Proposition 12, Lawsuits, and My Jury Experience

There was another election in Texas yesterday. 22 propositions were on the ballot. Proposition 12 was the one with the most interest. It puts a cap on non-economic damages from law suits. It's suppose to help keep the malpractice insurance down for doctors.

This proposition reminded me of the time I was a juror for a case in which a rape victim was suing her former apartment complex for being negligent in safety. Her lawyer was pushing for a multimillion dollar claim, most of it for pain and suffering. I did feel sorry for the lady and the trauma she went through. But the apartment complex wasn't at fault at all in my opinion. It didn't provide ideal security, but it was pretty typical to what I've seen. Plus, the precautions that this lady took was far from ideal. In short, myself and nine others of this 12-person jury agreed that the apartment complex wasn't liable of any negligence. Since it was a civil case, we only needed 10 out of the 12 jurors to reach a verdict.

So I did my part to combat greedy trial lawyers. I would suspect that most juries and judges do the same. It's just a handful of cases, like the time a jury found McDonalds liable for having coffee too hot in a coffee spill accident, that gets publicity. Nevertheless, I have seen many people filing lawsuits with questionable validity in my opinion.

Proposition 12 did pass, with 51% of the vote. It will be interesting to see the effect it will have. I just would like to see my insurance rates go down one of these years...

Milk, Cereal, and Vitamins

One thing that I've never seen is milk in aluminum cans. Even Slimfast, which has a lot of milk, is not in aluminum cans. Wonder if there is something in milk that makes it react with aluminum???

Finally gave soy milk a try. I drink about a gallon of skim milk a week (half of it for my cereal). Sure seems like soy milk should be cheaper than cows milk. But it is usually twice as much. My thinking is this is mostly due to the large volume of cow milk that is sold as compared to soy milk. But this Friday, the cost of a half-gallon soy milk with an instore coupon was only 13 cents more than half of a gallon of cows milk. So I gave it a try. It wasn't too bad. It's actually a little more creamy than skim cows milk. The taste is different than cows milk, but it's something that I could get use to.

In the last two months, I've switched to eating hot oatmeal rather than cold cereal in the mornings. I'll have to admit that it doesn't taste as good as most cold cereals, but oatmeal has two big advantages. First, it has more soluble fiber, protein, complex carbs, and less sugar than most other cold cereals. Second, the generic brand is about half the cost of any other cold cereal. On sale, I might be able to get a 20 ounce box of cold cereal for $2. Then even with a $1 off coupon for two boxes, the price per box is still $1.50. However, I can get a 42 ounce box of store brand oatmeal for $1.79. This is about $0.90 for 21 ounces. Besides taste, the only other bad thing about this store brand oatmeal is that it doesn't include any extra vitamins. Most cold cereal are fortified with some vitamins. But this isn't a big deal for me since I include a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement with my breakfast.

Speaking of cereals and vitamins, one thing that always seems strange to me is Total cereal. For years it advertises the fact that it has 100% of most vitamins and minerals. And to equal one bowl of Total, you would have to eat X bowls of cereal Y. The thing they don't mention is that vitamins and minerals are just added to Total just like any other cereal. They just add more than others. So what's the difference between eating Total cereal versus eating any other cereal and taking a multi-vitamin pill? Also, Total cereal is usually much more expensive than other cereal. So it would probably be a lot cheaper to eat another brand and just add a multi-vitamin pill to one's diet. I suppose there are issues of how well the vitamins are dissolved and digested by the body. But Total cereal never goes into these details.

I've heard many say that you shouldn't have to take vitamins if you eat a well balance diet. Well, I've looked into the vitamin and mineral content of many foods. Even if you eat many whole grain foods, vegetables, and fruits, it seems that you would be lacking the recommended daily allowances of many of the less common vitamins and minerals like vitamin E, B6, K, or minerals like manganese, zinc, and iodine. Vitamin C and A can easily be found in many vegetables and fruits. But other vitamins seem a lot less common. Likewise for minerals. So it seems like it would be wise to take a mulit-vitamin/mineral supplement. I wonder if these daily recommended allowances are really that accurate?

posted by Ken on 2:31 PM permalink and comments  

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