Friday, August 10, 2007

Week in Review

An extraordinary recent op-ed from The Stanford Daily reflects the high case-related performance from the college media. Christopher Anderson, a graduate student in electrical engineering, noted that the lessons from events at Duke particularly resonate at his institution:

The debate continues at Stanford about how much of a split should be allowed between the college athlete pool and the student body at large. Duke University is just wrapping up a live-fire study of such an issue with the now-infamous Duke lacrosse rape case, and the results show there is a small but significant portion of the student body and faculty whose hatred of “athletic privilege” is impervious to fact, truth and justice.

In this respect, “The case certainly puts some of the more shrill voices opposing big-time sports in a different light.

In 25 paragraphs, Anderson summarized affairs in as clear and concise a production as I have seen from any writing on the case. To him, “It’s a complex case and a difficult timeline to follow, if only because it boggles the mind to think that one person with a handful of conspirators could be so nefarious in so many different ways.”

Nifong didn’t act alone, as Anderson understood:

  • The faculty: “A group of 88 professors took out an ad condemning a campus “social disaster,” a thinly-disguised attack on a group of their own students. Duke English Prof. Houston Baker issued a hysterical, racist and unsubstantiated letter demanding the dismissal of every player on the team and the abolishment of the lacrosse program.”
  • The administration: “This lynch mob was not quelled by Duke president Richard Brodhead, who stated “whatever they did was bad enough” and suggested the case go to trial so the players would have the opportunity to “prove their innocence.’”
  • Journalists: “Some members of the media seemed content to slough off their guilt by rejoicing in the players’ suffering. These normally liberal commentators became reborn Puritans, screaming that these men deserved their Kafka-esque experience for having a tasteless spring break party.”

The outcome, in a perceptive point: “Nifong’s absurdity is, paradoxically, the silver lining. Without his preposterous pursuit of the case as it collapsed around him, the world might see these charges as a he said-she said, not-enough-evidence incident that was squelched by slick lawyers. In criminal justice, the tie goes to the accused. Instead, by continuing to go forward, Nifong disgraced himself and opened the door to the players’ exoneration.”

Anderson concluded, “Thanks to a minister of injustice, justice prevailed.”

--------

My colleague, Stuart Taylor, has an important article in this week’s National Journal looking at the general problem of false accusations and convictions.

“As recently as 20 years ago,” he notes, “it was extraordinarily rare for a convicted prisoner to establish his or her innocence conclusively enough to get public attention. That changed with breakthroughs in DNA science.” The work of the Innocence Project is the best example of this pattern.

The problem? “America has been too slow to appreciate that the DNA exonerations, and other evidence, suggest that many thousands of other wrongly convicted people are rotting in prisons and jails around the country. And our federal, state, and local governments and courts have done far too little to adopt proposed criminal justice reforms that could reduce the number of innocent people convicted while nailing more of the real criminals.” Moreover, “the kind of DNA evidence that can conclusively prove innocence or guilt is available only in a small fraction of cases, mainly rapes and rape-murders in which sperm is recovered.”

How can false convictions be reduced? Requiring law enforcement to tape record witness and suspect interviews is a good place to start, Taylor argues. Taking more seriously “police and/or prosecutorial misconduct” is another critical step. And Taylor urges appeals courts to end their “almost complete deference to findings of guilt by juries and trial judges,” especially in cases where errors of fact are obvious.

While wrongful prosecutions disproportionately harm the poor and minorities, “well-off white men are not exempt from wrongful prosecution. This was spectacularly illustrated by the fabricated rape charges against three innocent Duke lacrosse players. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong falsely demonized them as rapists, racists, and "hooligans," thereby gaining enough black votes to win what had been an uphill election battle. Nifong (who is white) also rigged a photo-identification process to frame the three for a nonexistent crime, hid DNA proof of innocence, and lied to the public and the court for many months before North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper took over the case and declared the defendants innocent.”

“Nifong has been disbarred and still faces a contempt-of-court charge. But his richly deserved fate is almost unheard-of. Most state bars and judges have given passes even to prosecutors who have hidden or falsified evidence to put innocent men and women on death row.”

---------

Angela Davis also viewed the case through the prism of prosecutorial abuse—but suggested a disturbing lack of knowledge about events in Durham. While she recognized that “Mike Nifong’s decision to withhold exculpatory evidence was neither legal nor ethical,” Davis claimed—in an article, again, criticizing prosecutorial abuse—that “Nifong’s initial decision to charge three Duke University students with rape was not unreasonable.” It’s not unreasonable for a prosecutor to seek indictments without probable cause?

“Nifong,” she hypothesizes, “was undoubtedly mindful of the justice system’s poor treatment of rape victims, especially African-American women”—as if past poor practice could justify current indefensible decisions.

She further notes, “If he had failed to pursue the prosecution of wealthy white men accused of raping a poor black woman, he would have been justifiably criticized. Facing an election in a jurisdiction with a sizable African-American community, he had the three students indicted for rape, first-degree sexual offense, and kidnapping.”

So: because a guilt-presuming populace wanted indictments, Nifong would have been “justifiably criticized” for not moving ahead, even though there was no evidence a crime had occurred, much less the people charged were guilty?

Davis also rewrites the history of the case: “When it became clear that the state could not possibly prove guilt, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper removed Nifong from the case and dismissed the indictments. State disciplinary authorities quickly brought ethical charges, and Nifong was disbarred in June.”

Actually, of course, the Bar filed ethics charges, and Nifong, faced with a conflict of interest, recused himself. Cooper did not act “when it became clear that the state could not possibly prove guilt”—and when he did reach a determination, he declared the players innocent.

---------

Last week two key Nifong allies departed the scene in different ways.

First, the intrepid investigators at the Liestoppers forum have discovered that SANE nurse Tara Levicy has sold her house in Durham, and made inactive her North Carolina nurse’s license.

And so Levicy won’t have the opportunity to influence any more North Carolina criminal justice cases by making dubious diagnoses of “blunt force trauma” or shifting her story in ways that correspond with the prosecutor’s latest version of events.

The bad news: she’s now a practicing nurse in New Hampshire. So Granite State attorneys should keep on speed dial the number of Dr. Anne Burgess—who first developed the term “rape trauma syndrome,” but who was prepared to testify for the defense if the lacrosse case had done to trial, so outraged was she by Levicy’s behavior.

Second, the state NAACP has—nearly four months after AG Roy Cooper publicly proclaimed the players innocent—removed from its website Al McSurely’s guilt-presuming memorandum of law. It appears that even the NAACP no longer believes, as McSurely claimed, that the players “must deal with a mountain of physical evidence, that is corroborated by, we have reason to believe, accounts of some of the men who were at the party who have cooperated with the police and the D.A. from early on.”

---------

The author of the Group of 88 statement, Wahneema Lubiano, has posted the newest version of her CV on her Duke website. The perpetually forthcoming Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor and Messing with the Machine are still listed as “forthcoming”—as they have been for the last 10 years. (In the academy, “forthcoming” usually means that a book has been completed and has entered into the publication process.)

In the CV, Lubiano also laid out her “articles and essays in collections.” In the past eight years, the Group stalwart has produced two articles. One, a forthcoming piece, is an interview. I’ve looked at a lot of academic CV’s, and I can’t recall ever seeing a professor count being interviewed as an academic publication.

Lubiano’s only other publication since 1999? A four-page essay on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (That article, published in 2005, also listed as “forthcoming” Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor and Messing with the Machine.) In the essay, Lubiano took aim at press reports of looting in New Orleans following the hurricane. How did she frame her discussion? With a quote from war criminal Hermann Göring.

In yesterday’s discussion thread, I mentioned that a Group member had produced only a half-page of scholarship per year since 1999. A Group sympathizer in the thread assumed that of the 88, Lubiano had compiled this record (apparently Lubiano has quite a reputation, even among her peers). The sympathizer offered the following defense: “I think that there are many, many examples of intellectuals at the heart of institutions who have published very little—even at the rate of 0.5 pages a year.”

Some people might wonder whether implying that the American media of 2005 was following the mindset outlined by a Nazi war criminal represents the quality of thought that we should expect from those “intellectuals,” who, “at the heart of institutions,” publish “at the rate of 0.5 pages a year.”

Hat tip: B.F.

[An excellent comment from down in the thread today:

I am not in favor of hounding Ms. Levicy, and I regret the language in some of the comments concerning her. I wish her well in her new abode. But her defenders need to consider an important point. Levicy’s role was in fact far more dangerous than that played by Lubiano. It is true that Lubiano, who seems to have more time on her hands than some of her colleagues, spearheaded the professionally improper public “Listening” statement. That statement helped to inflame local tensions, and the defense attorneys were right to cite it as one of several evidences that a fair trial, if matters came to that, was not to be had in Durham. But Lubiano is an expert in nothing, and her opinions regarding “social disaster” have no more authority than yours or mine. Levicy is (or was) a medical professional whose testimony could reasonably be supposed to be that of an expert. One has to conclude that her testimony, false as to fact, was actually suborned by her own political beliefs. This is not the same as saying she was lying pure and simple. We say “seeing is believing”, but it often works the other way around. In a complex or ambiguous situation we “see” those things we are predisposed to believe. It is fairly harmless that Lubiano is predisposed to see imaginary analogies between FEMA and the Third Reich or whatever. That mental aberration is unlikely to have much social result. The postmodernist academic jargon of a bunch of Duke professors may be incomprehensible and indigestible, but it unlikely to be lethal. Imaginary “blunt force trauma” conceivably could have put somebody in jail.]

288 comments:

1 – 200 of 288   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

Does Wahneema Lubiano list the Group of 88 ad as a published work?

Michael said...

So you guys chased Levicy into my state? Well, it figures seeing as she's from Maine. You wouldn't happen to know the city where she will be working, would you?

There is a shortage of nurses and the economy is doing fairly well so it's not an unreasonable place for her to go. I suppose that hospitals don't do google searches on nurses these days.

Anonymous said...

Thugniggaintellectual also lists interviews as pieces of his scholarship.


Tall T

Anonymous said...

the destructive firestorm that ensued showed that it was a vocal minority of faculty members and administrative enablers, rather than an athletic team, that was out of control


The Stanford article was good but the summary could have been even stronger. However, the above quote should be made into a large poster and put up all over campus.

Anonymous said...

Do you think McSurely will be sued for libel?

Anonymous said...

If I may attempt to forestall yet another trolling of this blog: Yes, boobie, Angela Davis is a Communist.

Anonymous said...

I wanted to thank, in particular, "AJ" for his/her comment regarding my nephew in Iraq, about whom I posted in the comments section yesterday morning.

To 12:28, yes! That should be a poster or full page ad at Duke:

"the destructive firestorm that ensued
showed that it was a vocal minority
of faculty members and administrative enablers,
rather than an athletic team,
that was out of control"


and for alan furman at 12:32: LOL, nice catch!

