The girl who cried wolf

[Boxer2500]

And destroyed three lives in the process.

I'm somewhat surprised this hasn't made it on the forums yet. For anyone who's been living under a rock with no TV, radio, or internet access, the three Duke lacrosse players who were charged with raping a stripper have been cleared of all charges and the Attorney General went so far as to condemn the original prosecutor.

Next to murder, rape is about as bad a crime as it gets. But what about those cases where an individual uses false allegations to ruin someone's life? Shouldn't they face some sort of criminal penalty? After all, this only serves to damage the credibility of ACTUAL rape victims in the public eye. In my opinion, the prosecutor should never get anywhere near a courthouse again and the woman who dragged these three men through the mud should be the one in front of a judge.

This gem of an article was on espn.com today. I think it's relevant to mention it was written by a black woman.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/070412

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Apology to Duke lacrosse players not enough
By Jemele Hill
Page 2

I never wrote it, but I felt it -- which is just as bad. I said it in private discussions with friends, some of whom tried to get me to see the whole picture, not just the picture I wanted to see.

My being a black woman, my knowing too many athletes who treat women like items to be purchased in a vending machine, and my witnessing enough athlete rape trials where accusers are overwhelmed by their fame and fortune -- it all tainted my perception and made me doubt your innocence.

I feel stupid now.

I could blame Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong, but that would be too easy. Oh, he's a lout, no doubt. He played upon the emotions of a community and its long-held hostilities, and put his reelection bid above morality and common sense. He played all of us and should be punished with nothing less than disbarment.

I could blame Jesse Jackson, who I have hoped for years would disappear to a faraway land where CNN won't follow. As usual, Jesse showed up and showed out. He incited the masses and then left everyone else to sort out the wreckage. And if Jesse wants to gain an ounce of the credibility he no longer has, he would find the nearest camera -- and we know he's good at that -- and express sorrow with all the sincerity he can muster. But the day Jesse apologizes for causing a scene is the day Rosie O'Donnell wears a muzzle.

But if there is anything to be learned from Don Imus' fall, it's that real apologies are never accompanied by rationalizations.

So to Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, the three Duke lacrosse players whose lives were mangled by an unsupported rape accusation, I say two of the hardest words in the English language:

I'm sorry.

It's not enough, and I won't pretend that it is. For the last year, your lives and those of your families have been more difficult than any of us can possibly imagine. I'll never know what it was like walking around normal society labeled a rapist. I'll never know what it's like to lose everything -- your school, your program and your life -- because of one unproven accusation.

You deserve all of that back and then some, but unfortunately, you won't get it. You have every right to not trust anyone and think less of people. Duke University abandoned you. An overzealous prosecutor tormented you. A community, a nation, didn't believe you. Journalists everywhere, sensing ratings and salivating over the salaciousness of black strippers and white athletes, chose to keep you under attack.

Not that this is a contest to see who was wronged the most, but the Rutgers women's basketball team at least received justice, because Imus was suspended and dropped by MSNBC, which simulcasts his morning show. Plenty of people are outraged on their behalf.

But who is outraged on your behalf? What justice will you receive? Will the same networks that willingly aided in destroying your reputations now give you airtime to vent your frustrations? Will Jessie Jackson now offer the three of you a free scholarship like he did the "victim," since he helped assist in your battered reputation?

Maybe the only modicum of fairness you have received is that the News & Observer in Raleigh decided to print the name of your accuser. I don't normally advocate that the names of alleged victims be printed, but it feels right in this instance.

I know I'd certainly like to ask your accuser a few questions, even though she stood by her story as North Carolina's attorney general vehemently proclaimed your innocence. Does she understand she has tanked not only her credibility, but that of other women, too? Does she understand the next time a woman comes forward with an allegation this serious, all of our minds will scroll back to this case, and we will be less inclined to believe her? Does she know women with legitimate sexual-assault complaints will look at this furor and decide silence is best?

I can't deny that your race, gender and class have everything to do with how you were treated then and how you are treated now. Some people believe white men are exempt from sympathy and incapable of being maligned, so they will not swallow their pride and offer you the decency you should have received in the first place. Yes, you made an unwise decision to entertain strippers at a residence, but that just makes you guilty of being like 90 percent of college males.

