Disqus - Latest Comments for RobertM

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:53:14 -0000

Have a Happy & Healing Hiatus, Steve!

This IS worde than herding cats: OK start moving links from today's stories. For those who don't know how to use tinyurl, here is its web-site: http://tinyurl.com/ Become familiar with it, as some of the stories will have nested upon nested listings.

For your entertainment, reposted here from the New Haloscan Thread:

ANOTHER Veddy British Crime Story
from likely early in 2006. The TIMES ran a series of very droll yet strictly factual pieces on this case.

Summary: The retired physician wife confronted the husband's so-called mistress in her Oxbridge rooms with a smallish tea knife over her alienation of said husband's affections. It would have been a true farce if it wasn't a real felony assault in that the mistress's one eye socket got cut up very badly. The physician wife got close to 3 years and probation, the mistress was ambivalently saddened & was done with the husband, and the husband showed himself to be a total dithering fool, not understanding at all how his uncommunicative behavior had brought two women to near total ruin. I'd have decked him on the spot if I was his kid or the wife's relative.

It seems he'd abandoned the marital bed a full decade before (wife aged 52 & a busy practice) and taken up with the professional who became his mistress on hopes of being able to sustain an erection. But as it soon became evident that he couldn't do that with her either, and he refused to see a regular MD over it all, he and mistress took to doing crossword puzzles over tea. Very cozy, new companion, no demands. The physician wife kept thinking he was having sex with the mistress & so her rejection level mounted and mounted, until she invited herself over to the Other Women's offices for tea and brought her own knife with her.

And so, a Good Woman, someone who's done more good in the world than I, is currently sitting in an HM prison doing who knows what over a crime that should never have happened but did, because she loved the fool her husband so much that she didn't want a divorce. Sheesh. I can only hope that the grown children are NOT talking to him. Total low-grade narcissist. The Times reporter let the husband hang himself with his own key words. A fine piece of reporting.

LADIES--> Divorce them, have your own affairs, just do not use knives, guns or rat poison, despite how much they deserve it. Ain't worth the blot on your good name, nor sucking down taxpayer's money by being in prison that could go elsewhere.

OK cats, keep moving.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:14:47 -0000

And AGAIN

HEY, EVERYONE!!!!!!

Lets get back on the same pathway so we can continue an actual discussion, especially in regards today's events.

Why not start by going over to the NEW Halsoscan Open Thread page Steve has started at
http://tinyurl.com/2kftvc?

etc, for which see below or abo ve, however you've got this set up.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:11:46 -0000

bpcl Please move comment over to http://tinyurl.com/2kftvc

Thanks so very much

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:45:46 -0000

HEY, EVERYONE!!!!!!

Lets get back on the same pathway so we can continue an actual discussion, especially in regards today's events.

Why not start by going over to the NEW Halsoscan Open Thread page Steve has started at http://tinyurl.com/2ykcxa

There's a lot more gray pixels to kill over there. And do consider moving your posts and links done here, so we don't have to go back and forth among 3 threads!!!! Two is exhausting and 3 is unmanageable. One is Best.

I would suggest starting by moving everything posted here from 1st 12/16 post, but really the ones with links are most imporatn. This is directed at AndyT and Kermit especially.

PLEASE

I am now going to post a similar request over the Haloscan thread #2.

PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:11:46 -0000

chrischris Just link per Squiggles recommendations several days ago to prior post, please don't quote the whole thing. This format "kills" white psace pixels enough as it is. Thanks.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:29:51 -0000

Actually, the origin of xin/s main post is a Mystery to Me too, other than that through life-contacts she knows this Duncan woman & associates. [Pay attention. Xin knows a lot of people who know a lot of people--I'm beginning to suspect there's a fine non-fiction narrative on California life & people that one could weave using xin's life. Or one hell of a roman a clef novel(s) if she decided to go the Jacqueline Susann route, as In "Beyond the Further Adventures of the Girls from the Valley of the Dolls".]

Still, DD = Dominick Dunne, famed reporter/gossip colunmist who, due to his daughter's murder, came to realize that sometimes only true justice is what gets onto printed pages that will outlast us all. His viewpoint style is "what fool's these mortals be", caring all the while. Google him or so see wiki article. His focus is true crime among celebrities.

GVS= Greta van Susteren from cable news court shows. She's the one with the slightly funny mouth. A more credible version as a lawyer than Nancy Grace. Where oh where is Dan Abrams.

But as to just whom JB & TD really are, we both will have to read the blog or
checkout the wiki article. I'm thinking JB is Jeff Beck but strongly suspect that's only showing my age..

As to what CW is on, well, its likely scotch, and if it was weed, it'd be nowhere's near the quality xin gets for her scrip. Me, a now prefer dry reds; there are a lot of nice little labels out ther from California, but in general I haven't imbibed since birthday. Situation, not preference.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:04:35 -0000

NOTE - General & Personal
This unannounced change by Steve to the parameters and even nature of his sandbox(es) is indeed typical of what's been happening over the past 2 plus years. The medium develops, some stuff works, some doesn't, preferences change & Steve re-arranges the furniture, sometimes drastically. It is his sandbox. We are guests.

