring classwide resolution of small-value consumer claims and therefore was unenforceable. The Court rejected the contention that such a rule was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), noting its section 2 savings clause provided an exception to the enforceability of arbitration agreements on "such grounds that exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract," and holding that a public policy defense is such a ground. 2 www.foleyhoag.comSeveral years later, on remand to the trial court, defendant moved to reinstate the judgment of dismissal, arguing Feeney I had been overruled by the United States Supreme Court's decision in Concepcion v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 131 S. Ct. 1744 (2011) (see July 2011 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update), which held the FAA preempts even generally applicable statelaw rules that are an obstacle to accomplishing the FAA's objectives. The Court ruled that invalidating a class action waiver in an arbitration agreement frustrated the statute's objectives of enforcing such agreements as written and permitting inexpensive and informal procedures to which class actions stood in contrast. After the trial court denied defendant's motion, the Massachusetts Appeals Court granted interlocutory review and the SJC then granted direct appellate review. The Court held the FAA does not preempt an arbitration agreement that effectively precludes a consumer from obtaining a remedy to which he is entitled, reasoning Congress had not intended to require enforcement of an agreement under such circumstances and therefore a state law rule rendering such an agreement unenforceable would not frustrate the statute's objectives. The Court then ruled that the arbitration agreement at issue conferred on defendant "de facto immunity" from ch. 93A liability. The Court noted that the agreement lacked the consumer-friendly incentives that the agreement in Concepcion contained, which made arbitration a more attractive option than class litigation in that case. The Court also cited the complexity of plaintiffs' sales tax claims, the small value of individual damages, the voluminous size of the record and the absence of mandatory fee-shifting (notwithstanding that ch. 93A does require fee-shifting in the event of a successful claim) as evidence that the plaintiffs could not practically vindicate their claims through individual arbitrations. Shortly following the decision, defendant petitioned the SJC for rehearing in light of the United States Supreme Court's opinion in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, 133 S. Ct. 2304 (Jun. 20, 2013), summarized above. The petition is currently pending. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Holds (i) Proof of Safer Alternative Design that Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance Is Prerequisite to Design Defect Liability, (ii) Product May Be Unreasonably Dangerous Even if Dangers Do Not Exceed Ordinary Consumer's Expectations and (iii) Plaintiff Need Not Prove Decedent Would Have Used Alternatively Designed Product to Prove Causation In Evans v. Lorillard Tobacco Co., 465 Mass. 411 (June 11, 2013), the plaintiff executor of his mother's estate sued the defendant manufacturer of Newport cigarettes when his mother died of lung cancer after smoking Newports for approximately 40 years. Plaintiff asserted claims for negligence and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability (the Massachusetts near-equivalent of strict liability), among others, alleging Newports were defectively designed because they contained significant amounts of tar and nicotine while technology existed to create a product with zero or near-zero levels of these ingredients. Plaintiff's experts identified three such products that had been on the market at various times, but conceded smokers would not likely purchase such alternative "cigarettes" except perhaps to a limited extent and only if all "ordinary cigarettes" were banned from the market. At trial, the judge initially instructed the jury in connection with both the negligence and warranty counts that proof of a reasonable safer alternative design was required to prove a design defect, but in later instructions on the negligence count alone instructed that "you may but you are not required to consider whether there was a safer alternative design available." The jury also was instructed that it "may also consider whether the Newport cigarettes met the consumer's reasonable expectations as to its safety." The jury found Newport's design defective under both negligence and warranty theories and awarded $50 million for decedent's pain and suffering, $21 million for decedent's wrongful death and $81 million in punitive damages; the judge later reduced the compensatory award to $25 million for pain and suffering and $10 million for wrongful death. Defendant appealed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") granted direct appellate review. The Court first held that, under Massachusetts law, to establish design defect 3 www.foleyhoag.comliability in negligence or for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, "the plaintiffs must show 'an available design modification which would reduce the risk without undue cost or interference with the performance of the [product].'" In so holding, the Court quoted with approval § 2(b) of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Product Liability and its comment f to this effect. Because the trial judge had erroneously instructed the jury that it "may," but was not required to, consider the existence of a safer alternative design in deciding whether defendant was negligent, the Court vacated the jury's finding of negligence liability. On the warranty count, however, the trial judge did not commit the same error. Moreover, while the Court agreed in principle with defendant's argument that it would be improper to impose categorical liability on all cigarettes by allowing plaintiff to propose a safer alternative design that is "not truly a cigarette," it held the evidence at trial was more than sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that the ultra low-tar, low-nicotine cigarettes plaintiff proposed were a reasonable alternative even if they did not have the characteristics, i.e., significant levels of tar and nicotine, that are desired by consumers who are already addicted. The Court reasoned that the only subclass of consumers that must be considered when evaluating the reasonableness of the alternative design were those who were not yet addicted and thus retained the ability to make rational informed decisions about whether to smoke and what kinds of cigarettes to smoke; otherwise, the Court observed, "addictive chemicals would be the only substance whose presence in a product could not, as a matter of law, be found to constitute a defect in the product's design, because there could be no reasonable alternative design that did not include them." Interestingly, the Court did not cite any record evidence that even this subclass of consumers would find the virtually tar-and nicotine-free cigarettes proposed by plaintiff acceptable. The Court then rejected defendant's contention that as a matter of law a product cannot be unreasonably dangerous if the danger is not beyond that contemplated by the ordinary consumer. Instead, the Court held that, under the risk-utility balancing test embodied in § 2 of the Restatement (Third), the jury may consider consumer expectations as