Anonymous said...

I just want to make sure that all of you have heard the great news about the fundraising results at Duke during the past year. Duke has just issued a press release stating that during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, it received financial contributions of more than $380 million, a new all-time record, which exceeded last year's record total by $40 million.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to ask an indelicate question, but one that needs to be asked.

What does Lubiano do with her time that would inhibit efforts to actually publish a book after the passing of a decade?

If Lubiano were some really hot babe on campus and much of her time taken up by social obligations, captivating island trysts, and just an overall calendar of life so very full that writing a book...any book....would have to wait....

.....then you could just say that Lubiano was hired and kept on without merit because she's a woman.

But it goes far beyond that.

Debrah

Christy said...

Not being cynical or anything, but I wonder how much of that $380M was, say, stocks willed to Duke and if the value was registered the day the DOW was 14,000.

Anonymous said...

It is great news indeed that Duke has raised a lot of money. I hope they use it to hire some proper professors who produce worthwhile publications more than once a decade and don't advocate the castration of their students, and to institute sensitivity training programs for those of the 88 racists/sexists/lamebrains who can't be forced or persuaded to leave.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
One Spook said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wonder why Lubiano doesn't include the "Perfect Offenders, Perfect Victim" article in her CV. That, and the Listening Statement, are what made her famous.

One Spook said...

1:13 writes:

"It is great news indeed that Duke has raised a lot of money. I hope they use it ... to institute sensitivity training programs for those of the 88 racists/sexists/lamebrains who can't be forced or persuaded to leave.

OUTSTANDING idea!

Gregory, could you please suggest a course outline for such a sensitivity training program? You're just the person to do it!

And, imitation being the highest form of flattery, I offer my version of Gregory's patented complimentary close ...

"KC approached the shore in a small boat. A throng of his blog commentors waited on shore. Some 50 years away, KC stepped from the boat and walked across the water to the shore, barely getting his topsiders wet.

The crowd stood in rapt awe, speechless at what they had just witnessed.

But, KC, like the good historian he was, had done his research; he knew where the rocks were ..."
Agnostics Among Us by Billy Sunday, Chas Scribner & Sons (1917)

My Opinion Only: One Spook

Anonymous said...

There is a shortage of nurses nationwide. No trouble getting a job anywhere. Why would anyone want to live in the snow and ice is the mystery. I am sure a few bloggers did not run anyone out of town. Most people are not interested in this case any longer - if they ever were.

Anonymous said...

The Innocence Project is a reminder that the Bill of Rights was enacted to keep the government from steamrolling defendants. Even with all the protections in place it still happens.

Even in my sleepy butgh of Dallas ...

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-08-02/news/chains-of-evidence/

One Spook said...

In reading Wahneema Lubiano's CV, I noticed she listed a "Research Interest" and a course she teaches called "Whiteness Studies."

I wonder if that would be like taking a course from David Duke called, "Blackness Studies?"

One Spook

Anonymous said...

To RRHamilton--

I'm willing to give Wahneema the benefit of the doubt....that it might possibly take over a decade of forthcomings over non-forthcomings...to even more forthcomings...to a maybe for future publication.

She's just building_a_mystery

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Debrah,

90% of all black professors, as well as 90% of black students, at top-flight universities, are there by government mandate. Follow the money.

RRH

Anonymous said...

No Spook....it's not like that at all!

It's something very special.

And that's all you need to know.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

KC, your romantic comments on Dr. Burgess' feelings almost made me forget the fat pay check that generated her outrage.

Anonymous said...

To strip the facade of benevolence and tolerance from left-wing usage of the word diversity, just pronounce it "racial correctness."

Anonymous said...

alan furman scores again!

The NBA is racially-incorrect. I want an NBA that looks like America!

Anonymous said...

12:26 That is just hilarious - Good laugh -

Anonymous said...

Sorry - 2:26 - It surpries me anyone cares about basketball. It is your choice to support those thugs.

Anonymous said...

In fairness to Lubiano, I'm sure if her postings on KC's blog weren't anonymous her publication list would be a lot longer.

-RD

Anonymous said...

RRHamilton,

Where did you get your 90 percent figures? When I attended my Ivy League university in the 80s, there weren't a lot of blacks on faculty or in the student body, but those who were there were drop-dead smart. I guess my Ivy League university must not come under your "top flight" description.

More useful than your unsubstantiated remarks would be discussion of how black students who graduate from top-tier universities do after graduation.

Anonymous said...

To Debrah:

Lubiano's field may not be strictly a book field. But, she hasn't published many articles, either.

There are, however, among the 88, faculty with long and stellar research records.

Anonymous said...

2:26

Racist comments like yours can not reflect well on this blog or on KC if he does not delete them.

Racial diversity is not a bad thing. Why does it frighten you so very much?

Anonymous said...

2:50,

I suppose you went to Harvard?

RRH

Anonymous said...

btw, RD, good catch :)

rrh

One Spook said...

to 2:59 who writes:

2:26

Racist comments like yours can not reflect well on this blog or on KC if he does not delete them.

Racial diversity is not a bad thing. Why does it frighten you so very much?


I am not speaking for Alan Furman @ 2:26, but I do not see his comment as even remotely racist.

I don't think Furman is afraid, but I suspect he's pissed off. After over 40 years of "quotas" and it's new cousin, "diversity" one must ask, how long does this need to go on?

What's wrong with "merit?" Why does that concept seem to frighten you and others so very much?

One Spook

Anonymous said...

3:22 Very often, diversity does reflect merit. The merit of those long disadvantaged at the hands of the white, male power structure. (n.b.: this is not all white males.)

My experience is that diversity is often discussed, but seldom applied. I have no problem with university faculty better reflecting the student body rather more than it does, ie, in many cases, they are majority female.

Anonymous said...

BTW, for far too long, there was merit simply in being white, Protestant, and male.

Anonymous said...

merit = racism ... or nowadays, Asianism. The diversity-racists hate merit. With good reason.

Anonymous said...

I'm great with hiring all of the talented Asians. That kind of diversity would really scare a lot of the white guys!!!

Anonymous said...

Meritism scares NO white guys. Fear merit.

Anonymous said...

Meritism frightens diversity-racists, who have to swallow the fact that Asians who crawl off a boat then four years later score a perfect SAT score. So much for the diversity-racist lie of "cultural bias!" on standardized tests!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
One Spook said...

3:33 responds:

3:22 Very often, diversity does reflect merit. The merit of those long disadvantaged at the hands of the white, male power structure. (n.b.: this is not all white males.)

(spitting coffee on keyboard) Please look up "merit." Get back to me or have your people call my people.

One Spook

Anonymous said...

SAT tests, like many standardized tests, do have some cultural biases. I think, however, that you'll discover that many Asian scores show a large split: very high in math and less so in verbal.

All of these figures are somewhat off kilter, however, because many students don't provide their race. I know my son didn't.

Anonymous said...

Poor little Spookie Baby, Can't stand uppity non-white males in your face? Read my lips: THERE IS NO SCIENCE that says white males have cornered the market in ability, creativity, and/or productivity. Sorry 'bout that.

Anonymous said...

PS Clean off your keyboard. Disgusting.

Anonymous said...

"Lubiano's field may not be strictly a book field. But, she hasn't published many articles, either.

There are, however, among the 88, faculty with long and stellar research records."

Brilliant academics with political views & activities somewhere in the range between "controversial" and "appalling" such as Noam Chomsky and William Shockley are why tenure exists. Their presence requires no explanation.

The hiring, tenuring and continued promotion of academic duds such as Lubiano and others profiled here (and Ward Churchill at UC) is an anomaly, which does require an explanation.

Do far the only explanation abyone here has been able to come up with is "Racial Quotas." If you've got an alternate hypothesis to propose I, for one, would welcome it.

Anonymous said...

I think Lubiano is a rather different case than Churchill. She is simply someone who hasn't published much since tenure, an unfortunate problem that didn't start with the hiring of blacks, of course. Churchill is something else. I, too, am looking for an explanation from the University of Colorado has to how he was hired in the first place. Odd, very, very odd.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 3:33, 3:42, 4:00 (Please pick a handle already!) -

There is an aocryphal story out there that during Ronald Reagan's term as governor of California, when someone told him that admitting students to the University of California on individual performance alone could mean that all the students at Berkeley might be Asian Americans, his reply was "So what?"

I would be grateful if anyone could track down the source of this quote.

Anonymous said...

3:48

Read my lips: In fact, many Asians, especially recent immigrants, do not have perfects scores on Verbal or Writing/Essay. Just MATH!!!!

Anonymous said...

Ronald Raygun was no friend of merit. Before Raygun, the best students all had access to the CAL system. His messing with tuition meant that merit was no longer enough.

mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Amanda Marcotte...

... is that you?

Anonymous said...

Alan Furman said...
If I may attempt to forestall yet another trolling of this blog: Yes, boobie, Angela Davis is a Communist.

8/10/07 12:32 AM

=========================================================================> Alan, you made my day!!

Anonymous said...

Regarding Mr. Taylor's article about false accusations...

The Conrad Black Trial was commented on by an Englishman, Mark Steyn, as to specific problems of American justice compared to England. Listed briefly...

1) An end to the near universal reliance on plea bargains, a feature unknown to most other countries in the Common Law tradition.

2) An end to the reliance on technical charges such as "mail fraud" and "wire fraud", whereby you're convicted not for the crime itself but for sending a letter or authorizing a bank transfer in the course of said crime.

3) An end to the process advantages American prosecutors have accumulated over the years - such as the ability to seize a defendant's funds and assets and deprive him of the means to hire good lawyers and rebut the charges.

4) An end to countless counts.

5) An end to statute creep.

CGM did not plea bargain, but there were no consequences for making a false claim that could have put 3 innocents in jail for most of their lives. Excepting Nifong, who has suffered any consequences?

AJ

Anonymous said...

Mackster & Spookster seem to be afraid of merit, since they do their best to keep everybody but the white boys out of the pool...

You guys need to wake up on the right side of life....

Yep, I have a job. A good one. And I didn't get in due to affirmative action. I'm figuring, however, I got it despite people like you.

Anonymous said...

"Raygun", God I miss President Reagan.

If the Klan of 88 are not race quota hires then how come Duke doesn't do more to advertise their work? Duke could promote their work like a Nobel Prize winner to both the consumers of education and other peers to drive interest in Duke? Instead, Duke hides their presence so as to not scare off reasonable minds.

Anonymous said...

K.C.,

Your post on Lubiano is very illuminating. I can guarantee you that the economics department at Duke does not have these kinds of standards, and the departments OUTSIDE of Trinity also have much, much higher standards than are seen in some of the Trinity departments.

