Get it off your chest.
The Duke Rape Case
More details are dribbling out:
Nifong, bolstered by a medical exam that found injuries on the woman consistent with sexual assault, says he is confident that she was assaulted in the university-owned house. Nifong said last week at a forum at NCCU that the accuser identified at least one of her attackers.
Until Sunday night, the only other witness, the second woman hired to dance at the party, had remained silent. In television interviews, she told her story.
The woman’s attorney, Mark Simeon of Durham, declined Monday to make her available for an interview. She spoke on the MSNBC cable news network, which did not identify her and showed her in silhouette. Simeon confirmed that it was his client on MSNBC.
The woman told MSNBC that she did not witness a rape and does not know whether one occurred.
The woman said she arrived thinking that she would be dancing at a bachelor party of 15 people. She was not expecting a party of lacrosse players, many of whom she said were in a drunken stupor. The woman said she was infuriated to learn that some players photographed her dancing.
The accuser did not appear to be on drugs or to have been drinking when she arrived, the second dancer said. She was “absolutely fine and in control of herself.”
I still am curious what information the prosecutor has to indict them…
Blech
As far as first appearances on a phone-in show goes this was a bust (no streaming link, AFAIK). I should have known about the second-and-a-half delay between speaking and hearing your own voice over the phone (is that normal for phone-in? I have no idea). Of course I did not and came across as a stuttering tool. Not having an office of my own I tried the back of my building to be away from traffic and interruptions…the producer mercifully cut me off for having a noisy connection.
Anyhow, I should add that I’m flattered to go on with bigshots like Joe Gandelman and a number of others whose name I was too wigged-out to remember, and I’m glad that it was probably a one-shot deal.
Consider this an open thread for public-speaking phobias and everything else.
Scathing Post of the Day Award
Goes to the Belgravia Dispatch, who has been a proud member of the coalition of the shrill for a long time.
The War on Your Neighbor
If you are a big critic of the government’s policies in the war on drugs, make sure that you go read this post at Glenn Greenwald’s. It is from last Friday, but I am just getting to it now.
It is still worth your time.
Sunday Thread
Rented the Johnny Cash movie last night, great film. Worth seeing for Reece Witherspoon’s felonious theft of every damned scene if nothing else.
Kevin Drum saw about half of What the Bleep Do We Know before his brain rebelled. I have to agree with him about that, the audience could learn as much or more by turning to the person on their left and asking what he/she thinks about quantum theory. Or quantum feelings, or whatever the heck the movie is trying to say.
Rant about whatever.
Reconquista
Apparently the big concern among anti-immigration activists is that eventually Mexico will try to take back the American southwest. You could come up with reasons why the idea would not work, but my first reaction was that we could probably get a sweet deal for Texas.
OK let’s admit that the whole idea is battier than a bowl of fruit loops. As long as we’re talking about reconquista, though, I have a Mexican rock compilation of that name which rocks the bolts off of my car. Great music (influences range from the Bosstones to delta blues to the Clash) and it has the special coolness when you have an album that nobody else can get.
Consider this my deeply-thought-out contribution to the immigration debate.