merely one factor, albeit an important one, in determining whether a product is unreasonably dangerous, so that the jury was instructed properly as to this issue. The Court also rejected defendant's argument that, in light of evidence decedent had not liked low-tar and -nicotine cigarettes when she tried them, plaintiff had not proved Newport's design defect was a cause of her cancer. The Court stated that plaintiff was not required to prove decedent would have used the product if designed according to plaintiff's alternative, but rather merely that the product's defect, i.e., significant tar and nicotine, caused her harm. The Court did not address the likelihood that even if Newports had been designed differently plaintiff would still have suffered her disease as she would have chosen to smoke other regular cigarettes rather than the alternatively designed Newports. The Court also discussed numerous other issues that are not addressed here for reasons of length, including: (1) whether for purposes of failure to warn claims, the risks of cigarette smoking became "obvious" after Congress mandated warning labels on all cigarette packages; (2) whether cigarette manufacturers who were part of issuing the 1954 "Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers" voluntarily assumed a duty to research the health hazards of smoking and accurately disclose them to the public; (3) when a smoker's design defect cause of action accrues for statute of limitations purposes; (4) excessiveness of the compensatory and punitive damages awards; (5) application of collateral estoppel based on the findings of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 449 F. Supp.2d 1 (D.D.C. 2006); and (6) a variety of alleged trial errors relating to evidentiary matters and alleged bias. Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Medical Monitoring Claim Based on Exposure to Dangerous Substance Requires Proof of Subcellular Change, and Expert Testimony that Exposure Merely Increased Risk of Such Change or of Actual Disease Is Insufficient In Genereux v. Hardric Laboratories, Inc., 2013 WL 3157520 (D. Mass. June 23, 2013), current and former employees of defendant aerospace and defense manufacturer, and members of their families, sued in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging defendant's negligent handling of beryllium at its plant exposed them to elevated levels of the substance and thereby increased their risk of various diseases, particularly chronic beryllium 4 www.foleyhoag.comdisease ("CBD"). None of the plaintiffs exhibited any CBD symptoms, so they sought a program of medical monitoring for CBD rather than damages. The court initially dismissed the claim for failure to allege actual injury, but reinstated it after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") decided Donovan v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 914 N.E.2d 891 (Mass. 2009) ("Donovan I") (see April 2010 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update), holding that a suit "for medical monitoring, based on . . . subclinical effects . . . state[s] a cognizable claim and/or permit[s] a remedy under Massachusetts state law." The SJC held that the elements of this claim included, among other things, proof that "the plaintiff [was] exposed to a hazardous substance that produced, at least, subcellular changes that substantially increased the risk of serious disease, illness, or injury." Shortly after plaintiffs' claims were reinstated, defendant moved for summary judgment on the basis that plaintiffs could not prove they had suffered subcellular changes from beryllium exposure. Plaintiffs' expert had opined only that plaintiffs were at a significantly increased risk of developing berylliumrelated diseases, including associated subcellular changes, and admitted he could not state with any degree of medical certainty that any plaintiff had in fact already suffered such changes. Plaintiffs contended their evidence nevertheless was sufficient because Donovan I's rationale was that persons exposed to dangerous substances and placed at an increased risk of harm should be entitled to medical monitoring, thus these were the only two essential elements of their claim. At the outset, the court noted that it had not been requested to, nor would it, decide the issue the SJC in Donovan I said it would "leave for another day" – namely, "consideration of cases that involve exposure to levels of chemicals or radiation known to cause cancer, for which immediate medical monitoring may be medically necessary although no symptoms or subclinical changes have occurred," – as plaintiffs' complaint specifically alleged subcellular change. Although plaintiffs' expert opined plaintiffs had an increased risk of developing beryllium-related diseases, he could not opine that any plaintiff actually had suffered subcellular changes, or that beryllium exposure necessarily causes such changes in all cases (although he did try to amend his testimony to add this opinion -which the court did not allow because the amendment would have clearly conflicted with his prior sworn testimony – when it became clear such an opinion might help plaintiffs avoid summary judgment). Moreover, there was no evidence any plaintiff had tested positively for beryllium sensitization, the first detectable sign of subcellular change. Accordingly, the court allowed defendant's motion, holding "increased risk" of subcellular change insufficient to support medical monitoring because it does not satisfy Donovan I's requirement of a physiological "impact" that fits the medicalmonitoring doctrine into traditional tort law rubrics and tempers the prospect of purely risk-based recovery. The court also noted that its decision was not inconsistent with the court's class certification decision in Donovan v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 268 F.R.D. 1 (D. Mass. 2010) ("Donovan II") (see July 2010 Foley Hoag Product Liability Update), not only because that case concerned class certification rather than summary judgment but, more significantly, because plaintiffs' experts there had opined that "twenty pack-years of smoking necessarily causes subcellular harm" and that "everyone with a twenty pack-year smoking history has suffered subcellular harm." (emphasis added). Massachusetts Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Design Defect and Failure-to-Warn Claims Involving Industrial Fan Because Dangers Were Open and Obvious and Plaintiff Did Not Offer Expert to Testify Proposed Safer Alternative Design Would Not Unduly Interfere with Product's Cost or Performance In Christensen v. Thornton, 988 N.E.2d 471 (Mass. App. Ct. June 3, 2013), plaintiff suffered injuries when he caught his hand in an industrial exhaust fan while installing drywall in a customer's home. The operating instructions supplied with the fan warned that if it was installed at a height of less than seven feet, it must be used with a guard in order to meet federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety standards, and a warning label to the same effect was affixed to all such fans. The fan's manufacturer made a guard that could be purchased as a separate component, and guards made by other manufacturers also could be used, but the fan could not be purchased with a guard preinstalled. After acquiring the fan secondhand, the homeowner, a licensed electrician, temporarily mounted it to the frame of a door that opened at the top of a three-step stairway. The bottom of the fan was flush with