INSTITUTIONAL DENIAL ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF LAW SCHOOL

[persirit]

Not always - if you have a strong case and there are other defendants you're better off taking it to trial.

You meant plaintiffs, didn't you paine?

Of course paine meant plaintiffs, halivero. It's called a class-action suit.

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FILED BY UNINSURED PATIENTS AGAINST CARLE HOSPITAL

A class action lawsuit brought by uninsured patients was filed some years ago in Illinois state court against Carle Foundation Hospital ("Carle"), with widespread community support and outrage at Carle's discriminatory treatment of uninsured patients, including its highly controversial billing and debt collection practices that has included issuing 'body attachments' arrest warrants against uninsured patients who cannot afford to pay the inflated rates Carle specifically charges the uninsured. The lawsuit, which was filed in the Illinois Circuit Court of Champaign County, is the 65th lawsuit filed against 60 hospital systems in state and federal courts as part of a nationwide class action litigation that commenced on June 17, 2004. The litigation currently spans 24 states.

The suit charges the hospital of forcing uninsured patients to pay unreasonable and highly inflated rates, failing to provide them with the opportunity to apply for charity care, and using reprehensibly aggressive and humiliating collection tactics against people who cannot afford to pay the inflated bills. These practices violate the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and breach Carle's duty under state law to only charge people the fair and reasonable value of the services provided to them. The suit depicts Carle's practice of regularly charging uninsured patients rates that far exceed the amount charged to other patients. Moreover, these inflated rates are concealed from an uninsured patient when he or she is admitted to the hospital. Carle forces these patients to "consent" to pay all charges as they are admitted to the hospital, most of the time under duress of pain and illness, without informing them that they will be charged many times more than all other patients for the same exact treatment. Carle's unlawful scheme also includes efforts to dissuade uninsured patients from receiving financial assistance from the hospital by routinely placing numerous obstacles in the way that prevent patients from applying for charity care. As a result, Carle issues inflated hospital bills to thousands of uninsured patients who cannot afford to pay them.

Beyond that, Carle then egregiously uses extreme 'anything but community care' tactics to collect outstanding bills from even the poorest patients, many of whom have been deemed indigent by the courts of Champaign County, IL. Carle has filed hundreds of lawsuits and garnished patients' wages and social security checks. Since 1995, Carle has sought 164 arrest warrants, known as 'body attachments,' for their patients who owe money to Carle for missing a court hearing. 'Body attachments' are such an extreme and abominable practice that even most private companies will not use them. After mounting pressure from consumer advocacy groups and nationwide media attention, the hospital announced that it would stop the practice. George Bellas, an attorney with Clifford Law Offices of Chicago who is representing the plaintiffs, stated, "The basis of Carle's nonprofit status, under which it reaps hundreds of millions of dollars annually from taxpayers, is to provide affordable care to those who need it in return for total tax exemption. By charging uninsured patients inflated prices — in fact, rates far higher than anyone else — and then using the most aggressive and humiliating collection tactics imaginable when they simply can't afford to pay the bills, Carle has completely breached its legal and moral obligations and has betrayed the communities it is supposed to be serving.”

"The abusive practices heaped on the uninsured by hospitals such as Carle are illegal, offend our sense of morality, and must be stopped. To actively try to throw people in prison, to get a judgment issued against them, and to go after their wages simply because they are too poor to pay a medical bill is unconscionable. Poor people who can't afford to pay for necessary medical services shouldn’t be sued in the first place." Carle is a 300-bed facility located in Urbana, IL that serves as the primary teaching hospital for the U of I College of Medicine. It is the only locally owned and operated hospital in the Champaign-Urbana area, and its purported focus is to serve the community. Carle is a profitable hospital and earned $13.9 million in 2002 alone. As of June 2002, Carle's parent non-profit company, The Carle Foundation, had $28.18 million in unrestricted cash assets in an account in the Cayman Islands, a place known for its banking secrecy and financial schemes.

The law firms representing the plaintiff are the Scruggs Law Firm of Oxford, MI, Clifford Law Offices of Chicago, IL, and Phebus & Koester of Champaign, IL.

[Sun M Patinka]

The frenzy of destruction and the rejoicing in blood and ritualized murder arise from the fact that few can admit that none of our immortality systems or our glory fixes works at all. They are elaborate deceptions, illusions, rituals with no power to save.  No matter how much wealth the rich person accumulates, or how great the power wielded by the king, everyone knows that the relatives will be fighting over the spoils before the body gets cold. Everyone knows that no Reich lasts a thousand years and no family line is assured of perpetuation. Furthermore, insofar as I derive my glory from merging myself with another person or system, to that degree I am less than whole. Borrowed glory is not my glory.

