[Nfbmo] Fw: [Missouri-l] Fw: [leadership] Good Intentions GoneBad

Dewey Bradley dewey.bradley at att.net
Thu Sep 2 04:45:19 UTC 2010


He does have one point though.
Americans are sou happy, but this law is needed, I just wish people would 
read it before they try and think they are following it

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <DanFlasar at aol.com>
To: <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Fw: [Missouri-l] Fw: [leadership] Good Intentions 
GoneBad


> John Stossel is, always has been, and always will be, an idiot.
>
>
>
> In a message dated 9/1/2010 10:30:51 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
> goodfolks at charter.net writes:
>
>
> -----  Original Message ----- 
> From: "Chip Hailey"  <chip at gatewayfortheblind.com>
> To: "MCB Listserve"  <missouri-l at moblind.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 9:02  AM
> Subject: [Missouri-l] Fw: [leadership] Good Intentions Gone  Bad
>
>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "peter  altschul" <paltschul at centurytel.net>
>> To: "Acblead"  <leadership at acb.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 8:31  AM
>> Subject: [leadership] Good Intentions Gone  Bad
>>
>>
>>> Good Intentions Gone Bad
>>>   John Stossel
>>>  You own a business, maybe a restaurant.   You've got a lot to worry
>>> about.  You have to make sure the  food is safe and tastes good, that
> the
>>> place is clean and  appealing, that workers are friendly and paid
>>> according to a  hundred Labor Department and IRS rules.
>>>  On top of that,  there are rules you might have no idea about.  The
>>> bathroom  sinks must be a specified height.  So must the doorknobs and
>>>  mirrors.  You must have rails.  And if these things aren't right --
> say,
>>> if your mirror is just one inch too high -- 
>>> you  could be sued for thousands of dollars.  And be careful.  If you
> fail
>>> to let a customer bring a large snake, which he calls his  "service
>>> animal," into your restaurant, you could be in  trouble.  All of this is
>>> because of the well-intentioned  Americans With Disabilities Act, which
>>> President George  H.W.  Bush signed 20 years ago.
>>>  The ADA was popular  with Republicans and Democrats.  It passed both
>>> houses of  Congress with overwhelming majorities, 377 to 28 in the House
>>> and  91 to 6 in the Senate.
>>>  What does it do? The ADA prohibits  discrimination against people with
>>> disabilities, requiring  businesses to provide the disabled "equal
> access"
>>> and to make  "reasonable accommodation" for employees.  Tax credits and
>>>  deductions are available for special equipment (talking computers, for
>>> instance) and modifying buildings to comply with the  accessibility
>>> mandate.
>>>  The ADA was supposed to  help more disabled people find jobs.  But did
>>> it? Strangely,  no.  An MIT study found that employment of disabled men
>>> ages  21 to 58 declined after the ADA went into effect.  Same for women
>>> ages 21 to 39.
>>>  How could employment among the  disabled have declined? Because the law
>>> turns "protected" people  into potential lawsuits.  Most ADA litigation
>>> occurs when an  employee is fired, so the safest way to avoid those
> costs
>>> is not  to hire the disabled in the first place.
>>>  Walter Olson, a  senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of the
>>>  Overlawyeredddcom blog, says that the law was unnecessary.  Many "hire
>>> the handicapped" programs existed before the ADA passed.   Sadly, now
> most
>>> have been quietly discontinued, probably because  of the threat of legal
>>> consequences if an employee doesn't work  out.
>>>  Under the ADA, Olson notes, fairness does not mean  treating disabled
>>> people the same as non-disabled people.   Rather it means accommodating
>>> them.  In other words, the law  requires that people be treated
> unequally.
>>>  The law has also  unleashed a landslide of lawsuits by "professional
>>> litigants" who  file a hundred suits at a time.  Disabled people visit
>>>  businesses to look for violations, but instead of simply asking that a
>>> violation be corrected, they partner with lawyers who (legally)  extort
>>> settlement money from the businesses.
>>>   Some disabled people have benefited from changes effected by the ADA,
>>> but the costs are rarely accounted for.  If a small business  has to lay
>>> off an employee to afford the added expense of  accommodating the
>>> disabled, is that a good thing -- especially  if, say, customers in
>>> wheelchairs are rare? Extra-wide bathroom  stalls that reduce the
> overall
>>> number of toilets are only some of  the unaccounted-for costs of the
> ADA.
>>> And since ADA modification  requirements are triggered by renovation,
> the
>>> law could actually  discourage businesses from making needed renovations
>>> as a way of  avoiding the expense.
>>>  A few disabled people speak up against  the law.  Greg Perry, author of
>>> "Disabling America: The  Unintended Consequences of the Government's
>>> Protection of the  Handicapped," says that because the disabled now
>>> represent an  added expense to businesses, many resent them.
>>>  Finally, the  ADA has led to some truly bizarre results.  Exxon gave
> ship
>>>  captain Joseph Hazelwood a job after he completed alcohol rehab.
>>>  Hazelwood then drank too much and let the Exxon Valdez run aground in
>>> Alaska.  Exxon was sued for allowing it to happen.  So  Exxon prohibited
>>> employees who have had a drug or drinking  problem from holding
>>> safety-sensitive jobs.  The result? You  guessed it -- employees with a
>>> history of alcohol abuse sued  under the ADA, demanding their "right" to
>>> those jobs.  The  federal government (Equal Employment Opportunity
>>> Commission)  supported the employees.  Courts are still trying to sort
> it
>>>  out.
>>>  More money for the parasites.
>>>  John  Stossel is an award-winning news correspondent and author of
> Myths,
>>> Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything  You
>>> Know is Wrong.
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>> leadership mailing  list
>>> leadership at acb.org
>>>  http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/leadership
>>
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