the edge of the top step and the fan was parallel to the path of the stairs with its blades exposed. The 5 www.foleyhoag.comhomeowner did not obtain the operating instructions when he purchased the fan, and did not remember a warning label on it. However, he testified at deposition that even if he had seen such a warning, this would not have deterred him from installing the fan in the manner in which he did. Plaintiff sued the homeowner and the fan's manufacturer and distributor in Massachusetts Superior Court, alleging the fan was defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous because it did not have a pre-installed guard or safety clutch and defendants had failed to adequately warn of its dangers. Following plaintiff's opening statement, but before any evidence was taken, the trial court dismissed plaintiff's claims against the manufacturer and distributor as a matter of law. After the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the case against the homeowner, plaintiff appealed. Affirming the trial court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims, the Massachusetts Appeals Court held the failure-to-warn claim could not succeed because the undisputed facts revealed that the dangers of operating the unguarded fan at ground level and immediately adjacent to the path of transit where plaintiff was working were objectively obvious, and thus plaintiff should have appreciated the danger substantially to the same extent as if a warning had been provided. Indeed, plaintiff testified at his deposition that he did not want to go anywhere near the unguarded fan because he was aware it posed serious dangers. The court also affirmed dismissal of the design defect claim because plaintiff had not offered an expert to substantiate that claim. While the court acknowledged no expert was needed for the jury to understand that a fan not equipped with a guard or safety clutch could cause serious injury, an expert was needed to assess whether adding such safety features would unduly interfere with the fan's cost or performance, especially since it was made for commercial and industrial uses. Indeed, there was evidence that use of a guard does diminish the fan's effectiveness. Massachusetts Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Power Tool Manufacturer on Design Defect Claim Because Plaintiff Offered No Expert Evidence Regarding Existence of a Defect, Safer Alternative Design or Causation In Torres v. Skil Corporation, 2013 WL 3105815 (D. Mass. June 17, 2013), plaintiff was injured while using a circular saw when the saw's blade guard did not automatically snap into place after he finished his cuts. Aware of the danger of putting the saw down without the blade guard in place, plaintif tried to "flick" it down with his right hand. Plaintiff's hand missed the blade guard, however, causing his ring finger to be partially and permanently severed and the tip of his middle finger to be amputated almost fully. Acting pro se, plaintiff sued the saw manufacturer in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for negligence and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability (the Massachusetts near-equivalent of strict liability) asserting, among other claims, the saw was defectively designed. Plaintiff contended the saw should have incorporated a "kill switch" that would have stopped the rotating saw blade instantaneously upon activating the switch. Neither plaintiff nor anyone else on his behalf had inspected or tested the mechanical components of the saw for evidence of a defect; rather, plaintiff testified it was his opinion the blade guard's failure to deploy must have been the result of a defect. The manufacturer moved for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff had not proffered any expert testimony that the saw was defective, there was a feasible alternative design or the alleged defect caused his injury. In granting the motion, the court explained that, except in rare circumstances where the dangers of a product are within the common knowledge of a layperson, a design defect plaintiff must present competent expert testimony that a defect in the product, present at the time it was sold, caused his injuries. This includes evidence of a safer, feasible alternative design that could have been incorporated without undue cost or interference with the product's performance. Here, plaintiff's reliance on his own assertions regarding the need for a kill switch to stop the spinning saw blade was insufficient to survive summary judgment because the mechanical components of the saw's blade guard were beyond a layperson's common knowledge. Moreover, there was evidence the saw had been designed and manufactured consistent with industry standards. While not dispositive as to the absence of a defect, this evidence was sufficient to permit a jury to find of r defendant in the absence of any evidence the industry could and should have done more to ensure a safer blade design. 6 www.foleyhoag.comThis Update is for information purposes only and should not be as construed as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. You are urged to consult your own lawyer concerning your own situation and any specific legal questions you may have. United States Treasury Regulations require us to disclose the following: Any tax advice included in this Update and its attachments is not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used by the taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. Copyright © 2013 Foley Hoag LLP. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. 7 Brian C. Carroll James J. Dillon Jonathan M. Ettinger Jeffrey S. Follett Barbara S. Hamelburg Michael B. Keating Matthew E. Miller Colin J. Zick Nabeel Ahmad Eric A. Haskell Brian L. Henninger Elizabeth Holland Joseph P. Lucia Daniel McFadden Daniel J. Procaccini Shrutih Tewarie David R. Geiger Chair Matthew C. Baltay Update Editor Creighton K. Page Associate Editor This Update was prepared by Foley Hoag's Product Liability and Complex Tort Practice Group, which includes the following members:
Product Liability Update - October 2014
Product Liability Update - April 2014
Product Liability Update - January 2014
Product Liability Update -- October 1, 2013
Product Liability Update -- October 2012
Product Liability Update -- July 2012
Product Liability Update -- April 2012
Product Liability Update -- January 2012
© Foley Hoag LLP | Attorney Advertising
David Geiger
Creighton Page
Design Defects
Mutual Pharmaceuticals v Bartlett
Science, Computers & Technology
Foley Hoag LLP on:
Mut. Pharm. Co. v. Bartlett , 570 U.S. 472 (2013)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Recent versions of OS X have been sold primarily through direct download from Apple via the App Store as an upgrade to the version of OS X already installed on your system. The installer is downloaded as an installation package and added to the Applications list.
This creates a problem if your computer is somehow made unbootable: how do you reinstall OS X now that your applications list is inaccessible? Alternatively, what if you simply want to create a clean installation of OS X?


Hello all, am trying to buy an OEM inlet camshaft for the 2ZZ-GE engine I'm building. I want to buy a new cam from. within the UK because I have sourced parts through MWR and ebay which were imported from outside the EU and I have been badly stung on import duties.
Can anyone suggest a good UK source to buy a brand new standard cam that's not a Toyota main dealership.