But this guest, for all his blue-statedness, has deep "conserve" tendencies, as in if it ain't really broke, don't fix it. Haloscan was not broke. There was no need to change. Disqus is not broke, either. It just works differently. There was still no need to change. But with the change being made, and given that only I and seattleite have posted at the new Haloscan thread--I presume there are some posting at the old one but I'm having trouble reaching that through this maze of links--the discussion ought to continue here for the time being. Google will be caching these pages soon, as with the Haloscan pages and so new visitors will find all this work sooner rather than later. And especially when the story ramps up into greater prominence.

I'm not feeling well about this, however. I spent WAY too much time over the past two days coming to grips with the formats, learning what works (thanks, Squiggle & for those still confused read Steve's headers but then also read Squiggle's post here on Days 1 & 2) & how to make what works work for me. Which is why I stated in reply to the Kid Genius who started this, it was too much bloody work. Yes, too much like work, and work is one of my personal issues right now. I intend to be in read-mode-only for a while with an occasional post or reply (famous last words) as over-committing to a "hobby" is not what I need to do; it should be an outlet and not my focus of hours. Then too, I can't produce quality work like Kermit's PP Slides!! (Go find link below & download it! Understanding the total environment, the landscape, is something we lose sight of using flat maps and kermit's is multiple window onto that understanding.)

Be posting with you. May true justice be done in this case. (& for Kat & Molly, too, though there is no mystery there, just the same deep family loss the Kerchers suffer now.)

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:40:00 -0000

Can't decide if I'm on the inside looking out at me looking back in or the other way round. Here or there? Or both? And all this good stuff just from today. What think you?

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:20:33 -0000

You went exploring, huh? Of the several hundreds of people who've I've encountered here, only a handful have ever figured out my ongoing persona, or rather have had the curioisty. You know, based on how thick the formal Howland family books are & will be, one can safely say that the stray young man who the Pilgrims picked up off the London docks (well, we could use another likely lad) turned out to be the most fecund of all the Mayflower males. (I'm a Hopkins-Doty-Cooke-somebody else i've forgotten descendant. No Howlands. Certain families never married with others in the first 5 generations or so. The Billingtons? Who'd want to join the family which had the First Murderer and so the first execution in Ye Olde Plymouth Colony.)

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:05:00 -0000

That conclusion is MORE TRUE for AK & Rafe then it is for Rudy. In fact, I fail to see how its in Rudy's best interests NOT to directly implicate them. After all, as Piecone can now glory in, the real, HARD, evidence, both physical and DNA is ALL Rudy's --SO FAR, of course. As his lawyer, i'd looking at him and saying, you got to come up with more than that, I've got bupkis to work with here. And the trial will be a bench or judges' trial, utlizing a much more wide ranging standard of evidence than could possibly be seen in the US & UK. As seattleite points out, part of the rationale for keeping Amanda in prison is her statements to Meredith's friends & police on Sat., & Sun. [Plus of course ILE went out and got WIRE-TAPPING warrants right away.] In the US, whether any of that or NONE OF IT would be admitted to trial is dealt with in preliminary hearings. Much of what has leaked would fall under the NOT ADMIT category.

So, given that there's hard evidence and broader circumstantial evidence, why Rudy is holding back from naming Rafe and/or Amanda is a real "yellow" here.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:55:11 -0000

chill, babee. a little merlot, a short stroll to your hot tub, and transient karmic enlightenment.

[Neither format is at all satisfactory but I'm finding Oldest to Newest as Thread the best SO FAR--except with this older laptop which loads the thread better if I do it as Newest as Thread. And now for a bed-time Chivas neat--ha! if only.]

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:47:25 -0000

OK, what we would have called,in a slightly different context, "yellow journalism" circa 1880-1910, say Hearst's push for the Spanish-American war. Just wiki that for more detail on that. I don't remember how yellow originated in this case as US slang.

...
This weird, really out of left field thought crossed my mind: As Patty Hearst did serve several years in Cali prison, and did and is still married to an ex-guard/security agent, just imagine some of their reminisences at quiet, private moments, eh? And perhaps some variant, bedroom games.

Oh, xin with your rolodek relationships, you must have SOMETHING on PH?

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:35:22 -0000

Well, if you are working the civil side, ultimately it comes from the consumers who buy the product made by the company being sued or sueing. Its all part of over-head. If its the govt sueing a company, say Patrick Fitzgerald after Conrad Black, Fitz has to go back to DOJ to get authorized increases in his budget--if he actually had to. This is of course where ANY legal system, and even jurisprudence, fails one type of person--the defendant in a criminal trial. That person must have the ability to defend him or herself for any system to have the support of the people who use it. Miranda wasn't just the only or even the most important thing legally out of the 60s.