(Economics is in Trinity, but the department apparently is an anomaly. However, there are very good scholars in English and elsewhere at Duke, but they are too busy doing legitimate work spend their time making false allegations of rape.)

While some on these boards have made fun of me because I teach at a lower-tier university, I can guarantee you that I could not keep my job with the productivity record that Lubiano has. Furthermore, interviews and op-eds do not count when the college of business examines one's publications.

Anonymous said...

How to submit a manuscript proposal to Duke University Press

Your proposal should include:
1) a cover letter, noting the anticipated length of the manuscript and the anticipated date of completion;
2) a prospectus (with chapter outlines);
3) a c.v.;
4) a sample chapter (if available);
5) essay abstracts (for edited collections).

Please submit your proposal to only one editor.

Please do not submit your complete manuscript until an editor has invited you to do so.

www.dukeupress.edu/contactus/submission_guidelines.shtml


Some questions to ask Lubiano/Duke Univ. Press:
Which editor is she working with?
Has she been asked to submit a complete manuscript? If so, when will the book be published?

Tawny2 said...

I usually don't get involved in these types of discussions, but I think that anon at 2:50 had a perfectly reasonable response to rr hamilton's extremely broad statement to wit: "90% of all black professors, as well as 90% of black students, at top-flight universities, are there by government mandate."

Actually, all he or she asked was where Mr. Hamilton obtained these alleged statistics. The writer also made a salient point that it would make a great deal more sense to track these students after graduation as they enter what is generally known as the real world i.e, getting a job.

Anonymous said...

KC...great review as usual. You continue to amaze me with the quantity and quality of your posts.

The Chris Anderson op-ed in The Stanford Daily is very well done. He brilliantly synthesized the case into its essential messages and lessons. I agree with him that in criminal justice, the tie goes to the accused. That is true in theory, however in real life, especially if a judge is the decider, ties tend to go to the prosecutor. This is because too many judges (and probably a lot of juries) give undue deference to the police and prosecutors, This is a major flaw, in my opinion, in our criminal justice system.

Stuart Taylor's comments are right on...unfortunately too many legislators and judges won't take the baton to improve our criminal justice system. Mr. Taylor's recommendations are all excellent and should be legislated and implemented immediately throughout the country. I guess I am too old though to hold my breath that anything will happen. With age comes cynicism, but maybe the young tigers of today (like Chris Anderson) will see that something has to be done to improve our criminal justice system.

Angela Davis...what can you say. Wasn't she involved and convicted in the murder of a policeman or prison guard? Although she rightfully attacks prosecutorial misconduct, I am not sure she has standing to comment on anything.

Anonymous said...

So this is the part where I get to roll my eyes and sigh. As disingenuous a characterization as there ever was--as I pointed out yesterday, you have exactly one target you like to smear with the 'unproductive' bit--and that person is Lubiano.

You have a schtick, KC. It's the same schtick every time. It has one purpose: to smear its target. You manage to outdo yourself this time, though. Somehow, in that twisted last sentence, you manage to use the passive voice imply that Lubiano and others were "following the mindset outlined by a Nazi war criminal." So why don't you just mention Hitler himself and shut this face down?

It was old and tired. Now the schtick is vile.

Anonymous said...

In re: Lubiano's pulbications.

Pretenure, but especially post-tenure, I think quality is what matters rather than quantity. I can't speak for Lubiano's publications, but if a colleague writes rarely, but well and importantly, I rate that work over a colleague who writes a lot and not so well. Moreover, I suspect it's probably easier to write more if you work in English/with English-language sources, than if you work in multiple foreign languages with sources that are not available in the US. Perhaps, KC would like to comment on this?

Anonymous said...

Correction--Publications

mac said...
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mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Is Lubiano a Communist?

Anonymous said...

Mac, 6:15 here. I don't know if your arguments are against merit or not. I just don't understand why you think you have the wherewithal to judge the merit of an academic's work. That's all.

I don't think you're stupid or anything, just nasty. By the way, the Nazi thread has been going through the posts for awhile. It's not just Goering (With an e to tell us there's an umlaut; not necessarily "English" spelling--it's more a question of what diacriticals are available, nicht wahr?)

mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

8:28,

I don't think you're probably able to critique a lot of academic work from a position of knowledge. For example, I would take your critique of my work less seriously than I would a critique by someone who I understood knew something about it, including the languages of research.

Is this difficult to understand?

I don't consider your comments satire. If you're following the path of the great ones, you've got a long way to go to catch up...

Anonymous said...

Makster, I was talking about your later post. It wasn't clear to me where you were going with it. It was all over the place.

6:15, who, fyi, isn't on the way to being anything at Duke. S/he's happy where s/he is.

Anonymous said...

PS Makster, In thinking about it, I figure you're not getting enough, and that's why you're so bitchy.

Anonymous said...

When Christopher Anderson wrote, "In criminal justice, the tie goes to the accused", I'm not sure what he meant.

Of course with lack of evidence the accused 'win' freedom. But in the court of public opinion, especially in this case, the tie would have gone to the accuser.

The protests by the 88 and the abettors would have been endless. Their racist behavior would have been further enabled, to everyone's detriment, instead of being exposed as the dupes and dopes they are.

TombZ

mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

@ 8:31

Your point that an academic is better able to evaluate the academic work of another academic than someone who is not an academic is obviously correct.

However, academics who work in the humanities and the social sciences have as their topic humanity, a topic on which even those who are anti-intellectual usually have great experience and knowledge. I would not presume to evaluate a physicist's work in any respect because I know nothing about the subject matter. I have no qualms about evaluating the social and human, as opposed to the academic, value of the work of an economist or anthropologist or historian because I know quite a lot about the subject matter. And when the writings of academics in such fields consist of impenetrable jargon, I know that even the authors do not believe that their work has value enough to be translated into the common tongue.

Is this difficult to understand?

Anonymous said...

Wow, can we get back OT and have nice manners?

IMHO we should ignore the trolls until Dr. Johnson has time to delete their off-topic comments, not to mention personal attacks (which they frequently resort to when logic fails).

AJ

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 7.33:

I'd urge you to re-read the post, which says, "In the essay, Lubiano took aim at press reports of looting in New Orleans following the hurricane. How did she frame her discussion? With a quote from war criminal Hermann Göring." [emphases added]

I fully agree with you--those who make casual Nazi references reveal the weakness of their argument.

Below is the passage from Lubiano's article:

"I’m going to finish here with some attention to 'looting'—both the idea and the activity:
'All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism, and exposing the country to greater
danger.'
—Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg trials
The September 2, 2005, weekend edition of USA Today
(on-line) ran, as one of its subheads (in the on-line
edition, it was to the right of the main headline),
'Lawlessness Fosters Fear.'"

To the 7.55:

Absolutely on the issue of non-English sources. I have a colleague, for instance, who works with rare 8th, 9th, and 10th century Chinese language texts, most of which are only available in China. The idea that he should be expected to publish as quickly as someone who works with US government sources is unfair.

That said, Lubiano (for example) doesn't work with non-English language sources.

On the issue of quantity vs. quality: I agree. The issue came up only in a discussion of post-tenure review, where my point was that Universities should develop some mechanism to ensure that profs continue to do some work.

One final point on peer review, etc. Lubiano has argued that she has the "privilege" to blur her academic work with her political work. That approach, however, has consequences. The sole "academic" publication of hers that has appeared in the last 8 years is this 4-page article on the response to Katrina. With all due respect to Lubiano, you don't need a Ph.D. in Literature to be able to comment on the response to Katrina. So it seems to me hard to invoke the peer-review argument ("we can only be evaluated by specialists") when the academic is writing about events that don't require a Ph.D. to evaluate.

mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

How come AJ only thinks that logic fails when he disagrees with people?

Anonymous said...

It's been a while since I've read DiW. I believe that the three students were railroaded by the DA. I also believe that the accuser is mentally ill.

That said, it seems that this blog has devolved into discussions among the mentally ill. One poster in the last thread thinks that a nurse should be followed to NH and hounded? It is one note below a call for violence. The same voices who think that they speak "for" Johnson post racist statements (black men are raping our white women!). Quotes from faculty scholarship is being used to characterize entire careers. Wow. Johnson, I believe that you are orchestrating an embarrassing mess.

The few voices of reason on both sides of the debate are lost in the anger and (I agree with the poster above) vile rhetoric.

DiW has jumped the shark, as the kids say.

Anonymous said...

AJ & Mac,

I don't think either of you adds much to this blog with your postings. I find your arguments weak and/or non-existent and your observations silly. Does that make you trolls? Or does it simply mean I am unimpressed with your comments? I think the latter.

Anonymous said...

9:05/Jeff,

I am not convinced by your argument. Do you know more about all kinds or anthropology and all kinds of history and the theories that inform the arguments? Probably not.

Anonymous said...

KC--

Points taken on Lubiano, whose work I don't know. I'm more concerned that many who post here extrapolate from that they are experts in all kinds of academic fields. I find that more than a little arrogant.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Is Lubiano a Communist?"

No, she's a woman.

mac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I'm not an academic but I got a 20-page chapter published in a book in 1991. That is "scholarly output" of more than one page per year.

Can I get a job at Duke? I'll settle for one of those great "Visiting" Assistant Professor jobs.

SAVANT

Anonymous said...

9:34, Sorry, Mac. I don't believe you're a perpetual student. That requires an open mind. Yours appears closed and locked. You seem to want to attack those you disagree with. If you were a dog, you'd probably be a Rotweiler.

You can't learn with an open mouth and a closed mind.

Anonymous said...

9:34 -- why is it your concern? You don't have to read this blog.

kcjohnson9 said...

I cleared the last item, but would ask that personal attacks on other commenters be avoided.

(Personal attacks against me are fine: it's my blog, and therefore such attacks are fair game.)

Anonymous said...

anonymous 9:54

"You seem to want to attack those you disagree with."

Is this the pot calling the kettle black or what? Comments like this say more about the poster than the person he/she might be addressing.

BTW, pot kettle black is not a racist remark, believe it or not.

mac said...

Anderson was on target - except for one thing: CGM at one point said there may have been as many as 20 attackers, not just 2-5. He also didn't get into the details of where the bruises were photographed as the
"dancer" attempted to perform, proving that they didn't occur because of some after-dance activity. (He did allude to the cell-phone pictures, however.)

On the other hand, it was a good summary. A great one, really.
His commentary on the 88-1 was about as pointed and accurate as I've seen from anyone outside of the case.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:32

I did not say that I knew more about all kinds of anthropology than anyone. That is a pure strawman. I did not even say that I am able to evaluate the academic value of any anthropology.

I said that I am able to come up with informed opinions about the social and human worth of writings in anthropology (or history or economics) because it deals with a topic on which I have a wealth of knowledge and experience, some academic and most not.

