Althouse: Burned by Burning Man.

July 2, 2009

Burned by Burning Man.

Re-burned by the court.

25 comments:

Big Mike said...: What's the problem? For a change the law got something right. Or is that the problem?; 7/2/09, 12:50 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal doused his hopes after finding that the "college-educated" man had assumed the risk of harm by walking directly into the effigy while remnants of it were still burning.

Further evidence, were any needed, that a college education isn't what it used to be.; 7/2/09, 12:51 PM
Christy said...: Should we be concerned over that "college educated" descriptor? Somehow the stupid for some but not for others concept in law disturbs me greatly. A mechanic with a GED, would have a valid case? I'm insulted for all non-college educated citizens.; 7/2/09, 12:52 PM
ricpic said...: Another Darwin Award winner.; 7/2/09, 12:54 PM
john said...: I'm surprised he didn't use the old attractive nuisance defense. "Judge, I wasn't looking. She made me walk into that fire."; 7/2/09, 1:14 PM
chuckR said...: Just ask Anthony Beninati, who got literally burned in 2005 after venturing too close to the giant wooden fellow while on his third trip to the Burning Man festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

What kind of trip? He should get his money back from his drug supplier.

College educated? A blue collar guy is responsible for himself at 18 and has to make his way in the world. A college student is infantilized for another 4 to 8 years.; 7/2/09, 1:15 PM
Larry J said...: But but but, you mean a court ruled that someone's own stupidity isn't grounds for winning a lawsuit? That's unamerican!!!

[/snark]

The only thing more surprising than the ruling was that this particular piece of legal sanity came out of San Francisco.; 7/2/09, 1:27 PM
tim maguire said...: Hmmmm...so what you're saying is...fire is hot? Wow, man!; 7/2/09, 1:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: He wanted to participate in the Burning Man ritual experience and he got more of that experience than all the others. So really he owes more to the promoters than anyone else. Changing his mind later and wanting to undo his burning man ritual experience is too little too late. That makes me wonder about our ritual of voting for Obama-man to solve our economic and foreign relations problems...Its too little too late now to get ourselves out of a consuming fire of high taxes, high inflation, a socialism based economy, and a Marxist Dictator-promoting foreign policy. But what a bright smile on the Obama-man while he burns us down.; 7/2/09, 2:01 PM
Kirby Olson said...: "Change" could mean going from unburned to burned.; 7/2/09, 2:08 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal doused his hopes after finding that the "college-educated" man had assumed the risk of harm by walking directly into the effigy while remnants of it were still burning.

Seems to me the court has given him grounds to sue his college.; 7/2/09, 2:24 PM
Wince said...: Those with similar defenses in other jurisdictions are likely to have implied assumption of the risk envy.

The difference with comparative fault, of course, is that implied assumption of the risk acts as a total bar to a claim, whereas comparative fault still gets the plaintiff to trial.; 7/2/09, 2:41 PM
Ralph L said...: Perhaps they brought up his education to (try to) prove he wasn't retarded.; 7/2/09, 2:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If that fire had been stronger he be dead your honor ;)

TV "Judge" shows have become extremely popular in the last 3-5 years. A fascinating aspect of these shows from a rhetorical point of view is the number of arguments made by the litigants that are utterly illogical, or perversions of standard logic, and yet are used over and over again.; 7/2/09, 2:50 PM
Kirby Olson said...: "college-educated" just means that you can accuse others using ad hominem, ad populum, hasty generalizations, genetic fallacies, moral equivalence, straw man, and others, since that's about all the academics even at their best do these days. He had basically been programmed to walk into the "Burning Man." We don't know what college he attended, or in which department he got his degree. Let's find that out, and we can laugh a bit more specifically while burning down his institution in effigy.; 7/2/09, 2:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Trial lawyers across the nation are aghast, I am sure.; 7/2/09, 3:01 PM
jay c said...: Sounds a little like a man asking the state for a marriage license. If you walk into a fire, don't complain when you burn yourself.; 7/2/09, 3:10 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: One of the neat thing right now in the Reno airport is the Burning Man exhibit. One of the great things is that they essentially have a wedding chapel there (after all, it is Nevada). I thought that would be a great place to get married - esp. when it isn't one's first time down the isle.; 7/2/09, 3:14 PM
Synova said...: About the only thing I know about Burning Man is that the entire thing is a high risk environment.

It's sort of the point, isn't it? Go out there and shed civilization?; 7/2/09, 3:20 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: While some people walk into a fire, others fly to one.

“The pressure is mounting and he just keeps talking and changing his story almost hourly,” said Peeler, who in an interview with POLITICO referred to Sanford as “Governor Fabio.”

“Your effectiveness as governor has weakened to such a point ... that we won’t be able to pass any of your legislative agenda,” Grooms said he told Sanford over the phone in explaining why he planned to join those calling on the governor to step down.
“Senator, you need to understand something,” Sanford answered, according to Grooms. “This is a story about true love.”; 7/2/09, 3:23 PM
Eric said...: Let's find that out, and we can laugh a bit more specifically while burning down his institution in effigy.

While keeping a safe distance, presumably.; 7/2/09, 4:22 PM
Joe Veenstra said...: I thought the defense attorney's comments were refreshingly nice. No gloating whatsoever.; 7/2/09, 5:23 PM
srfwotb said...: This story is almost a decade old so keep that in mind, but when I hiked Ireland, a very safe place, I remember being surprised that there weren't little signs warning me that I might run out of gas, or that this windy road stopped, or that I might fall in this bog over here.

"Wait a minute," I thought, "do they actually expect me to look after myself without lots of hints?"

:-D I:-D It was fun. Gives you back that elementary school feeling of basic competence when you were first set free on your bike.

That said, at college they had what is called "freshman run" - every year the freshmen would sit too close to the bonfire thinking they had a good seat. They'd scatter like ants when the full blast of the heat hit them.; 7/2/09, 5:33 PM
Kirk Parker said...: srfwotb,

I hear what you're saying, but there's another aspect to this issue. Try superimposing a map of Eire onto a map of the state of Nevada. Guess what--the latter is much bigger, and I'll bet you that you could find a stretch of services-free roadway in NV that's equal to the distance from Dublin to anywhere else in Ireland.; 7/2/09, 6:54 PM
srfwotb said...: @Kirk_Parker Oh sure. It was more the *not knowing* whether or not there would be any services or not for how long especially in more remote areas.

If you go up Highway 5 through central CA, they warn you with signs: 35 miles until the next gas after next exit, so you can gauge whether or not you can make it that far on what you have left.

Also, no GPS/global cell in 1999- for me anyway - though there was intermittent email access. My sister is in Europe now and emails pics from the iphone every other day. Totally different thing. From my perspective, she may as well not be gone.; 7/3/09, 12:39 AM