Having prosecuted many, many drug cases, I can confirm that in my city the odds of a young drug dealer having an Al Pacino Scarface poster in his apartment are about 80-90%. I am not joking. Would that be the segment of the population to which you are referring?

That is one of maybe three movies I walked out of. I normally have a pretty high tolerance of the offensive but they spend the first twenty minutes of that movie establishing Russo as some superhuman investigator and then in about a five minute span change her into a giggling schoolgirl, putty in Brosnan's hands,…

I saw True Lies in the theatre with someone who was from the Middle East who started laughing in the middle of a scene that involved massive explosions and people burning to fiery deaths. She said one of the Arab terrorists had just yelled "Stop, drop and roll!" in Arabic as his confederates were being incinerated. …

Well, yeah, total douchebag, especially when you consider that they probably would have had to pay you two weeks in lieu of notice otherwise, right? I mean, I don't know what your job is/was, but I wouldn't have thought that waiving a fee, once, even if contrary to office policy, was just cause for dismissal. So…

That's certainly how Phil Ochs interpreted it. But he actually changed it: https://m.youtube.com/watch…

This isn't exactly a "What was I thinking?" story, but definitely is my biggest regret. Bonus: I am pretty sure I would be on her list if she were writing on this thread too! Here goes. I was very young, she was my second partner, we went back to her place on our first real date and did it twice and it was awful…

My twist on that was the girl in my English class in first year. We sat next to each other all year and chatted after every class and generally had a great time. She gave me her number…more than once. So the wrinkle is I knew she wanted me to ask her out but….she smoked. And that was a deal-breaker for me. I hate…

Although it's been many years since I broke up with anybody, I quite like Frightened Rabbit's Nothing Like You. Back when I was footloose and fancy free I can remember listening to Linger by the Cranberries, Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely by Husker Du, and pretty much the entire album Easy Pieces by Lloyd Cole…

My ten year old son, who doesn't read nearly as many books without pictures in them as I'd like, recently picked up our dog-eared 20 year old copy of It and read the whole thing in about two weeks. Then I bought him Christine and he read that too. He doesn't think they're scary at all, just pure awesomeness. I…

Agreed. All I have been arguing all along is that the justice system isn't a write-off. But I admit that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around those numbers because it just doesn't jibe with what I've seen, albeit my experience is in the later stages because in Canada, Crown Counsel, unlike the ADAs in the…

Well, without further context those stats are difficult to interpret which was why I said they raise so many questions. For example, what percentage didn't go forwards because the complainant chose not to proceed? Does the fact that the vast majority of initial complaints involve assaults at the less serious end of…

To me a straw man argument includes a situation where one misrepresents an opponent's argument, by mischaracterizing it as something else that reasonable people would disagree with. Maybe I'm wrong but I think I've made my position clear. It's a semantic point.

Unfortunately my experience is from a different country than yours so I will have to bow to your expertise at this point and get back to working on my murder file. Good conversation. Again please let me emphasize that i think our difference of opinion is quantitative and not qualitative. You are a very articulate…

Again, I respect the point you are making. I am simply saying I do not agree that the justice system is AS bad as you are making out. It certainly isn't "biased, top to bottom" against women/victims. Baltimore police as described in that article sound abhorrent. I'm not going to comment about Turner because I'm…

i don't prosecute these cases but I have nothing but respect for those who do, especially the pedophile cases. I did one of those once and it was absolutely brutal. Hands down the worst experience I've had in 15+ years prosecuting. And the reason I had it was to give a break to someone who'd just done four of them…

I don't disagree: "…can at times be used as a straw man argument…" = "…is sometimes used in instances which don't support it…" and does not = "doesn't exist at all." I was making was a gloss on Meth Lab's comments.

I don't know about the USA but in Canada a 2012 study done based on Statistics Canada data found that in 2004, there were 460,000 reports of sexual assault, 5544 people were charged, 2824 of those were actually prosecuted, resulting in 1519 convictions in 2006.
See https://www.thestar.com/new…
So many questions…

The legal system has caught up a lot on this issue, viz rape shield laws preventing the complainant's sexual history being raised except in very limited circumstances, use of testimonial accommodations etc. The real difficulty the legal system has with prosecuting sexual assault cases lies in the nature of the crime…

I agree with almost everything you've said and will add a couple of things. First, many people hold inviolate the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The "believe all victims" mantra may be fine for how you personally regulate your affairs but it is the antithesis to the…

Sympathy upvote.