I have read only a little bit of anthropology, but I know that Evans-Pritchard's "The Nuer" is able to explain comprehensibly why a certain people lived and acted the way they did because I share the Nuer's and EP's humanity. Similarly, I recognize the human motivations at work in vastly different circumstances when I read Bloch's "Societe Feodale."

I have no hesitation in deciding that Lubiano says nothing of social or human worth compared to the work of an Evans-Pritchard or Marc Bloch. I am interested in hearing your positive arguments about the social and human value of her work, which is something that any human adult of normal intelligence can understand. You give no such arguments, but engage in ad hominem attacks against the arrogance and anti-intellectualism of those who disagree with you.

What your argument comes down to is that only academics may properly criticize academics, who are a privileged caste that we anti-intellectuals should defer to.

"I am not convinced by your argument."

Now excuse me. I need to go to work.

Anonymous said...

9:54,

I do read this blog. That's why I'm concerned. A lot of the people who post here a) think they are experts in a great deal more than they probably are; and b) slime people with some regularity.

Anonymous said...

Followed your link on Levicy leaving Durhasm. The people at Liestoppers are completely out of control.They have published photos, address, and speculation about her where abouts. The hooligans have become vigilantes and mean to track her. I'm afraid they will kick it up a notch.

If you have any influence with these people, I urge you to calm them down.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

pot kettle black?! And the point of this seemingly OT remark is what? You can do well at trival pursuit?

Anonymous said...

Let me name just a few people, all African-Americans, who have been involved in writing about this case:

Prof. James Coleman
Broadcaster Ed Bradley
Blogger LaShawn Barber
Thomas Sowell
Journalist Jason Whitlock

To make this case a black-versus-white issue is to over-simplify a complicated situation. Some of the comments here (like RRH at 2:18) reflect an underlying tone of racism.

Steven Horwitz said...

Can't believe KC let the 1015 through.

And anyone who is applauding at the harassment of Levicy is sorely lacking in humanity. Those people are nuts and we shouldn't be roasting marshmallows on their fires, we should be telling them to knock it off.

Anonymous said...

anon @ 9:29 referenced my posting from yesterday. To wit:

"The perpetrators and those responsible for hoaxes need to learn that they will be followed for life.

So, who is going to follow Levicy to New Hampshire [sic]. Surely, there is at least one on this blog who will make it a project that all in New Hampshire know of the public record of that nurse.

If sufficient authoritative evidence is brought to bear, she may have to change proffessions and tend bar or wait tables. So be it.

But I'll submit this...if a dedicated group can ruin her life, others who hear of her misery will think twice before repeating her transgressions."


9:29 then writes in response:

"That said, it seems that this blog has devolved into discussions among the mentally ill. One poster in the last thread thinks that a nurse should be followed to NH and hounded? It is one note below a call for violence."

It is absolutely clear that Nurse Levicy contributed to and abetted the HOAX. It is also clear that she has not been disciplined for her contribution.

I merely suggest that her "reputation" should follow her based on the public record and upon authoritative evidence.

So, how did you take my exact wording and phrasing, starting with the rhetorical question (my apologies for the missing qestion mark), and turn it into "one note below a call to violence"?

If I thought she deserved more than simply a constant reminder of her transgressions, I could simply parrot another of the groups who are now so silent by saying: "Dead woman walking."

Anonymous said...

One spook:

I remain confused as to how SAT scores reflect "merit". I think grades do, as well as whether someone is well rounded (e.g., joining clubs, sports teams, political campains, volunteering for quasi-medical fields like Medivac or even volunteering for the fire dept. if you live in the suburbs :) ).

As for SAT scores, they typically reflect the exact opposite of what I define as "merit"; i.e., natural ability.

Now, everything has it reasonable limits. Harvard should not be forced to bring in people who truly don't belong there (as measured by their inability to handle the work)... however, any student that applies his/herself in the 1000 range on the SATs (old scale) would have absolutely no problem getting mostly A's at an Ivy League school, assuming that they'd work their tail off.

Thats the reality. That is merit. Not whether naturally, you are blessed with the abilit to ace a standardized test. No?

I've never confused "merit" with natural ability. In my mind, merit is a performance-based concept.

Anonymous said...

KC> Another insightful recap. I do think the bloggers today are going too far and maybe showing their own racist colors. Can you re-cap and drop the blog?
As culpable as I believe Levicy was, it is possible that her move was generated from sincere regret for her role in the take down attmept of the three innocent guys. I am a nurse and most people who become nurses are decent, hard working and care about others. Seeing her in the court room made me wonder if being so close to the three guys and hearing all she was hearing , that maybe she was seeing her role in a new light. Leaving before being prosecuted tells me there was concern it could occur. I guess it still could happen. You didn't say she is in the same field of nursing, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she has accepted her own negligence caused harm to others and is trying to start over. At least she isn't in same state as Reed, though she isn't far.
Nifong was punished, I don't know what other suits may still come, but the guys are free and hopefully got some serious cash from the donation pool Duke so proudly noted. The only person who really hasn't been punished is the person who started it all>Crystal. That to me is a shame.
thanks again KC

Anonymous said...

10:14

As a resident of NH who's also white & male and therefore a potential target, I am very to the hooligans for the heads-up. I'm going to check if she's at any hospital in my neighborhood, and if so, make sure they know not to use her for SANE duties.

mac said...

KC
10:15 am Troll Alert! The poster known as "the one whom we do not speak of" is apparently back.
(Sounds like someone sympathetic to the 88 is attempting to smear the blog.)

10:14
I don't know if your spelling of Durham as "Durhasm" was intentional or not, but it was hillarious anyway! I agree with you that no one should follow Nurse Luv - (doesn't mean she's above criticism) - but it sounds like stalking to me. If someone has a criminal or legal case against her, they should bring it, sooner or later: otherwise, publishing her wherabouts is not good sport, and is not remotely funny.

I'd be the first to bare nuckles with anyone who sought to harm her, no matter what I think about her participation in this case.

Anonymous said...

Concerned poster @9:29AM warns that KC is orchestrating a mess?

Hey, I'm the one who gets off on drama. Don't try to move in on my show.

Seriously, your post is so reminiscent of the multitude of experiences I've had this past year with the local media.

Insular buffoons who are supposed to be relaying facts to the public, instead engage in handwringing and navel-gazing in an effort to keep hope alive among those who have become the most dangerous and vile through their daily efforts to push self-serving agendas.....which, most often, are a very one-sided "racialist" MESS.

KC has neither created nor has he supported a mess....(whatever that's supposed to mean). He has, however, along with many who appreciate his dedication to the purity of his profession and to the fairness of the justice system...REVEALED A MESS.

No doubt, this well-known fact will be met with denial by some; however, that denial in no way diminishes the destructive residue the entire country has witnessed.

Let me also update you:

Jumping the shark has now evolved into packing the magnet.

The drama of the Duke Lacrosse Hoax will never lose its potency. No jumping the shark moment will be forthcoming. This has been a lapidary moment for justice in America.

The next time you wish to "move everyone along" as you suggest this discussion has run its course, try using packing the magnet. This will suggest that you feel a given situation has really gone too far.....maxed-out, if you will.

And finally, it is safe to say that KC might be packing something; however, a magnet full of overkill from the Hoax would not be among his freight.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

10:15's comments about blacks are offensive and idiotic. I believe this is someone who has come to this blog to attempt to show that the posters here are racist and we somehow feel that whites are superior to blacks. Let me clue you in....they're not.

Anyone who feels that people of one race are superior or inferior to another is an idiot and (yes I'll speak for the good, honest, free thinking people who post here) has no place here.

KC's blog is about thinking and argung facts, not about racist rants that are preposterous on their face. I hope he deletes the downright stupid 10:15 post.

Mike Lee

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Christopher Anderson for the clear & concise summary of a complex & confusing(*) situation.

If you ever want to try to explain what all this is about to someone who hasn't been following it (or only followed it in the MSM which is almost the same) it's the place to start.

Anonymous said...

I just re-visited Lubiano's CV. The first time I reviewed her CV, it was at her website and I frankly don't recall seeing the extensive list of work that is now shown on her CV. Did I miss something the first time?

Now Lubiano's CV shows a substantial number of essay, articles, lectures, etc. I have no ability whatsoever to judge or to comment on the quality of the work or the visibility of the various journals/publications, so I'll ask KC and others: Does this revised CV deserve a different perspective than previously provided?

Thanks!

Gary Packwood said...

KC said...

...Lubiano has argued that she has the "privilege" to blur her academic work with her political work.
::
I read that differently.

Lubiano and many of her friends were hired with the understanding that they do not need to meet usual requirements of the academy...for professors.

She does not need to publish or advise students...and is therefore a privileged 'hire' very much like a poet laureate in residence.

Lubiano and her friends spend far less time studying diversity as they do studying and advocating for cultural competency.

Diversity must be studied WITH cultural competency when working with students.

The DukeEngage program is very much about helping student become culturally competent along with embracing diversity ... and they do this at the same time.

Rather than spend all of our time comparing the productivity of the G88 to others in the academy, why not focus more on those at Duke who hired these people to be 'privileged' via their employment contract?

Exactly what were they trying to accomplish with all those privileged contracts? What exactly was the plan?
::
GP

Anonymous said...

A letter today in the H-S:

Check Duke's numbers

In a recent story, The Herald-Sun relied on a Duke University press release touting a record $380 million in gifts. This total must be examined carefully in light of the pressing need of President Richard Brodhead and his administration to proclaim good news in order to survive their handling of the lacrosse debacle.

Exactly half of the increase over the previous year came from an installment payment by The Duke Endowment toward its one-time pledge of $75 million for scholarships. With this surge omitted, the increase did little more than cover inflation. When measured against the university's budget growth, far exceeding inflation, the impact of the gifts actually diminished. The news release boasted about Brodhead's Financial Aid Initiative. The claim that more than 75 percent has been pledged is distorted by over-subscription in areas like athletic scholarships. The undisclosed secret: only half of the money for need-based undergraduate aid is in sight, which puts the big goal of the initiative in jeopardy.

Finally there's clever, concealing wording about the Alumni Annual Fund. For 31 consecutive years news releases said the fund "exceeded its goal." This year, the Annual Fund merely "exceeded its previous year's total" with parts like the Law School ominously short of objective. Overarching these details, to identify the $380 million as "philanthropic gifts" is seriously misleading; for example a large portion is for sponsored medical research, which is to say payment for work to be done. Significantly, the university made no announcement of total contributions for perpetual endowment -- the heart of Duke's enduring strength.


New York City

Duke '63,

Duke Law School '66

Ed Rickards
New York City
August 10, 2007



Debrah

Anonymous said...

