With the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens and the Senate battle over Elena Kagan taking a top place in the news, I'm taking a look back at the Supreme Court and the implications for those of us in the claim industry.

There really is no season of disasters, but it does seem that spring and summer, from mid-March to the beginning of fall, is when we receive the most "gifts" from Ma Nature.

One item missing from the list of topics the Obama Administration considers to be essential for our students—a good list including art and music and science, and so on—was a course about how to deal with the real world.

When our claimant or insured replies to a coverage decision with a "yeah, but...," unlike that other Grand Inquisitor, my mother, we must listen to the explanations and excuses and consider the pros and cons.

This column began as a complaint, and that is what it remains.

I guess while Congress was busy giving tax cuts to the wealthy, they failed to consider the tax breaks they were awarding for stupidity, as well.

An oil crisis is also an opportunity. Perhaps Warren Buffett recognized that last November when he bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

After reading and listening to all of the volatile responses in the media, I have reached the conclusion that there will probably won't be health-care legislation in 2009, 2010, or any other year in the coming decade.