Thursday, June 26, 2008

RockNRolla



Wow! Has Guy Ritchie finally made a good movie again?

The Rape of Alaska



With the Supreme Court's decision to stike down the DC gun ban grabbing the headlines today, I think it's important to highlight the fact that the Court is having an all-star week. Yesterday, they cut the damages paid by Exxon Mobil to Alaskan victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill from $5 billion to $500 million. Unfortunately, the Times article does not quite capture the gravity of this decison. If you do the math, that's a 90% reduction. It would also have been helpful for the Times to have noted that just a few months ago Exxon Mobil posted record profits. In fact, Exxon Mobil's annual profit for 2007 ($40.6 billion), is the largest annual profit ever recorded in US history! Needless to say, Exxon Mobil has plenty of resources at its disposal that could go a long way towards assuaging the anguish suffered by residents of the Alaskan coastline. I'll end with this excerpt from Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent:
In light of Exxon’s decision to permit a lapsed alcoholic to command a supertanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of crude oil [through] the treacherous waters of Prince William Sound, thereby endangering all of the individuals who depended upon the sound for their livelihoods...the jury could reasonably have given expression to its moral condemnation of Exxon’s conduct in the form of this award.


Photo used courtesy of Flickr user, jimbrickett March 23, 2008