Nifong must be hurting for money. According to Durham County public records, the day after he was disbarred (June 20) Nifong and his wife signed a Deed of Trust (NC's version of a new mortgage) on their home for $40,000. That's in addition to the $106,000 they re-mortgaged in late February. The home is only valued at $172,000, so with the Deeds of Trust from his election run, the home is completely tapped out as collateral.

Anonymous said...

KC - I've always found your posts informative, and I look forward to reading you stuff on a daily basis. And I loved the discourse provided by many of the commentors. Now, the comments section is just a haven for racists. KC, you've got to shut down the comments section of your blog or do a better job purging the posts. It's a shame.

Anonymous said...

10:14 I think we are seeing the mind set and progression of the Salem Witch Trials. their are bloggers here who have calling for the same thing.

Anonymous said...

9:29 That says it all. What a shame for this to happen to this great blog. Lets put them in the ban box with Polanski.

Anonymous said...

K.C., IMHO 10:15 is way over the top. Please delete that post.

Thanks in advance.

kcjohnson9 said...

Re the 10.15:

I was on my way out the door earlier and thought I had clicked "delete" rather than "post." My apologies.

Steven Horwitz said...

I don't know if this has been linked here before, but it's a Washington Post article on various conspiracy theories that are evidently fairly commonplace in the African-American community, especially on talk radio. It seems relevant to the Duke case as many in the "something happened" crowd seem to have a similar love for conspiracy and refusal to accept the facts.

Talk Radio Can't Handle the Truth

Anonymous said...

So you're sensoring people who agree with you and understand that your analysis bolsters their position because you think they use the wrong language to talk about race?

Anonymous said...

"WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS, MEN ARE FROM STAFFORDSHIRE"

A book proposal to Duke Press -

Synopsis: This is a fictional account of the gender wars which escalate after men discover a vast underground storage facility in the English countryside outside of Staffordshire containing enough frozen sperm to impregnate Rosie's life partners for the next 420 trillion years.

Snippet from Chapter Two:

"Bugger me!, it seems they're bloody well organized. They've got these vials cross-indexed by height, weight, hair color and proclivity to close the loo seat," said Jagger in a low whisper. "We need to get the 'ell out of here and buy some vibrator stock!"

Snippet from Chapter Four:

"How are the 'Fem-bots' coming, Wilson?" Wilson clicked off his internet porn, nervously snapped to attention with a quick salute and almost shouted, "Very good, sir! They are fully tested and certified in the areas of house cleaning and fornication, but they haven't quite got the hang of pot roast yet."

NOTE: This book is FORTHCOMING. I define the word "forthcoming" to include in its meaning that the book is NOT forthcoming. I also understand that I shall need to include many more references to genitalia for it to be marketable as either fiction or proper academic research. My Duke Editor has begun to randomly insert the words "penis," "vagina" and "transgendered" throughout the book. With that, I expect my forthcoming book will be a smashing success.

Sincerely,

Ms. Lubiano
__________________

To One Spook @ 1:42 - One word: "Magical!" (err... one word and a bit of punctuation).
___________________

"K.C. Johnson burping is now classified as a tornadic event." Newschannel Five @ 9:00 with weatherman Sonny Storm (N.Y., N.Y.). MOO! Gregory

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 12.40:

This blog has a comment moderation policy.

Comments that:
(a) come from a banned commenter;
(b) use vile language;
(c) are off topic

are not posted.

That vile language could be in attacking Lubiano, or it could be in attacking the lacrosse players. The target of the language is irrelevant.

In comment threads that I didn't moderate, I have an oft-stated open request for people to email me with notice of any offensive comments that I might not have seen, and I will delete them.

The purpose of the comment threads is to allow as free an exchange as is reasonable--I allow anonymous comments, after all--while also maintaining at least a minimum level of civility.

Anonymous said...

11"34 $40,000 is chump change - He gets 5,000 a month from his pension. You folks are so angry that Nifong and others have not been ground into dust, you will try anything to prove your points. The Salem Witch trials are going on - Why not think about Professor Petters who wrote " I, of course, would not want to be associated with anything that causes pain." I think the 88 are having a good laught to see that some bloggers are no better or maybe even worse than they.

One Spook said...

fdny engine @ 10:35 writes:
"I've never confused "merit" with natural ability. In my mind, merit is a performance-based concept."

I would offer the same advice to you that I offerred to the little child who allowed that merit was gained my by living in the white male's world --- look it up and get back to me.

Merit includes achievement that can come from natural ability, indeed, but merit is performance-based as well, but certainly more than a damn SAT score.

FYI, I feel the same way about "diversity and quota hires" as I do about "legacy" hires; I don't like any of them.

In discussing merit, I've often framed it in this manner: If you were on an airplane landing at night with one engine out in terribly bad weather, would you rather the pilot had been hired on the merit of her/his flying ability or that he/she was a diversity/quota hire?

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Mac @ 11:00

I absolutely agree with your comment that "I'd be the first to bare nuckles with anyone who sought to harm her, no matter what I think about her participation in this case."

...with the proviso that "harm" refers to anything of a violent or physical nature or any emotional harm that extends beyond the ramifications of the Hoax. But I find nothing wrong whatsoever in making certain that she is never able to abet a hoax again. If the hospital that employs her wants her to perform the duties of a SANE nurse after having been provided the details of her Duke experience, then as the parent of white male athletic sons in college (and assuming they were in her neighborhood), I'd appreciate the notification of her professional (not personal) whereabouts and that my sons were at risk.

Topher said...

As the author of the Stanford Daily column, let me first say I am deeply humbled and honored by the praise given me by KC, and subsequently by DiW posters. (I had KC cited twice in my story, but we took them out due to space and relevancy concerns. My editor also did a great job taking out a couple of needlessly inflammatory nuggets that would have hurt the story in the end.)

I received email this morning from Matthew Zash's mother, another thrilling moment.

As a student at a college where the case was not heavily discussed, I felt an opportunity to lay the facts out with a bang.

Let me explain the "tie goes to the accused" statement. That was a reference to the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Of course the burden is different in NC rape cases, but in normal judicial proceedings an inconclusive case must lead to an acquittal.

Without Nifong conspiring to all-out frame these men, the case might have been tossed on procedural grounds, creating a "no harm no foul" situation and obviating the need for the Attorney General to speak the I word.

(Although who in Durham would have had the guts to throw the case out remains unknown.)

Anonymous said...

Ralph - You can be sure that any NH Hospital is not only not interested in your opinions, they might get you for slander and libel. Too late Mac for the speech - you have done everything you can to "hound" this nurse. You,like the rest of your cohorts are just mad because you were so wrong. No civil suits here. DUMC and the NC Board gave you all the middle finger.

Anonymous said...

You guys who have persecuted this nurse should at least, go down with your flags flying. Whimping out is never attractive.

Anonymous said...

"I just want to make sure that all of you have heard the great news about the fundraising results at Duke during the past year. Duke has just issued a press release stating that during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, it received financial contributions of more than $380 million, a new all-time record, which exceeded last year's record total by $40 million."

Great news! That allowed Duke to be quite generous in its settlement with the Lax 3, that ultimately protected the Groupers 88, Broadrot, and the rest of the Duke Rush to Judgement weasels!

Think any donations came in from alum Dave Evans?

Topher said...

I had a protracted exchange about my column yesterday with a True Believer (the same old "something happened" shtick). After calling his argument "non compos mentis," I invited him to read the story on DiW when KC updated the blog.

Here is his verbatim reply:

>>
Here I thought we at least had an honest difference of opinion. Now I find you are
associated with KC Johnson and 'Durham in Wonderland'!!!! Please don't respond. You
and your fellow conspirators are totally discredited.

"No vested interested in the case's parties" my ass!

Talk about disgusting!
<<

Anonymous said...

"Actually, all he or she asked was where Mr. Hamilton obtained these alleged statistics. The writer also made a salient point that it would make a great deal more sense to track these students after graduation as they enter what is generally known as the real world i.e, getting a job."

You would find a huge white guilt-provided inside track, government job market for them. And of course a plethora of private sector creampuff jobs as well.

Just a guess, though!

Anonymous said...

Debrah: Sounds like outright deceit to me. Although they may try, leopards cannot change their spots.

Anonymous said...

10:34 It is absolutly clear that no governing body agrees with your assestment of the Levicy matter and has choosen not to join the Salem Witch Hunt. All that stuff is in your head - do the voices come out of the TV?
KC the post from 10:34 should be deleted. This thing could disinigrate into violence.

mac said...

1:19
I haven't retracted anything I've written about Luvicy; her comments/testimony have been thoroughly deplorable. I merely stated that I would defend her, by force if neccessary, from those who would cause her physical harm.

On the other hand, trolls like Begas et al have actually kept Nurse Tara's "admirers" (detractors) on her case far more than DIW itself, as there's been reason to delve much more deeply into her testimony and for the effect she's had on the case.
Her admirers did her no favors and gained her more attention than she might've gotten otherwise.

Thanks for the incentive! Couldn'a done it without you!

(BTW, Inman, I didn't read your comment yesterday as a threat to her person. Rest easy.)

Anonymous said...

You to 1:19 - Lets get you for slander and libel also. NH is a lot less tolerant about this stuff than NC. If your "sons" are not out raping woman or others, they should have a problem. She did not have anything to do with the hoax. It was Nifong, Chief of Police and upper DPd Management.
Like the folks who whipped up the crowd at the Salem Witch Trials, you will plead innocence. you did not mean for it to go that "far." KC - this is another Polanski Alert

Anonymous said...

Thank you Topher! Absolutely one of the best written on the subject.

Anonymous said...

re @ 1:19

No civil suits that we know of
No North Carolina Board of Nursing Action (Lots of concerned letters were sent)
Not fired from DUMC

The flames, the passion, the outrage, the anger all understandable.

The systems in our society to address the accusations against Levicy have not acted (so far)

Justice moves slowly as we know.

If this situation escalates into bad behavior by good people at this late date it will reflect poorly on everything we worked for in freeing the boys.

Life isn't fair.

KC, I suggest you take a few days off from the blog and let people process the good things they have done and think about the good things to come in their own lives, and reflect on how dangerous a bad choice can be where all of the options regarding Levicy will do no good.

mac said...

1:52
Huh? Could you rewrite that? It's not readable. Is this the T-Bird lady, Begas? Where is P in this? Are you with 1:19 or against? What is your argument?

No offense, but you weren't very clear - (and please don't use this as an excuse to bash my reading comprehension: I would really like to know what you meant.)

Anonymous said...

To all of you Florence Nightingale apologists, please give it a rest.

There is more than enough evidence to show that Tara Levicy aided Mike Nifong, and consequently, furthered the railroading of innocent people.

In my estimation, she isn't worth discussion except for the negative repercussions her ineptitude or personal agenda, or both, caused.

This is a woman who has been able to just slink away thanks to Duke's deep pockets.

There is no irregularity in chronicling her escape from responsibility.

