618 & 618a Malice, Love

618 & 618a Malice Vs. Incompetence and Love For Sale

Herein are two entries, one for my readers and listeners in central PA and then one for everyone. A double issue at the usual price: free.

618 Malice Vs. Incompetence

A line in some cheap novel says "never attribute to malice what you can to incompetence." Cheap or no, it's a good thought. Except when you look at prosecutors.

There's Nifong in North Carolina. Sheer malice combined with a rush to judgement -- incompetence.

There's Kathleen Rice in Nassau County, Long Island. There, a young woman says she was gang raped by five guys, one of them a fellow student at Hofstra University. The guys were immediately picked up, perp walked and charges. Then, the "victim" said "oh, wait. I invited them in." So, charges dropped. So far, no malice, no incompetence. But wait, as they say in the late night TV informecials, there's more. DA Rice decides not to prosecute the woman (girl, really, she's 18.) Now, depending on who you ask, this is or isn't incompetence. She had her reasons and described them. The holier-than-thous in her jurisdiction set up a holy howl.

Locally, we have a DA who (a) Never met a college football player he couldn't charge with -- something. (b) Delivers anti-sexting lectures to school kids and college kids and who was saddled with an an ultra-horny ADA who couldn't keep his fingers off the cell phone keypad and maybe even couldn't keep his pants on in the case of some high school girls on his "beginning law team." The only guy in the courthouse who didn't know this was going on was... the DA.

He also (c) refrained from recusing himself from a case in which he had a relationship with a defendant, (d) Fails to recognize the separation of church and state by praying with victims (e) fails to understand the first amendment rights of a college newspaper photographer charged in a disturbance in town -- one erroneously labeled a riot, (e) prosecutes college pranksters who streak at a twice-yearly midnight event that's been held forever, (f) Wants to prosecute a killing in which a possible rape victim is later shot dead and despite her double victimization is labeled "the primary witness," which is a probable third victimization, (g) loses track of the statute of limitations on a case which looks like a slam dunk and has to drop the charges.

A baking dish of incompetence in an oven of malice.

This may not be of interest to you if you're not at Duke University, Penn State or Hofstra. But it's pretty typical of things that go on in an awful lot of prosecutors' offices.

Shrapnel:

--Those flashing information signs on the highway? One construction company operating on a Pennsylvania road flashed "Go Yankees" on its display and the highway authority made them take it down. That's called World Series Envy or World Series Fear, even though NY lost the first game and probably would have the second if Philadelphia hadn't left Martinez on the mound so long.

--First, the Twinkie defense, now the fat defense. Florida guy accused of murdering his son in law says he's too fat to have done the crime. and made a fast getaway. Next: the smoker's defense: "I don't breathe well enough to have killed him."

--Happy Halloween and birthday, Emma McClain. Although you've been gone some years, we remember you with deep love and respect. Tomorrow is your day, assuming they follow the same calendar in heaven as they do on earth.

618a is below.

The following political ad was neither authorized, paid for (by anyone) nor used by permission. Sue me.

I' m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009

619a

Love For Sale

They have gutted Craigs List. It is no longer possible to find a rent-a-chick there, mostly.

Districts Attorneys of the kind described above have made it impossible for what the prostitution trade calls "hobbyists" to find pay for play women, which has been illegal in all but small outposts of this country for centuries.

Donald P. O'Malley is sitting in a bar in Moote Pointe, New York, and talking freely. "I used to go onto Craig's and find these women and do my business and it was over and done with. Now, no way."

Don's asked "what all that cost you?" And he says "anything from $100 to maybe $300. So who got hurt?"

He's reminded that this is real money, especially these days.

"Nah," he says, "not really. You invite someone out. You go to dinner. Spend, what, a hundred bucks. You go for a second date and there's a little smooching, then a third and maybe you get lucky and maybe you don't, so you've spent three hundred bucks and maybe things are okay and maybe not, but you've still spent three hundred bucks."

O'Malley figures it's cheaper to find a girl on the internet or in the classifieds, spend the 3- bills or maybe less, and not have to worry about seduction.

No more. The prosecutors have killed that.

His companion says "that's de-humanizing women and turning them into sex objects."

He replies "Yeah? You know what you're doing. They know what they're doing. No biggie."

Consenting adults in a simple act of commerce?

"Yes," he says "but not without an element of surprise and the excitement that comes with breaking a law that never should have been there to begin with."

Maybe he's right.

Shrapnel:

--Lou Dobbs' house was shot up with his wife at home. Not nice. The shooter should have confronted Dobbs without subderfuge. But that's no longer the way we do stuff and beside, prosecutors are too busy hunting hookers to bother.

--Bennett Cerf is rotating in his grave. His company, the usually laudatory Random House has decided not to publish a memoir by crooked NBA ref Tim Donaghy, who got jail time in a score fixing scandal. Cerf would have put the book out and let the chips fall where they may.

--Why would you buy a Kindle or similar device? What's wrong with holding a book in your hands? The latest price break is no incentive for real readers.

I' m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009