[TheForge] Interesting Article OT:

[Keziah's Forge]

Peter:

Thank you so much for this observation.  About time someone said it/  For 
years I have been saying that the legal profession ought to take its PR cues 
from the NRA, beginning with "Lawyers don't sue people: people sue 
people."..

Peter


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Interesting Article OT:


> The lawyers are just doing their client's bidding.
> Blame the foks who enter into unjust of frivolous lawsuits.
> Blaming the lawyers is kinda like blaming the cops for the
> laws...sometimes they overstep the bounds, but mostly not.
>
> Bruce Freeman wrote:
>> Mike,
>>
>> Blame the lawyers.
>>
>> If you have a dog that will bite people, the last thing you should do
>> is put up a sign "Vicious Dog" because then if your dog DOES bite
>> someone, you've effectively admitted culpability - end of story.  If
>> you put up a sign, "Guard Dog on Duty" and it bites someone, than,
>> perhaps, the case will be adjudicated on the facts.
>>
>> Likewise, don't name your dog "Wolf."  Name him "Wolfgang Amadeus" and
>> call him "Wolf" for short.  (True story!)
>>
>> Therefore it remains necessary for those of us who know the hazards of
>> this or that to tell folks the true stories.   The labels will never
>> do it because no company wants to admit culpability.  There is no
>> chemical that can't be used safely.  The protections one must take may
>> be cost prohibitive, however.  I have a friend who routinely uses HF
>> to etch glass, and has no problem handling it.  She is most definately
>> aware of the danger, and deals with it.
>>
>> The case of Karen Wetterhahn shows why each of us must be responsible
>> for our own safety.  No one else can possibly understand exactly how
>> we will be using chemicals.  Or, for that matter, what physical
>> hazards we'll let ourselves be exposed to.
>>
>> One thing I keep coming back to is that experience is NOT a good
>> teacher with regard to safety for the simple reason that accidents are
>> fairly rare.  You must think through what MIGHT happen, judge the
>> probability of it happening and the consequences should it happen, and
>> work to prevent those occurrences that have significant probability
>> and consequences.  Just because it has never happened yet, doesn't
>> mean it can't happen and won't ruin your day (life?) if it does.
>> Experience may help you judge consequences, but experience is a very
>> poor teacher of probability because one chance in ten or one-hundred
>> SEEMS low to use, but if that's a measure of deaths, think again.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Mike Spencer<mspencer at tallships.ca> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Enough of those scenarios and we don't find safety warning credible
>>> even when they say, "Get this on your fingers and you will die in 10
>>> minutes" or "breathe these fumes and your liver will turn to compost
>>> before bedtime."
>>>
>>
>>>
>>> - Mike
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] E.g. dimethylmercury: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn
>>>
>>> --
>>> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>>
>>
>>
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