Bill Cosby Cancels Guest Spot with Letterman Amid Rape Allegations

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

Everything else aside (it's a very large side), do athletes need help avoiding sexual assault charges? Seems to me that the athletes who do those kinds of things are already doing a very good job of avoiding sexual assault charges.

[sarcasm]If they make it to court, then they still need more help! The goal is to have them so proficient at victim trashing that the case never even makes it to court.[/sarcasm]

[GenYus234]

[continuing sarcasm] But is it really the athlete's fault that the charges make it to court or is that a failure of the system to protect the most vulnerable of our citizens, star athlete sexual predators?

[E. Q. Taft]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Oh I understand completely, Crocoduck. I'm thinking of a meme I saw on Facebook. Can't remember the exact wording, but it basically said, "When you tell women to not go out at night, drink alcohol, or wear skimpy clothing to avoid being raped, you're basically saying, 'Make sure he rapes some other girl instead.'"

Clearly in the strict Muslim countries where women where bhurkas, there must be no rape whatsoever, right?

[queen of the caramels]

Originally Posted by E. Q. Taft

Clearly in the strict Muslim countries where women where bhurkas, there must be no rape whatsoever, right?

Just after I moved out of Montreal, so 2003 or so, there was a serial rapist of elderly nuns. It was amazing how few people suggested they were dressed inappropriately.

[ganzfeld]

Yeah, where women dress extremely "modestly" (which is, of course, not only Muslim countries), it's often blamed on the victim just being alone around a man or something even more ridiculous. There are lots of people in the US who would do the same given the opportunity. Before the current vp came to power I didn't know there were so many friends of friends who might. It's just shocking to hear their defence of gender restrictions that went out of style 150 years ago.

[Mouse]

That's the most toxic aspect of that advice. There are women who never looked at, much less, imbibed alcohol, who dressed so modestly that even the Amish would say, "Lighten up," AND never went out between 7 pm and 7 am and they were still raped. It's almost as though rape is born out of a sense of entitlement or hatred that has little to do with the victim as a person.

[ganzfeld]

TMZ is now reporting he called his own PR's announcement 'false' and 'propaganda'. (Taking lessons from the president's team on how throw your own under the bus by contradicting and insulting them. Nice try Cosby. No one does it like the DTs.)

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

Taking lessons from the president's team on how throw your own under the bus by contradicting and insulting them.

Well, it turned out that he'd been taking lessons on respect toward women from the current president, so why not?

[Psihala]

In the roughest day yet for Bill Cosby’s defense team, a so-called toxicology expert acknowledged on the stand on Thursday that he had Googled data for his expert report, that his sole active license was a driver’s license and that one of the scholarly publications he listed on his curriculum vitae was in fact a letter to the editor.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/cosby-defen..._headlines_hed

[Psihala]

*Wanders off to compile a list of all the fields I'm an expert in based on the criteria mentioned above.*

~Psihala

[thorny locust]

From the article just posted:

With defense attorneys spinning in their chairs every few minutes to see the clock on the back wall without having to look at their watches in front of a jury

-- can anybody explain to me how that makes any sense at all? Wouldn't it be far more obvious to the jury that they were turning all the way around to look at the clock than it would be for them just to glance at their watches?

[E. Q. Taft]

I can imagine some of them habitually not wearing a watch just to avoid the temptation (or because, like many modern folks, they get their time from their cellphones now).

[erwins]

Originally Posted by thorny locust

From the article just posted:

-- can anybody explain to me how that makes any sense at all? Wouldn't it be far more obvious to the jury that they were turning all the way around to look at the clock than it would be for them just to glance at their watches?

It sounds to me like the author may have missed the point. They possibly weren't trying to avoid the jury seeing them check their watches. They may have wanted the jury to see them checking the time during the prosecution's lengthy (and effective) cross of their witness, to try to generate some resentment. The jury is sequestered, and this trial day went to 6 pm. So they may have figured that the jury might frown on things that take a long time, or that go past 5.

My guess is that the tactic (swiveling toward the clock) would be seen as obnoxious by most jurors, but you never know. And if it was distractingly obvious, I would expect the judge to tell them to cut it out. So maybe it was more subtle than it sounds in the article?

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by E. Q. Taft

I can imagine some of them habitually not wearing a watch just to avoid the temptation (or because, like many modern folks, they get their time from their cellphones now).

One advantage of wearing a watch is that it's much easier to discreetly check the time.

(At least, unless it's a pocketwatch.)

[DawnStorm]

And he's been found guilty.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Video here