She's a problem for her own profession.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

1:51 Of course, you did not read it as a "threat." You do the same thing and are now "back sliding" having been proven just how wrong you are and were.

Anonymous said...

1:52

Do you often display the IQ of an ice cube?

None of the Duke Lacrosse team were out raping women but they ended up with a big problem. And, based upon the commentary and the facts, it appears that Nurse Levicy abetted the conspiracy to convict 3 innocent young men.

So, I'll maintain my position that the public deserves to be aware of her contributions -- only the facts -- and certainly not the hysterical mumblings of someone who thinks that any reputable attorney would view ANYTHING that I have said as libelous (slander doesn't even apply.)

Libel -- A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.

Note the word "false" as in -- you clealy have a false sense of reality and of the extent to which your words can be viewed as anything bu vapid.

Question: Are you Tara?

mac said...

2:12
Are you a member of Nurse Tara's family? A close personal friend?

Anonymous said...

Inre: 1:52 "...Like the folks who whipped up the crowd at the Salem Witch Trials, you will plead innocence. you did not mean for it to go that far..."

This is why people like the Klan of 88 are so dangerous. They twist meaning. It was they, the Klan, the admin, the abettors who remain like those in Salem. It is KC and others who shine light on the vermin who continue to attempt to re-write their deplorable and evil conduct.

It was Marx who lied, called for violent revolutions, and based his case on old out-dated data that was no longer relevant. The Klan of 88 and their abettors blog do the same thing.

The notion that those who did exhibit deplorable conduct will be forgotten is very myopic.

The effort to shut down dissent via the CCI, the "Shut up and teach" presentation, and on this blog should open everyone's eyes as to the true nature of their intent.

Calling one a racist just doesn't mean much coming from those who are truely racist.

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 1.59:

"No civil suits that we know of
No North Carolina Board of Nursing Action (Lots of concerned letters were sent)
Not fired from DUMC"

This description (with the appropriate substitution for item 2) would also apply for Sgt. Mark Gottlieb.

As we know:
(1) Levicy stated there were signs consistent with a rape even though there was no rape;
(2) She shifted her story as the case progressed, always in ways that conformed to Nifong's needs at the time;
(3) She (by her own admission) told Mark Gottlieb items that were not in her written report;
(4) If a trial had occurred, she would have been Nifong's co-starring witness, along with Mangum;
(5) If a trial had occurred, her behavior was going to be strongly critiqued by one of the founders of her field.

To me, that's an extraordinarily troubling record.

Anonymous said...

With respect to the crime of rape, people like Tara Levicy serve to cloud the issue.....

....turning it into an amorphous battle between instances where women (and some men) are actually raped......and instances where disgruntled or emotionally challenged women have remorse after engaging in sex with someone.....going along with the act right up until the moment when it's a moving target, physically, what has transpired between the people involved.

Years can pass and a woman can level rape charges against someone. Just on her word.

I call that Post Traumatic Vagina Violation Syndrome.

Levicy should include something about this the next time she participates in a Monologue.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Devorah - No evidence - No evidence that DUMC was part of the Duke University settlement. You folk stop hounding the woman and we will all "give it a rest."

Anonymous said...

Debrah, I cannot take you seriously at this late date about Levicy and suggest you just continue your unbeatable antics in musical entertainment, comedy, exclaiming about things you don't "get" and being "HOT." There is nothing wrong with that.

You do not know what the evidence against Levicy is because you only know what you have been told it is. Levicy's lawyer has not presented a case, charges have not been filed, depositions have not been obtained. In short, the evidence has not been presented. Only bits and pieces of the evidence have been presented.

You are not appreciated for your attempted thoughts and decisions regarding complex medico-legal ethical issues.

The only statement you made above that I agree with is that Levicy is not worth discussion, and I would add, especially not when you are on the board.

Anonymous said...

I though Burgess was going to testify aboout Rape Sundrome," There is no way any lawyer was going to let her criticize Levicy on the stand. She was never an expert and you know that. I do not believe perennial liar Gottlieb can be believed. The rape report verifies none of this stuff from Gottlieb or Kingsbury. Can we leave her alone?
Her governing bodies were uninpressed witht the cards and letters they received. Like you have to have real evidence - not "somebody said."
KC = "troubling" is different from a Witch Hunt = that this has turned into on your blog. I agree with you on most everything but not this. One of these nuts could hurt her - with no legal evidence.

Anonymous said...

Mac at 2:04 pm,

I was just about to start a comment that would begin:

KC,

This is a begas alert at 1:52 pm.

Then I got to the “this is another Polanski alert” at the close of the 1:52 comment and I read it again. At the second reading I couldn’t make any sense of it at all either (and I thought I’d become somewhat fluent in begasese). It’s either begas after she began way too early pulling the tail of the Tbird or it may be Polanski doing a parody of begas. Who knows.

Let me close with this:

Hey begas, “Old Lady” is trying to defend your “honor” over at LieStoppers. She is failing miserably. Why don’t you just scuttle on back over to LieStoppers and defend yourself?

Anonymous said...

All of us in the same profession defended this nurse, except the Ks who wanted to be somebody in this event. Thet have backed off when it came to their attention the libel nature of their writing. On to more fun watching the PGA/

Anonymous said...

"Ralph - You can be sure that any NH Hospital is not only not interested in your opinions, they might get you for slander and libel."

Snicker.

If I send them this link and nothing more, what have I said that's actionable? Her testimony speaks for itself.

mac said...

Steven Horwitz 12:38
Very illuminating post and link!

There are new studies that implicate the use of cannabis sativa to a decreased function of the inferior frontal cortex, an area that is known to inhibit paranoia. It might be that some communities use the stuff more than others.

Another recent study suggests that symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are actually increased by the use of THC, despite what researchers had anticipated (i.e. a decrease in psychosis) since people with that unfortunate malady tend to seek out the drug.

I could write more, but suffice it to say that some communities are more likely to use it than others, and may therefore display the effects more visibly.

Still doesn't explain why G. Gordon Liddy is popular, though.

Anonymous said...

KC-
1:52 and 2:12 seems to consist entirely of personal abuse and metacomment. Please remove it for nastiness, off-topicness and incomprehensibility.

Has Polanski got himself a new IP address?

Anonymous said...

This is the oath that most nurses take at graduation:

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug.

I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.

Tara Levicy dishonored herself and the nursing profession. She has a right to physical safety. She has too much to answer for to be allowed to continue nursing.

Anonymous said...

“Angela Davis was a young African American woman who by 1970 had risen to national prominence as a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and a supporter of the Black Panther Party. In the spring of 1969, at age 25, Davis became a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California at Los Angles. In the fall, she was dismissed by the UC regents because of her affiliation with the Communist Party. A California court reinstated her, however based on earlier decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that bans on employing Communists were unconstitutional.

On June 19, 1970 Governor Reagan, along with a majority of the UC regents, voted not to renew Davis’ teaching contract for another year. At a press conference after the vote, Reagan cited her speeches, “particularly on those campuses where there was already trouble and dissension” as the reason for her dismissal He added; “Academic freedom does not include…speaking to incite trouble on other campuses.” - "Reagan, A Life of Letters" by Kiron Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson

Reagan a prolific letter writer wrote this in response to a letter he received…

“Just a line to say I share your concern with regard to educators and their ability to indoctrinate rather that teach.

Unfortunately the problem is complicated an grown more so. In the instance of Miss Davis the University of California did terminate her position. The university had a rule expressly forbidding the employment of faculty members who were members of the Communist Party. Now the Supreme Court has given a decision that such rules are unconstitutional.

I assure you I am not deserting and will continue to expose and oppose communism in every way I can.” - Ronald Reagan

Of course Angela Davis went to prison because she owned some of the guns used in the Marin County Courthouse shootings where Judge Harold J. Haley and others were murdered.

What a great example. What great perspective. She should teach at Duke. She should be a Department head. Hell she should be on the BOT in the name of diversity. All ideas should have equal consideration, right?

Did the Klan of 88 incite others? The New Black Panthers perhaps? The pot bangers? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Gary Packwood said...

Debrah 11:17

Re: Ed Rickards' letter

I believe that members of the Duke BOT and administration know exactly what they are doing when they speak of their efforts to raise funds by first mentioning the $380 Million.

Most Americans can't even imagine gifts of $380 Million in one year.

People look at that number and just move on.

Duke's 'enduring strength' financially is so vast that they can do just exactly as they please...and no one is paying any attention.
::
GP

Anonymous said...

2:38 Thank you...inre: "...I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession..."

Brodhead has not elevated the standards set by his predecessors. The Klan of 88 have not elevated the human condition or the American experience. The press, well at least they are consistent and in a field that any sane person would find difficult to respect.

In any other endeavor these people would be fired.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the post of 1:11, you're right Professor Peters did the right thing. He realized the ad was out of line in that it prejudged the players and caused harm to his own students. He said he didn't want to be part of anything that caused pain. Apparently the other 87 have no problem with that.

So, 1 down 87 to go. And I seriously doubt the 87 are laughing at anything involving their actions at this point. They have severely damaged their reputations and faced tremendous backlash as a result of what they did. Regardless of what any of them might say in public, I can guarantee you that the vast majority of them (Lubiano and one or two of the biggest whackos not withstanding) would not sign that statement if they had it to do over again.

One last thing....these Professors claimed to be listening to their students. If I recall 1,000 students and alumni took out an ad in the Chronicle demanding an apology recently. Guess they are only listening to some students huh.

Anonymous said...

2:38 Well, the NC and NH Board of Nursing disagres with you. I will go with the governing bodies.

Steven Horwitz said...

I too am troubled by the focus on Levicy. We don't know all of the facts and many here are jumping to all kinds of crazy conclusions.

I find the attempts to harass her by informing her new employers of her role here to be over the line. And the LS crap about publishing her address etc is WAY over the line.

Absent some concrete evidence to the contrary, it seems only decent and human to grant her the good faith of believing that she learned a lesson from this whole experience and wants to start fresh in a new place. It seems to me people should accept that as a working hypothesis and just leave her the hell alone until you have some reason to believe otherwise.

Again, it's the only decent, human thing to do.

Anonymous said...

All these unfounded charges of racism remind me of something Bill Cosby once said.

"A word to the wise ain't necessary; it's the stupid ones who need advice." - Bill Cosby

If there isn't any intellectualism, can there be any anti-intellectualism?

Anonymous said...

Is begas a communist?

Anonymous said...

To 2:29PM--

I_Can't_Make_You_Love_Me_If_You_Don't

:>)

Debrah

Anonymous said...

TO 2:41PM--

For sure, GP.....and that's exactly what they have done.