But these are the only buffers people have to shield themselves from the terrible dark and cold of the Void. The frenzy arises from the constant undercurrent of realization that the immortality strategies are illusion. The fact that they cannot save must be denied, hidden, repressed. [...]

Don't you think that just by saying it - that all these "buffers" can not shield us from the terrible dark and cold of the Void, that all these immortality strategies are illusions - you're evoking something that should have not been?!

Lucky you, caracosta -- smashing years and years of "efforts," "accomplishments," "successes" with a single word! Just like that!

And to think, liminocentrict, that anyone can do that - you just have to make up your mind to say that God is Nothing and Nothing is God and Voilà!

[ka p e l lu]

The frenzy of destruction and the rejoicing in blood and ritualized murder arise from the fact that few can admit that none of our immortality systems or our glory fixes works at all. They are elaborate deceptions, illusions, rituals with no power to save.  No matter how much wealth the rich person accumulates, or how great the power wielded by the king, everyone knows that the relatives will be fighting over the spoils before the body gets cold. Everyone knows that no Reich lasts a thousand years and no family line is assured of perpetuation. Furthermore, insofar as I derive my glory from merging myself with another person or system, to that degree I am less than whole. Borrowed glory is not my glory.

But these are the only buffers people have to shield themselves from the terrible dark and cold of the Void. The frenzy arises from the constant undercurrent of realization that the immortality strategies are illusion. The fact that they cannot save must be denied, hidden, repressed. [...]

Don't you think that just by saying it - that all these "buffers" can not shield us from the terrible dark and cold of the Void, that all these immortality strategies are illusions - you're evoking something that should have not been?!

Lucky you, caracosta -- smashing years and years of "efforts," "accomplishments," "successes" with a single word! Just like that!

And to think, liminocentrict, that anyone can do that - you just have to make up your mind to say that God is Nothing and Nothing is God and Voilà!

Hahaha!!!

[Jeremiah Mau]

Better to abstain than to error - case in point, major 19th-century Western philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Schlegel, Hegel misinterpreted the Buddha's teaching of nirvana as a life-detesting and negative annihilation of the the individual. They imagined Buddhism as a religion that was, as Nietzsche put it, a "negation of the world" - such portrayals were more a reflection of what was happening in Europe at the time when the collapse of traditional European hierarchies and values, the specter of atheism, and the rise of racism and social revolts were shaking European societies, rather than an accurate description of Buddhist thought.

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were really the ones who brought Eastern thought to the Western philosophy. Schopenhauer rejected Christianity, and embraced Indian philosophy. In the 19th century, many Western intellectuals were losing faith in monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Schopenhauer was an atheist, hence he was attracted to Eastern belief-systems that lacked a Western-style God — lacked a God who created the universe, ruled the universe, dictated books, etc. Oriental thinkers believed that the world had grown up spontaneously, like a plant; they didn’t view the world as a system that was designed and built by an omnipotent being. The Oriental view is consistent with modern science.

Nietzsche wasn't as impressed by Eastern ideas as Schopenhauer was. But some of Nietzsche's aphorisms remind one of Eastern practices, such as meditation; "Lying still and thinking little," Nietzsche wrote, "is the cheapest medicine for all sicknesses of the soul and, if persisted with, grows more pleasant hour by hour." "Thinking little" isn't as easy as it sounds. The mind wanders; it likes to occupy itself with something. India and China have developed a variety of techniques for calming the mind: meditation, yoga, tai chi, etc. These techniques direct the mind onto something simple and relaxing, such as breathing, walking, repeating the same word over and over, or slowly stretching and exercising the body. These techniques are becoming increasingly popular in the West due to their beneficial effect on both body and mind. Nietzsche's prescription — "lying still and thinking little" — could also be considered meditation; indeed, almost anything can be considered meditation if one concentrates on what one is doing. Listening to music, for example, can be considered meditation if one concentrates on the music. Often, however, people listen to music while doing something else — while driving, while eating, while looking at a magazine, etc. Descartes said, "I think therefore I am." Zen says, "I don't think, therefore I am."

[leadhu me token]

[...]

