>Wojtek Sokolowski quotes:
>
>> Stella Awards It's time once again to review the winners
>> of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards are named
>> after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on
>> herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case
>> inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous,
>> ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.
>
>This is a lot of right-wing crap intended to undermine people's right to sue
>corporations for damages. Also, Stella Liebeck had third-degree burns from
>that coffee. She spent eight days in the hospital, undergoing expensive
>treatments including skin grafting; she was scarred and disabled for over
>two years. Before filing her suit, she asked McDonald's to compensate her
>for her $11,000 in medical bills, and McDonald's instead offered $800.
>
>At the time McDonald's sold coffee at 180 to 190 degrees, enough to cause
>third-degree burns in less than three seconds. At the trial, McDonald's
>admitted that it had known about burn risks from its coffee for more than 10
>years, having received more than 700 reports of burns from coffee that hot
>between 1982 and 1992.
>
>Please think before you believe -- let alone circulate -- the half-truths
>and lies of the right.
My old Party of the Right pal, Walter "Wally" Olsen, has made a career out of this stuff, from a perch at the Manhattan Institute. This is a serious right-wing propaganda campaign.
Doug