That was a powerful letter.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

2:29: As a lawyer with many years of experience in negotiating civil settlements, I can assure you that Duke Univerity's lawyers would not have entered into a universal settlement of the 3 LAXer defendants' claims against Duke unless that settlement included DUMC and all its employees, including Tara Levicy. Duke had substantial liability exposure as a result of the actions of DUMC and Levicy, and a settlement that did not include them would have been ineffective in protecting Duke's interests.

Anonymous said...

"It was old and tired. Now the schtick is vile."

8/10/07 7:33 AM

Please defend your position.

What is the relevance, and more importantly, the contribution to reasoned discourse and human kind, of Lubiano's so-called scholarship?

Those who challenge Lubiano and G88 members' have every right to reasoned discourse with you or anyone else with similar philosophies. You attempt to reason that anyone with lesser an education is mutually exclusive of interpreting the G88 position. The problem with that is the fact that issues discussed here are understood by and affect everyone who is reasonable regardless of a terminal degree or race/class/gender. And if you and the G88 truly are above our intelligence, you’ll have no problems putting your position into layman’s terms, will you?

So, have you a response?

Eric

Anonymous said...

Steven Horowitz @ 3:03

Thank you for the wisdom of your post. I feel that I am, to a certain extent responsible for the level of invection targeting Levicy. I am also concerned by the extent to which my words have been twisted by the agenda mongers. I agree that gratuitous provision of her information to a new employer is over the line. I am however hopeful that an employer's pre-employment due diligence would reveal the facts of her complicity.

I also agree that publishing her address is WAY over the line and would ask that any thought of that be squelched. The last thing anyone would want is for some crazed sole to do something stupid to that woman. And there are a lot of loonies in the world. (For all the lawyers: If someone was dumb enough to publish her address and something awful happened, would the publisher be potentially guilty of aiding and abetting?)

So in response to your request for humanity, I for one shall let Levicy rest.

The record will speak for itself.

Again -- thank you for wise counsel.

Tom Inman

Anonymous said...

All of us in the nursing profession DO NOT DEFEND the SANE nurse! She should lose her license over too many issues to recount! The N.C. Board of Nursing is an incompetent mess!

Anonymous said...

Eric, good response. Quite frankly, by dear old grandma, who did not have a PhD, could have with one of her favorite sayings summed up Lubiano's "scholarship."
"If it smells like a fart, it's a fart." To think that their line of thought is beyond our comprehension is elitist. In reality, they are a bunch of whackos.
cmf

Anonymous said...

I was a Registered Nurse in North Carolina. I have had first-hand experience with the North Caroloina Board of Nursing ---refusing to disipline a dangerous nurse. I do not defend the SANE nurse. I call for her license to be revoked and banned from employment in any nursing position in the future, in order to protect the public.

Anonymous said...

3:13
Do you think the Duke settlement which included DUMC/Levicy also meant Duke said they would cover her a** by including her only if she "left to pursue other interests?" That she left town so quickly after the settlement indicates maybe she had some incentives (financial and otherwise) to do so.

Anonymous said...

Why is it that every time I see a post from Steven Horowitz I find myself thinking that he's exactly right?

Most likely because he is.

Anonymous said...

I would like to second Steven Horwitz's comments. Levicy's misdeeds are well-documented (thanks KC). Anybody that is going to learn anything from her sad contribution to this mess, has probably already learned it. Those who haven't learned, won't.

Its like I tell my kids, you have to learn from the mistakes of others, you don't have time to make them all yourself.

-RD

Anonymous said...

Regarding the continuing posts about the record breaking fundraising at Duke this year. I too think it's fantastic.

I am sure that Jim Cooney, Brad Bannon, Joe Cheshire, the Dowd family, and the 3 falsely accused players and their families are putting their shares to very good use.

Anonymous said...

Great article CA, if you were Lubiano you could take the next 4 years off! But seriously, combining engineering and fantastic writing should get you far in life, good luck.

Mr. Taylor's column was informative, I wonder if plea-bargaining has an effect on wrongful prosecution, I would think so.

AJ

Anonymous said...

3:13 The action of Levicy in assisting Dr Manly with the exam exonerated the team and guys. The AG thought so, but os course, you blog lawyers know better. DUMC provided the rape kit and personal who collected the materials that showed no DNA. What is your action??? You do not have one. The Ag and NC Board know better than anyone on this blog. Just because they "aid you no mind: does not mean they are a mess.

Anonymous said...

KC let me be the first to congratulate you on being a nonperson with G88 and their ilk. Topher at 1:27 in a discussion with a polar opposite, quoted that worthy as saying, in regards to KC and DIW, "You (topher) and your fellow conspirators are totally discredited."

Nonperson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonperson

Nonperson. Nonissue. No Problem.
Never happened.

mac said...

I'll also endorse Steven Horwitz' comments, and would add that most of us would have less to say on the subject if the troll(s) would just shut up! It's hard not to find ourselves responding to their inarticulate stupidities; I think they do Miss Levicy more harm than her detractors.

I seriously wonder if "they're" not just a single person, "the one whom we do not speak of," since he loves to yank people's chains, I would suggest that it is the disrespected P. doing the posting.

Since that person also sent emails to a prof. from another school and tried to start trouble, it would seem likely that he's working both sides of this issue, hoping to somehow "get" KC and the rest of us.

KC?

Anonymous said...

"I would like to second Steven Horwitz's comments. Levicy's misdeeds are well-documented (thanks KC). Anybody that is going to learn anything from her sad contribution to this mess, has probably already learned it. Those who haven't learned, won't."

Those who haven't paid attention to the Duke Lacrosse Burning (much of humanity) haven't heard. If she had ever said "whoops, my bad," or even just looked ashamed of herself at the Nifong hearing I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. Instead she was giving the players hostile glares and still trying to push the "mayber they didn't ejaculate" line to the very end of Nifong's bar hearing.

Evidence that's she's figured out she did something wrong? None. Evidence that she'd do the same again? Not conclusive, but more than zero.

For the safety of the men of New Hampshire, myself included, potential employers need to be warned not to let her near a rape case.

It could have been me. If she's employed as a SANE in my state, it still could be me.

Anonymous said...

To Topher: That was an excellent article and an easy read. I was not surprised to see that you are an Electrical Engineering major. You have a great future in writing, but not in politics!

It was a shock to remember how Duke Divinity dealt with the ordeal:

"The campus priest told a parent he wouldn't minister to the team until they 'confessed their sins.'" - Quoted from Topher's article

I also seem to remember the campus priest bringing in Reverend Barber to spew his racism from the Duke pulpit. What kind of "evidence" does a priest need before he casts out members of his congregation (this is multiple choice):

1. Conjecture.
2. Hearsay.
3. Double-hearsay.
4. Divine inspiration.

P.S. Topher, whenever I touch this wire that sticks out of my bedroom wall I get shocked. Should I keep touching it, or should I attempt to argue with it? Also, please send your article to Duff Wilson for comment.

As for your perception about an anti-athlete bias on campus, I agree. It is pervasive and sometimes quite silly. The anti-athletes especially hate the basketball and football coaches who make 10x more than the "teaching" faculty. I can only guess it is a continuation of the "jock vs. nerd" high school dichotomy. Any suggestions, anyone?

____________

To Debrah: Your ascerbic wit has apparently hit its mark with the Gang of 88. I especialy liked "Post-Traumatic Vagina Violation Syndrome." As a male, I have felt something similar, but I chalked it up to buyer's remorse and didn't file charges.
_____________

Noticeably absent as subheadings in Lubiano's CV, after the usual "Education," "Publications" and "Presentations" topics were:

1. "INCITEMENTS TO RIOT"

2. "PRESUMPTIONS OF GUILT"

3. "APOLOGIES"
________________

"Mr. Johnson carries money and credit cards on his person to maintain the illusion that not everyone 'comps' him." The New Yorker (Aug. 2007). MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

3:51 I have been an RN for over fifty years. Have never had first hand knowledge of any Nursing Board, except to send in my fees and CEUs. I am currently licensed in one state but inactive in eight, What is your first hand knowledge about?

Anonymous said...

Not sure that backtracking now, after whipping up the crowd, is going to save you from libality, Tom.

Anonymous said...

Ralph - 2:29 has a great answer to the rumor mill, you linked to. Slander and libel is saying and writing comments about folk that is untrue. Please do write to the NH Board and Hospital and lets see what happens.

Anonymous said...

cmf,

Thank you. The 88ers don't respond because words will expose their hypocrisy. They want us to believe they're for diversity, but they prejudge white males (emphasis added, then de-emphasized!). They cry for equality but take trivial facts out of context to make Duke student athletes seem like they behave like cavemen. And for their tri-fecta… they bang their pots to demand their voices be heard and their opinions exclusive, suppressing any dissent.

My apologies to Geico for the caveman thing, I couldn’t think of anything else.

For this, their opinions are as relevant as a fart in a windstorm.

Eric

Anonymous said...

Debrah and Inman:
To each of you, who plays the other in the movie??

Anonymous said...

You know, it's amazing. Angela Davis writes bitterly of white racism against blacks - yet writes approvingly of black racism against whites. She literally does not see the stunning hypocrisy of what she's just written.

How is it possible to say it - and yet not see it?

Anonymous said...

5:11

I have no concern whatsoever about liability. But thank you for the compliment ... "whipping up the crowd."

5:20

At this point, no one should have a concern whatsoever about liability, as long as they didn't invent "facts."

Oh, and you are seriously grammar impaired. Here, let me help:

"Ralph - 2:29 has a great answer to the rumor mill, to which you linked. [Don't end a sentence with a preposition.] Slander and libel are [plural] saying and writing, respectively, comments about a person that are false such that the comments damage the person's reputation [plural subjects require 'are' and always complete the defintion]. Please, [a comma or an elipse is appropriate here] do write to the NH Board and Hospital and let's [let's is a contraction of 'let us' and requires an apostrophe] see what happens."

You must be in the fifth or sixth grade, so I won't denigrate any further.

_____________

Ralph, since you are in New Hampshire, you have a legitimate concern. Levicy's professional affiliation and duties are probably public domain meterial. If in fact, she is a SANE nurse in a hospital in your area, a letter to the editor of a local news organization might be appropriate. Let those who have First Amendment protection make the call.

_____

I'm still tickled by the assertion that I "whipped up the crowd." TEEHEE.

Anonymous said...

to anonymous at 5:38


I hope I get to play Debrah.

Anonymous said...

