Link Sausage Platter Ouroboros

...because at the end, the head bites the tail. Urgggggggh.

• If you want to stay out of court, don't gripe online about crappy products or services. As the article notes, this is an increasing problem... and it's (at least potentially) a black cloud over honest reviews of books, films, restaurants, etc. posted on the 'net.
• Jury selection begins today in the trial of Blago (and his hair). I feel badly for the jurors in this case, because thanks to the corrupt system of peremptory challenges, there will always be questions about the fairness of the jury... and this appears to be a relatively close case. It's not a close case ethically, but (fortunately for politicians everywhere, and in Illinois in particular) that's not ordinarily a criminal offense.
• The Economist weighs in on Lord Lester's libel reform bill for the UK. (I should note that, because it was introduced in Lords, it will affect Scotland if passed, even under devolution... although the details remain a bit hazy.)
• Another reason that the insurer-controls-the-defense paradigm harms everyone: A demonstration that apologies lower defense and legal costs. However, if an insured (a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, whomever) offers an apology, his/her professional liability insurer will find a way to avoid defending any resulting claim and/or paying any resulting claim... and it's almost as bad for non-professional liability policies.
• Circling back around the platter, today's sixty-years-ago entry from George Orwell's diaries says a great deal about both "the rich" and "the Mad Teapartiers":

  From a letter from Lady Oxford[1] to the Daily Telegraph, on the subject of war economies:

  "Since most London houses are deserted there is little entertaining… in any case, most people have to part with their cooks and live in hotels."

  Apparently, nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99% of the population exist.

  And this as the BEF is still flowing back from Dunkirk. It echoes (or foreshadows) the whingeing going on about the poor BP shareholders whose portfolios are being killed by the problems in the Gulf of Mexico... among other things.

  On the other hand, I suppose it beats the trademark rights v. free speech problem presented by @BPGlobalPR's Twitter^tm feed, although that's only because mere obliviousness by the aristocracy of wartime England didn't have quite the same consequences as the obliviousness of our aristocracy does now. Sort of.