Give fensport (fensport.co.uk) or se7en (se7enmotorsports.co.uk If neither have them in stock and there is a better place than Toyota main dealer they will point you in the right direction often MWR is cheaper even with the import tax for parts.


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Justin Youngquist debuted the Dynes Racing sprint car in Sage Fruit Victory Lane with the Cook Road Shell Sportsman Sprints on Saturday night. After winning his heat race, Youngquist started from the outside front row and led all twenty five laps, turning away a strong charge from Kelsey Carpenter over the final five laps to secure the win.
The Leaded Coffee Company 95 car qualified 6th out of 15 Sportsman Sprint cars that qualified for the event. Youngquist would go on to win the heat race in convincing fashion and made little changes to the car before the feature event.
"We really didn't make many changes to the car all night," said Justin after the race. "We tweaked little things with the setup as the track wore out, but it didn't get as dry as we thought it might through the A Main." With a new Shark Racing Engines power plant under the hood, Justin was able to lead all twenty five circuits around the 3/10 mile Skagit oval.
"I saw no other outcome but winning, not that we have anything to prove, but the race is won in the shop in the days before," said car co-owner Lisa Dynes. "Our team has come together and made this a dream," she added.The race marked the 10th season Matt Dynes has worked with Justin and the first race for Conner Nelson with the team. Nelson, whose traveled the country for the last several seasons with both the ASCS tour and World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, returned home in the off season and has joined the Dynes Racing team.
"I'm looking forward to the rest of the year," Nelson said. "The night went really smooth and we have some stuff to work on to be even better," he said.
None of what has come together to become Dynes Racing would be possible without the time, dedication, and support of the crew, partners, and supporters of the team. "We have tremendous support from our sponsors and I expect nothing but the best on and off the track for them," Lisa Dynes said. The team has support from many businesses and individuals, including the following:
Brown McMillen Real Estate - Jodi Dynes
Leaded Coffee Company
Sedro-Woolley Cascade Pizza
Skagit River Chiropractic
Action RV
Timber Ridge Excavating
Sugar Tees
Hot Nitro
Stedman Powder Coating
KISM 92.9
Triple X Race Co
Shark Racing Engines
SpeedMart
Kyle, Kelsey, and Dallas Thomas
Ernesto's Touch Ups


The staff and location were the best part. They were very helpful in assisting us with some logistical issues and with organizing some bookings. The breakfast they offer is worth the price but is less expensive if you purchase there than through your room booking. It's all from scratch and fresh food.
This was a spontaneous stop as we wanted to get an early start to Balos Beach. The hotel is on a quiet side street and the people working at the desk are very kind.
Beautiful and well located on the west side of Crete.
Clean modern room. Nice breakfast an beach service. Good swimmimg beach. Nice shops in town.
The reception and service was the best! The view and proximity to the ocean was outstanding! We will be back!
Excellent. A place where you want to stay more and more.
It's small and quite hotel with nice beach and sun beds. Everyone is very nice and you feel as at home. Very good value for money. Hotel is very close to beautiful beaches in Crete: Elafonisi, Balos. If you have a car it's short drive and totally worth it. Great restaurant right at the corner of the hotel.
Staff , location, super clean, great breakfast, balcony, beach and recommendations!
Lock in a great price for Aphrodite Beach – rated 9.4 by recent guests!
One of our top picks in Kissamos.Aphrodite Beach Hotel is located on the sandy beach of Mavros Molos in Kissamos. It features a swimming pool, umbrellas and sunbeds on the beach and offers free WiFi throughout.
Each with a furnished balcony with sea, garden or mountain views, the spacious units at Aphrodite Beach include air conditioning, small kitchen corner, a satellite TV, hairdryer, toiletries and safe.
The hotel serves a buffet-style breakfast with Cretan products. Drinks, cocktails and snacks can be enjoyed next to the pool, in the seating areas provided in the garden or in the beach.
Aphrodite Beach Hotel is 2,650 feet from the center of the town and the Kissamos Archaeological Museum. Chania International. Airport is 31 mi away, and the Harbor of Souda is 25 mi away. Free public parking is available across and on site.
Front desk can assist with tours, taxi service, car rental, beauty care.
When would you like to stay at Aphrodite Beach?
This air-conditioned studio features a flat-screen TV, kitchenette and private bathroom with shower.
The spacious apartment has a separate living room with dining table.
Boasting side sea views, this air-conditioned studio comes with a kitchenette, flat-screen TV and private bathroom with shower.
This beachfront apartment has a balcony, sofa and kitchenware.
This seafront room features a flat-screen TV and private bathroom with shower.
Situated on the west corner of Crete in beautiful Kissamos province of Chania APHRODITE BEACH hotel welcomes you to its spacious rooms by offerning discreet cretan hospitality during your summer holidays.
House Rules Aphrodite Beach takes special requests – add in the next step!
Aphrodite Beach accepts these cards and reserves the right to temporarily hold an amount prior to arrival.
Beach was average, though made safe for people to swim from open ocean.
A very nice hotel on beachfront.The room was nice, good pool, nice breakfast. Very reasonably priced.
The WiFi Internet was absolutely terrible but not sure it was an issue with the hotel or just this area of the island. That's really the only thing that was a problem for us. The location was amazing for exploring around the western part of Crete working as a base location.
My room wasn't ready, so I receive an upgrade (which was great! Very modern room), but next day I had to move to the room I've booked, so it didn't look good at all! Even though it was a good size, it wasn't modern or comfortable, specially compared to the room I had the night before!
Great staff, very good breakfast! The beach in front of the hotel is nice, a short walk from the center, a great place to stay and explore the beaches on the west side of the island.
We liked everything ,it was superb,best holliday stay. The beds were goood,breakfast exellent.The location wonderfull and the owners so kind and helpfull.
