[PRCo] Re: Wabash Tunnel in Operation

[trams2 at comcast.net]

It has been my experience that lawyers, like all other professionals, have both good actors and bad actors.  What bothers me more than the relative worthiness of any profession is the concept that American people don't have to be responsible for their own actions, choosing instead to blame everything on others.  Likewise, the application of today's standards to past design practices is specious, just as is the interpretation of history in anything other than its own time.
If it's our own fault that we kill ourselves, why should others pay?

Ed

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Joshua Dunfield <joshuad at cs.cmu.edu> 

> 
> > On Jan 19, 2007, at 6:23 PM, trams2 at comcast.net wrote: 
> > 
> > > The lawyers have to make it safe for everyone, remember? 
> > > Especially PennDOT lawyers. People might run into each other and 
> > > then claim that it's the state's (or Port Authority's) fault 
> > > instead of their own. 
> > > The problem is that these people often prevail. 
> > > 
> > > Ed 
> 
> It's not that unreasonable to think that people accustomed to "modern" 
> lane widths -- which is most people, except maybe the ones who drive 
> the Turnpike every day -- might well run into each other. And blaming 
> the people involved doesn't un-maim or un-kill them, or their kids in 
> the back seat. Nor does blaming those oh-so-villainous lawyers. 
> 
> (I don't think it's that reasonable, either, risk management and all. 
> People slow down if it doesn't feel safe, and being in a tunnel with 
> narrow-by-modern-standards lanes, facing oncoming traffic, doesn't feel 
> particularly safe.) 
> 
> Fred Schneider wrote: 
> > The SPEED BUMP cartoon tonight was particularly appropriate. Man 
> > walks down street and observes sign painted on law office window. 
> > It reads: "Peterson, Peterson, Peterson and Peterson. ATTORNEYS 
> > SPECIALIZING IN ENRICHING THE PETERSON FAMILY SINCE 1961." 
> 
> That's right. Lawyers should work for free (just like motormen). 
> Or is your point that they shouldn't work at all? 
> 
> -j. 
>