pwhodges wrote:But IANAL...

Worst acronym ever.

But reminiscent of what lawyers typically do to people...

Had they taken this to trial the prosecution certainly could have requested the judge to rule pre-trial that the children would not be sufficiently credible witnesses for the severity of this case and thus barred both sides from calling them, forcing the case to be made purely on physical evidence and statements from the adults involved. The defendant has the right to face his accuser certainly, but that should be the mother.

Yeah: there were a lot of ways they could have prosecuted this case. This was pretty much a failure on the part of the prosecution.

I have noticed, however, that there's a tendency to drop rape cases across the board: they're difficult to try, and the nature of the rules and laws in place make presenting evidence and building a case more difficult. This one, though...this was practically open and shut.

I have no clue how they could have screwed this up, unless something was done in the arrest process which the prosecution knew would allow for acquittal (like a violation of rights, or something). Even then, just dropping the case altogether seems WAY too lenient.

NemZ wrote:Had they taken this to trial the prosecution certainly could have requested the judge to rule pre-trial that the children would not be sufficiently credible witnesses for the severity of this case and thus barred both sides from calling them, forcing the case to be made purely on physical evidence and statements from the adults involved. The defendant has the right to face his accuser certainly, but that should be the mother.

The prosecution can request that, but there's no guarantee the judge would grant the request. And that's assuming the mother even wants to proceed with a trial -- this plea bargain might easily be the result of the fact that she doesn't.

Of course, that doesn't mean the case wasn't bungled somehow; it might have been. I'm just leery of assuming that in the absence of more information.

Denali is once more known as Denali. Praise be to Denali, and all that Denali surveys.

Denali.

Also, Ohioans are pissed about something, but I doubt it's important.

This is the dumbest thing i have read all day
Whoever made this decision obviously doesn't understand the difference between transgender and transtrender.

Pirate ship sunk in Liverpool Docks.

Rosenakahara wrote:This is the dumbest thing i have read all day
Whoever made this decision obviously doesn't understand the difference been transgender and transtrender.

As usual, it's an overblown story -- and people discussing alternate pronouns has been a thing for decades before I was at university.

I'm a fairly progressive person but I'm not doing that zeee shit.

English already has a gender neutral pronoun, use that. Making up new words all the time makes you look like an asshole, unless you're Chuckman, then it's perfectilicious.

Rosenakahara wrote:This is the dumbest thing i have read all day
Whoever made this decision obviously doesn't understand the difference been transgender and transtrender.

This is the start of Newspeak.

Pronouncrime. Doubleplus Ungood.

Ray wrote:This is the start of Newspeak.

Pronouncrime. Doubleplus Ungood.

Meh. As drinian noted it's a bit overblown. This has been a thing for decades now.

Kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, considering that a supermajority (statistically) of students at university identify with gender-specific pronouns. Removing those pronouns and forcing students to use pronouns that they do not identify with seems like the exact opposite thing the university is trying to promote.

The university did state on their site that there is not a formal rule in place, which is good-- however, encouragement of this policy seems to be a bad idea, regardless of whether or not the policy is on the books. For example, my university did its diversity program a few days ago-- everybody in the session was asked which pronouns they felt comfortable using. A whopping 93% of us chose "he" and "she pronouns, with only the remaining 7% of the students opting for "they" pronouns.

Encouraging people to use gender-neutral pronouns for everybody regardless of whether or not they identify with gendered pronouns seems to ultimately cause more problems than it solves.

Heh. Someone needs to claim racial slurs as their personal pronouns to put Tumblr into a perpetual tail spin.

I'll just leave this here...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11851589/Woman-discovers-boyfriend-of-two-years-is-woman-when-she-removes-blindfold-during-sex.html

Nuclear Lunchbox wrote:Kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, considering that a supermajority (statistically) of students at university identify with gender-specific pronouns. Removing those pronouns and forcing students to use pronouns that they do not identify with seems like the exact opposite thing the university is trying to promote.

The university did state on their site that there is not a formal rule in place, which is good-- however, encouragement of this policy seems to be a bad idea, regardless of whether or not the policy is on the books. For example, my university did its diversity program a few days ago-- everybody in the session was asked which pronouns they felt comfortable using. A whopping 93% of us chose "he" and "she pronouns, with only the remaining 7% of the students opting for "they" pronouns.

Encouraging people to use gender-neutral pronouns for everybody regardless of whether or not they identify with gendered pronouns seems to ultimately cause more problems than it solves.

Yeah, when they are doing that, what they are doing is entirely fine.

So, does my blanket statement refer to:
A) The university's policy.
B) The students' general behaviour.
C) A student's personal choice of pronoun.
D) Two of the above.
E) All of the above.

Results in in 10 minutes, and if your answer is D) or E), do not forget to use the pronoun "We" instead of "I" to reflect your multiple-mindedness.

Rosenakahara wrote: obviously doesn't understand the difference between transgender and transtrender.

That's like a train thing, right? Or maybe that's a trans-tender... trains are so much better than people.

Mr. Tines wrote:I'll just leave this here...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11851589/Woman-discovers-boyfriend-of-two-years-is-woman-when-she-removes-blindfold-during-sex.html

And here we have our next Hollywood Romcom!

By that I mean: the story gets stupider as you read it. What a Kizh.

Alaska Slim wrote:And here we have our next Hollywood Romcom!

Boys Don't Cry.