The bed in our room was very soft, a bit uncomfortable to sleep in it for two people. however, we where given an upgrade with a sleeper couch which was made up for me upon request.
Special compliments to hotel staff who is very helpfull and friendly. They also have a nice hotel beach to chill a little after a nice breakfast. We stayed 3 nights because it's a nice place from where you can explore nature and villages around.
Shortened by one night so we could go to Heraklion. Crete is very big!!
Personal is the strongest part in the hotel :) everyone is very friendly. Breakfast is great, every day something new on the plates, fresh and tasty, really greek kitchen :) Beach with water is clean, sand is soft. Everything you need for a calm holydays.
Beach, good restaurant next door, breakfast, proximity to Balos and Falasarna.
We arrived at 2:15pm thinking we were right on time to check in - were asked to wait 15 minutes as the room wasn't ready. No apology, water or courtesy drink while waiting. After 15 mins I approached staff asking how long will it be, were told to wait for another 5 minutes. I advised we had been driving for 2 hours, and was told by male staff "we're talking about 5 minutes wait, not 1 hour" We did not mind waiting but just wish the staff had some empathy and make us feeling not being ignored. Apparently they don't guarantee checking in time at all. We were told that even though guests arrive after 2 pm but your room could be ready anytime between 2-4 pm. And they think it's not their fault and perfectly reasonable. So please beware. More confusion about breakfast, we were told it's included. However, after we finished eating and walked pass reception, the staff said "actually your room isn't included breakfast. You have to pay €16" (again no apology) After the dispute, she waived the cost for us.


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Melanie Sills v State of New South Wales [2018] NSWDC 119
The Plaintiff was a former police officer employed by the NSW Police Force (NSWPF). She alleges that in her service she was exposed to numerous traumatic
Harrington Estates (NSW) Ltd t/as Harrington Grove Country Club v Turner [2016] NSWCA 369
Background Mr Turner (the plaintiff) attended the wedding of his daughter at the Harrington Grove Country Club (the Club) on 19
Gulic v Boral Transport Ltd [2016] NSWCA 269
Background Mr Gulic (the plaintiff) was injured whilst working as a driver of a prime mover on behalf of Boral Transport Pty Ltd (Boral), supplying
Aldi Foods Pty Ltd v Young [2016] NSWCA 109
Background On 22 July 2009 Ms Susan Young, a 52 year old woman, was shopping at an Aldi Supermarket in New South Wales. She was shopping at the rear
QBE Insurance (Australia) Ltd v Mordue [2015] NSWCA 380
BACKGROUND Mr Mordue was involved in a motor vehicle accident on 1 December 2012 whilst a passenger in a motor vehicle participating in a motor rally
Samaan bht Samaan v Kentucky Fried Chicken Pty Ltd [2012] NSWSC 381
On 24 October 2005, the Plaintiff's father, Mr Samaan purchased a KFC 'Twister' wrap at its Villawood Store. Ms Monika Samaan (the Plaintiff) was
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BCNews24
Mandy Delahoussaye, Daughter of HoF Jockey Eddie D. Dies Suddenly: Cause of Death?
03/01/2023 by sourabh
Daughter of Hall of Fame Jockey star Eddie Delahoussaye, Mandy Delahoussaye, is dead at a reasonably young age. Read on to learn how did Mandy Delahoussaye die, what happened to him, and what was the cause of his death.
Friends and family members are paying tribute to the daughter of the retired Jockey player and sending condolences to the family. The funeral services for the lady have been set.
Who was Mandy Delahoussaye?
How did Mandy Delahoussaye die?
Mandy Delahoussaye dead: What was her cause of death?
Mandy Delahoussaye Obituary & Funeral Arrangements
Mandy Delahoussaye Survivors
Mandy Lynn Delahoussaye was the daughter of retired jockey Eddie Delahoussaye and his wife Juanita. Edward J. Delahoussaye was a decorated jockey from New Iberia, Louisiana. Mandy lived with his parents there.
Before the family moved to Louisiana in 2014, Mandy was known to racegoers at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar. This was because her aunt Rose Ann Delahoussaye served as her primary babysitter and Second Mother.
Mandy's father, Eddie D. was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1993. He is also a member of the board of directors for both the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation and the Louisiana Racing Commission.
Eddie D.'s daughter Mandy Delahoussaye Died on Friday, December 30, 2022, at the Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center in Louisiana. She was 47 at the time of her untimely death. The news of the tragedy was announced by a local news outlet after the funeral services were announced.
Several other local news outlets covered the passing of Eddie Delahoussaye's daughter as he is a venerated personality in the community. People were seen sending prayers and messages to him.
Mandy Delahoussaye died this past Friday after being severely ill. However, the specific cause of Mandy Delahoussaye's death was not announced publically. We only know that her health was deteriorating over the last few days.
Unfortunately, she passed away at the age of just 47. It's believed that Mandy died of an illness that she was battling. We have tried reaching out to the people close to her. If we find any new information, we will update this section.
The funeral arrangements for Mandy Delahoussaye are set in Martin & Castille's La Fleur di Lis Chapel on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, at 2 PM CT. The visitation will take place at 1 PM CT at the Lafayette funeral home's Southside location of the company.
Deacon Cody Miller will officiate the memorial. A private interment will also take place later in New Iberia's Holy Family Cemetery and Mausoleum. The family is urging to send memorial contributions to St. Jude, the Shriners' Hospital in honor of Mandy Delahoussaye.
The contributions can also be sent to the Children's Hospital of New Orleans instead of flowers or other supportive ornaments.
Mandy Delahoussaye is survived by her parents, Eddie and Juanita Delahoussaye; her brother, Loren Delahoussaye, and his wife, Rachel; her nephew, Luke Austin Delahoussaye; her aunt, Rose Anne Delahoussaye, and uncle, Edwin Paul Delahoussaye.
