ustxtxb_obs_1975_04_25_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

I the congressional office of placement had disclosed “it had edited discriminatory job requirements from about 80% of the 150 current job orders from 410 congressional offices.” Specifications referred to race, sex, age, physical attractiveness, and smoking habits. It was realized that anti-discrimination laws passed by the Congress evidently do not apply to the Congress. No corrective legislation has been enacted. Forms from the office of Cong. Albert Johnson, R.-Pa., turned over to Francie said “no minorities” and “no water signs.” On the bottom of one of these forms someone had noted down the dates of birth for the three water signs \(“Scorpio 10/24-11/21 Pices [sic] 2/19-3/21 Cancer Eckhardt of Houston to say: “It is good to know that there are some enterprising souls here . on Capitol Hill In your Feb. 14 issue, Edward Fritz addressed the questions of when and how Texas must control strip mining. The 94th Congress has now passed legislation requiring the states to submit a plan to regulate strip mining within 18 months. This is a reasonable bill and I hope the Texas Legislature will be able to act this session. Two extreme viewpoints have been argued on the stripmining of coal, from completely prohibiting it to business-as-usual. Neither of these is acceptable. We all recognize that we face a severe crisis in our energy supplies in this country in the next decade or so, but we have also seen the ruin of the land left by stripmining in the Eastern United States. So the standards we have developed will permit the continuation of strip mining while requiring responsible conduct by the mining companies. We have said in this bill that we will not permit dumping overburden on the downslope, and we have said we must restore the land to the approximate original contour, and we must have revegetation, and we must have water quality standards. Not a great deal of coal is mined in Texas, relative to total United States output. However, Texas companies are already moving to compliance, recognizing 16 The Texas Observer thinking about what we can use for discrimination when black genes become diffused, immigrant tongues too fluent, and sects too flexible. to any longer afford us an object of hate. “It took a budding young Goebbels on somebody’s staff to envisage chauvinism based on the zodiac, or if it were a congressman, an uncharacteristically innovative one. “For those who have been worried about bigotry gradually fading away for failure of identifiable victims, this fresh approach gives new hope. One may escape the ghetto or even the bondage of the genes of his ancestors, but he cannot escape the stars nor alter his birthdate. Once a cancer, always a cancer.” Soon, Eckhardt concluded, it will be common to hear American congressmen saying “I like a scorpio who stays in his place,” or, “Who would want his daughter to marry a pisces?” R.D. 1 Dialogue the need for responsible business conduct. The Texas Legislature now knows the ground rules and can move ahead on meaningful strip mining regulations. U.S. Rep. Alan Steelman, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515. solution After successfully assisting in the defense of three doctors in rattlesnake-bite lawsuits, I gained considerable insight into the problem of malpractice medical insurance. To begin with, I dropped mine! I observed that the doctor’s insurance is one of the CAUSES of malpractice suits. In the court room the jury is deciding not between the patient and the doctor but between the patient and the big insurance company, and its identification and sympathy is with the patient. Juries have a lot of appreciation and approval of doctors, but not of insurance companies. Discontinue malpractice medical insurance. the Texas Medical Foundation pay a sizeable annual assessment say A clarification The Observer misled readers in its last issue \(see “Compensating crime SB 338, sponsored by Sen. Ron Clower of Garland, without explaining that it is a companion to HB 833. The House bill was introduced earlier by Reps. Jim Mattox of Dallas and Frank Madla of San Antonio, who are also sponsoring another victim-compensation bill, HB 1564. A companion to the revised version of 1564 \(which will speak to the criticisms described by Terry Blackwood in the will be sponsored in the Senate by Frank Lombardino of San Antonio. a bevy of expert lawyers trained and experienced in medical defense organized Let this office identify and keep in touch with prospective expert witnesses wherever they live and, when a Texas doctor is sued for malpractice, these expert witnesses would be paid retainers plus expenses to Foundation would carry all of the expense of the trial up through the Supreme Court. After a doctor has had this defense in court, if he loses, he must bear the brunt himself. Surely he would have been seriously at fault. If the ambulance-chasing variety of lawyer knew that he would face this kind of legal opposition in the court room, he would think several times before advancing a case without genuine merit. That is to say 90% of malpractice suits would disappear before birth. The Foundation lawyers could participate, expenses paid, in malpractice suits in other states so as to gain experience. The reason why the three rattlesnake cases were won for the doctors is that we had superb legal talent plus good witnesses in court. I shuddered when I realized the jury was deciding between the injured patient and the insurance company. W. E. Lockhart, M.D., 401 North 4th St., Alpine, Tex. 79830. Fuzzy facts In the Feb. 14 issue I read some statistics that seem puzzling that U.S. citizens spend more per year on dog grooming than they do on cigarettes! This was in the article on the hunger conference. I know only a few who pay to groom their dogs, but I know hundreds who smoke. Have we really gone to the dogs? Virginia Conkle, 510 Center Dr., Austin, Texas 78704. We have been unable to verify the quotation that contained the statistics in question, but we agree they seem puzzling. Sloppy editing on our part, and we’re sorry about the confusion. Ed. Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 600 West 7, Austin, Texas 78701. Steelman on mining