Federal funds were committed to creating Public Service Defense Lawyers to adequately represent US, yes, you & me. If accused of a crime, I can figure out whom to call, but can I afford a downtonw Beantown lawyer? Only if they are working pro bono. That didn't cut it, and raising dollars as nonprofits didn't cut it. So fed dollars were voted in.

Even then, as from the Innocency Project which takes on the tough DNA projects of those already convicted (but not all), your public dfender might get paid but he or she doesn't have much of a budget either. There's a Texas death penalty case in which Jim Baker's white-shoed pro bono firm is shooting at the previous, one-wild-man public defender who lost what looks like a winnable case. (Being Texas its really complicated but was never a sexy case because there was no sex involved; just a naturalized Caribbean woman of smarts who was run as a deep DEA agent for yours and was never really off the books, but a couple of years ago the boyfriend borrowed her rented car as the getaway vehicle in a robbery turned hit. All three men then named her as the brains behind it and the Texas DAs bit and even got a death penalty decision out of the jury. [The DP must be coded into the sugar on their cornflakes.] Not until she told her prison case manager that she was also a british citizen did real resources for the defense shake loose. The Brit consul knew nothing, but this Brit consul runs in Baker's circle, so...)

And by the way, just what would your job title description be like and how would characterize your firm's role in the legal industry. I'm trying to imagine this.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:00:38 -0000

KERMIT!!, lissen up buddy-boy. Dese powered & pointed presentashuns of yours is good stuff for doz slick legal types what do defend de accussed person in what may be called civil and too in criminal trials. Beaucop bucks to had, shiny sheckles indeed, to had stateside with your especially on the civil side, which ain't too civil when the trial starts! But you won't care with your "consulting" fees. Legalized theft.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:44:36 -0000

GIALLO is the word for Yellow. CRIMINE is crime. [from Altavista's Babelfish]

What is the context in which the English word appears?

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:31:23 -0000

As Nero Wolfe was just your average orchid grower. I wouldn't have known where to begin.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:24:28 -0000

Just superb. And the appropriate photo detail. Now if you only had access to the papparazzi pics like through the windows, etc. Xin's time line with pics.

And puzzler's line, so apt. I missed that 1st time through.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:34:07 -0000

BELLE pick one, announce that you are doing it, do it as an embed and we'll all pay attention.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:02 -0000

Well, I haven't tried yet, xin to find your land-addy, and as I use only the open stuff through google, I'm not always successful. To really work at it, I'd have to
belong to the pay-us-DB sites. But with THAT hint, I just might be able. Don't forget, we all leave asides about ourselves, scattered throughout these Steve-site posts.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:51:40 -0000

I keep my finger on the up or down scroll keys, but not so fast I can't scan the posts, and THEN if I remember the key word or phrase I use the find function on the tool bar. The advantage of the Oldest-Thread is that for the most part the replies as embeds are few and usually pertinent to the specific question in the main or 1st embed post, as is this reply.

This is a reply to coyotewaits at Today 5:06 pm for those of you using Oldest or Newest with Flat formatting.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:34:05 -0000

Just back from traveling

A HAT tip to Sparrow at sparrow —12/14/2007 11:02 PM--just down from Steve's first post. This is a nested discussion (and no I have to re-read Squiggle's instruction), and it appears I may have cribbed her essential points a bit further on. as more & more of this EVIDENCE Back-Tracking goes on by the ILE, i am more & more in clined to see her theory as one fo the better fits.

And if sso, then Amanda really does need that Alioto Woman from Sicily.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:14:50 -0000

And the buttons to the left are sometimes the Same, i.e. I went to give AndyT a point using the up button, but as I hovered over it, the little text icon said Rate Down. So I checked the the lower one and it said also Rate Down. I checked the one's next to meman and they read correctly.

I RateDown this site's functionality a whole 100 points. Hey, danileha, this ain't "fun", this is bloody work. Haloscan may be bulky to use when too many posts, but it was simple simple simple. And then there's this issue with all the white space mostly on the Right. Did you guys have a competent graphic designer look at this layout before you rolled it out? Or how about just a regular joe off the street, like a good focus group facilitator could organize for you? Or anybody in marketing at all? Huh? Please look at all of Squiggles posts from yesterday.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:59:30 -0000

The POINTS SYSTEM issn't working either.

xin said she was at -45. When I checked 6 minuteds after her post, she's at -27. ?????

seattleite is at +27 or so.

This is totally screwy, i.e. not related to a direct action, such as clicking the up or down buttons. I've done that and there's been no change in the icon total.

If they don't work simply, TURN THEM OFF.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:24:43 -0000

THIS change has been NOTHING but a pain in the ass.

Re: Open Thread: The Murder of Meredith Kercher

RobertM — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:49:56 -0000

Yes, thanks, I see that now. BUT--> its a crap decision also by the programmers. Again, not thnking as end users. Its "cutsey", a stylistic viewpoint, a mix of Relative and Absolute.. If you have a setting called "Absolute", WHAT YOU SET SHOULD BE WHAT YOU SEE.