One long hard ride

I now live in a country where lawsuits are the exception, not the norm.  There are several reasons.    Here, personal lawsuits can take more than a decade to resolve and they are expensive.  Second, a corrupt system doesn't guarantee a fair outcome. Third, people here usually try to work out their differences like they used to before the U.S. legal system got so out of whack.  And perhaps most important, people here in Mexico are deemed responsible for their own actions.

I remember four years ago when we first moved here.  A group of residents were walking around the complex with the developer and one raised questions about a hillside he thought looked unstable.  Concerned about liability, the resident asked the developer, what happens if a family was walking by the hillside and it fell on them and they died.  The developer replied, "Too bad.  Their unlucky day."  And he was serious.  Personal responsibility and fate play a large role in survival here.

So it is with interest that today I read the story of the northern California man who is suing BMW because apparently, after riding a BMW motorcycle, he got an erection.  And, it hasn't gone down in 20 months.   The guy's name is Henry Wolf, and in the lawsuit filed last week in San Francisco, he claims that he  "now is unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish."    I would have thought just the opposite, but I have never been in his predicament, in fact a long shot from it (pardon the pun).

That claim in itself is a bit suspect, but as we know from Viagra commercials, anyone experiencing an erection for longer than four hours could have a problem.  I'm no doctor, but I would think the situation after 20 months would be downright explosive.  After a bit of research online, I discovered that in extremely severe cases, amputation is necessary if it won't go down.  But, there are several treatments available that Mr. Wolf probably should have sought out long before deciding to sue BMW.   A cold shower may be a start.

What is priceless about a story like this are the comments that readers posted online.  Among the standouts on the CBS5 website: 

It sounds like he has one stiff ride.

This ought to really boost BMW's sales.

Coming to seats near you: "This seat is known to the state of California to cause persistent erections."

He should have whøred himself out for 20 months straight. Had he done that, he would have more than made up for the lost wages with money to spare for ED treatment.

I didn't know BMW made a Woody.

I would be bragging, not suing!

In San Francisco BMW stands for Big Motherfluking Weiner.

I don't think I would want to be on the jury when the "evidence" is "presented".

This story is a hard one to swallow.

How much do you want for that bike?

Sue them!? I'd build them a freaking shrine!!!

BMW= Big Major Woody

On a side note, Mrs. Wolf sent a box of homemade desserts and a thank you card to BMW.
OK, you get the idea.  So do I.  Americans are understandably skeptical nowadays of the legal system, and this case just solidifies that skepticism.  Of all the websites I read, not once did I see anyone write "Oh, that poor man, may God bless him."  Frivolous lawsuits have made a joke of the legal system, and the lawyers who file them (and take on the cases) simply bolster the image held by many that it is a sleazy profession (for a small percentage of lawyers it is, but most I know are reputable and honorable).

BMW, which says it has never seen a suit like this, may settle out of court, but I hope they don't.  I hope it goes to a jury and I hope the media covers it for the absurdity that it is.  And, I hope in the end, BMW sticks it to him.

"Justice for Trayvon" ... I think not

I don’t know exactly what happened that evening when George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin had their chance encounter in Florida.   Nor do you, nor does Jesse Jackson, nor does Al Sharpton.   Only two people do.   One is the suspect, the other is dead. 

But day after day, I see on the evening news or read online about uninformed people who are not asking for justice.  But rather, they are asking for the outright execution of Zimmerman.   If you haven’t seen it, check out this website which has captured the tweets from Twitter pages of “outraged” Americans.  It is mob mentality in America at its worse, enabled by media frenzy. 

 http://twitchy.com/2012/04/23/twitter-lynch-mob-now-that-george-zimmerman-is-out-on-bail-lets-kill-him/

Well, since these dangerous (and I will goes so far as to say racist) punks can’t get to George Zimmerman who has wisely decided to go into hiding, they have decided to target others who “represent” George Zimmerman.  Over the weekend, these random attacks increased.  The most egregious attack took place in Mobile, Alabama.  After a resident, a white male, asked some kids playing in the street at night to quiet down, the kids left, but a gang of adults, reportedly all black, returned.  As they savagely beat the resident, who is now in critical condition, one of the attackers reportedly said, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/justice-for-trayvon-man-beaten-by-mob-critical-condition

It is easy to say, where is the outrage over this story?  Why isn’t NBC News leading their newscast with this supposed racially motivated attack?  Why hasn’t Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come forward and called for a halt to this type of hatred that is pitting black against white.   

While on the surface, it appears this is an open and shut case, the reality is we don’t know.  We weren’t there.  Investigators are assigned to digging out the facts, the lawyers will present the facts to a jury, and 12 men and women will decide.   That’s the way it is suppose to work in America.  And that is not what is happening now.

Some may argue that had there not been the public outcry, George Zimmerman may have never been arrested.  Perhaps true, but if that’s the case, the outcry should have been against the police department and investigators, not against Zimmerman.   Zimmerman has now been arrested, it is time for the legal system to take over, not street mobs.

Online comments following the Mobile, Alabama beating run the gamut from blaming Obama for causing a racial divide to blaming the KKK for establishing the “rules” for dealing with these types of incidents.  But perhaps the following online post put it best:   We need to get united and this time to do our very best to get justice for Trayvon and now also for this poor young man that was beaten just because he was white.

Beating the System

In the four years since we moved to Mexico nearly fulltime, I have been extolling the virtues of living in this beautiful country … the people, the culture, the lifestyle, the climate.  But there is the other side of living in Mexico that at times can be frustrating.  It mainly has to do with availability of products, mostly those things we get used to living with in America.  And that includes entertainment.

While satellite TV (with hundreds of English channels, many in HD) is widely available, movies often take months to get here.  Also, there are many media companies based in the US that block their content outside the country’s borders.  This includes streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as streaming audio programs such as Pandora and CBS Radio stations.   If you Google it, you’ll find several forums where ex-pats living around the world lament the loss of entertainment, particularly online entertainment.  Enter “The Box.”

A friend of mine first sent me the link about it earlier this year.  It is basically a router that you can hook up to your Mexican modem, and with a few adjustments and a small annual fee, you can trick entertainment providers into thinking that you are in the United States.  Skeptical at first, I decided to try it out.  I ordered the $89 router, paid the $60 annual fee, and three months ago, set it up.  Since then, the world of online entertainment (at least the US view of the world of entertainment) has opened wide up.   As I write this, sipping my morning coffee, I am listening to K-EARTH from Los Angeles, a station that until I got “The Box” posted on its website that it was sorry but I was out of the country and not eligible to listen to their programming.  They now think I am in San Diego, or sometimes Austin, or sometimes Phoenix, depending on what server I want my router to access.

I was telling my tech-savvy nephew about the problem here, and the solution.  He was somewhat amazed that his uncle who isn’t real computer literate was able to accomplish this tremendous feat (of course I did it with the help of a friend who knows about these things better than I do). 

Is it illegal?   There may be some licensing questions about the availability of content outside the US, but basically I am just using a conduit to access material that is free to Americans (and I am an American).  For the pay material (such as Netflix), I do pay my monthly subscription.  So there is no thievery involved.  There are other “pirate” sites where much of the same material is available, but there you pay no fees, and the security of the connection is questionable.  I don’t use them.  With what I am doing, the artists get paid (if it is a pay site like Netflix) or they get credit for song plays (for sites such as Pandora).  

It’s not a perfect system.  The Internet here through Telmex can be slow, and does drop out from time to time.  But, it works for the most part.  And is just one more challenge we have overcome living in a third world country.  Those of you who have never done it may wonder, why?  Those of you who have know why.