I am not in favor of hounding Ms. Levicy, and I regret the language in some of the comments concerning her. I wish her well in her new abode. But her defenders need to consider an important point. Levicy’s role was in fact far more dangerous than that played by Lubiano. It is true that Lubiano, who seems to have more time on her hands than some of her colleagues, spearheaded the professionally improper public “Listening” statement. That statement helped to inflame local tensions, and the defense attorneys were right to cite it as one of several evidences that a fair trial, if matters came to that, was not to be had in Durham. But Lubiano is an expert in nothing, and her opinions regarding “social disaster” have no more authority than yours or mine. Levicy is (or was) a medical professional whose testimony could reasonably be supposed to be that of an expert. One has to conclude that her testimony, false as to fact, was actually suborned by her own political beliefs. This is not the same as saying she was lying pure and simple. We say “seeing is believing”, but it often works the other way around. In a complex or ambiguous situation we “see” those things we are predisposed to believe. It is fairly harmless that Lubiano is predisposed to see imaginary analogies between FEMA and the Third Reich or whatever. That mental aberration is unlikely to have much social result. The postmodernist academic jargon of a bunch of Duke professors may be incomprehensible and indigestible, but it unlikely to be lethal. Imaginary “blunt force trauma” conceivably could have put somebody in jail.

Anonymous said...

7:55

You are correct. Quantity does not trump quality. However, Whyme has neither. If you are so desperate as to count an interview as a publication and you can only get ONE interview, maybe self-examination was in order. Obviously she has nothing to say or write that is of any quality. Unlike her buddy who uses lots of words to say nothing, at least Whyme spares us from more than 100 words of drivel in one gag-filled sentence!

Anonymous said...

If you guys stay away from situations that are or look like rape - your should have no problem. Yeah, all you Levicy distractors. The devil made you do it. Time to be big boys now and stop being angry because her governing Bodies "paid you no mind."

Anonymous said...

9:34

She is a woman.

She may be a woman, but she's still an idiot. Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

@ Inman (and admittedly off topic)

In the case of seperable verbs, ending a sentence with a preposition is not ungrammatical,
e.g. "Look her up" has a distinctly different meaning from "Look up her."

Some view ending a sentence with a preposition as infelicitous style, but Winston Churchill, no mean writer of the English language, is reputed to have responded, "That is nonsense up with which I shall not put."

Anonymous said...

I haven't the time to read all the posts, but I want to respond to the calls to 'leave nurse Tara alone.'

Just like there are sex offender registries, I believe that there should be registries for people who make false allegations of sex offenses and/or who contribute to or otherwise act as enablers of such crimes. Thus, I think it's entirely fair and just to publicize nurse Tara's whereabouts, etc. Now, if she choses to engage in a profession where she can do no harm via her radical feminist sympathies (e.g., flipping burgers, pumping gas, collecting trash, etc.) then cool. However, if she's working up in NH as a(n) (in)SANE nurse, domestic violence counselor, social worker, GAL, etc., then the people need to know that there's a wolf in their midst. IMHO it's the only responsible thing to do.

mac said...

Inman 6:01,
Good comments.
5:11/5:20/6:10 is probably a Luvicy family member: even SANE Nurses who change their stories to fit the needs of the prosecutor have families. (Still think it could be P.) As long as we keep responding to that pissant, whomever it is, he/she/it will keep posting.
I wish KC would do something, though. (P. was always upset because he thought CGM should be getting more of the blame than the "Luv" nurse.)

6:03
You make an important distinction, though Nifong was probably deeply heartened by the support he got from the 88, and ths students were deeply traumatized by them, too. As a matter of law, though, you're right, in that perspective.

Debrah: loved your "packing the magnet" comment.

Gregory: brilliant as usual. I will really miss your gentle satire and subtle retorts when KC shuts 'er down.

I doubt the trolls will be very happy: they seem to be pretty grumpy...snrkl ofpp n dscinde yes...without their T-Bird or
Wild Irish Rose. I hope the "Luv Nurse" gets deposed in one or more of the other suits that are bound to occur, sooner or later - (especially likely in the suit against Durrhh.)

mac said...

Y'know, KC, it might be a mistake to bash Lubiano for lack of publication - she might start writing! As of now, the less writing, the less influence!

And someone (6:09) posited the notion that her silence was better than the "100 words of drivel" written by some of the others in the 88.

Food for thought.

One Spook said...

Regarding the obsessed Levicy defender, mac at 5:02 writes:

"I would suggest that it is the disrespected P. doing the posting."

For what it's worth, I think not, mac. Her posts were coincident with P's posts and this is not P's MO.

These posts are the products of a VERY lonely woman, likely an experienced LPN or RN who believes Levicy has been picked upon and this sad person is obsessed with engaging Levicy's detractors.

She keeps repeating the same misguided litany of (1) The Board didn't sanction Levicy (2) Duke medical didn't sanction Levicy, and (3) Levicy's report "exonerated" the players.

That logic is like seeing your teenage daughter riding in a speeding car driven by her boyfriend and confronting her with it, only to hear her defend the boy by saying "He has never had a ticket!" and "He's never been kicked out of school!" Those things are not germane because regardless, you know what you saw with your own eyes.

And what we saw with Levicy wasn't just the subpar report, but rather her "freelancing" written and oral commentary afterword, her changing story and embellishment of information not in the report, all of which is a matter of public record, and needs no spin whatsoever.

The fact that no DNA was present was NOT part of Levicy's report, and her report exonerated no one. That report, NOT Levicy's freelance comments, was cited by the AG, together with a mountain of other evidence that showed the players were innocent and that charges should NEVER have been brought.

Yet Nifong and Gottlieb both buffaloed this inexperienced nurse who was in way over her head. They played upon her obvious gender bias and, by getting her to offer "freelance" comments, turned her bland report into "facts" they hoped to use against the LAX 3.

It is for that reason that she should never be a SANE nurse, anywhere at anytime.

Her departure makes it more than obvious that, as I've written here before, folks at Duke suggested that she "pursue other opportunities." Why else would she leave? She had a dream job in a dream environment.

That said, I agree with horwitz that the continued pursuit of poor impressionable Levicy, who obviously failed her SANE training, is of no value.

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Jeffm...

I stand corrected, although I still think that one can structure one's thoughts to conform with the rule.

Neither "Look her up" nor "Look up her" are particularly precise statements.

But, I am appropriately rebuked by your invocation of Winston Churchill.

One of my favorite Churchill quotes involves the woman MP who scolds Churchill with:

"Mr. Churchill, you are drunk."

To which he replied:

"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."

Topher said...

6:10:

"If you guys stay away from situations that are or look like rape - your should have no problem."

Reade Seligmann did so. And...?

Anonymous said...

6:35 don't you think there should be a trial first - view the sworn evidence and a judge or jury verdict. Innocent until proven quilty - not just hearsay information. Remember like blogges called for the team and defendents? Oh sorry - that is just for Lax players who drink underage and hire strippers to come to their home. Like the rest of them, write the NH Board and Hospital - try to use your real name - lets see what happens witht the libel suits.

Anonymous said...

6:03 What is your answer to the AG of the great state of NC saying "the Manly/Levicy exam proved there was no sign of rape. That is how bad DUMC and the personel were -

Jack said...

carolyn @ 5:40 pm

How is it possible for you to think she does not see it?

Anonymous said...

5;38 PM

The other one . . . and how would you know which one was which one anyway. You know.

Anonymous said...

RE: KC Johnson @2:17 the second re 1:59

KC Johnson said...


1:59 said

>No civil suits that we know of
>No North Carolina Board of Nursing Action (Lots of concerned letters were sent)
>Not fired from DUMC


"This description (with the appropriate substitution for item 2) would also apply for Sgt. Mark Gottlieb.

"As we know:
(1) Levicy stated there were signs consistent with a rape even though there was no rape;
(2) She shifted her story as the case progressed, always in ways that conformed to Nifong's needs at the time;
(3) She (by her own admission) told Mark Gottlieb items that were not in her written report;
(4) If a trial had occurred, she would have been Nifong's co-starring witness, along with Mangum;
(5) If a trial had occurred, her behavior was going to be strongly critiqued by one of the founders of her field.

"To me, that's an extraordinarily troubling record."

KC

To KC:
First let me get the insult out of the way - I am talking about Levicy and you are dragging in the suspect DPD with your substitution of item 2 for Gottleib? Where in the world are you coming from? (Don't answer that) I may choose to defend Levicy on this for entertainment purposes only forum. I mean, if blogs were the answer we could do away with universities, the courts, the sheriff, the police, and then it would be congress, and well...

Please focus.

(1) Levicy stated there were signs consistent with rape even though there was no rape.
-I say - Everything/nothing is consistent with sexual assault. I thought I read it here. Your number one item is not important in the case against Levicy. Besides, in the Bar testimony Levicy said 'sexual assault.'

(2) She shifted her story as the case progressed, always in ways that conformed to Nifong's needs at the time.
-I say this is a broad statement and unless you could talk about the specifics and the documentation I would have to say that I am not willing to invest hours of research because you are being lazy about it. You really must write about Levicy and include all of these things with clearly marked quotes and references and suppositions and rumors and help show the facts.

(3) She (by her own admission) told Mark Gottlieb items that were not in her written report;
-I say this is another vague item on your list here. Let's wrap it all up in one Levicy post - the good the bad the ugly. I know it can be done, I have summarized up to 10 years of medical records for attorneys under those three headings on one page.

(4) If a trial had occurred, she would have been Nifong's co-starring witness, along with Mangum;
- I say that I have learned a little about SANE nursing on your blog and it seems to me (there's that little research thingie again) that the SANE kit nurse would always be a witness for the DA. There wouldn't be much point of the SANE being a witness for the accused rapist would there? (OK OK this IS Wonderland....)

(5.) If a trial had occurred, her behavior was going to be strongly critiqued by one of the founders of her field.
-I say, A SANE's testimony would be most effectively rebutted by an expert hired by the defense. Though she is respected and honorable, honored and deservedly so, and has written some of the most important research in the field of sexual assault, Dr Burgess is not anywhere near the level a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (40 hours class and some clinical?) In other words, she is eons beyond that in thought and word and deed. Ann Burgess is discovering knowledge in the psychology of it all - for victims and offenders. Ann Burgess is far far above Levicy's level professionally. Dr. Burgess would have been most important as an expert on rape syndrome. Perhaps she would have testified on the behavior of more than one alleged rape victim? I have heard that some nurses become SANE because of their own experience being raped.

And then, KC, you say: "To me, that's an extraordinarily troubling record."
-I say this is a very one sided record (and five weak points) about a nurse who was on duty the day of a horrible frame that concerned many people in a backward town that most of us couldn't care less about. Three innocent young men were framed for a crime that never occurred. Many characters in the event behaved despicably and we don't even know HOW MANY of them broke the law because it isn't over yet! I would just add, that before Levicy is hounded out of nursing or worse something sensible and factual about her should be said about her in this space of yours. I am not aware of any charges against Levicy except in the court of public opinion and that court, as we all know, is not about the truth. The record on Levicy is very troubling, but not for all of the same reasons you might have suggested.

Anonymous said...

2:26 PM

What about class diversity? Would you help poor whites who have never had a college graduate from their family? Oh, really. The rich can take care of themselves.

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