Cynicism: an open wound in the public parts

It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. Now while he is spending the night alone he’s visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the holy grail, symbol of God’s divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, “You shall be keeper of the grail so that it may heal the hearts of men.” But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like God, so he reached into the fire to take the grail, and the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded. Now as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper. Until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn’t love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die. One day a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn’t see a king. He only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, “What ails you friend?” The king replied, “I’m thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat”. So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the holy grail, that which he sought all of his life. And he turned to the fool and said with amazement, “How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?” And the fool replied, “I don’t know. I only knew that you were thirsty.” Wikipedia

— “Parry”, played by Robin Williams, in The Fisher King (1991)

Suing franchisees will Learn what the word Farce means

Ever wonder why there are so many unhappy lawyers? The best bit is at 7:37.

“Stringing a case out”.

• Wondered why everyone says: “Better talk to a lawyer specializing in franchise law?“
• Because you do not know if you have a good case [law services are a credence good] you can easily be convinced that there is no hope or, taken on as a client until your cash flow ends and then discarded.

The Franchise Bar controls access to the Courts and routinely sabotages perfectly good cases. This is especially true in the smaller markets such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I have seen it dozens of times.

• The law has been bought and paid for by Big Franchising but this is not such an unusual situation in public administration.

Franchisees who want to sue their franchisor will likely never see the inside of a Court. You should go to a civil court and find out how much of a joke it is. I love the law but dislike the practice of law very much.

• There is no excuse for looking to the law for help: Franchisees and ex-Ees need to rely on themselves.

Spring Surprise: Accurate, comprehensive, clear, high quality, transfat free, organic and bloody absurd disclosure

This 3:28 minute Monty Python skit demonstrates the problem with the fish-on-a-hook disclosure schemes.

• Wanting more and more and more of totally irrelevant and bullshit information does not allow for good investment decision making,
• But this cynical gamesmanship is 100% legal, notwithstanding this skit.
• Substitute poo for lark’s vomit.

The franchise industry (Whizzo Chocolate Company) is played by Terry Gilliam. John Cleese is the superior and Graham Chapman is the poor wretch.