Sam Slom, the sole Republican elected to the 25-member state Senate, displayed his political and research prowess recently when he fell for a decade-old urban myth of the “Stella Awards,” and then dug himself deeper by returning to defend his references to the bogus prizes.
Slom used the February 22 “News + Views” column on his Smart Business Hawaii web site to tout what he described as the latest, 2011 version of the “Stella Awards,” supposedly recognizing the most “outlandish” lawsuits from around the country. The problem is that these same “Stella Awards” have been circulating online for over a decade and have long since been exposed as total frauds and fakes.
Apparently accuracy and fact-checking aren’t part of Slom’s DNA.
Here’s the first part of his writeup:
Annual Stella Awards. It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. Here are the Stellas for 2011:
7th Place: Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son
6th Place: Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.
5th Place: Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ’em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish.
Sounds outrageous.
But the myth-busting site, Snopes.com, found exactly the same list of cases online back in 2001, with dates on supposed cases going back as far as December 1997.
According to Snopes:
All of the entries in the list are fabrications: a search for news stories about each of these cases fails to turn up anything, as did a search for each law case.
Snopes than goes on:
Fake or not, a list of outrageous awards bestowed upon those whose actions–nay, misbehaviors–had brought them to grief would fall upon very receptive ears because current feeling is very much against large jury awards for frivolous claims. This e-mail preaches to the choir in that it “confirms” what is already deeply believed.
When Slom was told the Stella’s had been debunked, he didn’t back down. Instead, he brushed off the facts and pushed ahead.
Here’s what Slom wrote in the February 29 issue of the same column:
Stella! Stella? Last week the SBH E Blast ran coverage of the annual “Stella Awards” (for dumb lawsuits). Several readers wrote in to say we had been had, that these awards were “urban legend,” and Snopes.com said they are fake. Well, maybe, but the “awards” have been announced annually for nearly 11 years and this is the first anyone has challenged them. You be the judge.
Slom stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that it’s the same list of bogus but reheated awards that have been recirculated among the politically gullible since before 2001.
The Snopes analysis was last updated in 2008, while its list of fake cases was collected from the internet back prior to 2001.
I guess it’s just very hard for Slom to admit he made a big mistake.
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Time to stop bashing the horrible terrible greedy Republicans and see what the Democrats are doing to Hawaii nei.
http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2012/03/07/15113-dirty-8-erode-three-decades-of-landmark-environmental-law/
http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2012/03/08/15121-open-government-lock-down/
Taxpayers, your defensive reactions make the weakening Republican party look worse.
As such, please continue!!!! Four more years for Obama!!!!!
t
I am not a Republican. Just look at the damn vote roll call. What’s happening with the Democrats in Hawaii? Sell-outs? Amnesia? What?
“SB 2927 grates against everything democratic. Due Process, transparency, and public engagement must not be diluted. No one should be exempted or be above the law. Donovan Dela Cruz wins the dubious “Public Enemy to Open Government” Award this session.
With anti-open government legislators like him, who needs emirs, ayatollahs, sultans, kings, and emperors?
Commentator’s Note: As of March 6, 2012, the Senate passed Bill 2927 with amended SD 2 on March 6, 2012. Ayes, 24: Donovan Dela Cruz, Malama Solomon, Carol Fukunaga, Maile Shimabukuro, David Y Ige, Michelle Kidani, Suzanne Chun Oakland, Kalani J English, Will Espero, Clayton Hee, Gilbert Kahele, Ronald Kouchi, Glenn Wakai, Josh Green, Rosalyn Baker, Mike Gabbard, Brian Taniguchi, ShanTsutsui, Brickwood Galuteria, Clarence Nishihara,Aye(s) with reservations: Senator(s) Les Ihara Jr, Donna Mercado Kim, Pohai Ryan, Jill Tokuda. Nos, 1: (Senator(s) Sam Slom (R). Excused, 0 (none). Bill 2927 SD-2 is now transmitted to the House of Representatives.”
So what exactly is wrong with the bill?
“(a) A qualified developer may submit to a planning agency an application for approval of an exceptional planning project within a planning district.”
Submitting applications for approval is part of transparency. And it looks like the bill requires development to be controlled by existing zoning. For example, it doesn’t allow ag lands to be automatically converted to housing.
It does encourage development along transit facilities, whether rail or bus. And that makes sense when it comes to helping reduce dependency on cars.
Deam, there is nothing wrong if you think this rail is the best thing for us.
BTW, can you explain “exceptional planning project” for us?
There’s more to this bill than just development along the rail line. It includes all transit centers that are in the urban district. That would include Hawaii Kai near the dog park as far as I can tell. It may also include Kaneohe and Kailua.
Are you aware the approval time for any of these “exceptional” planning projects is 45 (with a possible 10-day extension) at the planning agency level (Dept. Planning & Permitting) and 45 days for council approval, change or disapproval?
Are you aware that zoning restrictions can be exempted for these “exceptional” plans?
Are you aware that our general and community plans not considered for these “exceptional” plans?
Perhaps the only good thing about this bill is that it would require complete streets policies to be implemented.
There is considerably more to Stella Liebeck’s case against McDonald’s than meets the right-wing eye.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants
Also, for those on Netflix, check out the “Hot Coffee” documentary.
The facts of the case are pretty staggering. Hers was not a “frivolous” lawsuit.
All this emphasis on facts and truth gets in the way of an otherwise good narrative. We’ve got to knock that off right now.
if you keep repeating fictitious stuff long enough it become factual?
Haupia – That’s how most political campaigns are run in Hawaii.
Ian – You might want to do some fact checks on all that anti-rail material that Sam gets from the Reason Foundation…I see a pattern here.
Where would e be without the presence of such an arrogant fraud?
i’m shocked — shocked! — to find a politician won’t admit he screwed the pooch!
Sam Slom doesn’t care about facts because his supporters don’t care about facts. There have always been angry reactionaries at the fringe, but civic society tended to be “civil” society as well.
Nowadays, there is no disadvantage for Republican politicians to say outlandish, fact-free things to their base. In fact, its a major industry.
In another SBH newsletter following the Lush Rimbaugh/Sandra Fluke debacle, Sam derided Fluke as wanting taxpaters to foot the bill for her contraception. That was a new “factual” take; last I checked, the issue was whether an employer and/or the employer’s health plan could be required to provide that coverage. Sure, governments are a big employer but most are private. Leave it to Sam to indulge in facts-be-damned, over-the-top hyperbole.
So allow me to indulge in some of my own! Does Sam know that many women are prescribed “the pill” for medical reason that have nothing to do with contraception (e.g., regulation of their menstrual cycle)? Would he make an exception for that? Would he honor my “religious” objection to coverage for his use of Viagra? How ’bout if a business owned by a Jehovah’s Witness wanted to delete coverage for blood transfusions and organ transplants from their insurance plan? Would that be OK with him? How far does his liunacy go?
In the meantime, I’ll keep reading the SBH Newsletter: occasionally informative, sometimes thought-provoking, always entertaining!!!
Sam Slom is a buffoon and we all know it but because he’s the lone soldier we put up with him. He makes the Republican party look even worse and that is saying a lot I’m afraid. He needs to settle down and just write a column or something for Hawaii Reporter….