Suing Anyone

 One of my favourite TV characters is the cynical and vengeful Moe Szyslak .....

Moe Szyslak The Owner Of Moe's Tavern

... the owner and sole barman of Moe's Tavern in The Simpsons.

Despite being an occasionally suicidal and involuntary loner, and prototype for the Incel's, with a willingness to seek revenge for slights, including by suing, he is not exactly alone in his thought patterns. Take for example Donald Nixon, a legally blind man who in 2018 sued playboy because he said he couldn't enjoy the magazine on-line ..... braille on-line anyone?

Interestingly, when Playboy first started, it often published articles on civil rights, censorship, and details on presidential campaigns and candidates, and so the Library of Congress decided to provide the  funding for the production of the Braille edition of Playboy, as well as 35 other popular publications, including Good Housekeeping and National Geographic.  

However, in 1981, Republican Sen. Mack Mattingly of Georgia put forward a proposal to prohibit the Library of Congress from funding Braille production of “Party Jokes, Ribald Classics,” and “Playboy Forum” sections of Playboy, which was later withdrawn. In 1985, the House, this time led by Ohio, Rep. Charlmers Wylie, voted 216 to 193 in favour of a reduced appropriation, to stop production of Playboy in Braille. This was overturned in the courts, and as far as I can tell its continued to be printed in Braille by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, since 1986.

So it was not only the arrival of the Internet in the mid 1990's, that allowed blind readers to continue their interest in the 'articles' .... so Mr Nixon could get the Braille version, but obviously didn't. Nonetheless Mr Nixon used the American Disabilities Act (ADA) as the basis of his claim. He said that their website was (allegedly) not compatible with his screen-reading software, which allowed blind or visually impaired users to read the text, with a speech synthesiser or Braille display on websites.

This he had claimed, meant that visually-impaired people could not “fully and equally use or enjoy the facilities, products, and services.” .... I couldn't help wondering why Mr Nixon was so interested in the Playboy articles, because screen-reading software sure doesn't make the pictures any clearer. He had also stated that the lack of a reader capability, meant that he couldn't buy Playboy memorabilia such as hoodies etc from the website, which he claimed was also in breach of the law.

So he was suing Playboy for violating the ADA, in order he claimed, to force them to make their website more accessible for the blind, oh, and of course for an initially unspecified amount of financial damages (which later was revealed as $100,000). The New York Post later reported that a Mr Nixon from Queens New York, had also filed 47 other lawsuits against various companies, also citing ADA violations .... Hmm .... sometimes it impossible to take the American love of suing seriously.

" I sued the rope company and got a huge settlement."

As usual the results of his claim against Playboy and the 47 other claims was never reported, but this story reminded me of the aforementioned Moe Szyslak who once said:  

"Remember that time I tried to hang myself and the rope broke? Well I sued the rope company and got a huge settlement." 

.... this appears to be the mindset of some these days.