@10: This whole “build it and they will come” to Iowa thing is really getting on my nerves. I laid out an entire, multi-stage rally in the fields near my house and the only Loeb I got was that really annoying “Stay (I missed you)” song coming from a car driving past.

Is it possible that they’re charging Warsame in civilian court so that they can lose the case and thereby avoid having the question of which type of court – civilian or kangaroo – any and all future cases should be tried in?

It’s your sandbox, of course, so I apologize. But when I see all errors in one direction, I lose patience.

Given that it’s a holiday weekend and all, shouldn’t you be guarding your bridge?

> “then there was that surreal dog and pony show monologue Thompson did on the courthouse steps yesterday. Holy jesus, I have never seen anything like that.”

That’s what I heard on NPR and it’s why I asked about slander.

> “It wouldn’t hurt to watch La Femme Nikita (V.O., 1990)….”

This is terrible advice. You have to watch The Professional first and then treat La Femme Nikita as the prequel, even if Leon is now named Victor. Whatever you do, don’t go near the Bridget Fonda remake. Yag.

Out of curiosity, did anyone in the NYPD ever get to the bottom of the term “wilding”? From what I understand, what was actually said was “wild thing” – it was a reference to the Tone Loc song, not a new term for either rape or sex.

To the extent that DSK’s history is fair game, it argues, statistically, against rape. Powerful white males with a history of sexual indiscretions are less likely to rape. To the extent that there are two motivations for rape, sexual and power-related, white males with a history of “successes” are less likely to “take” sex when they can get it without coercion and they do not need rape to gratify their need for power. Or, expressed in less gentle terms, when a guy’s day job allows him to f*&% entire African countries, he is much less likely to spend his leisure time doing it one person at a time.

> “This is something that never would have occurred when I was a cop and Linda Fairstein was in charge of the Sex Crimes Bureau and Bob Morgenthau was DA.”

Three words for you: central … park … jogger.

> “The hospital evidence showed violent rape….”

BS. It showed evidence consistent with violent rape, amongst other things. Just stop.

Com’on. Please let’s not bring DSK’s “history” in as evidence either way. Think about it. Yes, a “history” like his makes the original story more believable, but that doesn’t help one decide between “he did it” vs “he was set up.” When you frame people, you don’t frame them for something that isn’t plausible. You frame them for something that the lazy media and Great Unwashed will believe. And with regard to the third option – which has been DSK’s version from the start, IIRC, and which I’m back to believing is most likely – having a “history” fits well with coming out of the shower, propositioning a maid, and having consensual sex as a way to start your excessively powerful white male day.

As much as I love a good Bldg-7 or Trig-is-Bristol’s-kid story, my guess is that there is no deep conspiracy here. My guess is that Timmeh et al. just took the opportunity that presented itself when a slightly whacky maid did something very silly.

> “The Times story says the police found evidence of semen on the wall and on the floor. Pardon my dumbness here but “on the wall”? Really? Doesn’t sound consensual to me.”

Forgive me, but you lack imagination. When my wife and I are in certain moods, the walls are fair game.

Well, Nifong, the prosecutor was disbarred, IIRC, for what he did. What I’m asking about here is whether anything can be done to the lawyer for the supposed victim.

I heard a lawyer for the “victim” spouting off on NPR yesterday and was struck by how forcefully he was making claims as to what DSK did. He wasn’t using any weasel words like “we allege” or “my client says…”; he was making very clear claims in the first person about what DSK did in the hotel room. It was somewhat convincing at the time.

Remembering that now, I have to ask: can the lawyer for a putative victim be sued for slander? (I’m not talking about suing the “victim” for what she said to the police, etc; I’m talking about suing her lawyer for what he said in public.)

I wonder what the various players involved will do to Assange their feelings of guilt towards women of using a false accusation of a sex-crime for political gain?

Do any of you play 17-dimensional chess?

Didn’t think so.

[goes back to happily reading the NYT]

I know it’s not the kind of racing you all seem to like, but David Higgins just knocked 9 seconds off the record for the Climb to the Clouds (i.e., the single-stage rally climbing up Mt Washington). If it helps, this is the east-coast version of Pike’s Peak.

http://climbtotheclouds.com/general-info/results/

Maybe Durham will get angry enough to keep working his way up.

And maybe that tulip tree in my front yard will leaf out in $100 bills.

Funny you should say that. My daughter’s date went OK, but she seems a bit quiet/nervous when I picked her up (she’s eleven). So we did what we often do when we need some release … went and tore up some dirt. Have to say, the street Advans are a terrible rallycross tire. Absolutely terrible. But the spirit-of-the-moment would have been ruined by going home to swap wheels and it was still enough to make us happy. We both can’t want until next summer when she’ll be old enough to be in the car for 2nd-gear-max events.

Rain rain go away….

I think I’ll go out and wash the car, since my daughter wants me to pick her up from her first date (ack!) in it.