Sunday Rerun: Even a con has a conscience

The headline from the Hollywood Reporter said:

Wal-Mart Faults Tracy Morgan for Not Wearing Seat Belt During Car Accident

And we all remember the wreck on the New Jersey highway, late on a Friday night in June, as the comedian and his friends and fellow performers returned from a show in Delaware.  A Wal-Mart truck, driven by a man who allegedly had been awake for over a day without rest before he slammed into Tracy's limousine, caused the death of James McNair, and grievous injury to Morgan and several others.  

All the soggy details are coming out in court papers now. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., of Bentonville, Arkansas, claims in their filing that the passengers' injuries were caused "in whole or in part" by their "failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device." The "retail giant" said that constitutes "unreasonable conduct."

Right after the accident, Wal-Mart said they were going to take full responsibility and do the right thing, but it would appear that their lawyers got in the way of the right thing. 

I know accidents will happen, and people die and get hurt, and a good person owns up to their faults.  And yes, I know that people are supposed to be wearing their seat belts.  But pointing at Tracy Morgan, who was minding his own business right up until the semi slammed into the vehicle he occupied, is not the way for Wal-Mart to own this in the right manner. 

Peggy had a friend who used to work for a lawyer who worked a scam with a home improvement crook.  The crook would go around and find old people living in old houses with decrepit porches or steps, and then offer to repair same for a few hundred dollars, reminding the superannuated homeowner that they stood to lose everything if the mailman fell off their rickety steps. He would then have them sign a contract for the repair job, with terms of payment that included fine print that said if a monthly payment was received late, the homeowner would forfeit their house to the home improvement crook and the lawyer who typed the fine print in the contract. 

And then the homeowner really would lose everything!

I know this stuff goes on.  Some lawyers will stain the reputation of their entire profession like that, some car dealers will sell you a lemon without a peppermint stick in it, some doctors will take 1/2 of your pain medication for their own use, leaving you in pain.  Some itinerants go driveway to driveway, offering to blacktop your parking pad, and then throw waste motor oil down on it before driving off with your check or cash.  Some bank employees embezzle your life savings, some spouses swear lifelong fealty and then hop in the sack with a traveling salesperson from Dubuque, some dancing schools take your money for the three-month ballroom course, all the while planning to close in the morning and abscond with your money and your hopes of doing the foxtrot at your wedding.

What I don't know is, how do these people live with themselves, and how can they ever get to sleep at night?