[...] "Lying still and thinking little," Nietzsche wrote, "is the cheapest medicine for all sicknesses of the soul and, if persisted with, grows more pleasant hour by hour." "Thinking little" isn't as easy as it sounds. The mind wanders; it likes to occupy itself with something. India and China have developed a variety of techniques for calming the mind: meditation, yoga, tai chi, etc. These techniques direct the mind onto something simple and relaxing, such as breathing, walking, repeating the same word over and over, or slowly stretching and exercising the body. These techniques are becoming increasingly popular in the West due to their beneficial effect on both body and mind. Nietzsche's prescription — "lying still and thinking little" — could also be considered meditation; indeed, almost anything can be considered meditation if one concentrates on what one is doing. Listening to music, for example, can be considered meditation if one concentrates on the music. Often, however, people listen to music while doing something else — while driving, while eating, while looking at a magazine, etc. Descartes said, "I think therefore I am." Zen says, "I don't think, therefore I am."

Can Nietzsche's ethics be used to justify the actions of a mafia assassin? The movie "Angel's Dance" (1999), half in serious and half in jest, presents just such a situation. While on the one hand it may be considered somewhat of a comedic spoof of certain contemporary avant-garde intellectual ideas associated with Nietzsche's philosophy and Zen Buddhism, on the other hand it provides an exemplification of a possible interpretation of the ethical consequences of Nietzsche's philosophy. 

The capo of a Chicago mob, in need of new hit man, sends a young potential hit man (Tony Greco) to California to be trained by a master assassin (Steve Rosellini). Rosellini (a.k.a., "the Rose") is portrayed as "California-cool." He lives in a beach house of Japanese decor, believes in reincarnation, spouts Zen Buddhist quips, eats veggie burgers, advocates recycling, and, of course, respects and quotes Nietzsche. The training guide Rosellini hands to Tony is Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil." During the movie we also see Tony having to thumb through other books by Nietzsche, such as "The Portable Nietzsche" with its distinguishing purple cover. As part of his training Tony must kill an innocent victim picked at random from the telephone book: Angelica (Angel) Chaste. A mortician who works the graveyard shift at a mortuary, Angel is, to say the least, a "strange women." She is intelligent and very resourceful. Coincidentally, she is also acquainted with Nietzsche's books. Angel's resourcefulness and strangeness bode ill for Tony. After Tony bungles his first attempt to kill Angel, she becomes proactive. She changes her appearance, buys a gun and personal body armor, learns to shoot with accuracy, and even makes an attempt to shoot Tony and Steve. As the film progresses we see Tony losing his motivation to kill Angel and in general his desire to be a hit man, while we see Angel assuming the coolness and skills of a professional killer. After killing 4 of the men who set out to kill her and also killing Tony, who tires to intervene on her behalf and confesses his love for her, Angel teams up with Rosellini and performs the assassination desired by the capo of a wayward accountant turned states evidence. The movie ends with Angel and Rosellini riding off in his sports car and a famous line from the movie "Zorba the Greek," another cultural classic: "what is life if not the dance."

[Google has secrets, too]

[...] The movie ends with Angel and Rosellini riding off in his sports car and a famous line from the movie "Zorba the Greek," another cultural classic: "what is life if not the dance."

Here it is the famous Zorbas Dance from the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNApZ2ALiQ

[cpl]

[...] The movie ends with Angel and Rosellini riding off in his sports car and a famous line from the movie "Zorba the Greek," another cultural classic: "what is life if not the dance."

Here it is the famous Zorbas Dance from the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNApZ2ALiQ

One of the most interesting remarks in this movie was the one from the boss saying to Zorba:

"I am going to do with my books what you did with the cherries. I'm going to eat so much paper it'll make me sick. I shall spew it all up and then be rid of it forever."

[Bear Love Law]

[...]

Jacques Lacan describes schizophrenia as a breakdown in the signifying chain of language, in the interlocking syntagmatic series of signifiers which constitute an utterance. He adopts the Saussurian point of view that meaning is generated by the movement from signifier to signified through the relationship among signifiers themselves. When the relationships of signifying chains breaks down, we are left with a rubble of unrelated signifiers. For Lacan the link between this linguistic malfunction and the psyche of the shizophrenic derives from a twofold proposition: that personal identity is the effect of the temporal unification of past and future with one's present, and that such an active temporal unification is itself a function of language. With the breakdown of the signifying change, the schizophrenic is reduced to an experience of pure material signifiers, or, in other words, a series of pure and unrelated presents in time.