We'd like to extend our condolences to the family in these harsh times. May God let her soul rest in peace.
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In an emergency session, the Bank of England, the EBC and the Federal Reserve in the US have moved to cut rates immediately by 50 basis points. The coordinated moves are aimed at counterbalancing the vicious deterioration in financial markets and giving some measure of reassurance to households.
New loans approvals are now at a record low, down 70% from a year ago and way down from the 130,000 peak in November 2006.
Some of the biggest lenders have raised mortgage rates amid turmoil in financial markets. Lloyds TSB has pushed up the cost of its two- and three-year fixed rate deals and Northern Rock has raised the cost of its entire range of residential fixed and tracker rate deals.
According to James Thomas, Head of Residential at Jones Lang LaSalle, 'In the short term, this cut to base rates is little more than a sop to restore confidence. Libor rates will remain high as banks continue to work through the deleveraging process.
House prices were 12% lower in September compared to the same time last year and down 1.7% over the month according to Nationwide. The only sign of respite is that the monthly rate of fall has stabilized over the last three months, suggesting that the pace of decline is not accelerating at least.


text:
Q: Swiper slider некорректно отображается при изменении ширины экрана Использую в проекте Swiper
Most Modern Mobile Touch Slider ver. 4.4.6. Дизайн адаптивный соответственно в коде инициализации слайдера прописаны breackpoints.
Но при смене размера экрана параметры из breackpoints применяются не все, что приводит к некорректному отображению слайдера. Но если перезагрузить страницу слайдер отображается как нужно. Документацию прочитана от и до, что я упустил? Как решить данный баг?
Ссылка на страницу - Нажимай Слайдер находится на втором экране и на разрешениях выше 1260 он статичен так как всего 3 карточки курсов.
Пример кода:
    var scrollSwiper = new Swiper('.scroll-swiper', {
        slidesPerView: 3,
        spaceBetween: 30,
        allowTouchMove: false,
        slidesPerColumn: 1,
        observer: true,
        observeParents: true,
        observeSlideChildren: true,
        autoplay: {
            delay: 2500,
        },
        breakpoints: {
            767: {
                spaceBetween: 10,
                freeMode: true,
                slidesPerView: 'auto',
                allowTouchMove: true,
                scrollbar: {
                    el: '.scroll-swiper-scrollbar',
                    hide: true,
                },
            },
            1024: {
                allowTouchMove: true,
            },
            1260: {
                allowTouchMove: true,
                spaceBetween: 15,
                slidesPerView: 2,
                slidesPerColumn: 2,
            }
        }
    });

A: Слайдер ломается потому, что используется breakpoints в сочетании с slidesPerColumn, а этого делать нельзя. Документация слайдера: https://idangero.us/swiper/api/
Лучше в карточках-слайдах делать вертикальную компоновку (портретный вид) для узких экранов - адаптив контента самих слайдов.

breakpoints (object) Allows to set different parameter for different responsive breakpoints (screen sizes). Not all parameters
  can be changed in breakpoints, only those which are not required
  different layout and logic, like slidesPerView, slidesPerGroup,
  spaceBetween. Such parameters like slidesPerColumn, loop, direction,
  effect won't work!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Stanley Freeman, DDS
Director of Preclinical Dentistry, Professor of Dental Medicine
Touro College of Dental Medicine
Share Freeman, Stanley on Facebook Share Freeman, Stanley on LinkedIn Share Freeman, Stanley on Twitter
Clinical Specialty
Dr. Stanley Freeman is Professor of Dental Medicine and Director of Preclinical Dentistry at TouroCDM. Prior to his teaching appointment at Touro, Dr. Freeman was Clinical Instructor in Removal Prosthodontics at N.Y.U., Professor, in the Department of Restorative Dentistry at Columbia University, Director of Prosthodontics at Norwalk Hospital, and served in the U.S. Air force as a Captain in the Dental Corp.
Dr. Freeman received his D.D.S. from McGill University where he was a University Scholar. He graduated from N.Y.U. with an M.S. in Prosthodontics and earned a fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry, FAGD. He also earned a Mastership in the Academy of General Dentistry, MAGD and has been honored with Lifelong Learning and Service Recognition from the Academy of General Dentistry.
Fellowships from American College of Dentists, FACD; International College of Dentists, FICD; Pierre Fauchard Academy of the Dental Honor Society; New York Academy of Dentistry
Served on the Education Committee of the Connecticut State Dental Association, one term as Chairman of the Peer Review Panel on Laboratory Relations
American Dental Association, Connecticut Dental Association, American College of Prosthodontics, American Prosthodontic Society, American Dental Education Association, Academy of General Dentistry
Member of National Dental Honor Society OKU, president 2011-2012 at Columbia University


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Unstinting support for Israel back in place
Jews Down Under 26/09/2013	21 Comments 1,715 Views
Once again Greg Sheridan, the Foreign Editor of The Australian has written an excellent op ed He's onside and even handed with his views towards Israel.
Hopefully we can now turn around the wrongs of the dreadful Bob Carr.
Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop intend to reverse the anti-Israel direction in Australia's voting pattern in UN resolutions that Kevin Rudd oversaw as primeminister and foreign minister, and which Bob Carr continued. This is an immensely important sign of the Coalition government's values and direction.
Canberra will revert to the voting pattern established by John Howard and Alexander Downer: less ambiguous, less apologetic, more straightforward in support of the only democracy in the Middle East.
Bishop has not issued any general voting instructions but she has made it clear she intends to restore the Howard voting pattern and to reverse the votes Rudd changed. She has also made it clear she expects to see every significant Middle East resolution. Nothing will be done by autopilot. Her view is that Australia's vote on each resolution will be decided on its merits but that she will not support any unbalanced, one-sided or unfair resolutions on Israel. As almost all UN resolutions on Israel fall into this category, this is an important statement of principle.