There will be a lot of finger-pointing in the coming days and weeks about whose fault all of this was. The media will analyze each other. Civil-rights leaders who claim to be against all injustice will stay silent. Hopefully, you will be able to regain a fraction of the life you once had.

I'm glad the story of your innocence and the Rutgers situation unfolded the same week. If anyone felt a sense of victory over Imus' rebuke, they should look at what happened to you and know it will be a long time before we can truly celebrate.

Jemele Hill, a Page 2 columnist and writer for ESPN The Magazine, can be reached at jemeleespn@gmail.com.

I'm not normally a fan of the NY Post, but this editorial sums up my feelings pretty well.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122007/news/columnists/let_the_liar_be_named__shamed_columnists_john_podhoretz.htm

LET THE LIAR BE NAMED & SHAMED
DRAMA:N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper yesterday.
DRAMA:N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper yesterday.
PrintEmailDigg ItStory Bottom

April 12, 2007 -- HER name is Crystal Gail Man gum.

She is the woman who falsely accused three Duke University students of rape. Yesterday, the attorney general of North Carolina came forward and flatly declared the three young men "innocent of these charges."

That means their accuser is a liar.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum.

It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation.

That is a noble policy. But it needs a codicil. The codicil is that if a rape accuser is revealed as a liar, her name should be spoken loudly and often - as loudly and often as the names of those whom she falsely accused have been over the past year.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum.

She must be denied anonymity because she makes a mockery of the very policy of granting anonymity to rape accusers. We do not publish their names so that they will not fear public exposure. But people who are tempted to do the monstrous thing Mangum did should fear public exposure.

They should be terrified of it.

They should have nightmares about it.

They should be given no encouragement whatsoever to believe they can launch a nuclear weapon at someone's reputation and escape unscathed.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she should not escape the world's scorn because she is poor, or because she is black, or because her life circumstances led her to work as a "stripper."

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she does not deserve to lick the underside of the shoes of hardworking and honest people of color and modest means who somehow manage to get through life without attempting to destroy and defile the lives of others.

At his press conference yesterday, Attorney General Roy Cooper said something odd about the liar Crystal Gail Mangum. He said she would face no charges for her false accusation.

He said, "Our investigators who talked with her and the attorneys who talked with her over a period of time think that she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling. They worked real hard with her. It doesn't make sense. You can't piece it together."

The suggestion here is that she has psychological problems. So do millions upon millions of people in the United States. And they too manage, somehow, not to spin lies about rape into false arrests.

They somehow manage not to force families of those they falsely accuse to incur legal fees reportedly totaling more than $1 million per family. These families are sometimes described as "affluent," as though the fact that they live in nice communities in nice houses means they can afford million-dollar fees.

Attorney General Cooper did a good thing by making so unambiguous a statement of innocence as he freed David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Colin Finnerty from their year of torment.

Until I hear more that might justify his decision beyond a desire not to inflame racial passions in the Tar Heel State, I cannot help think that Cooper has done a very, very wrong thing by allowing Crystal Gail Mangum to avoid the judgment of his state's legal system.

Unless he changes his mind, then, the only justice she will face is the public exposure of her name and the revelation to all the world that, if she had had her way, three young men would have been sent to prison on false charges.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum.

Let her name be the new Mudd.

jpodhoretz@gmail.com

Sorry for the long cut-n-paste.

[Rich]

I will wait breathlessly for the black community leaders so prevalent in the Imus case to step up and demand accountability in much the same way they have for the atrocious, obviously race-related, behaviors of said Mr. Imus.

Waiting......................................................................................................................................................

[Rich]

Apparently, Imus just got canned....

BTW, don't mean to hijack the thread.........so back to your originally scheduled programming.

[Ultra]

Apparently, Imus just got canned....

What a shame. 

I am sure some other network will pick him up.

[Boxer2500]

Apparently, Imus just got canned....

What a shame. 

I am sure some other network will pick him up.

Apparently his ratings have been huge ever since the scandal broke. Money talks in the broadcasting industry, and I'm sure he'll land on XM if nobody else in mainstream radio will touch him. I think the entire farce has proven beyond any sliver of doubt that you can make fun of anyone in this country... as long as they're the same gender, color, sexual orientation, and economic strata as you.

Back to the Duke thing, would anyone be terribly upset if this attention-seeking whore spent the next few years in the joint and the city of Durham paid each of these guys 3x their legal expenses?

