It doesn’t.  I don’t know of any jurisdiction where you’re not allowed to intervene in the defence of another — why would anybody want that?

Properly speaking, the term is defense of the self or another person — self-defense is the shorthand term (and also its most common use).

The sensitive, nuanced portrayal of the relationship dynamics on this show is just so, so good. Consistently, for five straight seasons.

It does inherently curtail the rights of the defendants, though, because they’re being charged for one particular offense; you ultimately have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed that particular offense, not that they may have done somewhat similar things in the past.

In the Cosby case, the first trial was inconclusive because of two jurors, so it’s impossible to know if having a few more “similar fact” witnesses made a difference in the outcome.

There were not “dozens” of witnesses allowed to testify about unrelated events at the Cosby trial. The judge only allowed one at the first trial, five at the second, based on how closely their claims matched Constand’s. That’s the balancing act with evidence of similar fact — you cannot allow the jury to arrive at a…

This was due in no small part to Judge Vincent Gaughan’s own approach to the case. In addition to sealing most of the records during that period, Judge Gaughan also ruled that only evidence directly related to the videotape could be presented in court. In other words, the four civil lawsuits filed against R. Kelly,…

Thuer’s assertions and the refutations of them by others are what I’m familiar with, and the key issue.

For the record, that Vox piece about Cleopatra’s ethnicity is giving entirely too much credence to the ideas of Hilke Thuer, whose claims are based on several extremely strained interpretations of the record. Thuer is not reflective of mainstream scholarship; he’s closer to an anti-Stratfordian truther. Cleopatra…

Big Little Lies has to compete as a Drama series now, I believe, so Williams shouldn’t have to worry about Kidman et al.

In truth, it seems to me that a version of this show that was about emphasizing Verdon should have been set more firmly in the 1950s-60s era of their lives together.

It was tiresome watching this character gradually be reduced to profane one-liners as the seasons wore on.  There’s so much more to him in the source material that never made it onscreen.

No, the use of those ships is preventing invasion.  The mainland has no navy.

What was self-sufficiency have to do with it? The Iron Islands are islands; as long as they have local naval supremacy, they can remain independent.

No, it was explicitly as an independent queen.  That was why Dany was initially reluctant to do so.

She has the only navy left in Westeros.

Why would the North be allowed to leave but not the Ironborn? Why not raise the topic? Since she has the only navy, who could do anything about it?

I think this places a bit too much blame on the Victorians.  Much of our (mis)understanding of the Middle Ages dates to Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century who made up a bunch of things about how stupid and uncivilized the Middle Ages were to make themselves look better by comparison (for instance, the whole…

And you’d be as wrong as the rest, in that both GRRM and the showrunners have explicitly defended the series as reflecting medieval realities whenever issues of gender, diversity, etc. are brought up.

Yara didn’t “lose her independent streak by agreeing to crown Bran”, because she was already pledging loyalty to Daenerys.