Adults behaving badly

I am not a lawyer. I am also not a doctor. I am also not a mechanic nor am I a beautician. If I offered to rebuild your engine or cut your hair for a nominal fee, you'd be stupid to take me up on it. I would make a giant mess of things and you'd be out a few dollars.

If I offered to represent you in court or operate on your appendix you'd be extremely stupid to let me. You'd end up in jail. Or dead.

I trust that rational, thinking adults can see that there is a difference there - and that there are probably some shades of grey in between.

***

It is pathetically easy to get the "paleosphere" into a giant frothing stew of hysterics. There's been enough stupidity in the past few months that I now like to metaphorize the paleo community as one of those ridiculously high strung poodles.

I can haz conniption?

The latest issue to get everyone in an uproar is the recently announced case of "Cooksey v. Futrell, et al." I feel like I need to comment because this is all going down in North Carolina WHICH IS WHERE I LIVE TOO.

Here's the short version: Obese, diabetic guy nearly dies, gets scared, gets his life together by eating a paleo style diet and getting some exercise. He starts a blog about it and attracts a readership. Pretty great, right? Well, then he then decides to start a paid consulting service to help other diabetics treat their (medical) condition as he has. North Carolina government calls foul and says he isn't qualified to offer these services. Everyone freaks out and the law suits begin.

The Institute for Justice, which is spearheading the case, has released a video "explaining" the situation. I find the childish cartoon aesthetic appropriate because the video should seem overly simplistic to anyone with a 3rd grade education.

This is not a cut and dry case of "Big Gub'ment taking teh freedoms away!" Steve Cooksey was accepting money to dispense medical advice on a very complex disease - without any kind of formal education or credentials. That, in my opinion, is irresponsible (even though I agree with most of what he says!)

So am I on the side of North Carolina here? Well, no... I think the State has gone too far in their attempts to completely dismantle Cooksey's efforts. They are using a cluster bomb where they should have used a scalpel. Or a handshake, ideally. In my opinion, everyone here is behaving badly.

While I guess it'll be interesting from a legal perspective to see what kind of precedent the court sets on balancing the issues of 1st amendment freedom of speech vs. licensing, I think this could be all worked out way more quickly and easily in mediation or arbitration. Maybe Cooksey needs to include a more robust disclaimer on his website and/or find a business partner who has the appropriate credentials. That seems easier than a lawsuit, but all I really know is that this seems like a solvable problem - solvable outside the court system in a way that benefits everyone. Cooksey should have planned his business more responsibly - that way he'd be spending his time now making money vs. spending it. But North Carolina should work with him to find a way to make this work...more tax revenue for them in the long run. One lesson I've learned is you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. They should have talked to each other. This is all now a big festival of Stupid.

So, for better or worse, Paleo is going to court. I feel the need to remind everyone that there is not a single piece of solid science that backs up the Paleo diet as of right now. I think that kind of stuff might matter during litigation, but, as I stated in the beginning, I am not an expert. I just worry that there may be unforeseen consequences both in terms of public opinion and written law.