[MG]

Apparently his ratings have been huge ever since the scandal broke.

Predictably so. Any advertiser who is looking for bang for the buck should be beating down the door to his media company right about now.  This is a guy who was so coked out at one time that he was arrested once for peeing in a phone booth (sorta the OPPOSITE of SuperMan, in other words.) And yes, there ARE networks other than CBS who would be delighted to have The I-Man on board.  This man is a survivor of far worse than this. He will land on his feet and even if he doesn't, he already HAS more money than Croesus. He will not be on the dole anytime soon.

It should also be pointed out that he has raised more than $100,000,000 for a ranch to entertain kids with cancer. He may be a schmuck, but he has SOME redeeming qualities.  It is quite possible that a representative proportion of those kids are black, as cancer is not a respecter of ethnic divisions.

As for the nappy headed ho who is the center of the Duke Lacrosse case, she is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that strippers may NOT be the people one should choose to entrust their futures too......

[Rich]

Having been a proud member of a fraternity throughout the first three years of my five-year undergrad program (well, before they kicked me out I was a proud member), I was at any number of parties where there were more than one "fun" gal in attendance willing to spread her...good cheer...to all around willing to partake.  More than once, such circumstances were disastrous and I was always pleased that my father taught me the best place to be when these types of clouds were gathering was on my way out the door.

Not saying she was "innocent" at all, but I have seen first hand since my frat days and thereafter in countless bars in which my bands played the scary behavior that can be unleashed when a seemingly willing pussy ventures into a room full of drunken, horny men.  It ain't pretty...

[MG]

scary behavior that can be unleashed when a seemingly willing pussy ventures into a room

As Kathleen Turner sain in Body Heat: "Once some men get a whiff of it, they can't let it go."

Next to the need for oxygen, food and water, the power of pussy is the most compelling in our genetic makeup.  Considering that there are now 8 BILLION people on Earth and about 6 billion of those are grindingly poor with not a glimmer of hope for a fulfilled life, maybe science should start looking for the genes that encode such urges and turn the damn things off.  "Be fritful and multiply" may have been sound advice 30,000 years ago, but it's clearly out of control at this point.

But I digress......

[Tifosi]

Sometimes I think that everybody is afraid of each other...it's so easy to litigate, to prosecute...that people shoot first and ask questions later.  People overreact, and some are just plain looking for trouble.  It's a litigious society that we live in today, and soon people will be afraid to go outside or do anything...


And I don't think Don Imus did anything that wouldn't play to a huge laugh on FAMILY GUY...


Dan

[Boxer2500]

Next to the need for oxygen, food and water, the power of pussy is the most compelling in our genetic makeup.  Considering that there are now 8 BILLION people on Earth and about 6 billion of those are grindingly poor with not a glimmer of hope for a fulfilled life, maybe science should start looking for the genes that encode such urges and turn the damn things off.  "Be fritful and multiply" may have been sound advice 30,000 years ago, but it's clearly out of control at this point.

But I digress......

And THAT is going to be the downfall of our existence on this planet, either indirectly or directly.

[Ultra]

And THAT is going to be the downfall of our existence on this planet, either indirectly or directly.

Let's hear it for other planets!

[Tifosi]

And THAT is going to be the downfall of our existence on this planet, either indirectly or directly.

Let's hear it for other planets!

Like Futurama's Planet Amazonia, perhaps...


Dan

[Ultra]

[Boxer2500]

[MG]

 

[otto]

sniffff hum what that smells like fish?

Warning, If you experience an erection for more than four hours seek help.

etc etc etc

otto

[Tifosi]

sniffff hum what that smells like fish?

Warning, If you experience an erection for more than four hours seek help.

etc etc etc

otto

If I had one lasting more than 4 hours, it would be the greatest time of my life...


Dan

[Ultra]

sniffff hum what that smells like fish?

Warning, If you experience an erection for more than four hours seek help.

etc etc etc

otto

If I had one lasting more than 4 hours, it would be the greatest time of my life...


Dan

Spoken like a man who has never tried Viagra.

[MG]

the greatest time of my life...


Yeah, but what are you gonna DO for the other 3 hrs and 45 minutes?  Its not like you can go outside in that condition......

[Rich]

Yeah, I always thought that an erection lasting longer than about thirty minutes would be a distinct drag, or an indication that you were in ninth grade.