In the European intellectual tradition beginning with Descartes, there is the belief in a pre-linguistic selfhood that uses language as an instrument to express its subjectivity. For Lacan, subjectivity is not a thing; rather it is a set of relationships that are activated by entry into a semiological system. There is a paradox here, for Lacan says: "I identify myself in language, but only by losing myself in it like an object." This process of simultaneous discovery and loss starts early. Freud had told of observing an 18-month-old baby who invented a simple game in which he would throw a spool out of his crib, saying "oooh" as he did so, then pull it back into the crib by a string attached to it, saying "aah" as he retrieved it. Freud interpreted "oooh" as the German word "Fort" (away) and "aah" as "Da" (here) and explained that it symbolized to the child the painful disappearance of its mother followed by her comforting return. Lacan points out that this act of symbolism allows the child to dominate the mystery and terror of the experience of the mother's repeated disappearance, but says that the displacement of the experience onto the symbol also inaugurates the alienation of subjectivity into language that will from then on always be its fate. In fact, the human being is the subject caught and tortured in the web of language. It is this feature of human existence that accounts both for normality and madness.

There are two poles of discourse, whether that be normal discourse or the discourse of delirium: a pole of excess and a pole of deficit. First, there is the language of intuition, which produces a fullness of understanding, but here there is too much meaning -- an excess that inhibits communication. At the other extreme there is the empty slogan, the meaningless repetition of words, and emptiness that also precludes communication. The psychotic moves from one pole to the other. The trouble is, so do the rest of us! Because this is the form of all discourse. Ideally, the fullness of meaning would be a speech-act that was a testimony and at the same time a self-assertion, such as "You are my friend." Of course, I want you to respond affirmatively: "Yes, I am your friend." But there is the opposite pole that always threatens the first, namely, the lie. The fact that you can lie causes a perpetual hesitation on my part. Here Lacan retells a joke of Freud's about a chance meeting in a train station of two Polish Jews who distrust each other. "Where are you going?" asks the first. The second says, "To Cracow." The first thinks to himself, "He says he's going to Cracow, but he's saying that so I won't know he's really going to Lemberg. But he knows I'll think that." Then he angrily responds: "You liar, you are going to Cracow!" Once again here are two linguistic poles of excess and deficit that characterize both "normal" and delirious discourse.

Humans differ from animals in that our relation to what Lacan calls "the Real" is mediated by language. Language itself is unstable so there is no guarantee that the mediation will be successful. There are certain basic signifiers, like the one designating the difference between the sexes (what Lacan calls "the phallus"), without which no meaningful human world can be constructed. The basic signifiers are like upholstery buttons that tack down the loose and slippery fabric of signification to specific spots, giving it some stability. If they fail, psychosis happens. In that case no word carries any meaning, or each word carries all meaning, and communication (i.e., intersubjectivity) is impossible. Psychosis is the loss of a grounding signifier and at the same time is the search for its recovery. Lacan says: "It is in man's relation to the signifier that the drama of madness is situated." A psychotic symptom is a metaphor in which flesh or function is taken as a signifying element. A part of one's body is misrecognized as a part of one's language, and vice-versa. The goal of psychoanalysis, says Lacan, is to restore to the patient the sovereign freedom displayed by Humpty-Dumpty when he reminds Alice that after all he is the master of the signifier, even if he isn't the master of the signified. Madness is just an extreme exaggeration of the dual process of succumbing to the totalitarianism of language and the attempt to resist that totalitarianism by recovering one's freedom.

[d a d a i s t]

Here Lacan retells a joke of Freud's about a chance meeting in a train station of two Polish Jews who distrust each other. "Where are you going?" asks the first. The second says, "To Cracow." The first thinks to himself, "He says he's going to Cracow, but he's saying that so I won't know he's really going to Lemberg. But he KNOWS I'll think that." Then he angrily responds: "You liar, you are going to Cracow!"

I guess this is one of those cases when you are lying while being truthful!

[Locke]

[...] The movie ends with Angel and Rosellini riding off in his sports car and a famous line from the movie "Zorba the Greek," another cultural classic: "what is life if not the dance."

Here it is the famous Zorbas Dance from the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNApZ2ALiQ

One of the most interesting remarks in this movie was the one from the boss saying to Zorba:

"I am going to do with my books what you did with the cherries. I'm going to eat so much paper it'll make me sick. I shall spew it all up and then be rid of it forever."

Great movie, indeed! Here it is another dramatic scene - the great Irene Papas is the widow looking for her goat. Giorgos Foundas is smoking in the cafe. Alan Bates offers his umbrella to Irene and Anthony Quinn is sitting outside with him. Walter Lassally won the Oscar for the cinematography. Mikis Theodorakis wrote the music and Michael Cacoyannis directed. Based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Shot on the island of Crete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN6AhB3sajE&feature=related