Sleepless in Midland

Starbucks to educate employees on race bias -- time would be better spent teaching them how to brew coffee

The other day I complained about the bitter tasting coffee I got at a Starbucks coffee bar and noted that it's no wonder that their customers prefer those sweetened, flavored coffees the store sells so many of. My diagnosis was that the coffee I was served had been overheated. Cook coffee too long or at too hot a temperature and the result is bitter tasting coffee.

Anyway, I was amused to read this: Starbucks to close all company-owned stores on the afternoon of May 29 for racial-bias education day.

Starbucks' executives are so woke they don't need coffee to stay awake. They've got their lefty agenda to promote, but they would do better for the stockholders and customers if they put the time into teaching better coffee brewing techniques.

Previously: How good is Starbucks coffee, really?

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2:22 PM 4/17/2018

Does anyone take those California product warnings seriously anymore?

These days practically every product one buys has a warning label of one level of severity or another. And some products have an extra label directed at customers in California -- those levels might actually tell us something we didn't know. But they've over done it to the point where their warnings are ignored.

It's not hard to find parody sites consisting of fake warning labels which use absurdity to spoof the warning labels we actually see.

And this recent news that a judge in California issued an order compelling Starbucks and other coffee makers to post warnings that coffee may contain a carcinogen called acrylamide could easily be mistaken for parody. See Starbucks, others must carry cancer warning in California, judge rules.

But note this: "The 'probable' or 'likely' carcinogen label is based on studies of animals given high levels of acrylamide in drinking water. But people and rodents absorb the chemical at different rates and metabolize it differently, so its relevance to human health is unknown." Saccharine and Alar come to mind.

With so many warnings, does anyone take them seriously any more? It's like the boy who cried wolf. Those self appointed saviors of humanity have squandered their credibility. And if they happen to stumble on a real threat they'll likely be ignored.

Meanwhile, one doesn't have to look too hard to find information about the health benefits of coffee. See, for example: Three cups of coffee a day clears out the arteries and protects against heart disease, reveals study.

Coffee has been around for generations, and people are living longer than ever. So which of these theories does a rational person base his/her consumption decision? I'll stick with coffee, thank you very much.

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1:00 PM 4/2/2018

Is Elon Musk ready to battle the plaintiffs' lawyers after Tesla Model 3 rolls out?

Car magazines are gushing over the Model 3, and if all the hype is true, it really could be a ground breaking automobile. But with the hurried roll out, will the car be fault free right off the assembly line?

The old school vehicle manufacturers test new models extensively, but many of the problem come to light only after their vehicles have been driven off the lot by paying customers. Anyone who has bought a new car in the past few years has probably encountered at least one of those ubiquitous recalls that seem to plague every manufacturer. The most infamous one was the recall to replace those Takata airbags which sometimes sprayed shrapnel at the passenger. It was an extremely expensive recall, and it's not over yet.

More recently, we learned that plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking another billion dollars from the GM bankruptcy trustee over a faulty ignition switch.

Will the Tesla company be able to weather these type storms? Mr. Musk has a lot of friends in government, and he has done well by them. He'll probably be calling on them for a bailout should some faulty part plague his new car.

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11:00 AM 8/12/2017

David Dao, tear down that settlement confidentiality wall and tell us how much you got

There's always something discomforting about settlement agreements with non-disclosure clauses. They all have them, but it suggests that it was all about the money.

The msm made a victim and a hero out of Dr. Dao by showing the video of him being dragged off a plane. One radio commentator said he was removed from the plane then came back on displaying facial injuries. We don't know how he got the injuries -- did the security officers beat him up? Did he inflict the injuries on himself?

In any event, his lawyers parlayed the bad publicity for United into what we have to guess was a pretty big settlement. But they won't disclose the amount, obviously because of a non-disclosure clause in the contract.

I call on Dr. Dao to disclose the amount. United would ask him to give the money back. He could refuse, like he did when they asked him to get off the plane. Maybe he'll retain that hero status. People are always saying, "It's not about the money." But he could demonstrate that it wasn't about the money. Otherwise, we are left to surmise that it was about the money.

12:59 PM 4/29/2017

My Starbucks tall was too short -- class action lawsuit may be your cup of tea

It seems as though plaintiffs' lawyers are constantly on the prowl for some reason to extract money from deep pockets. Here's another example.

Last week a class action lawsuit was filed against Starbucks Corporation for shorting the short cups -- shorting all cups, actually. They claim that the actual quantity of the product bought is as much as 25% less than the advertised volumes. Source: Starbucks being sued for underfilling lattes.

Starbucks' website says a Short is 8oz, a Tall is 12oz, a Grande is 16oz, and a Venti is 20oz. Take your measuring cup with you next time. While I would do nothing to encourage class action lawsuits, it is refreshing to see an effort to get them to stand by their claims.

You've probably guessed that I'm not a Starbucks regular. My last order there was for a coffee without milk or sugar. What I got didn't taste any better than the stuff I make at home. Now that I think about it, maybe that's what I ordered.

Anyway, this came to our attention via Future of Capitalism where Ira Stoll notes that it's slightly better that class action lawyers do these things for civil damages than ambitious attorneys general.