Bishop has had a brilliant start as Foreign Minister, making big calls, and the right calls, on Australia's aid program. She has had a stellar week at the UN, meeting in a few days the contacts she needs – which would have taken months or years to in the normal course of things.
This is the only benefit that will accrue to Australia as a result of its brief stinton the UN Security Council. The UN just now is fully taken up with Syria. But let's be quite clear. Nothing of consequence will happen at the UN on Syria. The real deals are being worked out between Moscow, Washington and the main actors in the Middle East. The UN is not a bit player. It is no player at all. Bishop is too smart to get carried away by its heady atmosphere.
The government's disposition to oppose the UN's traditional Israel-bashing is causing some angst in the bureaucracy, specifically in parts of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. When Howard and Downer decided to change to a more explicit position in 2003, they caused similar angst. Downer was rung 10 minutes before a vote, with the relevant ambassador pleading for permission to vote with the consensus. Downer insisted the government's policy be followed.
Similarly, in the early days, Downer would receive submissions from DFAT with three boxes: approve, not approve, discuss. A couple of times he circled "discuss" so he could explain to his bureaucrats why he was rejecting their advice. Departmental advice amounted to arguing that such an Australian vote would get some of the Arabs off side. Downer's response was that it didn't help the Arabs to encourage them in bad policy. The question was whether the resolution was right or wrong in principle. Mostly he just circled "not approve". DFAT got the idea.
It's important to understand the underlying dynamics. The UN, in its bureaucracy and voting patterns, is grotesquely biased against Israel. Every year 20 or more completely one-sided resolutions are passed against Israel, while typically nothing is said about North Korea or Iran or Saudi Arabia or any of the other paragons of human rights and democracy among UN members. Many European countries abstain on such resolutions, thinking it's more trouble than it's worth to oppose them outright. Typically, the US, Canada, Israel and a few Pacific countries oppose such resolutions. Under Howard, Australia did too. This was right in principle and also in our interests. It draws us closer to our best friends and makes some contribution, however small, to moving the UN in the direction of the real world.
The alleged damage to our standing by taking a principled position never really amounted to anything. In the years after Canberra became more explicit in its support of Israel we did not lose a single election at the UN, our trade with the Arab Middle East boomed and more Arab countries opened embassies here.
Nonetheless the bureaucratic dynamic within DFAT tends to be to go along with the international consensus: not to pick an argument unless it directly, and in a sense narrowly, concerns our immediate interests.
Given that we abandoned Israel on some key votes in order to curry favour for our UN Security Council bid, it is likely we will now breach undertakings made to Arab countries. Bad luck. The government has changed. The Coalition was clear in opposition that it would take a more sympathetic line to Israel at the UN. If it did not do this it would be abandoning its core values.
Some of the resolutions where Labor changed Australia's traditional vote have innocuous sounding names but are intensely unfair to Israel and unhelpful to a settlement. Resolution 67/23 on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine unfairly blames Israel for everything while not mentioning any fault by any Palestinian group or authority. Notably it does not call for an end to terrorism, incitement, hatred and so on. In 2006, under Howard, Australia voted against this resolution; last year it abstained.
Resolution 67/24 on Jerusalem condemns any Israeli presence in the Old City of Jerusalem at all, a grotesque position. In 2006, Australia abstained; last year, Australia voted in favour. Various resolutions call for the Geneva Convention to apply to Palestinian territories. These resolutions fail to acknowledge that Israel already voluntarily observes its humanitarian provisions, but also imply Israeli war crimes. In 2006, Australia abstained; last year it voted in favour of these resolutions.
Resolution 67/158 seems harmlessly to call for the right of Palestinians to self-determination, but it recognises no similar right for Israelis and is unbalanced on the question of settlements. In 2006 Australia abstained; last year Australia voted in favour.
There are a slew of other resolutions where Australia voted against under Howard and abstained under Labor, or abstained under Howard and voted in favour under Labor. We can expect that if these resolutions come back in their regular form this year, the Abbott government will reverse Labor's voting record.
Australia shouldn't grandstand on the Middle East, where we often have marginal influence. But we should be absolutely clear about our values, and our friends.
Tags Israel tag Julie Bishop support Tony Abbott
Previous Obama at the United Nations (Or, Déjà Vu All Over Again)
Next Grand Mufti threatened Labor over Israel 'bias'
Otto Waldmann
Just a healthy reminder that Australia does contain divisive ideologies and some of them (!!) are seriously attached to dangerous philosophies. Labor are not just another alternative, they are pernicious dogmatists in pin stripe suits and have mastered the degenarate art of misleading the normally indiferent Aussie BBQ political devotee excited only about the intellectual values of a cold VB, burping pub wity one- liners equallly idiotic about ANY politician………….. At least this time around ,luckily, the electorate ganged up in larger numbers against the vicious, vitriolic unpalatable fratricide mess political hedonism defined Labor.
A fairly lone voice in the media world,Greg has been a beacon of wisdom and loyalty to the right causes, a real consistent friend.
Shirlee Finn
Otto, Greg Sheriden is not a lone voice in the media. There are others, but names escape me
Pam Hopf
Otto, as a former Labour supporter, I suspect you are right, that Labour are, and have always been, pernicious dogmatists. Many of us were naive enough to believe that they cared for ordinary people, for the underdog, whereas the Liberals were only concerned with the wealthy. The reality is that it is Labour who are the elitists, whereas the Liberals are more in tune with ordinary people.
Thank goodness we have a government that has a moral compass and will support a country with democratic values like our own, rather than totalitiarian regimes, whether Marxist or Islamic.
Pam even my father, who as you know was a staunch Communist, woke up to the fact that the Left were not what they purported to be. He always believed Labour was for the 'worker', once calling me a traitor to my class.
