Day: March 22, 2009

The Daily Slab – March 22

Yikes!  Sop told you about our drafts folder – dreaded drafts folder,  he called it, and said it  has become the slabbed equivalent of the roach motel with few ever making it back out.

Obviously, we needed a catch all; and, this is it – the blog equivalent of the place you toss all the plastic cups and tee shirts your kids bring home.

I wish we could offer Sunday Dinnah as I miss reading the fellowship enjoyed by those at the folo table.

However, with both of us working, this is strictly pot luck.  If you have news and/or views to share on any topic,  just put it in a comment here – it matters not that it has nothing to do with the issues we regularly cover here although that’s always an option.

For example, I’ve been dying to post about Hodding Carter’s Extreme Frugality series from Gourmet.

For years, Lisa had been telling me we were living beyond our means. “Please, please, Hodding, don’t buy that hand-carved black Continue reading “The Daily Slab – March 22”

Save our Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes

Cat and Ship Islands - Gulf Islands National Seashore
Cat and Ship Islands - Gulf Islands National Seashore

It is said a picture is worth a thousand words and in these pictures are two barrier islands in the Mississippi Sound. As Nowdy would say they belong to you and me, preserved forever in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Part inspiration for artists and home to seabirds these islands protect the mainland from stormy seas. Still standing despite being hit by Camille and then Katrina 36 years later these islands are as important to the ecology of the Mississippi Coast as the marshes of Plaquemines and St Bernard Parishes are to New Orleans and the North Shore.

I’ve been holding this post since early last month beginning with the release of the revised Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program, a topic we’ve blogged on extensively here at Slabbed, most recently here and here.

While the story of the ongoing development of the Coastal Improvement Program is vital to the coast it has been one of those topics Nowdy and I simply don’t have time to cover right now due to time constraints associated with our day jobs thus it’s consignment to the dreaded drafts folder which is the slabbed equivalent of the roach motel with few ever making it back out. Thanks to a strangely out of context but well timed Op-ed in today’s Clarion Ledger this post literally has arisen from the stormy deep albeit in a differing direction.

Before we pick apart the Op-ed some helpful local context is in order. Continue reading “Save our Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes”

How the bases loaded for the Fifth’s Opinion in Harrington v State Farm

Once State Farm strikes out at Fifth Circuit with the bases loaded posted, Sop commented, I’d like to know who these magistrate judges are that can’t get these simple rulings right Nowdy.

"I'm really not a waitress"
"I'm really not a waitress"

After several other comments, including my reply that I had not intended to suggest magistrate judges made the decisions in Harrington, Sop came back with I’d still like the names of the district court judges on these three cases.

With that second request, I began thinking about sending Sop a message in a bottle – a bottle of OPI.

Had I not picked up the Editilla’s MRGO story and needed the Order, I might be wrapping a package instead of writing this post; but, while I was on PACER, I looked around and found Sop’s answer.

The bases were loaded when Judge Porteous walked two and Judge Feldman walked one.

However, neither Judge made a simple ruling.  Judge Porteous said as much, in fact, according to the Transcript of the last hearing he held on the matter:

I understand your position, but I’ve got different bodies now reading the documents. Again, I don’t read any attempt to deceive, bad faith, I don’t read any of that. Nothing about this suggests to me that I have a bad faith situation. I personally know all of the attorneys in this thing so I can’t believe you would come in here and intentionally try to confuse me, although I am easily confused sometimes.

Since I don’t know the the judges of the Fifth Circuit, much less well enough to suggest they were thinking this is why the letters W, T, and F were invented as they were reading,  I’ll just compliment them for writing an Opinion that was appropriately circumspect and move on to a review of the documents I read. Continue reading “How the bases loaded for the Fifth’s Opinion in Harrington v State Farm”