SimplyMaggies

Clay Carter is a bored lawyer with the Public Defender Office and dreams of a better career and a better life with a real firm. When a judge orders him to take on a case of a young man charged with random killing, he assumes it will be yet another of the many senseless murders on the streets of D.C. However, as he digs into the background, he discovers a conspiracy almost too hard to believe. And suddenly Clay carter finds himself in the middle of a huge case against one of the richest pharmaceutical companies in the world. A case that would give him an enormous settlement and make him (nearly overnight) not only wealthy but also the newest king of torts…

And so it begins… It catches your interest from the very first page however, it falters a little somewhere in the middle, which nearly made me want to put the book away. However, I stuck it out and it paid off since after a few not-so-interesting chapters, it picked up the pace and kept it going till the very end.

If you’re a reader accustomed to Grisham, you will most likely enjoy it but if you haven’t read any of his books yet (where have you been?!), I wouldn’t advise starting with this particular one. As much as I like Grisham’s novels, this one is of a lesser kind, I’d say. It lacks the fast-paced action of most of the previous ones and it contains too much of the legal mumbo-jumbo, which only slows down the narration. I am all for learning new things but enough is enough.

All in all, “The King of Torts” is a pretty interesting novel, which gives you a glimpse into the world of mass tort litigations and how the biggest lawyers get rich suing the large companies for any reason imaginable…

At one time or another we’ve all heard some strange beauty tips that supposedly work miracles and have been in use for generations. Here’s a list of some of the tips to combat anything from calluses to fly-aways:

• Powder the roots—if your hair has a tendency to become oily and you don’t want to end up washing it too often, here’s a quick trick: dip a fluffy brush in powder, remove excess by dabbing on the back of your hand and apply to your roots. The powder removes the oil and blends in the hair so nobody will know the difference.
• Make your hair smell nice—by spraying a small amount of your favorite perfume on the bristles of your brush and brushing your hair from roots to ends. This allows the scent to evenly spread on your tresses making them smell oh-so-nice all day.
• Get rid of calluses with Vaseline—before going to bed, slather petroleum jelly onto your feet and put socks on overnight. It will soften the skin on your feet, making the unsightly calluses disappear.
• Moisturize eyebrows with eye cream—applying any type of rich eye cream to your brows will keep them hydrated and moisturized.
• Enhance lotion with baby oil—for shiny skin without the greasy effect, add a drop of baby oil to your regular lotion. It will give your skin the luster you desire.
• Get rid of zits with toothpaste—applying toothpaste on a zit for about 15 min and rinsing it off will help you battle the unsightly pimples and help get rid of them faster.
• Make your lushes sexy—by combing a tiny amount of Vaseline through the tips of your eye lushes instead of going too heavy with mascara.
• Improve your skin with green tea—if you have some kind of irritation or blotches on your face, steep some green tea and let it cool. The soak a cotton pad in it and dab on your face. The antioxidants in the tea will help with the inflammation.
• Exfoliate underarms—to prevent your armpits from looking dull and dry use a gentle facial scrub.
• Use conditioner for shaving—if you ran out of shaving creams or mousses, use your hair conditioner. Not only does it soften the hair and thus makes it easier to remove, it also leaves your skin smooth and silky.
• Use egg whites for a mask—to revive a tired, stressed and dull skin use egg whites for a facial mask (leave on for about 15-20 minutes and rinse off with warm water). The protein in the whites helps restore the moisture and heal any inflammation.
• Brush on hair spray—to avoid stiff and plastered hair-do, spray your brush with the hair spray and brush it on your hair from roots to ends. It will keep the volume and your do without the sticky effect.

Last week’s episode of “30 Days” was about abortion, a very touchy topic no matter what side of the spectrum you happen to be on.

In this episode a pro-choice woman goes to live in a church-funded home where women can safely have their babies and live for as long as they need as long as they follow the founders conditions, which include (among other things) following their somewhat strict code of ethics, participating in chores and working on improving oneself.

This church organization is one of many similar pro-life organizations, which do not allow abortion under any circumstances, even if the woman was raped or the pregnancy threatens the mother’s health or life. Moreover, pro-life ministries and groups fight state to state to make abortion illegal. Some of their tactics are approaching people on the streets, giving out pamphlets about horrific effects of abortion and harassing people on the way to the abortion clinics.

Watching the struggles the pro-choice woman had to face day by day living in the ministry’s home, I came to realize that the preacher and his wife basically found a free set of servants to maintain their house and church. The women there didn’t quite have a choice about what they wanted to do or watch and how their day would progress if they wanted to stay in the home, e.g. they had to start each day with a prayer and be in their rooms by certain time each night. Furthermore, the women there receive a kind of one-sided treatment since they are required to watch videos abortion (in a very negative light) but not videos promoting maternal health and well-being.

The most shocking thing for me was learning that the abortion clinics are still attacked! The attacks and protests are number one contributor to the number of clinics drastically falling. It also forces the clinics to tighten their security, including armed guards.

Abortion is a sensitive topic for many people, no matter whether pro-choice or pro-life they happen to be, however this episode of “30 Days” made me realize one crucial thing about the ‘great’ United States of America: instead of going forward, the whole country seems to be going backward. Now, what would your founding fathers say about that?