The dog that didn't bark -- if Harry Reid doesn't sue the equipment manufacturer in his eye injury case we'll know his story was fishy

Plaintiffs' lawyers are big Democrat party donors. And elected Democrats return the favor with laws favoring big lawsuits and big judgments.

And we know that Democrats love to sue. Remember Dennis Kucinich's olive-pit-in-the-sandwich injury? His reaction: Sue the bastards!

So when a big time Democrat gets injured by faulty equipment you just know that personal injury lawyers will be hammering down his door to get the case.

Harry Reid's eye injury story is coming under scrutiny, But we've got a "tell" to watch for. If Reid doesn't sue or settle with the equipment manufacturer then we've got a pretty good clue that the equipment didn't cause the injury.

Listen for the dog to bark.

Nanny state alert -- postage stamps no one will use will somehow inspire kids to do something they wouldn't otherwise do

First off, few people actually use postage stamps any more. Email, social media, and cell phones are killing the post office.  The USPS is searching for ways to stay afloat, and their knees weaken at any claim of politically incorrectness from politicians.

Their mistake here was thinking Michelle Obama might help them roll out a line a cute stamps that promoted exercise. See Dailycaller.com.

Officials raised objections to a stamp depicting a man doing a cannonball into a pool, a stamp showing a child doing a handstand without a helmet and a stamp with skateboarder no wearing kneepads.

The horror.

Come to think about it, the proper nanny could find some danger in all of those activities.

Perhaps they should lower the bar and focus on getting the kids to sit up straight while they play video games.

Garage door opener safety sensors -- are they really necessary?

Is it the nanny state or the plaintiffs' lawyers that require safety sensors on new garage door openers?

This past weekend I installed a new Chamberlain garage door opener to replace an old Overhead Door brand opener. The old one worked fine, but the plastic housing of the remote controls was deteriorating from old age. Sure, duct tape works just fine, but sometimes a redneck simply wants to go the extra step and upgrade to new stuff.

So I spent all weekend measuring, drilling, lifting and bolting to finally get it in place. It had a pair of safety sensors -- (cheaper here) -- which I figured I would omit. But dammit, the machine would not close the door unless the sensors were hooked up and aligned.

So after another few hours of work and another two trips to the hardware store they were hooked up and pointed at each other. Only then would the garage door not only open but close, like it's supposed to.

But why did it require the sensors? This particular garage has been on location with the same electric opener and no sensors for at least three decades, maybe longer, and not one single child was crushed the whole time. But it was installed in another era when kids were supposed to be able to watch out for themselves. They could walk all over town if they had a mind to. They could ride their bicycles to school without helmets!

But I suppose the world available to modern kids has shrunk to the house, the yard, and the garage. They can wipe out half the universe in a video game, but they can't play in a garage without getting crushed by the door. Violent mayhem in Grand Theft Auto, but overly protected in an ordinary garage. It's a strange world we've designed for the children.

By the way, the garage door opener has been in place and operational with the safety sensors for two days. Let's assume a death rate of one per day attributable to an unsensored garage door. Yes, that takes some speculation, but if we accept that then the lives of two youngsters have been saved. No thanks necessary.  It's for the children!

Nanny state update -- Coffee mug as drug paraphernalia

From Overlawyered.com we learn that 22 state attorneys general have signed a letter addressed to Urban Outfitters asking them to stop selling a coffee mug that has a fake prescription for coffee on it.

Wow!

Maggie Thurber gives them a good fisking at Watchdog.org. As she notes, that the likelihood that someone might be tempted to abuse prescription drugs because of a joke on a mug is ludicrous.

What about those mugs that say "best dad" and such? Isn't that false advertising without some empirical evidence? Attorneys General, check your kitchen cabinets.

[It was probably the physician on the script that brought the law down on them. Dr. Feelgood? Had to be a druggie. Robo-ed.]

Via Cato.

Burger King -- have it your way, but hold the phlegm

Have it your way was once a popular refrain in a Burger King ad. But in this case a deputy sheriff named Edward Bylsma in Vancouver, Washington, didn't get the burger he expected. Some miscreant behind the counter spit in it before handing it to him. Gross.

But the deputy sheriff didn't eat it. Instead, he opened the bun, discovered the spittle, sent it off for a DNA test, and identified the culprit. The spitting punk pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to 90 days in the slammer.

But here's where the story turns nasty. The deputy sheriff was so traumatized by the sight of the spittle that he suffered emotional distress. At least that's what he claimed in his lawsuit against Burger King and the franchisee under the state's product liability law. The lower court threw it out because he suffered no physical injury. But on appeal the state supreme court ruled in January, 2013, that emotional distress without physical injury was sufficient to make a claim.

So unless it gets settled, the deputy sheriff will have his day in court. Via Reasonably Disgusting.

And that raises another question. What if Bylsma is such a good story teller that jurors are so traumatized by his testimony that they, too, suffer the same emotional distress he suffered? Could they collect, too?

They probably could in one of those Judicial Hellholes. Washington only got an dishonorable mention, but they're trying to move up.