He started to turn when Whitlam was PM. He was very disillusioned with the Hawke government and then Keating finished him off altogether
He never voted again again. He could never bring himself to vote Liberal
Shirlee, you surely cannot overlook Andrew Bolt!
No, I haven't. I had a very busy time when I was posting a few items and my brain died.
I just added something of his to the bottom of this
http://jewsdownunder.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/grand-mufti-threatened-labor-over-israel-bias/
Too true, Andrew Bolt, Gerard Henderson, who writes a lot in the daily media and Piers Akerman deserve to be added to the objective, well informed and fair commentators.
Imre Salusinszky too. Amanda Devine.
Imre I met in Newtown when he was covering John Nemesh's trial over the Marrickville debacle.
It was great to see a Magistrate who was pro-Israel.
Julia Ferguson
It's really great to see all posts agreeing for a change. I wonder where the trolls have disappeared to? All is now clearer in such a short space of time, regarding where Australia stands on Israel/Middle East/Arab matters. Strong and decisive at last! I feel safer with our new government at the helm – people who know how to run things in a business-like fashion and not live on the fantastic plastic, as has been the case for the last almost seven years. This government is composed of people who have strong moral convictions and who are not afraid to take a stand against a foreign government's hypocritical waffling about their sovereign borders, while allowing the very same thing to happen to OURS! Julie Bishop is going to be an excellent FA Minister. Inscrutable face, professionally attired, well spoken, intelligent and although she is streets ahead of the late Maggie Thatcher in the looks department, she is going to be as strong if not stronger – just what we need.
What trolls?
my non-sexist impression is that Ms Bishop is a gentle soul par excellence. Her manner is of humorous disposition with very well pondered pause before replies/provocations. She is not aggressively asseretive, without being excessively "elegantly" shy. I found it amusing that, on the news only last nite, when shown chairing the Security Council, she struck the gavel ever so gently after which she look to her left at what must have been a more experienced "hand" in the place, checking with a smile if she used the implement correctly. It was really cute, that if the Security Council allows for"cute" in the room !!!!
Otherwise, quite diplomatically, she knows how to avoid complicating issues, specially those she is not in full command of. ( I am implying, of course, that she is comfy with being human above being "the" omniscient political dickhead )
Julie Bishop is a delightful person, highly intelligent, with a very quick wit, but she can bite where necessary. I met her a couple of years ago.
Henry taking his time posting comments is what is losing him readers. He won't have it, so it's his loss. He is not observant, so I don't see why he won't post on shabbos (sabbath) or chags (holidays)
When I did a presentation a couple of years back at Limmud Oz, Peter Slesak came into the hall. There was quite an audible boo. A couple of people said that if he didn't leave they would. He didn't, so they did. The worst part of it all was that I had no written presentation, it was all ad lib and I had a terrible time trying to concentrate becasue he was straight ahead of me and I couldn't see anyone else.!!
Hi Shirlee, before the election, no matter which site you happened to be visiting, when someone made a pro coalition post, the pro government trolls just had to have their dig. It's so nice for people to be able to post without the vitriol and uninformed rhetoric. No-one on here!
In a way I wish there were at least a couple of people with a different point of view, because they'd get taken down a peg or two.
Welcome it's nice to have anther voice around her. I wish more people would comment. We're not short of readers, I wonder if people are afraid?
The other kettle of fish, called Peter Slezak, is being wrongly disenfranchised by the Jewish community. Peter is very approachable, a genuine intellectual who can be engaged in a controversy. Also a few years ago, also at Limud Oz, he was developing certain tendentious notions. When interpelated with valid points he replied with academic dignity, without being impertinent or patronising. When I pointed out to him that he misinterpreted a certain Platonic dialogue, he just retorted that both, his and my interpretations can be derived. When I further corrected him that Wittgenstein may not be regarded as a Jew abandoned by his Jewish community for not following Judaic philosophical principles for the simple reason that he was born and died a Catholic, third generation, he did not contend that point at all. At a much later date, I run into him in Double Bay and he was remarkably gentle and modest about his own unfortunate conflict with the Jewish community. In spite of all these aspects, he is a devout pro Palestinian Jew, something we can talk about a lot longer than this space ( and its mistress) allows………………….
Give me a break Otto. I thought you had more sense than that. He is an abomination. Another member of 'Australian Jews for Palestine'
Shirlee, I agree with you that Slezak is an ideological abomination regarding Israel and the palestinians. He is not, however, an impregnable mind. I would go as far as saying that you, yes you, could have an interesting and maybe fruitful discussion with him, something maybe you should contemplate. After all, you have all the data and the prowess of intellectual persuasion sufficient to make an impact.
This has been my brake !
There is no such thing as a devout pro Palestinian Jew except if you would say about a devout pro NAZI Jew. Intellectuality in this area is a floating mind in the never never land. Peter Slezak is in such world.
Leon Poddebsky
Some years ago the Australian Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a publication regarding Australian trade with the Middle East. The publication contained a map, but guess which country's name DFAT omitted from that map even though Australia's relations with Israel have never impeded that trade.
Even Arab states have for decades been trading with Israel under the radar despite the official (and illegal, you know, Bob) Arab League boycott of Israel.
hi Shirl, I would comment more if (a) everything hadn't already been said, and (b) I had an extra 20 hours per day, over & above what I already spend reading as much as I can absorb (and would you believe, working my 40+ hours a week day job). Not that I don't love the discourse that usually follows each post .. if I felt I had something meaningful to contribute I would, otherwise I just keep stum and learn as much as I can.
Rach, I know you are busy. I am about to send you an email too. I am exhausted with all this election stuff.
You should comment, because it's good to create dialogue and I KNOW you have a lot to contribute.
See you on Wednesday.